Posts Tagged ‘Syrian Refugee Crisis’
A Unique Moment for the Church
Since the presidential election in the United States on Tuesday, we’ve received many questions from church leaders and other concerned friends regarding the path ahead for World Relief’s work with refugees and immigrants. While this aspect of our work is only one part of our larger global mission to empower the local church to stand with the vulnerable—including our aid and development work in communities throughout Africa, Asia and the Middle East—we believe that this is a unique moment for the Church.
Tuesday’s election concluded a presidential campaign season that was uniquely divisive. That division is being felt within the U.S. Church as well. Despite differing on political issues, however, what can and needs to unite followers of Jesus is our commitment to living out His commands and the teachings of Scripture. While we respect and collaborate with governmental authorities, our ultimate trust is in God, who “watches over the foreigner and sustains the fatherless and the widow” (Psalm 146:9 NIV). Throughout the Old and New Testaments, followers of God are repeatedly called to “do what is just and right; rescue the oppressed from the power of the oppressor, [to not] exploit or mistreat the refugee, the orphan, and the widow” (Jeremiah 22:3 CEB).
The Church is called to “practice hospitality” (Romans 12:13 NIV)—literally, to practice loving strangers—mindful that Jesus Himself was once a child refugee, forced to flee from a tyrannical genocide. Whenever we welcome one of “the least of these” in Jesus’ name, we welcome Him (Matthew 25:40).
That’s why—even as we anticipate the impending Presidential transition in the U.S.—World Relief’s mission remains to empower the local church to serve the most vulnerable, including the displaced and the persecuted.
As has been the case for decades, today teams of World Relief staff and volunteers from local churches in cities, suburbs, and small towns throughout the United States will be gathering beds, sofas, and household items to furnish new apartments for arriving refugees. At airports across the country, our teams will welcome newcomers who are weary from their travel and nervous as they arrive in a country and culture they have never known. Our staff and volunteers will walk alongside these newly arrived refugees, helping them to rebuild their lives.
Many refugees and other immigrants feel uniquely vulnerable right now. We believe that this represents a unique moment for the Church. Today, local churches have the opportunity to demonstrate moral courage by standing with the vulnerable in new and unprecedented ways—offering a warm welcome, a reassuring smile, practical assistance, and consistent advocacy for more compassionate policy towards carefully vetted refugees and their families.
We deeply value our longstanding relationship with the U.S. State Department, and we look forward to working with the new administration to welcome and resettle refugees, just as we have with the past six presidential administrations. And regardless of the course the new administration sets, World Relief’s mission remains the same—to empower the local church to serve the most vulnerable.
President Reagan once called the U.S. “a shining city on a hill” for those searching for freedom. On one hand, we ought to be proud of our country’s history as a beacon of refuge for those fleeing persecution, and we pray that the brightest moments of our national history of welcoming refugees and immigrants are still ahead of us.
But we must also remember that when Jesus first spoke of “a city on a hill” (Matthew 5:14), he was not speaking about the United States. Rather, Jesus was addressing His personal followers, those who would become the earliest Church.
In the face of the greatest global refugee crisis in recorded history, World Relief’s prayer is that the Church—the largest social network on the planet—will seize this unique moment, letting its light shine like a city upon a hill, so that millions of displaced people around the world will find great love and compassion—both of which are at the heart of God.
Please donate today to help us seize this unique moment to serve refugees, immigrants, and the vulnerable around the world.
The Refugee Crisis is My Problem
[The following blog post was written by Mark Lamb, World Relief’s Church Partnership Director. Mark recently returned from a trip to the Middle East with Eugene Cho and One Day’s Wages.]
Just a few weeks ago, Eugene and I along with a translator, walked a little girl home from one of the schools that One Day’s Wages has been sharing about this week. It was a beautiful, sunny, 75-degree day and this little girl with her pink backpack and her hair in a ponytail reminded me of my two daughters. As we walked, she got turned around and so we wandered through the streets enjoying the day together.
Eventually we got back on course and found our way to her home where we were warmly invited in by her mother and grandmother. It was a small two-room cinderblock apartment which looked like a construction project that hadn’t quite been finished. The ceilings were low and a small 1980s TV was playing in the corner. We sat on the floor around the edges of the room on thin cushions and talked about our hopes for our kids. (There was a future Syrian doctor in the room, we were told.) Even with the stop-start cadence of communicating through translation, it was easy to forget we were talking with refugees. They were people. Parents with hopes for their kids and kids who love to play with their friends at school.
This encounter, along with many others I had over two weeks, has forced me to confront my own apathy. Is this crisis my problem? Is this your problem?
At every turn, it seems like people around the globe are saying, “Not my problem.” Countries around Syria are erecting fences and even shooting refugees who try to cross. The EU is paying Turkey to keep refugees from migrating to Europe. At its highest number, 31 U.S. governors said they would not take Syrian refugees in their states. The Governor of Texas sued a refugee resettlement agency and the Governor of Georgia temporarily refused State services to Syrian refugee families.
At World Relief, we’re a group of Christians striving to follow the example of Jesus, who left the comforts of heaven for the messiness of this world. He entered into our reality, ultimately offering up his life for us. We fail at following his example a lot. You may too. But, we think it’s worth it to step into this situation and say, “This is my problem.”
We’re partnering with One Day’s Wages because both organizations are passionate about saying, “This is my problem.” We invite you to join us. You can give to our joint campaign, but we hope you won’t stop with that. More than giving, we hope you’ll find refugees where you live. We hope you’ll enter into their lives through relationship and advocate on their behalf. I think you’ll find little girls with pink backpacks, future doctors, and moms with high hopes for their kids.
[World Relief provides various opportunities to serve refugees locally across the US through Good Neighbor Teams. Check with your local World Relief office]
The Refugee Crisis is My Problem
6 Ways You Can Help Syrian Refugees Today
You’ve read the statistics. You’ve seen the images. And you’ve heard the stories of the Syrian refugee crisis. But you haven’t known what you can do to help.
You are not alone.
March 16, 2018 marked the seven year anniversary of the initial conflict in Syria that has led to a refugee crisis of historic proportions. The numbers are staggering—half of the population of Syria has fled the country, and 5.6 million people now live as refugees in neighboring countries. Yet recent research shows that individuals and churches are struggling to engage the crisis in a meaningful way.
While the reasons for this lack of engagement vary, one reason is that many people simply don’t know how to engage. A problem as complex as the Syrian refugee crisis can be hard to get your head around, let alone know what you can do about it.
Because of this, we at World Relief have tried to provide specific, straight-forward opportunities for each of us to help meet the immediate and long term needs of our Syrian friends and other refugees in the Middle East.
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Help refugees rebuild their lives in the U.S. Join the campaign today.
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Make a one-time donation to our work with refugees in the Middle East and here in the United States. Our partner churches and organizations are already in place, distributing welcome kits to newly displaced refugees, creating child friendly spaces for children displaced by conflict, providing psychosocial counseling to traumatized women and helping refugees arriving to the U.S. become independent and integrated in their new country.
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Watch and listen to four leaders share their unique perspectives about making a difference in the lives of refugees in the U.S. and around the world.
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Volunteer at a World Relief U.S. office. Help us meet the needs of refugees by providing compassionate and holistic care from the moment they arrive at the airport through their journey to self-sufficiency.
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Continue to learn more about the crisis. This list of resources provided by We Welcome Refugees is a great place to start.
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Pray. Download a prayer guide that guides you through a week of daily prayers for refugees.
No single one of us can solve a problem as vast as the Syrian refugee crisis. But every single one of us can do something. Today, may each of us choose to engage—to provide help where help is needed—in some meaningful way.
Who is a refugee and what do they go through to get to the U.S.?
A refugee is someone who has fled one’s home country and cannot return because of a well-founded fear of persecution based on religion, race, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group.
Check out this infographic to learn the steps refugees must go through when immigrating to the United States. Then, learn more about the ways we currently serve refugees in the U.S.
U.S REFUGEE SCREENING PROCESS INFOGRAPHIC
World Relief provides initial resettlement and placement as well as employment, education and legal services for refugees arriving in the United States. Collaborating with local churches and volunteers, World Relief comes alongside vulnerable families as they begin their lives in the U.S. Since 1979, World Relief has helped resettle more than 260,000 refugees from over 80 nations.
Acceptance. Friendship. Hope: Good Neighbor Teams go beyond supplying material needs to refugees
World Relief currently provides refugees with resettlement assistance that includes housing, employment services, micro-enterprise loans and immigration services. But we cannot do it alone. We depend heavily on volunteer and church support, both financially and in practical ways. Churches and small groups around the country are mobilizing into Good Neighbor Teams to serve newly arriving refugee families for a period of six to 12 months—supplying material needs like food, clothing, and transportation, and tangible services like school registration, community orientation, job preparation and English tutoring.
Good Neighbor Teams also recognize the importance of offering even greater gifts to refugee families. By valuing the stories, dreams and contributions of the newcomers, churches and small groups are extending the gifts of friendship, belonging, and acceptance to those who are entering an unfamiliar world.
Life Center North Church in Spokane recognized its vision and mission fit seamlessly into World Relief’s mission to empower the local Church to serve the most vulnerable. The church’s leadership trusted God to catalyze missionally-minded people from among its 1,100-member congregation to form an initial World Relief Good Neighbor Team.
The team, comprised of people of different ages and stages of life, came alongside recent refugees to Spokane, including the 11-member Muslim family from Somalia. Lead Pastor Mark Mead, who led the initial team, said, “We are connected to a mission beyond ourselves as we obey the Great Commission.” He expected the team would be a blessing to refugee families, but he wasn’t expecting the blessings that came to him and his church as a result of serving. In the next year, the church hopes to form six to ten more Good Neighbor Teams.
“We share the mission of Jesus and that is what attracts people to our group,” says Pastor Mead. “Thank you, World Relief for helping mobilize the local church to what moves the heart of God.”
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A Christian Conversation about Refugees | Refugee Crisis
Like a tsunami, waves of terror from the Paris attacks are crashing upon American shores. Valid questions pour in about the U.S. refugee resettlement screening process. Securing personal safety – in the face of sometimes overwhelming fear – drives these understandable questions. Answers are not difficult to come by; but not every answer is actually grounded in the facts. Ideological agendas have seeded an answer-seeking rumor mill that spreads myths-as-fact via social media. As Charles Spurgeon quipped, “A lie can travel halfway around the world, while the truth is still putting on its boots.”
Church leaders like Leith Anderson, President of the National Association of Evangelicals, have called for reasonable security combined with Christian compassion, “Of course we want to keep terrorists out of our country, but let’s not punish the victims of ISIS for the sins of ISIS.” “It is completely right to ensure that the United States have a strong process to discern who are truly refugees and who are trying to take advantage of refugees,” says Russell Moore of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, but “we cannot love our neighbors at the same we’re standing aside and watching them be slaughtered.”
Screening out terrorists is imperative and is the responsibility of our country’s national security agencies. That said…as Christians, what is our unique responsibility as followers of Jesus in all of this? What should we be most concerned about – should it be our safety?
Let’s take a step back. What if we moved from a security-centered refugee conversation to a Jesus-centered refugee conversation? It might look like exploring the Scriptures surfaced in Relevant Magazine’s article, “What the Bible Says about How to Treat Refugees.” It might also look like Christians in the West learning from Christians in the majority world who face terror and persecution daily as explained in the Christianity Today article, “Terrorists are Now the Persecuted Church’s Greatest Threat.” It might look like Christians asking the question, “What is God up to?” like the Desiring God blog that sees a sovereign God purposefully bringing the nations (rather than fear) to our shores.
A Jesus-centered refugee conversation might cause us to remember that we are in fact following a Middle Eastern Refugee Savior whose family fled a genocide to Egypt. We might remember that our biblical identity as “strangers and aliens” because our identity is first found as citizens of the Kingdom of God.
And as we move from conversation to action, how might we respond? Welcome a vulnerable refugee family into your community by exploring how to become a Good Neighbor Team.
A Jesus-centered refugee conversation might look like learning how to follow a God who “did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all” (Romans 8:32). This same sacrificial God commands us to “welcome the stranger” and “love him [the immigrant] as yourself” (Leviticus 19:34).
By Damon Schroeder II World Relief Director for US Integral Mission
World Relief CEO Stephan Bauman Calls for Every American Congregation to Welcome a Refugee Family
****FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE****Statement from Stephan Bauman – President of World Relief
Date: 10 Sept., 2015
Baltimore, MD
EVERY AMERICAN CHURCH CONGREGATION SHOULD WELCOME A REFUGEE FAMILY
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“The American church is ready and willing to extend open arms to those fleeing war and terror in the Middle East. Whether it’s hosting refugees in our own country, or supporting churches serving them in other countries, the American church has chosen to act.”
Stephan Bauman, World Relief
We have all been heart broken by the images we’ve seen of families escaping the violence of the Syrian conflict.
We are calling on President Obama to increase our nation’s refugee intake to 200,000 (including 100,000 from Syria).
Additionally, we believe, every American Church Congregation can welcome a Refugee Family into their community.
The United States has been the high standard by which much of the world measured its response to refugees. While the U.S. government continues to admit refugees, the annual intake has declined significantly from 1980, when the country accepted and, with the help of churches, schools, and community organizations, integrated more than 200,000 refugees. In the current fiscal year, the U.S. is on track to accept about 65,000 refugees.
While this is a significant number, it pales in comparison to the scope of the global refugee crisis facing the world today: for the first time since the crisis of World War II, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reports that there are more than 50 million refugees, asylum seekers, and internally displaced people. There are approximately 4 million refugees from the conflict in Syria alone, with 8 million more displaced within the borders of Syria.
This week Germany has committed to receive 800,000 refugees. This is a monumental decision, one that challenges the United States to live up to our founding principles by increasing our refugee intake. With a significantly larger country and a proud history of immigrant integration, the U.S. can do much more.
The local church is the most diverse social network on the planet. It must engage the great global issues of our time. As followers of Jesus our first response needs to be one of compassion and justice. We must value human life above all other agendas. Let us not forget, Jesus was a Refugee.
Now is the time to act. – www.worldrelief.org www.wewelcomerefugees.com
Stephan Bauman
President/CEO – World Relief
Contact:
Matthew Soerens
msoerens@wr.org
920.428.9534
@MatthewSoerens
Empowering Refugee Families in Washington
Sameer Qadoora has been a refugee since birth. As a child, his family fled violent conflict in present-day Israel and became citizens of Iraq. It was in Baghdad that he eventually met his wife, Hanan. In 2006, Sameer and Hanan were forced to flee when militants pursued Sameer for unknown reasons. With two children already, Hanan was eight months pregnant.
The Qadoora family sought refuge in Jordan but were denied access by guards. The family hid in a mosque near the border until the Red Cross intervened and allowed Hanan, whose due date was fast approaching, to enter Jordan. Hanan gave birth to a healthy baby boy but remained separated from her family for several months. Their only option was to be transferred to a refugee camp just inside the Iraq-Syria border. The family spent six years in this dangerous, ill-equipped cluster of tents located in the middle of a harsh desert. Their life in the camp was one marked by continuous waiting.
In August 2012, the waiting was over. The Qadooras packed up what little they had and boarded a UN charter bus that would take them to the airport and then the United States. World Relief had the privilege of resettling the Qadoora family in Kent, Washington; however, a local Church played a vital role in the process. Church volunteers welcome refugees the minute they arrive at the airport and provide volunteer services and resources necessary for refugees to establish self-sufficiency in their new home. They share the Gospel with vulnerable refugees through word and deed.
Now, the boys are in school. Hanan meets weekly with a volunteer, Anna, who helps her practice English. Sameer works part time at a local printing press and is currently working with the World Relief employment team to find a full-time job. When asked what they think of their new home, Hanan said, “When I came here, it changed my life. I’m so happy here, so happy to see your faces.”
Story taken from World Relief Seattle
Hope for Syrian Refugees | Refugee Crisis
According to the UNHCR, the Syrian Refugee Crisis is now one of the largest exoduses in human history, and it is only projected to escalate. As of September 2013, the UNHCR reports that the country’s unabated conflict has displaced over 2.2 million refugees. By the end of 2013, half of the Syrian population, including 3.45 million refugees and 6.8 million internally displaced people, will need humanitarian assistance.
Women and children comprise three-quarters of the refugee population and they are a particularly vulnerable group with unique needs. Women and girls have limited access to social protection and services and are at risk for various prevalent forms of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV). UNICEF reports that children make up 46 percent of the refugee population. Many are unaccompanied and in need of services that will reconcile them with family members. The conflict is also robbing children of education. One pastor (45) at a Baptist Church, asks for prayer for the youth in the MiddleEast. He says, “Over 60 percent of the population is 25 years and younger, and it’s not clear what the job opportunities will be for them.”
Refugees need health care to treat disease, infections, parasites and viruses that are prevalent in crowded refugee camps with poor sanitation. Refugees fleeing violence in Syria also need protection as they enter host countries and throughout their stay so that trauma and humiliation does not lead to violence, despair and conflict. Refugees need livelihood opportunities so that they do not resort to negative coping mechanisms like child labor, survival sex and child marriage to make up for a lack of earnings. They need adequate and dignified living arrangements, especially as the winter threatens those living in informal, makeshift shelters.
Current international aid for Syrian refugees is vastly insufficient compared to the need that exists. It is the largest appeal for humanitarian aid in history. World Relief knows that short-term, material provision will not in and of itself restore the brokenness that exists. The needs of Syrian Refugees are physical, psychological, relational, spiritual and long-lasting, and they must be addressed as such.
Based on a recent assessment and through coordination with partners already working on the ground, we have entered into the process of discovering our role in responding to this complex disaster. We aim to empower local and US churches to take action as we assess and address through word and deed the integral needs of Syrian refugees. We acknowledge that as followers of Christ, we share much in common with foreigners who live as aliens in a place they do not belong. According to Matthew 2:13-15, Jesus Himself was a refugee whose family sought political asylum in Egypt to avoid the infanticide ordered by King Herod. We believe in the promise of John 10:10, that Jesus has come to bring life to the full, which is manifested in peace, restoration and wholeness that is physical, spiritual and relational.
Programs would include training for Christian counselors from local Church communities to provide trauma counseling for victims of the Syrian War; support for children and youth that have been separated from their families during the crisis and are in danger of being trafficked; and partnership with local organizations and churches to provide non-food items like hygiene kits, cooking utensils, bedding/blankets, etc. to displaced Syrian refugees and their host families. The need is urgent and we believe the Church is the best hope for lasting transformation.
Learn more about our christian response and how you can pray for Syrian refugees.
Donate to disaster response for Syrian refugees
Learn how you can give the gift of restoration to the devastated this Christmas.
Thankful for Refugee Resettlement Volunteers
With the arrival of Thanksgiving, World Relief is excited to celebrate in thankfulness the thousands of volunteers and hundreds of churches volunteering time and resources to assist with refugee resettlement in the United States. Over the past 35 years, World Relief’s U.S. offices have resettled over 250,000 refugees from more than 80 nations. For every office, volunteers play an invaluable role in serving newly arrived refugees by providing mentorship, friendship and general assistance with transportation and navigating life in their new communities.
Welcoming refugees in the United States
The following testimonials are taken from volunteers at World Relief’s Sacramento office, which has been resettling refugees since 1982. While powerful, these are just a few of many stories about the mutual transformation occurring in Refugee Resettlement across the country.
Apartment Setup Volunteer – What can I say about the rewarding experience of working with World Relief and the refugee program? It started with nothing more than volunteering to deliver a meal to whomever the church said needed one. It has since grown into collecting and sorting donated household items and buying, as wisely as possible, whatever else is needed, along with setting up apartments and bringing the incoming families to these apartments. Although the above actions are exciting and enjoyable for me, the area of volunteering I look forward to the most is ongoing relationships with the new families. This Includes taking them to appointments, grocery shopping and doing anything I can to make them feel welcomed and loved in their new home. I have made several mistakes in all of these opportunities and yet the graciousness and thankfulness of the families keeps me motivated to continue serving them. What an easy way for us to share God’s love and follow His command to go and make disciples. We don’t have to go to the ‘outermost regions’ as some are called to do. Instead God has brought them to us. Thank you World Relief for your ministry.
“Road Runner” (Driver) Volunteer – With World Relief, I have been pleased to have the opportunity to assist refugees with some of their initial needs upon their arrival in Sacramento. The experience with World Relief has impressed upon me the vulnerability of these newcomers and the importance to them of volunteers and others that help them. From the comments of several of the refugees I’ve met, transportation is one of the challenges they face in Sacramento, as they don’t initially have their own cars and find public transportation, including school buses, to be limited.”
ESL Instructor – When a beginning ESL student first walks into my classroom, they can usually tell me their name, but not spell it. Beyond that, their English may consist of some common nouns and verbs strung together with no connector words to give grammatical sense to the sentence. As the teacher, that first day of Beginning ESL is a challenge. I don’t know anything about my students. They don’t know anything about me. The only way to get there, save for Google Translate, is by learning English. One of the most exciting moments in my classroom was a few weeks into our semester when I looked at the board and saw, not words or pictures, but twenty sentences that the students wrote themselves with their peers. As they wrote, they debated over the grammar and spelling and content of what they wanted to say and broke into fits of laughter when someone made a funny comment or mistake. I was overwhelmed when I realized that in only a few short weeks, we had moved from only communicating in smiles and hand gestures and being isolated from one another to talking to each other about our families, hobbies, clothes, likes and dislikes, and home countries. The students had built relationships with people from other cultures who didn’t speak their languages and had taught me about their own cultures and lives. Seeing this transformation helped to underscore the reason I teach them English. It is not about correct grammar or spelling, though those are important. It is about building relationships.
World Relief is thankful and proud to work alongside the empowered Body of Christ and thousands of volunteers across the United States as we join hands to serve vulnerable, newly-arrived refugees!
“We always thank God for all of you and continually mention you in our prayers. We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Thessalonians 1:2-3
Volunteer with Refugees in the U.S