Refugees

I first began volunteering as a mentor to refugees because I wanted to be involved in some kind of ministry that reached beyond the boundaries of my everyday life at home and through my church. Being a mentor fit well because I could work it around my schedule and it gave me opportunity to connect with needy people from different places in the world. I enjoyed helping those first families, and still call them my friends, but much of the blessing for me at that time came from the sense of accomplishment I felt about having helped someone. 

In response to the San Bernardino shooting and increasingly hostile anti-Arab and anti-Muslim rhetoric, the Office of Race Relations and Office of Social Justice have collaborated on this litany and prayer. The litany is drawn from the Christian Reformed Church’s three confessions, the Contemporary Testimony (Our World Belongs to God), and one Ecumenical Faith Declaration (Belhar Confession).

Litany

People of God, from where does your hope come this day?

I want to prepare for this advent season. I want to remember why I am a Christian. I want to recognize Christ in the suffering and the marginalized.

What this pro-life series has taught me is that the CRCNA is deeply, unapologetically pro-life. 

ISIS has taken responsibility for three terrorist attacks that were carried out this past Thursday and Friday. On Thursday night over 40 people were killed and 250 were injured in a double suicide bombing in Beirut, Lebanon. On Friday a suicide bomber killed over 20 people and wounded about 40 attending a funeral in Baghdad, Iraq. Then on Friday night over 120 people were killed and more than 350 were wounded in six different attacks across Paris, France.

And I thought I with much moved in to bless my neighbors with little. Oh how little I understood God’s ways! He uses the least of these to bless, to teach, and to showcase His glory.

This is the 10th post in our "What Being Pro-Life Means to Me" series! What does being pro-life mean to you? Over this fall, we'll hear various writers respond to that question. Learn more and subscribe for weekly email updates. 

Refugees are in the news these days, and Christians are responding. We hear about the crisis and we want to help. Almost every day I'm asked by people who know I work with refugees, "When will the Syrians come here? And how many will we get?" They want to help...give money, make a phone call. We're good at responding to a crisis. I'm glad about that, but I also wonder how long it will last—only as long as the media keeps reporting it? And after we've responded by allowing more refugees in and helped them get started, who will be their friends?

Supporters of the new Immigrants Are a Blessing Not a Burden campaign launching today represent a community of Christians from many backgrounds committed to changing the conversation.

Could the long, slow work of voting and political action be thought of as a spiritual discipline?