Continuation and Conclusion: Enhancing Work with Refugees

Introduction

With this final chapter of learning how to hear from God where He wants you to join Him at work and how to begin a faith-based ministry, we will learn about steps each organization must consider after the first month or year of the ministry organization’s life. These steps are evaluation, adaptation, continuation, expansion, and discontinuation. After remarks on these phases, a conclusion to this project will be made.

Summation of Chapters

In previous articles, we learned the most important part of any faith-based organization is prayer, staying in intimate contact with God, the Giver of the vision for the ministry program. Before, during, and after each stage of creating and enacting the ministry, prayer must enwrap the participants, recipients, resources, and leadership. No changes or removals of any part of the ministry should occur without intentionally seeking God’s will. Recall each stage of the inception process with the below summaries.

Stage One-Getting to Know the Refugees

Besides prayer, the most important element of a faith-based ministry, for refugee work, is getting to know the refugees. This stage requires

• ·         Seeking the need of the refugee groups in your city,
• ·         Speaking to them, building trust with them
• ·         Asking their perception of their needs
• ·         Your noticing of their needs
•        Asking general questions about a good day and time for the refugee group to meet for ministry
• ·         Determining who are the gatekeeper, leader, activist, and caretaker of the refugee group
• ·         Researching the refugee’s people group and national histories
• ·         Putting yourself in their shoes.

Stage Two-Founding a Faith-based Ministry

After getting to know the refugees, the next stage for working with refugees is founding a faith-based ministry. What does it entail to set up the organization’s structure? Along with prayer throughout the process, this stage requires:

• ·         Deciding if the organization will be an NGO or NPO
• ·         Recalling the vision God gave you, then creating the mission statement
• ·         Setting long and short-term goals and objectives based on the help you will give refugees
• ·         Determining what services the faith-based ministry will offer such as English classes, skills training, peace-building and integration between refugees and the community, emergency material relief, marches and learning-sharing dialogues between refugee leaders, ministry leaders, and community leaders including the government, orientation sessions to teach about refugee rights and access to services, psycho-social assessments of refugees, job training, and counselling services
• ·         Looking within the Christian community for resources to help meet the refugees’ perceptions of their greatest needs, their practical needs, and spiritual and emotional needs.

Stage Three-Connecting

The third stage of beginning a faith-based ministry to refugees is connecting. This stage involves meeting people in the community and working with them. It includes casting vision to them, so they will accept the new ministry program and want to join it. There are several reasons for connecting. These include:

• ·         To get volunteers
• ·         To get funding
• ·         To enlarge the ministry
• ·         To get added expertise
• ·         To advocate about refugees in the community, city/town, state, province, and country

While working in this stage, you will learn of and visit, call, or email community leaders, professionals, and businesses who can help the people with the aim of developing relationships for the future to help refugees. These connections could lead to volunteers joining the ministry team, getting partners, and gaining more funding sources. While doing this stage, you will want to visit or interview other NGOs and NPOs like A21, World Relief, USAID, churches, homeless shelters, UNHCR, a refugee center, etc. to see how they work. You might need their help, input, or connections while working with refugees. While you are connecting with these organizations, advocacy for refugees begins and continues in the community with the help of legal advocates, government, immigration businesses, teachers, doctors, principals, other mission organizations, etc.

Stage Four-On Your Mark

When the earlier stages are complete, you are ready to begin doing the practical things to get the faith-based organization for refugees started. These include

• ·         Praying
• ·         Finding a venue
• ·         Acquiring resources for the ministry through NGOs/NPOs, corporations, churches, small companies, UNHCR, etc.
• ·         Buying supplies for the ministry-stationery, books, food, blankets, copies of lessons or intake sheets, etc.
• ·         Finding volunteers-workers, prayer supporters, experts
• ·         Advertising the ministry to refugee via flyers, word of mouth through the refugee community leaders, and notices on boards in the community
• ·         Advertising the ministry to the community to get their acceptance of the refugees and their help with the ministry to the refugees
• ·         Praying

Stage Five-Being and Doing

You have done all the background work, connected with potential partners and community leaders, talked with and become acquainted with the refugees in the community, established the ministry program as either an NGO or NPO, and set up the mission statement, goals, and objectives. Now is the time to begin the actual ministry to refugees. This stage has six parts.

• ·         Prayer-begin the day of ministry with prayer and continue it throughout the day
• ·         Prepare-lessons, clothes closet, food pantry, rules, policies, and train the volunteers
• ·         Present-open the doors and do intake with each refugee treating everyone as a created child of God.
• ·         Assess-at the end of the day, week, and year, assess what went well, what did not go well, and where adjustments and expansion of ministries can occur
• ·         Adjust-adjust the ministry as determined by the assessment.
• ·         Prayer-close the day, week, month, and year with prayer. Pay careful attention to each worker to determine if they are getting overwhelmed so you can talk to them and pray with and for them.

Evaluation and Adaptation

Stage five teaches evaluation and adaptation as part of day one’s work. The leader of the ministry should do it at the end of the first weeks, month, and year to ensure the help needed by the refugee is being provided. It helps the leaders and other workers decide if the perceived and expressed needs are the real needs and if they are being met by the ministry. Evaluation and adaption are a continuing cycle of any positively impacting organization. Whether the ministry is one week, one year, or ten years old, evaluation and adaptation should occur.

Expansion, Continuation, and Discontinuation

Because of regular assessments of needs, funds, and partners, the leaders of the faith-based ministry to refugees could see the necessity and viability of expanding the ministries to refugees. A ministry that only offered English classes can now offer food or clothing assistance. Where before they could just help with used clothes, the ministry leaders see an opportunity to teach the refugee how to write a resume (curriculum vitae), and how to look for and interview for a job. Expansion assumes the refugee ministry will continue. Keeping things stable also assumes the ministry will continue.

Situations exist where a ministry needs to be discontinued. Possibly it was an added-on ministry to meet felt needs, but when put into practice, the need was not great enough to warrant using resources. Other situations may exist where the ministry should be discontinued. Reasons for this could be the refugee population dwindled because they returned to their home countries, the venue was not convenient to refugee habitation sites, the ministry’s reputation fell and refugees, volunteers, and funders no longer wanted to work with the ministry. The other reason a faith-based refugee ministry should cease to exist is when God says it should. We cannot fully comprehend the reason God tells us to do or not do something, but we must always obey and then seek His will for other areas in which He wants us to serve.

Conclusion

Wherever you are in the process of obeying God by serving Him in ministry, prayer is always paramount. Through prayer you grow closer to God, can hear more clearly from Him, receive the conviction and courage to act on His vision for you at the time, and gain strength, direction, and motivation to do what He asks of you. Without prayer interweaving and enwrapping a ministry, it will unravel. The weave will fail, the colors will bleed, and true support, encouragement, training, and help will not happen.

God created each person. He loves everyone whether they are from our own country or one 30 hours away by plane. God loves each person no matter what their religion or culture and wants everyone to come to know His as their Lord and Savior. Peter stated it this way in 2 Peter 3:9, “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” John also spoke of Jesus dying for all people in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” God’s gift of salvation and eternal life with Him is for everyone who believes. God loves every person, even the aliens/refugees.

Before we became Christians, we alienated ourselves from God because of our sin and rebelliousness. Yet, He did not want that to be. God provided the perfect sacrifice through the death of His Holy Son, Jesus Christ. No other sacrifice for sins was needed after it. If God loved us that much before He formed us in our mother’s wombs, even though we alienated ourselves from Him, then we, as Christians, should love those who are alien to us. God taught this to the Israelites in the Old Testament and Jesus taught it to the people of the New Testament. In Leviticus 19:34, Moses told the Israelites what God commanded him. He said, “The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.” In Deuteronomy 10:19, God reminded the Israelites they once lived as aliens in Egypt. Moses said it this way. “So show your love for the alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.” Jeremiah recorded in Jeremiah 22:3,

“Thus says the Lord, ‘Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place [Judah, the place of God, as is our hearts the place of God].’” [NASB]

Other key passages in the Old Testament about aliens/sojourners in the community include Deuteronomy 14:29, 24:14, & 17-21, 26:12-13, and 27:19.

In the New Testament, the Jesus translated for the Jewish lawyer commandments Moses taught the Israelites. The lawyer tried to trick Jesus by asking how he can inherit eternal life. Jesus answered him with a question, “What is written in the Law?” The lawyer replied stating the first and second greatest commandments. He said in Luke 10:27, “You shall love the Lord your God will all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus told the lawyer he answered correctly, now do it and live. The lawyer, being trained in debate, wanted to justify himself (most likely because he had not loved his neighbor). He asked Jesus in verse twenty-nine, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied with a parable, a story with a meaning. The parable is of the good Samaritan in Luke 10:30-35. After telling the story, Jesus asked the lawyer in verse thirty-six, “Who proved to be a neighbor to the beaten man?” The lawyer replied with truth in verse thirty-seven saying, “The one who showed mercy toward him.” Jesus commanded him, “Go and do the same.” Works earn no one salvation, but works are evidence of a person’s salvation and proof of a life showing the love of salvation.

Whether you call refugees and asylum-seekers neighbors, aliens, or sojourners, God commands us all, believers and unbelievers, to care for them because He created and loves them. As Christians, this mandate is even stronger. We show our love for God by our obedience to Him. John taught this in 1 John 5:3 when he wrote, “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.” He also taught this in John 14:15. In this verse John recorded Jesus saying, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” Jesus brought it closer to home when in Matthew 7:12 He said, “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this in the Law and the Prophets.”

We, Christian and non-Christian, have God’s natural and written laws, and the moral laws instilled in our consciences. They should lead us to care for refugees and asylum-seekers. Along with the instilled conscience and God’s written laws, we have the God-given capacity for compassion, love, and care. Within each of us, we know the right thing to do-care for the aliens/refugees and asylum-seekers.

With this understanding, we must decide with the free will God gave each person if we will obey this internal and written mandate to care for the oppressed, widowed, poor, orphaned, and alien. We must decide if we will weave our weft threads on the loom with the refugees and asylum-seekers warp threads to make a beautiful tapestry with God. This tapestry woven together is stronger than the individual, singular weft threads or warp threads. With this woven tapestry, “we” and “them” become “us” that supports, encourages, helps, teaches, feeds, and walks alongside as the family God envisioned humanity to be. We each get to choose to be woven by God into the beautiful tapestry of community and love. This is chosen woven-ness. You get to choose; God does not force you. If you choose not to weave into the lives of others in your community, you force the gifts God gave you to stagnate or extinguish. You become the weaker person in the community because you do not have the strength of the whole community, only your own. Will you choose to be woven by God into His tapestry of a compassionate and loving humanity?

Joshua said in Joshua 24:15, “As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”

We can change that for this project and say when we choose to obey God in His mission to the refugees and asylum-seekers,

“As for me and my house, we will (weave) with the Lord.”

In Their Words: Jospain's Story

What was life like in your home country?

When I left the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), socio-economic instability and many obstacles affected it. The leaders and government would not allow young people to make use of their potential skills. First, the big issue in my country is the corrupt government. There is no justice or respect of human rights conditions in all the sectors of society. The potential wealth for the country does not trickle down to profit the communities. There are many, many people still living in great poverty. Two mining companies surround some small cities. None of the wealth goes to the local people, but instead to politicians who live the good life. People of the DRC remain poor and affected by diseases caused by air pollution. Towns centers have no good infrastructure at all. Wars and poverty propel people to migrate, searching for a better life. When I left the DRC only the eastern part of the country was experiencing war, but now rebel groups hostile to the government affect all the provinces.

What made you decide to leave your country?   

After I completed grade 12 in school, while in my first year at a university, I requested to join military training. In my country, military service is not compulsory. It’s a job with the poorest wage; even a security guard here has a better life than a soldier in the DRC. A soldier in the DRC can’t survive from his. Sometimes soldiers attack their own people at night to get something from poor people. The government knows of this, but it doesn’t act on it. Since the country was unstable because of rebel groups, the government needed young people to join the army. Before, in my area, young people went for military training voluntarily believing good could come with a high grade in the military as promised by the government. Those young people never returned home, and no one knows their whereabouts. The people heard the young men and women who went were not going through training, but the government sent them straight to the battlefield with no training. After we heard that, the government forced young people to join the military for training with fake promise. The government realized the young people of the country didn’t trust them. These young people were being kidnapped at night or being arrested for wrong reasons to bring them to the battle field in the eastern part of the country. My brother-in-law was working as a secret agent in the government. He advised me to leave the country, so I decided to cross the border to Zambia looking to get to South Africa.

What has life been like in your host/adopted country?

I arrived in South Africa after leaving the DRC. The urban settings are intriguing and very different from my home country. Unlike the government of the DRC, the South African government works, but being a refugee here is a big problem. They make you feel like you are the problem. South Africa has great potential to emerge in the international world. Still, they make it very hard for foreign people, particularly refugees and asylum-seekers, to get access documents (Green ID book, work permit, and residence document). The people who work in the government offices make the process of getting the required documents much longer and more involved. Often, the workers deny you access to the proper channels and documents. In general, South Africans are hostile to foreigners. That makes me feel like the hell in my home country is still with me. Part of that hell stays within me even away from my home country. Still I feel the hell that was at home. Part of that hell stays within you away from home. The xenophobia attacks in 2008, 2012, and 2015 make that hell feel much more real.

Because God Chose You

Remember every day, God chose you.

He chose to love you before you were in your mother’s womb.

God chose to lavish His grace on you, so you would be saved from your sins and not be separated from Him.

He chose you to “be all things to all people” so that you can tell them the good news–the gospel–so some could be saved (1 Corinthians 9:22).

God chose you to bend, break, and remold you into His image because of His love.

He tells you to cast your burdens on Him because He cares for you, and to take up His yoke, which is lighter (1 Peter 5:7, Matthew 11:28-30).

Why does God allow difficult things to happen? That is a common question.

        Possibly to remind you He is God.

Possibly to cause you to seek Him so He can grow you and reshape you more into His likeness.

More than anything, difficult and easy times provide an opportunity for us to learn a big lesson we and reinforce our deep connection-our personal relationship with God.

Abraham had just received God’s promise that Sarah, his eighty-year-old wife, would have a son in less than a year. He had a relationship with God then God told him, He had to see if the outcry in Sodom and Gomorrah was accurate. Abraham had a close enough relationship with God that he began to intercede for the people of those cities (Genesis 18).

Closeness to God makes us intercede for others,

not only supplicate for ourselves.

Paul had a close relationship with God. It came through many a blinding light on the road to Damascus and through many trials of beatings and persecutions. His closeness to God brought a dramatic change to the Roman world of the first century and to humanity since then.

Closeness to God creates the heart of God in us for lost people.

It gives us love, God’s love, for all people so that we “strive to become all things for all so that we might win some to Christ (1 Corinthians 9:22).

Joshua was a strong man of God. When God sent him and 9 other men into the Promised Land to spy it out and report back to the Israelites, he told the people it was a bountiful land and that Yahweh was almighty enough to give it to them. As they prepared to enter the Promised Land, Joshua challenged the people. He reminded them who God had been and would continue to be for them. Joshua called them to renew their commitment and service to the LORD.

Closeness to God leads people to commit and serve the Lord.

A genuine heart of God in a person for other people-to serve Him, to intercede for them, and to try to win them to Christ-cannot be manmade. Nothing we can do causes us to be good enough to be acceptable to God and for His service. Only God can make each person acceptable-holy. He provided this way through His Son’s death on the cross and resurrection.

Why can God’s people do these things?

Because God chose them.

God loves them.

God empowers them.

And they love the Lord with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Do you have a heart for God? Have you heard Him calling to you to come to Him? Did you go? Did you give your heart to God, so you can be saved from your sins and have an eternal relationship with the God who created and loved you before you were ever formed? Today is the perfect day for you to stop running and answer His call to your heart. Today is the perfect day to turn around from striving to survive, succeed, make it one more day in this world. Each of us sins. Whether you are saved or not, God is calling you to turn back to Him today…now. What will you say to Him? He is there calling and waiting.

Lord, we do not understand this love of Yours. We do not understand how one man dying, even Your Son, can erase our sins and make us holy. But, Lord, we want to leap in faith to You and ask You to hold us, forgive us, and remold us into Your image for Your service. Please accept the sacrifice of my sin-broken heart and make me clean and new for You. Amen.

In Their Words: Miriam's and Etienne's Stories

 As with the other refugee stories related to you earlier, refugees and asylum-seekers told these stories directly to me. I used three questions to guide the conversation, but other than that, the people told of their experiences as a refugee and/or asylum-seeker. As much as possible, the words are exactly their own. I have corrected the grammar.

Miriam’s Story

What was life like in your home country?

My life in my country was not good. Because of the war we had to move place to place.

What made you decide to leave your country?

The reason I left my country is that from 1992 to 1999 we had a big war and the soldiers came to the houses forcing the young men to go into the army. If the soldiers came to your house, they stole things and killed people. If they found a young lady, they raped her. I was one of the women who the soldiers raped. They raped in front of my parents, sisters, and brother. That is why I left my country in 1999.

What has life been like in your host/adopted country?

 My life in my host country of South Africa is not good. I have been here since 1999. The situation is very bad. I was robbed many times, but the last time it happened in my home. We went to open a case with the police. Soon those robbers found out and got very upset. They came to warn us if we continue with the case one member of the family would die, so we had to drop the case. Still, those bad men never stopped asking about money or anything because they know my home. I am always stressed. Just imagine. My child was born here. The principals and boards of governors of the schools did not accept and let her go to high school. Thank God who always helps us. I have no place to go back home in my own country because my parents died because of what happened to me. I would like to go home, but I can’t.

Etienne’s Story

What was life like in your home country?

When I was a little boy, I thought I wanted to become a lawyer or teacher, but man can purpose in his heart and God provides and leads. I completed primary school and secondary school. In 1993, God called me to serve Him. From 1994 through now, I am a pastor.

What made you decide to leave your country?

A decision came from God about my job. In April 2016, my church appointed me to go to Cape Town as an evangelist. Remember, there is a problem with the political system in the DRC with our president. He sent a crowd of people to impose on me their system of election and their choice of candidate, not mine. I couldn’t mix the people of God with their political system. I refused their compelling. They wanted to persecute me, so my church sent me to Cape Town to be an evangelist.

What has life been like in your host/adopted country?

I like to live in South Africa to preach the Good News of God. Yet, if God wants my next step to be somewhere else, like America, Europe, Asia, etc., I will go.

Inception: Working with Refugees, Stage Five: Being and Doing

Introductions

To intentionally do faith-based ministry with and for refugees and asylum-seekers requires God’s initiation of the ministry. This ministry requires God’s heart in each person seeking to help them. Throughout the Old Testament, God tells His people to care for the alien, orphan, and widow. In the New Testament, Jesus Christ told people to love their neighbors as themselves. When asked who was his neighbor, Jesus replied to the lawyer in Luke 10:25-37 with a parable. The answer to the lawyer’s question to Jesus came from the lawyer in verse thirty-seven. The lawyer said the neighbor was the one who showed mercy to the beaten man. This parable was about the Good Samaritan. The Samaritan did not know the beaten man laying on the side of the road, but he recognized him as a person who needed care.

Neighbors, sojourners, and aliens are people. These people whom God created and cares about are the ones He means for us to care about, too. Since God does not show partiality among people, we should not either. Since He “executes justice for the orphan and widow and shows His love for the alien” (Deuteronomy 10:18) and commands His people to show love for the alien (Deuteronomy 10:19), we must care for the people of the world whether or not we have a personal relationship with them. This understanding is the basis for any ministry to people. God initiates the ministry.

How do we get from God’s command to care for the alien to doing ministry? How do we understand God wants us to do this ministry specifically? God gives the vision/inspiration. Conception: Empowering to Serve Refugees[1] teaches about the different aspects of conceiving/envisioning a ministry from God. It also explains why we should enwrap each stage and phase of the ministry in prayer.

After conception of the ministry, many stages of inception occur. The question of “How do I get to know refugees” deals with seeking to meet the people and learn of their needs through interacting with them. Inception: Working with Refugees, Stage One: Getting to Know the Refugees[2] discusses this stage. By relating to individual refugees, one builds trust with them. With this trust bridge built, they will more willingly share about their troubles and needs. Additionally, they will trust your input and help as genuine, not self-seeking.

After meeting and beginning a relationship with the refugees, we the person/people to whom God gave the vision to help refugees and asylum-seekers must begin organizing and founding a faith-based ministry. Inception: Working with Refugees, Stage Two: Founding a Faith-based Ministry[3] helps us walk through the steps of establishing a ministry. We must recognize the importance of prayer throughout the process. This article helps us realize the need to decide between organization types, too. For an effective ministry organization, we must set up a vision statement, mission statement, goals, and objectives.

An organization can survive without connecting with other organizations and people for a while. Eventually, connection needs to occur for the organization to be relevant and to get resources. Inception: Working with Refugees, Stage Three: Connecting[4] tells us why connecting with others in the community, city, state, and nation are important for the refugee ministry to which God called you. We connect with others to get volunteers, funding, enlarge the ministry, get more expertise, and to advocate for refugees and asylum-seekers.

Having received God’s vision, met the refugees, created an organizational plan, and connected initially with the refugees and asylum-seekers, the ministry is ready to begin. Inception: Working with Refugees, Stage Four: “On Your Marks”[5] guides in the practical work of starting the ministry. The ministry organization must find a place in which to house the ministry program(s). It must acquire resources. Funds must be on hand to buy the basic supplies for the ministry, i.e. paper, pencils, pens, books, blankets, food, etc. We must cast a vision, so volunteers will join to help refugees so more than one set of hands-yours-work at the vision God gave you. Advertising in the community about the refugee assistance ministry must happen so the “neighbors/aliens” God wants you to help will realize help is available.

With each of these phases and stages accomplished, “day one” can occur. What happens with “day one”? What steps are involved? Is it more than just performing the ministry task? This article will answer these questions and others.

Being and Doing

The beginning of the faith-based ministry can literally consider just day one of the program or the first week, first month, or first year. What is important in any of these time frames is the effective being and doing of faith-based ministry to refugees and asylum-seekers. Planning and founding the ministry is often long and involved. The first day of actual ministry is exciting and sometimes exhausting.

Prayer

Prayer is still the vital necessity for faith-based ministries. It keeps us connected to God. Prayer reminds us who initiated the ministry and called us to join Him. It keeps us focused on God and His call so that when days are difficult, we remember the basis of the ministry. It also helps us as we prepare for each day and, at the end of the day, assess and adjust the material or the ministry itself. Prayer must continually enwrap each step, stage, and phase of the faith-based ministry. Without it, we lose connection with God, minister in our own strength and way, and lose focus of the purpose-to love our neighbor as ourselves.

Prepare

Obviously, you have spent weeks and months preparing to start the faith-based ministry to refugees and asylum-seekers. It became an exciting part of your daily life. When day one, the opening or starting day, is tomorrow or this week, ministry-specific actions must happen. These actions can include:

1.      Ensuring the venue is ready for use-chairs and tables are available and set up, floors are clean, the doorway is not cluttered or blocked, etc.

2.      Prepare the lessons if you will teach English

3.      Train and prepare volunteers for day one

4.      Make copies of intake forms or registration forms

5.      Make sure supplies are easily accessible

6.      Pray with volunteers and other supporters the night before or day one of the ministry.

Present

As day one or week one arrives, the actual ministry occurs. One needs to make sure everything is ready including one’s self. This includes heart, spirit, mind, and body, and the practical ministry. People receiving help can perceive when the person assisting them is condescending, uninformed, prejudiced, or not prepared for that ministry. What needs doing for day one’s ministry?

1.      Prayer-make sure you and each of the volunteers are “being” the ministry vision which God gave. People can sense when an “act” is being put on. Make sure your heart and spirit are in tune with God’s and you “love your neighbor as yourself.”

2.      Make sure you understand very well the ministry you are offering. Know the English lesson. Know the amount of food according to organization policy for a family or four, five, etc. Make sure the food nutrition tables are easily available, so you can get the food without faltering. Ensure the clothes are clean and organized. Make sure the rules of behavior are visible and known to everyone who enters the premises.

3.      Make sure you understand the ministry’s goals, objectives, and policies well, so you can explain to the person receiving help what you can and cannot offer.

4.      Keep a sensitive heart so you willingly and actively listen to the refugees’ stories, pray with them, and cry with them.

5.      Take a break so you can process what has happened, can pray about people, pain, and fear. This prayer break brings yourself to God for refreshing and healing after dealing with traumatized people.

Assess

After day one, the first week, the first month, and the first year, assessment of the ministry should occur. Assessment is important to make sure the purpose of the ministry is being done. This assessment will determine if the ministry you perceived and heard was necessary is the one being expressed most by the refugees and asylum-seekers when they seek help. It will also include determining if you are meeting needs accurately and appropriately.

1.      Do the people really need clothes for an interview or rather do they need to learn how to look for jobs and how to interview?

2.      Is the greatest need of this refugee population English or is it rent help or food or counselling?

Assessment will include looking at the way the work is being done by each member of the team.

1.      Is the plan of ministry being done in the way the team leader or ministry board wants?

2.      Are each of the team members helping refugees with a servant heart?

3.      Do any of the team members seem prejudiced or have complaints arisen against one of the team members?

4.      Is more training necessary for team members?

5.      Do team members need counselling/debriefing after hearing refugee stories?

6.      Do we need a trained professional to join the team in a particular area?

Adjust

With answers to these and other questions, the team leader and members should adjust the ministry, what they do and the way they do it, for it to be more effective for refugees and asylum-seekers. If the real need is counselling, seek one or two counsellors in the city or community who would volunteer their time. Alternatively, seek training for trauma healing counselling for the ministry team members. If the need is something else, seek ways to meet that need, after you have prayed asking God’s wisdom. If the need is more than what you perceived, seek more funding so the ministry can provide other necessities.

If the assessment determines a need for change among the team members, speak to the team about the issue and need. Address any specific team member whose attitude hinders the ministry. Help him or her see what is happening. Offer ways to help that person be more effective in the ministry role. Decide if more training for the team is necessary and set up that training time. Include in each day of ministry time for team members to debrief individually and collectively. As the team leader, you will need to make time to minister to the team members. The team members are an important resource and their needs are important to the ministry, too.

Prayer

Finally, at the end of day one, week one, month one, year one, the team leader should set aside a time of prayer. This time will be time to reconnect with God more intently about the ministry to refugees. It will be a time of reflection with God and a time of opening your own heart to Him for readjustment to His will and way. This time with the Lord will also be a time of resting with the Father and preparing for the race ahead. The prayer time will guide you on how better to minister to the refugees and asylum-seekers and where God wants to expand the ministry.

Conclusion

The arrival of day one brings excitement and trepidation. Are you ready? Are the team members ready? Have you heard from the Lord correctly? Have you heard correctly when talking to refugees and asylum-seekers? These questions each can weigh you down with worry or can lift you with excitement depending on from where you received your guidance-God or people. Day one should be exciting. Meeting new people. Helping them. Sharing God’s love. Seeing lives changed. Day one should also provide insight into whether changes need to occur to make sure the ministry focuses on the need God wants met. It brings with it assessment and adjustment for the team, too. More than anything, day one brings the opportunity for you and the team members to join God in the work He is doing. It’s a chance to know God better and to grow in your relationship with Him through prayer and obedience.

Through it all, we should remember what Jesus told the people by answering the Pharisee’s question. In trying to trick Jesus, the Pharisee asked, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” We recall His famous reply. Jesus said,

“’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it. ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:35-40 [NASB])

Putting these two great commandments into action requires a relationship with God. A relationship with God draws us closer to Him to love Him more dearly. John put this relationship of our love for God and obedience into a more understandable statement in 1 John 5:2-3. He said,

“By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.”

We need to ask ourselves these questions and seek God’s will. Are we loving God with our whole being? Are we loving our neighbors as ourselves? Day one, week one, year one, and year one-plus requires absolute obedience to God and His vision of ministry to refugees and asylum-seekers.

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[1] https://tcmhome.blogspot.com/2018/05/conception-empowering-to-serve-refugees.html

[2] https://tcmhome.blogspot.com/2018/07/inception-working-with-refugees-stage.html

[3] https://tcmhome.blogspot.com/2018/07/inception-working-with-refugees-stage_27.html

[4] https://tcmhome.blogspot.com/2018/08/inception-working-with-refugees-stage.html

[5] https://tcmhome.blogspot.com/2018/09/inception-working-with-refugees-stage.html

Coup de Grace: His Blow of Grace

“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:4-7 [NASB]

Verses four through seven spoke to me. We all know these verses, but I don’t think I had seen them this way before. Verses four through six are commands. Verse seven is a blessing of shalom, heart peace that only God can give. After you have done those three things in verses four through six, then you have blessing-from Paul and from God. As I walked through those commands, I was like, “Yeah, yeah,” but then connections were made that hadn’t been there before for me. And I was like “Yes, I am going to have shalom!”  I am claiming. And I prayed that way for my family this morning.

Verse four: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.” Rejoice at what God is going to do, at what He has done, at what He is doing, and at Who He is-I AM, Immanuel, Creator, Savior, Provider, etc.

Verse five: “Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near.” Don’t let what happens to you deter you from being who God has made you to be. Show the world God’s goodness, kindness, compassion, love, grace, mercy, and forgiveness even when things are not what you want them to be.

Verse six: “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made know to God.” This one has been on my radar for years. Thanksgiving is not something I regularly do. Maybe you are like me. Today, I began thinking of all the things I could be thankful for and recognizing they all come from God’s hands.

Then the coup de grace (There is a reason grace is part of this French idiom.) is in verse seven. “And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” When you do these things, you will have peace because you recognize from where peace comes. God is your peace. Nothing that comes against you will prevail when you thank God for who He is, rejoice no matter what your circumstances, continue to be gentle in spirit, being anxious for no thing at all, but seek to keep in relationship with the Lord. This is how you have peace. And you don’t have it because you manufacture it. You have heart peace because of God’s grace, His blow of grace-the soft breeze that glides by your skin or the tumultuous wind that gets your attention and you know, despite it, you have peace because you are in a relationship with God.

What is coup de grace normally? In French, it’s an idiom that means a mercy killing, or the blow of grace. We could say that is what God does with His mercy toward us. His Son’s crucifixion was a mercy killing to save us from a dying misery. It’s God’s blow of grace on us that gives us eternal heart peace. Paul meant this when he wrote, “And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” God’s blow of grace may be a soft breeze across your mind or heart or may be a stiff knock to get you to that place, but His peace, no matter what your circumstances, will guard you and keep you. It’s a heart peace-shalom-that comes from knowing God, from being in a saving relationship with Him.

Verse seven is the coup de grace when you look at those four verses together. His blow of grace-His heart peace-will keep your hearts and minds when you rejoice always, remain gentle in spirit, stay calm and un-anxious, while giving thanks in expectation. Grow and keep on growing in your relationship with God and this peace, this shalom-heart peace-will be yours. That is coup de grace. This coup de grace is a different way to look at the French idiom, a Christian way.

Then finally we get to the familiar “whatevers” list in verse eight. Dwelling on the “whatevers”-whatever is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, of good repute, excellent, worthy of praise-can only happen because of having a close relationship with God and because they come from Him. Paul didn’t stop with the command to dwell on them. He told the people to practice them. Why? Because the “God of heart peace will be with you.” Just as Jesus taught people what comes out of a person in words and actions comes from his or her heart, Paul told the people to put into action those excellent things that God puts in them by practicing them. Following these last two commands, Paul gave a promise. The same promise he gave the people in verse seven. When you do these things, God’s heart peace will be with you.

It's not a magic trick. You don’t do things just to get peace. You have peace, God’s peace, the blow of God’s grace, when you are in a saving relationship with Him through Jesus Christ. The grace that brings each of us into relationship with God upon our profession of faith in Jesus as our Savior is how we get this peace. When you are in a relationship with God through Jesus, you dwell on those excellent things that come from God, and you have heart peace because God is with you.

A big sigh is expressed as relief and release enters and we understand much better than before. Rejoice. Show your gentle spirit from God. Be anxious for nothing but pray and supplicate with thanksgiving. These things come from the mind and “the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ.” More than this, dwell on excellent and praise-worthy things, which only come from God, then practice them. And again/still, the God of peace shall be with you. Three verses of commands, then a promise of God’s peace. Next, two commands, and again a promise of God’s peace, heart peace.

Are you ready to breathe that sigh of relief? Are you seeking heart peace, the peace that passes all understanding? God gives it through His Son, Jesus Christ. Come walk in relationship with God. Rejoice. Be anxious for nothing. Have access to the Father through the Son. Be thankful before God answers prayer. Think on excellent and praise-worthy things and practice them. Receive unending heart and soul peace, the blow of God’s grace across your heart, soul, mind, and body. His merciful love calls to you.

Lord, God, many times I did not rejoice always. I was anxious and did not seek You first. I acted and reacted based on my best judgments or on my fears. Help me to walk with You so I can keep my eyes focused on You. Help me to recognize Your grace and merc,y and sway towards Your ways instead of my own ways. Forgive me my stubbornness and conceit thinking that I always know what is right. Without You, I flounder and fail. With You, I have learned I can have Your peace-heart peace-even in the middle of difficult times because You are God and nothing surprises You. Amen.

In Their Words: Claudine and Mado's Stories

As in the other stories from refugees, Claudine and Mado recall traumatic days. Though their lives and those of their families have been difficult since fleeing their home country of the Democratic Republic if the Congo, they still find hope and joy. Is it possible for each of us to learn something from the lives of refugees about expecting and experiencing God’s hand of protection and provision? Read below and hear the voices of these two women.

Claudine

Question 1: What was life like in your home country?

Life in my country was good until I lost my parents. I had no one to support my studies for a computer degree. I didn’t finish the degree because there was a huge misunderstanding between my parents and their families before they died. Afterward, I was chased from my parent’s house with my young brothers and sisters by our uncles. Fortunately for us, the church that I attended decided to take care of us by arranging for a shelter and our other needs.

Question 2: What made you decide to leave your country?

The reason I left my home country was I was wanted by the government because of the strikes and protests organized by the youth commissions against the war, crime, rape, and killing of the people of the country’s provinces. Some of the organizers were shot and killed by my country’s soldiers. Others escaped to different countries. I was among those who escaped to South Africa. That happened in 2009. My husband followed me to South Africa.

Question 3: What has life been like in your host/adopted country?

Life in South Africa is difficult since I gave birth to my 3 children. My husband works as a car guard in a parking lot and he does not earn much money. I work in the community at the grocery store as a counter hand at the bakery. The pay is very little for surviving, especially since pay day is only at month end. I must think about rent, electricity, water, food, children’s transportation and school fees, and other needs. My husband and I are just working for rent, water, and electricity. Sometimes we struggle for food, but we always survive by the grace of God.

Mado

Question 1: What was life like in your home country?

When we lived in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the army and prejudiced people would come to my husband and threaten to kill him because his mother was from the Tutsi tribe of Rwanda. They fled Rwanda during the war when he was a child. He grew up in DRC, but still they wanted to kill him. Sometimes when they came to our home to threaten to kill him, they would rape me. I still can’t talk about those times.

Question 2: What made you decide to leave your country?

We came to South Africa because of fear for my husband’s life, fear that I would be raped again, and fear for our six children’s futures. I was a teacher in the DRC. One day we ran for our lives and I did not think to bring my teaching certificates.

Question 3: What has life been like in your host/adopted country?

Now in South Africa, I have 8 children. My children go to a Catholic school and I pay some of the tuition fees by being a volunteer teacher. I also have a tent covering a table from which I sell food in small bags that my countrymen like to eat. I sell this food outside one of the city’s busy train stations. It does not give enough money for us to eat more than one meal a day and to rent one room in an apartment for my whole family of ten people.

Four years ago, a missionary surprised us when she brought food for my whole family to last for a month. On that morning, my children fought over the last tablespoon of porridge. My husband asked, “What are we going to do?” I said, “God will provide.” God provided that very day when the missionary came to our room. She brought a month’s supply of food for all ten of us to eat three times a day.

Conclusion

Mado and Claudine faced atrocities most of us will only ever hear about, but not experience. Their lives are not easier regarding employment and paying for rent, food, and utilities. Claudine and Mado and their families face prejudice and discrimination from the nationals in their adopted countries. Yet, they expect God to intervene for them. These ladies know who the Provider is. Mado and Claudine, too, help their fellow countrymen and woman who are in desperate need by sharing their supplies, too. All the while, they give God glory when He provides in ways each of us take for granted.