Recognizing World Refugee Day: A Personal Journey

Daniel and his family narrowly escaped with their lives during a revolution in Ethiopia in the mid-1970’s. Somehow they ended up in Southern California. Somehow I met them. Our church took them in, set them up in the missionary house, provided food and clothing. Enrolled their kids in school. I and others wrote letters to help them gain official refugee status. They persisted and thrived, then moved on to jobs elsewhere.

I lost track of the family, which makes me sad. They were the first refugees I had encountered in my young life. But I knew they had fled for their lives, leaving everything, and arrived in my life with nothing but desperate need. Somehow God enabled me to be a part of helping them discover a new life.

And I discovered a compassion I didn’t know I had. I had always cared about the disadvantaged and deprived. But this was new and deep—for the displaced, the driven out, the abandoned. That new-found empathy led me to adopt an abandoned boy, to engage with the homeless, to participate with inner city ministries.

And a few weeks ago I once again entered the refugee arena. Thousands of unaccompanied children continue to arrive at the border. The situation is desperate. Many of the children are being taken to cities where churches and organizations are joining together to find foster homes for them while they wait to be united with family members.

Orlando is one of those cities. A group of ministries and churches joined together to encourage people to welcome these children into their homes as foster children. I was privileged to pray for these efforts. Here is the prayer, which will give you a picture of the needs.

PRAYER FOR UNACCOMPANIED MINORS

AND FOSTER CARE IN CENTRAL FLORIDA

1.    Pray for sponsors for the children arriving: To be trained and vetted with background checks to become transitional foster care parents.

2.   Pray for churches around Central Florida to respond to this opportunity and need.

3.   Pray for safe reunification with parents and/or close family.

4.   Pray for healing from trauma for these children.

5.    Pray for protection for the children--from cartels, traffickers, others who could do harm to them.

6.   Pray for parents making hard decisions to send their children alone in caravans or with smugglers out of desperation.

7.    Pray for factors of violence and poverty in El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Venezuela that are pushing refugees to flee.

8.   Pray for God to prevent destructive hurricanes from making situations worse over the summer.

9.   Pray for this effort to open many hearts in U.S. to consider fostering, for refugees, or generally for the many children in need of care.

10.  Pray for our President, Congress, CBP, DHS and other agencies to make wise decisions about our border crises, to care for vulnerable people, to address the issues causing the crises, to act justly and love mercy and walk humbly.

Yesterday Ann Voskamp wrote about her visit to the border. You can read about it here. 

Here are some articles I have written in the past that might give you heart and vision for what you might do:

A church in Rockford Illinois helped refugee children begin to integrate: here

Life was hard seven years ago as well. Read about it here.

Kids Around the World goes to the places war and violence and climate have devastated and builds playgrounds: here

If you would rather reach out to those closer to home, try this article on Grace for the Homeless.

I share some ideas for starting your journey here.

c2021 Judy Douglass