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-by Craig Waddell
World Refugee Day is an international day designated by the United Nations to recognize refugees around the globe. It falls each year on June 20th and shines a light on the people who have been forced to flee their home country to escape conflict or persecution. On the Sunday closest to June 20th, many churches highlight the plight of refugees around the world. It is a time to pray specifically about the wars and catastrophes that have caused them to lose their home, and to donate to ministries that provide relief and resettlement to these families who are also our neighbors. For stories to share as well as for prayer requests we can look to our mission partners who are doing so much to respond to our neighbors’ needs.
In Lebanon, MERATH continues to partner with local churches and organizations to support vulnerable families in Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq. They are helping provide for basic needs, education and child protection, livelihoods and recovery projects. With the recent regime change in Syria some relief was expected. However the reality is that over 15,000 adherents of the old government have fled into Lebanon. THIMAR/MERATH is part of a small Baptist Association, but God is using them to have a great impact among the displaced and vulnerable.
The European Baptist Federation and their Commission on Migration invite us to Commemorate World Refugee Day with EBF and provide resources for observing it. They remind us of not only of the stark and traumatizing reality for many refugees, but also to celebrate the gifts that refugees bring to their host churches and communities. From early 2022 until the end of 2023, the BGAV partnered with Project Ruth/Bucharest and Baptist churches in Romania to provide food and supplies to families internally displaced by the war in Ukraine, as well as shelter for refugees who had fled to Romania. This collaboration gave birth to an initiative called From Coping to Hoping in Ukraine (CHU), in order to provide psycho-social support especially to children traumatized by the first-hand experience of war, and by the loss of loved ones and their homes. BGAV continues to provide support for this initiative.
Partnering with refugees is not just something we support far away. At home and in Virginia we also have the opportunity to be good neighbors to those who have been displaced. We can help newcomers on their long journey of resettlement through organizations like ReEstablish Richmond. ReEstablish walks alongside asylees from their arrival in Central Virginia until they are fully integrated in the community. Though not a faith-based organization, they have many ways for faith communities to serve their new neighbors. ReEstablish Richmond will observe World Refugee Day with their Multicultural Festival: Imagine 2025 — ReEstablish Richmond on June 14th.
In Luke 10, a lawyer asks Jesus how to live an eternal life and Jesus responds with a question, “How do you read the Law?” “Love the Lord your God with all you’ve got, and love your neighbor as yourself.” “Bingo,” Jesus says. Desiring to make sure he does not have to help unsavory characters the lawyer asks, “Who is my neighbor?” At this point I like to imagine the lawyer has a cell phone in his hand – with the back camera he is panning the street, ready to take a picture of neighbors acceptable enough to love. Jesus reaches around the phone and switches it to the back camera – suddenly the lawyer sees his own face in the selfie screen. Jesus has flipped the focus, and with his parable of the Good Samaritan the implied question, “Who is good enough to be my neighbor?” becomes, “Am I good enough to see that EVERYONE is my neighbor?” Take a “neighbor selfie” this June 20th – let Jesus flip your focus!