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.
