Inception: Working with Refugees, Stage Two: Founding a Faith-Based Ministry to Refugees

Founding a Faith-Based Ministry to Refugees

Introduction

Three articles on faith-based ministry to refugees precede this one. The article titles are The Warp and Weft of Life[1], Conception: Empowering to Serve Refugees[2], and Inception: Working with Refugees, Stage One: Getting to Know Refugees[3]. Besides these, other refugee articles of mine relate stories directly from refugees about their lives. These articles begin with the title In Their Words[4][5][6]. One other article on working with refugees deals with the importance of letting the person tell his or her story. The title of this article is Just Listen[7].

In the earlier articles of this series, we learned who refugees are, how many refugees are in the world, and that they come from many countries. For faith-based refugee work, we must receive our vision from God, so we are steadfast in the work when days are hard and long, and refugee stories are painful to hear. The primary part of any faith-based refugee ministry must be prayer-continual communication with God.

From Inception: Working with Refugees, Stage One: Getting to Know Refugees, we learned again prayer must enwrap any ministry established. Prayer is important throughout all phases and stages of refugee work. With stage one of Inception, we learned once God gives us His vision for ministry, we must get to know the people with whom we will work. For refugee ministry, this is very important. Getting to know the refugees around you helps you determine to which group of refugees God wants you to minister. It reveals to you the leaders of the community, the history, culture, and religion of the refugees. You must talk to refugees to determine if ministry to all refugees at one time is impossible because of tribal, political, or national bias. As you listen to the refugees tell you of their needs, you recognize other areas in which they need help. From this understanding of the refugees’ needs and your acquaintance with them, different ministry areas enter your mind by which you can begin a program to help them. Prayer must continue to enwrap this stage and all phases of ministry to ensure you continue to follow God’s will for the ministry for which He gave you the vision.

Stage Two: Founding a Faith-Based Ministry to Refugees

In the next stage of Inception, which I have titled Founding a Faith-Based Ministry to Refugees, we will consider how to organize and establish a ministry program to help refugees. What does it take to constitute a ministry? Do we use common organization tools such as a mission statement, goals, objectives, actions, and steps? Why is it useful to write these? Will the organization be a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) or Non-Profit Organization (NPO)? Again, we must realize this stage, like all other phases and stages, must be bathed in prayer-before, during, and after.

Prayer

As we seek to establish a faith-based NGO or NPO, prayer must be paramount to make sure we follow God’s will for the vision He gave. Prayer is one way in which people stay and grow in their relationship with the Lord and learn of His will. When establishing any work for God, continual communion with Him for His guidance on founding the ministry is necessary to ensure the vision remains before us. Continuing communion with God helps us determine and stay with His goals and objectives for refugee work. Additionally, it ensures the mission statement reflects His intentions. As we seek to realize which services/ministries to offer the refugees, we must go to God to make sure we are planning the activities He wants to be part of the ministry. Prayer is necessary to ensure we continue to walk closely with the Lord, grow more like Him, and have a heart like His for refugees.

NGO or NPO?

Before establishing a charitable organization, we must decide if it will be national/local or international in scope. If it will be international, then an NGO (Non-governmental organization) would be the charitable organization most likely needed for the work. An NGO may receive government-raised funding and funds from the private sector. Its board members are voluntary and have no affiliation with governments. An NGO operates independently from any government entity. It provides services to communities through analysis, expertise, and advocacy for the people. A few services NGOs offer are health education, managing health crises, and environmental issues. Some NGOs are for-profit corporations, but most are Non-profit organizations.

An NPO (Non-profit Organization) seeks to help people in their local (city, county, or state) or national community. NPOs have a specific mission to achieve. They hire management personnel and aim to raise substantial funds through endowments and donations. NPOs do not seek to make a profit and any profits made from investments go into its operations, not to its members, directors, or officers. Most NPOs are tax exempt and have legal responsibilities that include reporting income and expenses through accurate accounting processes and auditing, and supervision and management. Services NPOs offer are charitable, religious, educational, preventative, and scientific.

With prayer, the vision God gave you, the understanding you gained while getting to know the refugees, the decisions about the scope of the organization, and the base from which you want to get your financial support, you can decide which organization style best serves the people to whom you seek to minister. If you want your faith-based ministry to be separate from government influence, then an NGO and NPO are both suitable for your organization. If your ministry will deal specifically with local or national issues, then an NPO is more suitable for your organization. If your organization wants to redistribute profits to it leadership, members, board, or shareholders, then an NGO is the right organizational structure for your ministry. If your faith-based ministry wants to ensure no part of government dictates to whom or how you can use their funding, then an NPO with a specific funding policy would be best.

Prayer

You should seek the Lord’s guidance about which organizational structure your faith-based ministry to refugees should become-NGO or NPO. Because God gave you His vision for the ministry, opened your eyes to the people to whom you will work, and laid their burdens and needs upon your heart, you should return to Him in prayer asking His will for the organizational structure of this ministry. We each have an idea about our ministry we think is good, but God knows best which organizational form will enable this ministry to grow and be strong for the task He has ordained.

Mission Statement

What is a mission statement and why does the ministry need one? Do NGOs and NPOs need mission statements? Are they not just for for-profit organizations? The answer to the first question answers the latter questions. A mission statement is a brief description of an organization’s principal purpose for its workers, recipients, and for outsiders to understand and follow. To be clear, the mission statement describes what the organization does, and how and why it does it. All forms of organizations need mission statements. A ministry without a mission statement is like a car with a driver who has no purpose for being in the car.

Consider this closer. God gave you a clear vision to work with refugees. As you got to acquainted with the refugees to whom God led you to speak, you understood they have several primary needs-language acquisition, document obtainment, and accommodation and food procurement. Perhaps when you prayed over their needs, God showed you most of the refugees had a place to live, but they had no way to get jobs since they did not speak the language. Without jobs, they could not pay rent, buy food or clothes, or pay for transportation to get their asylum-seeker or refugee documents. Through prayer, you decide the most needed ministry now is teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) and then helping with other things as financial backing increases for the ministry. The organization will also be a resource connector and lead the refugees to the correct person or organization who can help them with other needs-food, clothes, rent money, document assistance, etc. 

The mission statement for this NPO would be something like this. “XYZ Refugee Care Center shares the love of Christ and provides practical help to newly arrived refugees in the city of Toledo by teaching English as a second language and being a resource connector and provider. It offers these services as a testimony and in obedience to Jesus Christ to follow Him, share the gospel, baptize believers, make disciples, and love our neighbours as ourselves.” To be more succinct, this mission statement could say the following: “The XYZ Refugee Care Center provides practical help to newly arrived refugees in Toledo by teaching English as a second language and being a resource connector and provider as a testimony of Jesus’ love for all people.” Both mission statements answer the questions: What does your organization do? How will it do it? Why will they do it?

Prayer

After writing the mission statement for the new faith-based refugee ministry organization, return to commune with God. He led you to this task, introduced you to the refugees, and showed you their needs. God placed in your mind the services needed to help refugees you now know. He guided you as you wrote the mission statement. As you prepare for the next step of founding a faith-based refugee ministry, you need to pray over the goals and objectives for this ministry. Ask God to clarify the goals He has for the ministry and the steps/objectives needed to reach those goals by helping refugees.

Goals and Objectives

Goals and objectives are statements of what must be accomplished for the organization to accomplish its mission. Goal setting comes before determining what needs doing to achieve the mission statement. Objectives are specific actions and a timeline for achieving specific goals. They help guide and provide a measure of your progress toward your goals. After setting goals and objectives, decide on action plans with specific steps to reach specific goals and objectives. Without goals and objectives, no steering wheel exists to guide the ministry toward its vision and accomplish its mission statement. The driver is in the car and has a place to go but has no way to guide the car.

Goals are broader, more general statements of what you want the ministry organization to accomplish. They are longer-term than objectives. Objectives are short-term goals to get the refugee ministry toward its longer-term goals. Your organization fulfil its goals as it accomplishes its objectives.  Possible goals for your refugee ministry are noted with Arabic numbers and related objectives are noted with lowercase letters below.

1.      Establish relationships with key leaders in the refugee community

a.       Determine who is a pastor to the refugees

b.      Determine who is the trusted advisor in the refugee community

2.      Teach English as a Second Language

a.       Find a Bible-based English language curriculum

b.      Find a venue at which to teach ESL

c.       Teach 40 people English in the first year

3.      Distribute food and/or blankets to the refugee community

a.       Find a grant funder for food and/or blankets

b.      Find a vendor who will sell the food and/or blankets at a discount

c.       Determine which refugees need food and/or blankets

d.      Write a project proposal to an NPO/NGO to provide funds for food and/or blankets

The organization leaders will revisit the goals and objectives each year to determine what the organization accomplished, what was unfruitful, and what they should do next.

Prayer

Daily and continual prayer with God must be part of the organization. God will guide the ministry on where changes should occur, where additions should be made, and what people to include. Possibly He wants to expand the ministry into another community or city. Perhaps God wants to change the focus from English acquisition to emergency and material relief. Issues and needs change and any faith-based organization that seeks to help the community must poise itself to change or else become irrelevant. Prayer guides us to determine the direction for an organization, and to keep each person focused on God so the person grows in his or her relationship with God and in Christlikeness. Without this, the ministry becomes stale and risks losing its overarching goal-being a light for the gospel in that community.

Conclusion

The fun part of refugee ministry is seeing joy in a person’s eyes when he or she receives help. Not every part of ministry is fun. Some are hard, but very necessary. Faith-based ministry establishing requires activities other than giving tangible help. It involves writing a mission statement and setting measurable goals and objectives. Each of these comes because of God’s vision to you and to others to work for the good of refugees. When getting to know refugees, you learn of their needs. You must take these needs to the Lord. He will tell you for which ones He wants you to give help. The fulfilling of these needs become your goals upon which your objectives, actions, and plans are based.

Each of the people and their needs must be brought before the Lord. Each ministry possibility, ministry partner, and volunteer should be prayed over. The mission statement, goals, and objectives will all be focused on providing for the needs of the people to whom God calls you and for whom He gives you a vision. Without actual needs defined, no ministry will be focused. This makes the ministry irrelevant. All aspects of ministry to and with refugees must be brought before the Lord and bathed in prayer. We must seek God’s will in each facet of it. This will insure its relevance and greatest benefit.

Consider what David said in Psalm 127:1. He said, “Unless the LORD builds the house, they labor in vain who build it.” Jesus taught in Matthew 7:24-25, “Therefore, everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house, and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock.” Two principles arise from these two passages. Make sure what you build is built because God told you to build it. Ensure every part of the refugee ministry is what God wills and is founded on Him. Both require constant and repeated prayer.

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[1] http://tcmhome.blogspot.com/2018/04/warp-and-weft-of-life.html

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

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

[4] http://tcmhome.blogspot.com/2018/05/in-their-words.html

[5] http://tcmhome.blogspot.com/2018/05/in-their-words-mataas-story.html

[6] http://tcmhome.blogspot.com/2018/06/in-their-words-petras-and-fabrices.html

[7] http://tcmhome.blogspot.com/2018/05/just-listen.html

Conception: Empowering to Serve Refugees

We each have heard about or know at least one person who is a refugee. News media report of nations upset by corruption, war, greed, and natural disaster. The United Nations High Council on Refugees (UNHCR) defines a refugee as, “A person who has been forced to flee his or her country because of persecution, war, or violence. That refugee has a well-founded fear of persecution because of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group. These refugees most likely cannot return home or fear to do so” [https://www.unrefugees.org/refugee-facts/what-is-a-refugee]. Another thing to understand is refugees do not come only from Middle-eastern countries. They come from the Far East, Europe, east Europe, Africa, and North and South America. People from first-world countries even seek asylum.

With the 20+ million refugees and asylum seekers on earth, how does one help? Where do they start? What should they do? With the first article in this series, we remembered everyone, not just Christians, is to help their neighbor. God made each person with the innate capacity to empathize, love, and care for others. As Christians, we know we are to love our neighbors, those who find themselves in need whether they are family, friend, or foe. This article will help each of us as we seek God’s wisdom on how to serve refugees in our communities. The best place to begin is with God.

Conception

As with the beginning of any program, task, or organization, before it can start, an idea for the program must occur. For a faith-based refugee program, the beginning is no different. A conception of the idea must come from God. If a person wants to help someone, she could buy clothes and take them to the person in need. What if the person was a different size than the clothes, or the person no longer lived in that place because he didn’t have rent money? Perhaps the person was starving, instead of shivering. When you give the person unneeded clothes, are you helping or just appeasing your conscience? For this reason, conception must come from God. Prayer, inspiration, determination, and further prayer should occur during the conception stage of ministry.

Prayer

If we truly want to follow God, we should seek His will. Just because a vacancy exists for a person to work in a ministry doesn’t mean God wants you used there. Pray and keep praying until God tells you where to work (Matthew 7:7). From personal experience, when at term’s end on the mission field, the ministry in which I worked was completed. Determined from that point not to do just anything, I waited on God. I spent November and December seeking God’s will. I returned to the field not knowing, but continued praying through January and February. Eventually, God told me to look around and asked what I saw. I saw refugees, no longer just people from another country. (Funnily, I qualified for that title). I saw people who fled for their lives, needed help, and hurt from trauma. This example of waiting for God with expectant prayer emphasizes determined and expectant praying must come before inception (Habakkuk 2:3).

Vision

When you’ve prayed and God has shown you the work He wants to do through you, you don’t jump right in and work. You begin by understanding the situation in which God wants to use you. A worker must be educated before he goes to work. He must receive the vision as God ordains it. This worker must recognize the people being touched by the ministry. He must understand what work needs to be done and how. This inspiration, this vision, comes from God.

Determination

A very important part of conception is for the worker to have the determination to follow God’s leading. Whether it costs him nothing or costs him his all, his calling by God should sustain him in the work. When the worker’s heart grows heavy from the suffering, and when the needs of the work require his money, time, and mind to be “all in” to make a difference and stay the course, he must be determined to stay where God called him, following God’s leading. Praying until God tells you in what ministry to work, no matter how long it takes, is of great importance.

Prayer

Conception is incomplete until prayer enwraps the whole program. Prayer should lead you to seek God’s will, His vision for you now, and to keep you determined-steadfast-in the task He gives you. It should be included at the end of conception, too. Without prayer enwrapping conception, the boat has wind and goal, but no rudder to direct it. If Paul had not sought God’s guidance, he might have gone to Rome too soon and the Emperor may not have heard the gospel. God must be the One who steers the ship. Having His vision and determination to do as He called you is invigorating, but do not set sail without God. He guides the direction in which you are to go and minister.

Conclusion

You may have refugee friends or know of refugees, and their plight breaks your heart. To begin work, you must seek God for His vision. This requires prayer. You must be emboldened to remain steadfast and determined in the work, not wavering when days are difficult and require more than you think you can give. This conception of God’s will for your life must be draped with prayer from start to finish. Without prayer at the end of this stage, the vision has no aim, no direction.

To begin work for the Lord in aid of refugees, God must call one to the task. With that calling comes His vision, the strength to remain steadfast, and the drive to do whatever it takes to complete the task. With the conception God gives, an inception-a start-can occur. Inception takes a person from envisioning and empowering (conception) by God through three phases of preparing and doing ministry to help refugees.

Principles and Vision

Proverbs 29:13, 25-26 and John 6:51 (NASB) 

13. “The poor man and the oppressor have this in common : The LORD gives light to the eyes of both.”

25. “The fear of man brings a snare, but he who trusts in the LORD will be exalted.”

26. “Many seek the ruler's favor, but justice for man comes from the LORD.” 

John 6:51 "I am the living bread that came down out of heaven ; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever ; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh." 

The rulers from whom we seek guidance and justice may no longer follow God. They know who God is, maybe. As God shows us throughout His Word, men in power may begin on the path with God, but often they lose that vision and fall back on principles. Principles, by themselves, are not evil, but when they lead us to do things that are not God’s vision for us right now, then they are wrong for us to follow.   

God’s vision could pertain just to our self. We may no longer allow God to give us His vision and lead us. What we allow to lead us will determine our success and end. This does not mean principles are terrible; they are insights into our morals. It does mean principles without the vision from God, or God’s guidance, are just that, principles, thoughts by which to live. Principles are not actions for God, nor are they necessarily led by God. Principles can come from God, or self-discovery, or life, or Satan. We must be careful to follow the principles from God. The only way to know if principles for the task are from God is always to follow the vision of God. God’s vision for us will lead us to follow Him, to do His work. Our idea of God and who He is may appear to justify our neglect of duty. We might not think God wants to forgive them, for example: when people marry outside their faith and we find no impetus to tell them of the righteous God. This creates a barrier between our principles and God’s vision. God’s ultimate vision is for everyone to be saved. Who are we to judge whom God wants to save or not?  

To get beyond even this, we need to consider if we are ready to act upon the vision God gave us. Have we allowed God to make us into vessels in which we carry His love and mercy to others? Have we gone beyond the need for milk and now live on the meat of the Word? Christ calls us to follow Him. Who was He to us? He said, “"I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.” (John 6:51, NASB). He commissioned us to go to the uttermost parts of the earth. Now, what does that mean? Since Christ told us He was bread broken for us, we must become broken bread in sharing the Gospel with other people. Notice I did not say you must have principles, but you must do something, become bread and share the Gospel. This is the vision God gives each of us. He will give to each of us a personal vision of His plan for our lives, too.    

Step back, though. How do we become broken bread? Do we take the kernel of corn and bake it? No, that provides no nutrition; it provides only a hot kernel. To make bread, the corn must be ground, mixed, kneaded, rolled, and baked. Many events must occur before the corn can become bread and give nutrition. This is the same for believers. Before we can be broken bread, as Jesus was, we must go through difficult times for useful service to others. There will be hard times of grinding and smoothing the corn. Next, God's Spirit mixes in us with His grace to provide nutrients for others and ourselves. God then bakes us so we become more than we were by ourselves and so we no longer resemble the person  we were. We become the best we can be, a disciple of God to be shared and broken for Him to others. Until we have God’s vision, our principles will not hold us strong to God’s process. We will tell ourselves we can get to a “good” point in our growth without going through the painful course of growth and without giving control of our lives to God. If we are to nourish others and be a profit for them and for God’s use, though, we must allow ourselves to be this kernel of corn in God’s hands.  

We must decide if we are going to live by our principles or by the vision God has for our lives. We must decide who will be our master, God or ourselves. If we do not choose God, our principles will begin to become excuses for us not to do things we know God wants us do. Our prayer life will begin to falter. Our focus on God will begin to blur. We will become reckless with our lives and the lives of others. We will stop having God’s vision for our lives even in the small things. Finally, we will turn our backs completely on God. We will have lost the vision. Now is the time we must decide to act upon the vision God has put within us. Action is the requirement; we must act with God and allow Him to give us His vision and purpose and allow Him to make us the bread He needs to feed others the truth of the Gospel. “For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead” (James 2:26). The ruler with whom we must seek an audience for justice is God (see Proverbs 29:26).