That Could Be Me

Dear friends,

“That could be me,” I thought as I passed a homeless person on the street. It had never occurred to me before then, but in my unemployed state, with unyielding financial obligations, and a very uncertain future in front of me, it dawned on me that I was just a few steps away from being in his shoes. What had previously seemed an unthinkable impossibility was suddenly possible. But for an intact, generous family and a strong social network–both undeserved gifts–I might be where he was. Suddenly, homeless people did not seem so different from me, and their plight seemed much more connected with my own.

For most who were born and brought up in the United States, the plight of the refugee is even more unimaginable than the plight of a homeless person was for me. Refugees are a headline that occasionally pops up in our news feed. One refugee crisis follows another. And they all seem so far away. For many of us, not even our extended family are affected. But unlike my experience above, we seldom encounter anything in our American lives that remotely resembles the war and persecution and trauma and flight and camps and waiting and hopelessness–and more–that is sadly routine for the refugee. In all likelihood, in the U.S.A. we will only gain empathy for refugees by meeting one personally–or perhaps through a special event or media piece on a special day like World Refugee Day.

June 20 is World Refugee Day. It began in 2001 on the 50th anniversary of the United Nations convention where the formal definition of a refugee was adopted. Prior to that, the same day was marked by many African countries as Africa Refugee Day.

Today, the number of refugees around the world is a staggering 40 million. But unless Americans personally know one of the 3 million plus refugees who have been resettled in our country since the resettlement program began in 1980, World Refugee Day (and other special days and events like it) may be the best opportunity many have to enter into the world of people just like you and me whose lives and entire family trees have been disrupted and upended by horrific war and persecution.

The refugee crisis became personal to me in August 2017 when, while living with my family in Thailand, I began to see headlines of a massive flight of Rohingya who were fleeing persecution by the Burmese military in Myanmar’s Rakhine state. In a short time around 750,000 Rohingya refugees crossed the Myanmar border to seek refuge in neighboring Bangladesh. As I was watching over some teams in Bangladesh at that time, I had the opportunity to visit the sprawling refugee camp that had been constructed near Cox’s Bazaar. On the one hand, I was moved by the profound hopelessness and uncertainty that was palpable inside the camp. But on the other hand, I was reminded of stories that I had heard in other parts of the world of God meeting refugees–in the midst of their upheaval and trauma–through welcoming churches and missionaries. I did not know it at the time, but in 2019, as we were looking to return to the States, I learned that an organization in Louisville, Kentucky, called Refuge International was looking for an executive director. As I learned of their mission to glorify God by partnering with local churches to love refugees and immigrants, I was encouraged to apply, and in 2020, just before the pandemic, we returned to the States, and I began serving as Refuge’s director.

If you are reading this update, you are part of “the choir” so to speak. You probably count refugees among your friends or you are a former refugee yourself. Personal stories have changed and informed your perspective of the current refugee crisis. You don’t need to be persuaded by an update like this.

But your heralding of World Refugee Day could be the means God blesses to help others around you–in your church, workplace, school, and social media circles–learn about and have compassion for refugees. Your voice on their behalf–on this day–could prompt others around you to raise their voices to speak up for refugees as well.

And even for those of us in “the choir,” we still need reminders. 😊

So, this June 20, may World Refugee Day spur us–and others through us–on to acts of welcome, help, mobilization, advocacy, giving, and prayer. For starters, please join me in praying specifically that:

• The inhumane and unjust treatment that many immigrants in our country are receiving would be used by God to awaken the American church to its biblical responsibility to treat the stranger in our midst as the native citizen and to love them as ourselves (Lev 19:34);

• Pastors and other church leaders in America would lead their congregations in befriending immigrants in their respective communities; and

• On this World Refugee Day, we and the Christians and churches around us would indeed be spurred on to acts of welcome, help, mobilization, advocacy, giving, and more prayer.

Because Jesus welcomes us,

Matt Reynolds
Executive Director, Refuge International