Refugee Ministry Part 4: A Step by Step Guide to Beginning Refugee Ministry
By Rev. Chris Cashen, pastor, Trinity Reformed OPC, Lanham, MD & Chairman, CDM Refugee Ministry Subcommittee
WARNING: The following is a step-by-step instruction guide. Much like what is placed in those boxes which contain an unassembled bicycle. Many who approach such a task, especially men (maybe even most especially deacons), will purposefully NOT read the “how to” instructions. Some even take pride assembling on their own and boasting later that they did it without looking at the step-by-step guide. You have been warned; one of those guides follows. Proceed at your own risk . . . in reading it, you may learn how to begin a ministry of mercy to refugees!
So, you want to start helping refugees. You have been listening to the news and have seen those from Afghanistan in need of mercy. You have seen the pictures of people, babies, young girls, old men, pregnant women, suffering as they fled their country, their homes. Your heart has broken over the underlying sin and evil, and you want to show the love of Christ. The only problem is that you do not know where to start, how to begin. Perfect. The following is a step-by-step guide or instruction booklet; a “how-to” manual for those who want to begin ministering to refugees. There are seven steps. So, let’s jump in . . .
Step 1: Congratulations! You just accomplished Step 1. Getting past the WARNING and starting to read this article means that you have already developed a “desire” to serve the stranger, the alien, the refugee. But before you move on to Step 2, know that this desire to serve is the backbone of several of the following steps. Ministering to refugees is a long-term ministry. Unlike helping your neighbor fix his fence on a Saturday afternoon, the help a refugee needs will be varied, and span months, even years. Like anything else, interest in serving these needy foreigners may wane if there is not a true desire in your heart. And refugee ministry, like any other ministry which involves people (i.e., sinners), will include days when you are thinking to yourself, “It’s hard to love this person!” So as Jesus Christ held tightly to His desire to do the will of His Father as He was loving the unlovable, hold on tightly to your desire to serve the stranger.
Step 2: Training. Every worthwhile ministry requires training, right? Not necessarily. Meeting someone at the airport, helping a non-English speaking child with elementary school homework or grocery shopping for an African who has never seen an American supermarket—are basic American skills. Refugee ministry is FULL of these kinds of services, which need no special training, just the love of Christ. Certainly, becoming familiar with the plight of refugees (see example here[1]) or the path they have taken to get to the United States (see examples here[2]) will be valuable in preparing your heart and mind to serve these dear friends. Learning some words of their native tongue will also go a long way in establishing your relationship and bond. And if you were interested in helping with immigration forms (a great need for refugees), some training would be necessary (contact Pastor Chris Cashen).
However, before you run on to Step 3, there is one “training” or preparation activity that should be diligently pursued: prayer. You must pray. Ministering to refugees is a blessing, but like any other work of mercy, it must be bathed in prayer. Prayer that the Lord Jesus Christ would be exalted. Prayer that as you spend time with new friends from Ethiopia, Afghanistan, or Myanmar, that you would be the light of Jesus to them. Pray for God’s perfect provisions to be poured out according to His will, and that He would receive all the glory. Yes, prayer is the best training.
Step 3: This might be the hardest step. Step 3 is to find a refugee to serve. In a sense, this is where the ministry begins. Like writing an English literature paper where the most difficult sentence to write is the first, Step 3, or finding a refugee to serve, may be the hardest part. To minister mercy to a refugee, you must first know a refugee. To know a refugee, you must first meet a refugee. The problem is that refugees are not issued name tags when they enter the US. None of them have “REFUGEE” stamped on their foreheads. While this may be the most difficult step of the seven, the good news is that there are people out there ready to help you meet refugees. They are called “resettlement agencies.” National “resettlement agencies,” with various offices throughout the country, work directly with government to begin the resettlement process. There are nine resettlement agencies in the United States (you can find a list here[3]). These agencies do a lot of the heavy lifting of resettlement: finding apartments, employment, schools, English classes, medical and dental professionals, and much more. In addition to resettlement agencies, in certain localities there are other organizations which provide various aid to refugees.
Resettlement agencies and these other local organizations need help . . . a lot of it. They need volunteers to jump in and assist them in serving refugees. So much so that volunteerism is your door to meeting refugees. Volunteering with a resettlement agency or local organization is a simple and guaranteed way of meeting refugees. One way to find one of those nine resettlement agencies, or other refugee aid organization, in your area, is the internet. Try entering “resettle refugee” or “help refugees” along with your city and state (e.g., “resettle refugees Denver CO”), in your internet browser search box. You might also email or call your local county or city government offices and ask for the department which oversees refugee resettlement. If one exists, they will likely have a list of those organizations serving refugees in your community.
If you live in a larger metropolitan area where there are many refugees living in close quarters, there will likely be organizations, churches or NGOs (non-governmental organizations), offering English as a Second Language (ESL) classes. Those that are providing classes are usually looking for people to volunteer to help teach, or just enter into conversations with those who do not speak English as their native tongue. This is a convenient way to meet refugees and a great way to establish relationships which grow over time.
Step 4: Now that you have met a refugee, what do you do? Practical things like helping to set up an apartment, teaching the use of an oven or thermostat, shopping, providing clothing, and offering transportation for appointments to doctors, dentists or the social security office – all essential. But be sure to be a friend. You don’t need to always do. Take the time to listen and interact. Serving in refugee ministry takes time, but perhaps not in the way you might think. To serve refugees, you need to fully understand the varied understanding of time. American time is much different than African time, or Syrian time, or “pick any other country than the United States” time. It’s not even spelled the same way. In America, time pursues us on our wrists and on our smartphones. We are constantly aware of time. It tells us when to go, when to arrive and when to leave. But you need to realize that almost none of the refugees you serve will understand the American version of time—and they really don’t want to. To those from the Middle East, from Africa, from even Central America, time is different. Time does not direct their day. Relationships do.
Think of the disciples. Their understanding of time was very different from Jesus’. The disciples didn’t think that there was enough time to feed those 5,000 people. It was about to get dark. So as the disciples focused upon the time, they told Jesus to send them away: “Send the crowd away . . . for here we are in a desolate place!” (Luke 9:12). But Jesus had them sit down and He fed them. All of them. Jesus wasn’t focused on time, but on serving and loving the people. As you serve refugees, Step 4 is to enjoy establishing that relationship which will come to govern your interaction.
Step 5: Now that you are in the middle of serving, what’s next? Step 5 is food for the soul! Give them nourishment! As stated above, refugee ministry is relational. It is nothing if it is not relational. Through your interactions over time, through the mercy being poured out, you will establish a relationship. Building trust is essential if those to whom you are ministering are to receive the Word of God and, hopefully, believe the words that you speak to them. As these relationships grow, along with these deeds of mercy that you are pouring out, give them the very word of God—true nourishment. Of course, you don’t need to wait to Step 5 to give your new refugee friend the reason for the hope that lies within you. And, if you are not careful, the physical part of this mercy ministry can easily become the only aspect of your ministry. The physical mercy ministry is important, but remember, Jesus called His disciples to feed the 5,000. The physical ministry should never become the main target. Jesus used the stomach to get to the heart, and that is your aim[4]as you minister to refugees.
Step 6: Receive blessings. What? Yes . . . this next-to-last step is to receive blessings—many blessings. You may have thought that refugee ministry was only about the refugees. But this ministry is also about you. This ministry is all about how God changes you. It is about how God works in your heart. It is about how God reveals to you things which were deep in your heart, which were unknown and undetected until you engaged in ministry to refugees. Yes, this Step 6 is big. You recognize that you are the one who has been blessed in so many ways as the Spirit has poured out grace upon you, given you the desire to follow after Jesus Christ, and allowed you to see how Jesus has served you, and ministered to you—a stranger to Him.
Step 7 (praise God). The final step, or Step 7 is to praise God!
Now that you have read this short step-by-step guide to beginning your own refugee ministry, please know that the full step-by-step guide is actually contained in two volumes. The first is called the Old Testament and the second is called the New. In this two-volume set, the Lord Jesus Christ not only gives us the original step-by-step guide to loving your neighbor, but also gives us many excellent examples of how He ministered to strangers and aliens and how He loved the unlovables (such as you and me!). Use the above seven step guide only after you’ve gone through the two-volume set, the original guide to loving your neighbor. Praise be to God.
[1] Incitement.com [Incitement]. 2021, June 16. World Refugee Day: The Worst 10 Refugee Crises in 2021; YouTube. {https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miK22Hsan5o}
[2] World Relief; 2021, October 27; {https://worldrelief.org/category/stories/}
[3] The UN Refugee Agency; United States Resettlement Partners, {https://www.unhcr.org/en-us/us-resettlement-partners.html}
[4] Capill, Murray; The Heart is the Target: Preaching Practical Application from Every Text; P & R Publishing; 2014, April 28.
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Meet Your Fellow Deacon, Faith OPC, Grants Pass, OR
Robert Kunda and his wife, Aja, grew up in Southern California. They met in middle school and were friends all through high school, getting married after Robert returned from a four-year stint in the US Marine Corps. They had two children while living in California, and then relocated to Oregon in 2013 where the Lord has blessed them with a daughter by birth, and just days ago, a daughter by adoption!
Robert has served on the diaconate at Faith OPC since 2019. He says that he was drawn to serving as a deacon because he desires to help the church in whatever way he can. For him, one of the greatest blessings of this office is having a front-row seat to members of the congregation as they serve and share in one another’s burdens—without the need of the diaconate.
Robert serves alongside two other deacons at Faith OPC: Clyde Petty and Steve Carmack.
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At Last, a Visit to South Sudan
by David Nakhla, CDM Administrator
This spring, after some years of waiting, the OPC was able to visit members of a sister denomination in South Sudan: the Sudanese Reformed Church. Their country has been riddled with violence. In 2011, following years of conflict with the northern part of Sudan, whose people are mainly Sudanese Arab and predominantly Muslim, the African and predominantly Christian people of the southern part of Sudan voted overwhelmingly in support of independence, officially becoming the Republic of South Sudan.
But less than three years later, South Sudan entered its own civil war, this time mostly along tribal lines—the Dinka versus the Nuer. Because the president and the government were mostly Dinka, the Nuer were under threat of massacre. Millions sought asylum in the neighboring countries of Uganda, Ethiopia, and Sudan, while many others hid under the shelter of United Nations peacekeepers who placed these Internally Displaced People (IDPs) into camps sprinkled throughout South Sudan.
Among those taking shelter in the IDP camps were members of the Sudanese Reformed Church (SRC).
The SRC, which started in Khartoum in 1992, is a Reformed denomination that, in 2013, was welcomed into the International Conference of Reformed Churches (ICRC), of which the OPC is also a member. The SRC holds to the Reformed doctrinal statements known as the Three Forms of Unity.
In 2014, the Sudanese Reformed Church submitted a request to the ICRC’s diaconal committee that ICRC member churches be encouraged to contribute to their ministry of mercy in the IDP camps. Many SRC members are displaced: as of 2017, the denomination had six thousand members with only sixteen congregations but eighteen groups within IDP camps.
The Challenges of Providing Diaconal Assistance
When the request came in 2014, the SRC was not well known to our denomination. It had been a member of ICRC for only a little over a year. Providing diaconal assistance to those of whom we know very little, particularly where the language, culture, and customs are so different from ours, is quite challenging. There are huge knowledge gaps. Large sums of money going to places where money is scarce has the potential to do damage, even in the best of circumstances—it is well-documented that foreign assistance to Africa has done a great deal of harm. We are always asking the question: How do we help without hurting?
To make it more difficult, the SRC’s 2014 request came to a newly minted diaconal committee that was just trying to figure out which way was up. The ICRC had established and elected it only one year earlier, in 2013. This committee of five (of which I am one) represented four different continents and had almost no connection prior to serving together.
We on the OPC’s Committee on Diaconal Ministries (CDM) always seek to minister mercy where there is also the opportunity to pair the ministry of mercy with the ministry of the Word. Many of the places in the world where diaconal assistance is sent are places where the OPC has a relationship via its Committee on Foreign Missions or its Committee on Ecumenicity and Church Relations. Neither of these were established with the SRC when their request came in 2014.
When evaluating requests, we also endeavor to gauge the ability of the requesting organization to properly oversee the administration of the diaconal ministry. Will the requestor actually be able to carry out the ministry that it is proposing? Will it succeed in purchasing and distributing the food or supplies that it intends to purchase?
We knew an in-person visit would help to answer these important questions. But in 2014, a visit to South Sudan seemed neither practical nor possible.
While it can be heartbreaking to come to such a conclusion, saying no to a request requires that we trust the Lord to provide for his children by another means he has determined. We also trusted that, if it was his will, the Lord would provide an opportunity to come alongside these brothers and sisters.
After 2014, our relationship with the SRC began to grow. The Reverend Patrick Jok attended the General Conference of the ICRC in Ontario, Canada, in 2017, and then he attended a missions meeting of the ICRC in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, in 2018. Since those meetings, when he got to know the OPC better, and we grew in our appreciation for him, it has been my prayer that I might be able to visit South Sudan on behalf of the CDM.
In God’s providence, I was finally able to make that visit in March 2021!
A Visit to South Sudan
South Sudan is located just north of Uganda. It’s a rugged country with very little infrastructure outside its major cities. The only paved highway in South Sudan runs from its capital city of Juba, over Juba’s only bridge across the White Nile (which splits the city), and south to the Ugandan border. It then continues through Uganda and Kenya to the seaport city of Mombasa, Kenya, on the Indian Ocean. This is the land route by which most supplies are trucked into Juba.
It just so happens that Mbale, Uganda, is along this road. On the edge of Mbale lies the Knox School of Theology, established by the OP Uganda Mission as a place to train up indigenous ministers. Charles Jackson, OP missionary evangelist to Uganda and headmaster at Knox, wants to see the school used by other Reformed churches in the neighboring countries in East Africa. Jackson recently hired one of his top students, a South Sudanese man named Okuch Ojullo, to serve as a teacher at Knox. Together, they devised a plan to visit South Sudan to explore the possibility of South Sudanese candidates for ministry traveling the Juba-Mombasa highway to come study at Knox.
Knowing of the longtime interest of the CDM to visit South Sudan firsthand and assess the needs of its internally displaced people, Jackson invited me to join their team. In God’s providence, the timing worked out perfectly. OP missionary James Folkerts, who has previous experience ministering to both the Dinka and Nuer ethnic groups, also joined.
Currently, South Sudan is considered a dangerous place by the US State Department, and Americans are discouraged from traveling there due to “crime, kidnapping, and armed conflict.” We learned that most of the danger is during nighttime hours. So, like the locals, we were careful not to travel after 5 p.m. We were encouraged to remain behind the safety of the gate and walls of the camp in which we stayed, on the bank of the White Nile River. During our visit, we never felt threatened in any way when out and about in Juba during daytime hours.
Believers of Bethel Sudanese Reformed Church
To reach Bethel Sudanese Reformed Church, which Patrick Jok serves as pastor, we headed to the outskirts of town and down a dusty dirt road. From the outside, there is not much to see beyond a cheap, simply constructed building of wooden poles and tin sheets. But inside, the worship is vibrant, and love exudes from God’s people. Anticipating our arrival, the ladies of the church put together a feast fit for a wedding. They presented us with an incredible spread and treated us as honored guests. They even gave each of us a gift, a handcrafted necklace with a cross attached.
We were encouraged to learn that, despite the strong ethnic division in the country, Bethel SRC has twenty-one different tribes represented in its small congregation. What a beautiful picture of the type of reconciliation the gospel can bring!
We were also blessed to visit one of the two IDP camps located on the outskirts of Juba. At its entrance, we were warmly welcomed by believers of the Nuer tribe (easily identified by the tribal scarring on their foreheads) with whom we sang, prayed, and fellowshiped in their tarp-covered, makeshift church building.
We then snaked through the helter-skelter array of temporary structures to the place one church member has called home for the last eight years. The trails between the tents are so tight that one has to step aside to let another pass. It felt like we were rats in a maze. Having seen the dirty latrines located on the uphill side of the camp and observed the overflow “riverbed” that ran through the middle of the camp, we were particularly disturbed to find ourselves stepping down into the homes of each member, trying not to picture what this scene must look like when the rainy season comes. It is no wonder that these camps, hastily assembled, are ripe for sickness and disease.
And yet, the church members were eager to bring us into their homes and to show us, among their few possessions, their children’s school books that they have used to keep their education going during this period of waiting. (Forty-six percent of South Sudan’s population is under fourteen years old, but schools are scarce.)
When we entered the home of one member of the church, he said to us through a translator: “Welcome, this is your house. Today you are now family. What you do is more than [give] money, because if you see someone, it is better. See the children? They want to see you. ‘Where do these men come from?’ they ask. We tell them, ‘They come from Jesus Christ.’”
This man then told us that, thanks to the generous contributions of a sponsor, his son is currently studying at Mukhanyo Theological College in South Africa and that they look forward to when he might return and serve the church in South Sudan. This was one means of hope for the future, as they and most of their tribe wait for peace.
Another man, an elder in the congregation, shared this with us: “We have been displaced from our original homes. Life is very hard here, but the good thing is that Jesus Christ is with us. All the things of this earth will finish, but Christ will never finish. We have been living here for the last eight years. When it rains, we have hard times. These plastic sheets leak. We have water from above and also from the flooding of the area. But we are thankful for God. It is not my problem alone. Everyone in this camp is affected, especially when there is rain. Please, what we want to request from you is prayer that we have peace in South Sudan.”
Prayer for Our Brothers and Sisters in South Sudan
Will you join me in committing to pray for peace in South Sudan, for the sake of our brothers and sisters there?
And, I am happy to report that, having visited and gained confidence in the ministry carried out on the ground, the CDM, with the concurrence of the Committee on Foreign Missions, has made an initial gift from its Refugee Relief Fund to the Sudanese Reformed Church for the benefit of those suffering in the IDP camps in South Sudan. We pray for increased fellowship and ministry between the OPC and SRC in the years ahead.
The author is administrator for the Committee on Diaconal Ministries. New Horizons, July 2021.
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