Thursday, July 5, 2018

Inception: Working with Refugees, Stage One


The first two articles of this refugee ministry series are called Warp and Weft of Life[1] and Conception: Empowering to Serve Refugees[2]. In them, we learned who refugees are, how many refugees are in the world, and that they come from a multitude of countries around the globe. For faith-based work with refugees, we learned prayer must enwrap any program, and God must be the One who gives the vision so steadfastness occurs when days are long, times are hard, and refugee stories are painful to hear.


With this article, we begin to understand how to start a ministry to refugees. The process of starting a ministry to refugees includes five or six stages. This article will introduce stage one-Getting to Know Refugees-of Inception: Working with Refugees. Please remember, this article is not written from an authoritative point of view, but from an experiential basis. Circumstances differ around the world and different methods, ministries, refugee nationalities, and workers will arise that need consideration when beginning and maintaining any ministry to refugees.

Stage One: Getting to Know the Refugees

God puts within all people a heart to care for others. This innate compassion is part of being created in His image. Because of this compassion for other people, we often want to help when difficulties arise in life. This is normal. First, though, we should seek God’s will to determine if we should help this person/people. After that, we must meet them to determine their real needs, not assuming we know their needs. These things comprise the subject of stage one of Inception: Working with Refugees. Within stage one are five steps with several sub-steps.

Prayer

If you are a Christian, prayer should happen before, during, and after any task. It should lead, correct, inspire, and encourage you. Because prayer with God is about relationship, this step should be natural to all Christians, just as breathing is natural. Prayer at the beginning of a task or ministry should seek to bring God into our minds and our lives as the leader of the ministry. It leads us to remember from Whom we received our innate compassion and that we received God’s compassion when Jesus died on the cross. Prayer also reminds us from Whom we get resources for ministry, Who protects us while we minister, and in Whose strength we work. Without prayer infusing the ministry to which God calls us, we grow weary, lack mental strength to continue the task, become cynical, seek glory for ourselves, and leave God out of the equation. Because of these and much more, prayer must undergird any ministry we seek to do.

The People

From the article, Conception: Empowering to Serve Refugees, we learned through prayer God will open our eyes to the people to whom He wants us to minister. For this article series, we speak about serving refugees. In a world where refugees come from around the globe, we should decide which refugees are to be the focus of the ministry in which we seek to develop and run.

Why differentiate? Because each people group has a different language, culture, history, and religion. What works with one group may not work with another. For example, many more Somalians than Congolese are Muslim. This would require different English curriculum if you were thinking of using Bible-based English lessons. Additionally, many Somalian women have never been to school so you would need to start with Pre-school or Kindergarten level language classes that tell you what an A or B is. For most Congolese, learning the alphabet first is redundant because most of them attended school during their lives.

Besides this, working with refugees requires knowing their cultures. In some cultures, women absolutely do not teach men. Doing so would disrespect the stature of the man. Besides this, in some cultures, women cannot wear pants or dresses/skirts above mid-calf or show their upper arms and shoulders. These things are indecent to them in certain cultures.

Because of these and other things, we must seek the refugees to whom God calls us to minister. At the start, if you are doing an ESL (English Second Language) course, differentiating among refugee cultures is not as important. What is important is giving them a life skill that will enable them to get jobs. Yet, quickly different cultures, religions, and languages will cause you to need to adapt even the basic English curriculum. It will make you return to God to determine upon which people group you need to focus.

Seeking from God the people group you need to focus on is important. Working with refugees is an admirable thing. Maintaining communion with God so He can continue to lead you in ministry is most important. He may have called you to work with a specific refugee people group, not to refugees in general. Stay in constant contact with God during your ministry with Him.

The Needs

This part of stage one is very important. To have a desire to help people and to follow through with that is admirable. To do what is necessary, not what you think is needed, is paramount. Good deeds to the wrong person or people group is not helpful. To impact refugees practically requires knowing them. Getting to know them requires conversation and investment in their lives. It means speaking to them, gleaning information, and coming to care about them as individuals. Learning about these refugees’ history is important, too.

Talking to refugees has four main purposes-to build trust, to learn of their real needs, to learn to love them, and to glean from them which people in the community holds certain roles. Conversing with refugees is the first and biggest part of working with refugees. Through it you want to ascertain at least fifteen things.

1.      Build trust by asking about:
a.       their family, interests, religious background
b.      where they live at that point in time
c.       their contact details
d.      their country of origin
e.       the languages they speak
f.        what life was like in their home country and the job they had there
g.      their family still in their home country
h.      why they left their home country
i.        how living in their host country has been for them so far
2.      What are their perceptions of their needs?
3.      What you your perceptions of their needs?
4.      What is a good day and time of the week to meet with each one and the people as a group?
5.      Determine who is the gatekeeper of the groups of refugees. Who are the leaders whose permission or acceptance of you and the program you are doing will affect attendance and benefit to the refugees you seek to help?
6.      Determine who is the activist of the group of refugees you seek to help. They, too, determine if people will attend the ministries you will offer. This activist will be a voice for the people and for the ministry you will give their community.
7.      Determine who is the caretaker of the community. This person is the one who cares for the wellbeing of each person and the group. They have no agenda in the group other than the care of the people. This person wants what is best for their people, not what is easiest or most expedient. The caregiver, gatekeeper/chief, and activist can be a supporter of the work you seek to do and receive training to do it.

Once you build trust within the community, people will realize you actually care for them and are not necessarily seeking numbers to qualify your search for legitimacy and funding. The refugees will then accept you and bring their real needs and their sorrows to you. They will begin to see you as family. Once you get to know the people from their conversations, you can research their countries and people groups, and learn their historical background. Doing all this enables you to become interwoven in their community. You become warp to their weft, and then you can minister more usefully to them. At this point, too, you can give a bolder testimony about Jesus to them and they will listen attentively because you have shown you truly care about them.

Prayer

After speaking to the refugees, gaining their trust, getting to know their needs, and getting to know their leaders, you must return to prayer. With the information you gleaned from the refugees, you bring their needs before God asking Him to tell you if these people and their needs are the ones to whom He calls you to work. Added to this, you ask God to tell you where you should begin work with the refugees. What is truly their greatest need at the moment? Where do you get help? Where can you get funding for the ministry needs? Where do you set up the ministry in the community? God knows the answers to each of these questions already. He waits for you to turn to Him and seek His will. By doing this, you acknowledge Him as Lord who knows all and you as finite in knowledge. You recognize your dependence upon God.

In seeking the Lord in prayer at the end of this stage, the person who seeks to minister to refugees deepens his or her relationship with God, the One who sustains, emboldens, upholds, and enables each person. Ministering with the Lord can deepen one’s relationship with Him. Without prayer, the ministry can draw you away from God. Praying before, during, and after each stage deepens a person’s relationship with God and acknowledges Him as Lord of his or her life and the ministry.

Conclusion

When considering starting a ministry to refugees, one must seek the Lord’s will first. That is paramount. After that beginning, conversations with refugees in the community are very important. By doing this, you will establish trust by developing a relationship with them. When you speak with them, you will get to know the refugees-their history and needs-and then will know how best to help them. Added to this, when you talk with them and develop a relationship with them, you show your love for them as people, not just as a group of exiles. Doing this enables you to put yourself in their shoes and your compassion becomes empathy. This kind of relationship is what God wants from us. While talking with the refugees, you can find out who the gatekeeper/chief, activist, and caretaker of that group are, and for the whole population of refugees in your community. You will be able to decide if you can offer ministry to all refugees or if you must divide them geographically, politically, linguistically, or theologically.

Remember, more than any of these steps or stages is the need for you, for each of us in ministry with the Lord, to seek God and His will. He knows what is best for each situation, each people group, and each person. God will guide you to the ministry the people need. He will open doors for funding, volunteers, and other resources when you continue a close relationship with Him. Remember, growing in relationship with God is the most important part of our lives. Working in ministry with Him is a way to grow in our relationship with Him. Our obedience to God’s commands and teachings shows our love for Him. No matter what else you do in ministry, prayer must be paramount. It must enwrap the ministry from beginning to end and be interwoven throughout each step and stage.