Cedars, April 2018

April 2018 11 THE GLOBAL REFUGEE CRISIS: RESPONSE Becoming a refugee dehumanizes peo- ple because it takes away their identity and leaves them with confusion and a lack of direction. Refugee ministry, therefore, Ben- nett said, must give the people skills and op- portunities that would help them get back on their feet and regain their sense of self. “[Give] them something that [allows] them to take steps down a path of restoring some sense of direction for their family,” Bennett said, “that they would be able to step out of this in between, transient status of being ‘refugee’ to being ‘employee’, to be- ing someone who could define themselves other than by virtue of being displaced.” While part of hisministry is giving people hands-on skills, Bennett said another import- ant part is simply sharing the truth of where hope comes from. While he can help a refugee get a job or lose the refugee status, Bennett said that new job isn’t going to sufficiently sat- isfy the refugee’s need for orientation. “[They] are still displaced,” Bennett said, “whether [they] have a home or not.” Despite themany negative effects the dis- placements can have psychologically on the refugees, the time can also remove personal and cultural barriers to the gospel. As refugees question their lack of satisfaction found in their previous systems of religion and sources of identity, Bennett said his ministry tries to get them thinking about their identity as be- yond the physical, immediate world. “You can definitely see how the Lord re- deems that time of being dislocated to being a time that is very pregnant with opportuni- ty for meeting someone in a time of asking questions that they never realized they had to ask about the world they lived in and be- ing able to provide the gospel as an answer,” Bennett said. Gaining a sense of identity and belong- ing outside of their refugee label can be challenging. Since the refugees are in a for- eign country with a new culture and differ- ent regulations, they can’t simply step out into society on their own. Dr. Glen Duerr, associate professor of international studies, said that, too often, gov- ernments do not provide all of the resources to help these people re-orient themselves. “A lot of Western countries don’t help refugees enough,” Duerr said. “What I mean by that is that they don’t bring citizens alongside them to help integrate them into society. They kind of have to fend for them- selves and figure out a place to live.” Churches and non-profit social services attempt to step in where the government leaves off by offering a variety of practical ministries to incorporate refugees into so- ciety. One of the major services offered to refugees through these ministries are ESL classes. Often, refugees arrive speaking a language other than English, which adds a language barrier to their other difficulties in blending into society. Other important ser- vices for refugees, such as medical clinics, after-school programs, and job placement services, all become opportunities for min- istry by meeting practical needs. Refugee ministry, then, is three-fold: It must include the immediate help in form of food, housing and other supplies while they are in transient camps; the long-term help of providing practical skills and opportunities to get them back on their feet; and the spiri- tual help of answering their deep questions. In face of this three-fold mission, refu- gee ministry can seem like an overwhelm- ing task.“There are a lot of churches already who are doing that kind of ministry,” Ben- nett said. “There’s a lot of opportunity.” Bennett recommended looking into Highland Baptist Church in the Columbus area for training and practical experience on working with Muslim refugees. Mattackal mentioned volunteering with Catholic Social Services of Miami Val- ley, a refugee resettlement agency that is ac- tive in the Dayton area. While the Catholic Social Services are not a directly evangelical association, they partner with several area churches, including Christ the King Angli- can Church. Opportunities to serve at the Catholic Social Services range from tutoring in ESL courses to cleaning out homes and preparing them for incoming refugees to donating personal and household supplies. Students can also partner with refugees and minister to them by staying informed. Deurr recommended staying tuned to the international news and lobbying the gov- ernment to help make foreign situations better so refugees don’t need to leave their homes in the first place. “You have to look at why people are fleeing,” Duerr said. Deurr said that students should pray over those negative situations and think about ways the government can step in and help those countries. No matter how students choose to help, they can make an impact on the refugee cri- sis and share the love of Christ with, as Mat- tackal describes them, “some of the most disadvantaged people in society.” “Being able to meet people in the midst of their need, in the midst of a whole new horizon of asking questions without the cul- tural pressures that have kept them form asking questions in the past, to be there to meet themwith gospel answers is an incred- ible advantage,” Bennett said. “Someone is going to meet them with answers; shouldn’t it be the church, holding out the message of Jesus Christ and exhibiting a hospitality that is gospel-driven, gospel-shaped and gospel-saturated?” Rebekah Erway is a senior Christian edu- cation major and Campus News editor for Cedars. She enjoys odd numbers, Oxford commas, and speaking in a British accent. Infographic by Tasha Peterson “A lot of Western countries don’t help refugees enough. What I mean by that is that they don’t bring citizens alongside them to help integrate them into society.” Dr. Glenn Duerr associate professor of international studies