50% of the world's refugees are under 18 years old. *Source Be silent for a moment and consider: How do you think the refugee experience might be different for a child than for an adult? The picture of the two-year-old boy lying drowned on a beach in September of 2015 galvanised the world for a moment. Abdullah and Rehanna Kurdi, along with their children Ghalib and Alan, had traveled from Syria to Turkey, and were now trusting smugglers to get them across the Mediterranean Sea in a flimsy dinghy, the only form of transport they could afford. They were ultimately trying to get to Vancouver, BC, to a life that was safe and hopeful. The family’s application for sponsorship had been officially denied, so this was seen as the only possible way out. The dinghy was overloaded to twice its capacity and capsized five minutes off the coast of Turkey. Rehanna, Ghalib and Alan all drowned. Alan was certainly not the first refugee child to die on the journey, not even the only one to die that day. But the heart-rending photo of his little body sparked something in our collective conscience. “This is happening? In this day and age? To children?” Yes, and has been happening for a long time, and continues to happen. We should remember that in the Nativity story, Mary is most likely of the age that we would consider a child, and Jesus was obviously an infant. And almost all the other children mentioned in the Biblical narrative die. This is not just a sentimental story best suited for eggnog and warm family moments around the fireplace. This is a story that resonates with the fear and vulnerability that the refugee children of our world face every day. As we remember the name of Jesus at this Advent time, let us also remember the names of Ghalib and Alan Kurdi, and let us call to mind the millions of other children who make up more than half of all the refugees in our world. Read: Luke 1:39-43. Also consider reading The Boy on the Beach, a personal account of the tragedy by Alan and Ghalib’s aunt, Tima Kurdi. A foundation for helping other refugee children in their name can be found here. Pray: Pray for the protection and safety of the children in your family, the children in your community and neighbourhood, and the children who right now are on the move around the world. Pray for our international partners, the African Hope Learning Centre, and Beirut Nazarene Church, as they seek to help African refugee children who've fled to Cairo and Syrian refugee children who've fled to Beirut.
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There were 10 million “stateless persons” in the world as of 2017. “Stateless persons are not considered as nationals by any State under the operation of its law. In other words, they do not possess the nationality of any State. Many refugees are at risk of becoming stateless.” *Source Be silent for a moment and consider: What would it be like to have no state? To be under no state’s protection? To have no official “nationality”? The Bible makes such a big, and consistent, emphasis on widows, orphans and sojourners because they were in a particularly vulnerable position. They were fatherless, without protection, without the rights and privileges of someone who was part of the nation. If they were abused or taken advantage of, who would know? Who would care? Who would defend? The Bible answers: God knows. God cares. God will defend. And what’s more, God requires his people to know, to care, to defend. The story of Ruth is a literary masterpiece telling the surprising story of a foreign woman without protection. The narrator repeats multiple times that she is a Moabitess, not an official part of the nation of Israel. Deuteronomy 23:3 instructs: “No Ammonite or Moabite or any of their descendants may enter the assembly of the LORD, not even in the tenth generation,” so Ruth is officially unwelcome in Israel. But she also gave up her claim to Moab when she told Naomi: “Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried.” Woven throughout this story is how dangerous this situation is for Ruth, economically, socially, and physically. Naomi warns her to be careful, and Boaz specifically instructs his fieldworkers to help her and not to abuse her. Near the end of the story she is rejected by a man who should have offered her protection, leaving her once again exposed to danger and ruin. But this is not the end of the story. Boaz is faithful, and he sees the goodness, kindness and nobility of Ruth. He receives her not as a burden but as a blessing. She is faithful to Israel’s covenant, even when the Israelites were not, and through the marriage to Boaz she is brought into the full covenant blessing of the nation. The closing sentences of the story tells us that Ruth, the Moabitess, is part of the line of King David, which also means she is a direct ancestor of Jesus. The Nativity of Jesus is incomplete without the inclusion of Ruth, a “stateless” woman. Read: Ruth Pray: Ask God to help you see stateless people – and all displaced and vulnerable people – not as burdens but as blessings. Pray that your nation would see the same thing. “[Worldwide] 3.1 million people had a pending claim for asylum at the end of 2017. 1.9 million new claims for asylum were lodged in 2017. A refugee claimant is an individual seeking international protection and whose claim for refugee status has not yet been determined.” *Source Be silent for a moment and consider: Have you ever been in a position where your safety, even your permission to be in a place, is in the hands of someone else? Where they can decide to accept or reject your claim to stay? Where they might not believe that you are in danger? How do you think that would feel? What would you want to say to a person in that situation? When Mary responded to the angel’s shocking news with the words: “Let it be to me according to your word,” she entered a world of trouble. The scandal of her unmarried pregnancy threatened both her and the new life inside her womb, and her safety is largely in the hands of Joseph, to whom she was pledged. Joseph, known as a righteous man, has a serious decision to make, with seemingly no good options. He comes up with the best plan he can think of – a quiet divorce - to protect both Mary and his dignity. And though this is a compassionate decision, it is not God’s plan. An angel appears in a dream and tells him, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 1:20) Refugee claimants, likewise, must entrust their safety and future to someone else. It is certain that many of them long for angelic intervention to help convince the authorities to believe their story, to see the danger they are in, to let them stay. Read: Matthew 1:18-25 Prayer: Pray for discernment to hear what the Lord wants for refugee claimants coming to your country. Then find out which, if any, organisations in your area are helping asylum-seekers (contact www.iafr.ca if you need assistance). Contact them to ask what you can do to help while refugee claimants are awaiting the decision in their case. There were 26 million refugees in 2017, (as distinguished from Internally Displaced People and Asylum Seekers.) “This represents an increase of 500,000 over the past year. Refugees are people who were forced to flee their country of origin in search of safety. To receive refugee protection, they have to prove that they could not find refuge within their homeland and that the authorities in their country either could not or would not protect them.” *Source Be silent for a moment and consider: What if the authorities in your city, province/state, or country could not or would not protect you? You may already feel that way or know people who do. What does this do to your sense of security? People do not leave their homes or their countries for no reason. Imagine feeling the urgent need to pack up your family and whatever you can carry and leave everything else behind, with little to no expectation of ever returning home. Nobody does that unless they genuinely believe that fleeing their country is better than the alternative, that the uncertainty and danger of being a refugee in a strange land is somehow safer than staying where you are. This is often the result of a breakdown of government authority, though it can also come from authorities allowing persecution or engaging in state-sponsored terrorism. Jesus, Mary and Joseph experienced this. When King Herod hears that a new “King of the Jews” has been born, he knows what to do. Herod never shied away from enacting violence – even against his own family – to secure his position. And he knew the kind of trouble new-born “Kings” could cause. So he gathers intel on where and when the baby was to be born, attempts to make the Magi his unwitting spies, and when that fails pursues a policy of targeted infanticide to wipe out the threat. Herod would not protect the holy family, and they could not stay where they were. So they became refugees, upon divine direction: “Behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.’ And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, ‘Out of Egypt I called my son.’” (Matt 2:13-15) The idea that the Messiah flees the Promised Land to Egypt for safety is dripping with meaning. God wanted his liberated people to be different, to protect one another, to live righteously, and to be a blessing to the whole world. But they became like every other nation. And to top it off, here is King Herod doing exactly what Pharaoh had done generations before – ordering the death of infants to protect himself. If you have a hard time imagining why anyone would flee their country to become a refugee, remember this story, and understand that it is still being played out around the world again and again. Read: Matthew 2:1-18 Prayer: Thank the Lord that, for the sake of humanity, he did not spare his son the experience of the flight to Egypt. God knows the deepest fears of his children, because he has lived them in the flesh. Pray for the authorities that cannot protect their people, that they would be favoured with the necessary resources, assistance and competencies. Pray also for the authorities that will not protect their people, that their hearts or their positions would be changed. 45.7 million people have been forced to flee their homes, but not their country (i.e. internally displaced). *Source Be silent for a moment and consider: what might it feel like to have an unsafe home/city/country? And what if your options to find safety were extremely limited? This is an oft-misunderstood part of the refugee story. Internally displaced people have not crossed borders but have still been forced out of their homes. They are often in danger of the same threats that caused them to flee, still potentially subject to the same government, gangs, terrorist groups and economic conditions, but without the familiarity or security of home. The Biblical story of Israel gives us examples of this internal displacement: “Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves and strongholds.” (Judges 6:2) They did not cross any borders, but they were not home and they were not safe. At the time of Jesus’ birth Hebrew people were living in Judea, but they were not in possession of the land. They had seen a succession of conquering nations – Assyrians, Medo-Persians, Greeks, and finally Romans – tromp through the land with their armies and tax collectors. Various religious and political groups had different strategies for dealing with these Empires, from cooperation to separation in the desert to hiding in caves and plotting terroristic resistance. Any hint of sedition towards the Roman Empire was met with violent and sometimes indiscriminate reprisals, including mass crucifixions. Jesus was born into a powder-keg situation, as part of a people who were in their land but not at home, not safe. The fear, anger, resistance, and faithful hope of this situation is powerfully summarised by Mary’s Magnificat: My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever. (Luke 1:46-55) Read: Luke 1:67-79 Prayer: Pray the Magnificat and Zechariah’s prayer for the 45.7 million people in our world who have been internally displaced. Pray that God would lift them up, fill them, remember them, and have mercy on them. Then ask the question: What can you do to make your home, your community, safer for those who are vulnerable? 30,600 people were uprooted every day in 2020. *Source Be silent for a moment and consider: Have you ever been in a situation where you knew everything was likely to change in a moment, but you had little to no control over when or how it would happen? How did you feel? It is very easy to take safety and stability for granted when we have it. But those who have lived through war, terror, deep poverty, displacement, or family or community break-down know the fear and uncertainty of everything being thrown into chaos in a moment. There are millions of people around the world living with the knowledge that any day, any minute, they might have to gather their family, grab what they can, and leave behind everything they know. We have already seen how Mary and Joseph had to journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem to register for Caesar’s census. Then comes a sentence which is easy to overlook when we read it but impossible to ignore in real life: “And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth.” (Luke 2:6) Women in late-stage pregnancy often hear and repeat the phrase: “Any day now!” And when the time for labour comes, it comes, and there is no stopping it. From that moment on everything changes in the short-term and long-term. It is normally a joyous occasion, but it is also fraught with uncertainty, fear, and pain. It is a marvel that the Author of Creation entered the world through such a normal, yet frightening and dangerous, process as childbirth. Think of it: Mary’s water broke, she started getting contractions, the child she had been awaiting for nine months – and that Creation had been anticipating for much longer – was suddenly on his way, and everything was about to change. Jesus’ birth was at the same time the most commonly experienced thing amongst all humans, and the most unique thing to every happen. Each of the 30,600 people who were uprooted each day in 2020 experienced something both increasingly common and entirely unique. They may have been waiting anxiously for it to happen, may have planned their exit for months, or it may have come upon them with the suddenness of labour pains. But their lives changed in that moment. Read: Luke 2:1-7 Prayer: Sit in silence for a minute. Reflect on the fact that roughly 30 people are newly uprooted every minute. Consider what such an “uprooting” would look like in your life. Pray that uprooted people would know the comfort of Jesus in their transitions. Pray that your faith would be strengthened to carry you through life’s transitions, and to be a help to others who have been newly uprooted. 11 million people were newly displaced in 2019. This includes 8.6 million internally displaced people and 2.4 million new refugees and asylum seekers. *Source Be silent for a moment and consider: have you ever been faced with a situation that felt entirely beyond your capacities, and that didn’t look like it was going to get better any time soon? How did it feel? What did you do? The crisis of people being displaced due to war, terror, or economics is not a new one, nor is it going away. Millions of people left their homes in fear in the past year, and millions more will almost certainly have to do so next year as well. As aid agencies and host nations try to help settle and stabilise the displaced people who are already on the move, they are under the pressure of knowing that more people are soon on their way. In John 1 we are introduced to the God who moves towards us. “In the beginning was the Word,” that is, God’s self-revelation. This Word of God becomes flesh and moves into the neighbourhood. Jesus is willingly displaced from heaven and comes to his creation, not out of fear, but because of love. God is always moving towards us. His movement wasn’t just something that happened 2000 years ago. Remember, Jesus is the Word of God, God’s self-revelation. His life demonstrates what God is always like. He is the Hound of Heaven, hunting us down all the time. At Eugene Peterson’s funeral his son said that his father only had one sermon, one prayer, and that he repeated it in every book and every conversation: “God loves you. He is on your side. He is coming after you. He is relentless.” When we are faced with situations that appear beyond our resources, that have no end in sight, and that look to only get more difficult before they get better (if they ever get better), remember this: God is on the move, too. He is on our side. He loves us. Read: John 1:1-5, 14 Prayer: Ask the Lord how you could best welcome a newcomer – be they internally displaced, a refugee or an asylum seeker, into your neighbourhood in the next year. Then ask the same question to a local agency that is helping to settle newcomers in your city. “79.5 million people have been forced to flee their homes because of persecution, conflict and/or human rights violations.” This is the highest number ever recorded. The number of forcibly displaced people in the world has increased by more than 50% since 2007. *Source Be silent and consider that number. How does it compare to the size of your Church? Your city? Your country? The population of the world? 79.5 million is a shockingly large number of people who are not safe in their homes all around the world. Set against the number of people we meet in our daily interactions this number is overwhelming. Yet it is not actually an impossibly large number, especially when compared to the population of the world. It is possible for us to conceive of ways to welcome, house and help displaced people. The space and the resources are in fact available around the world. It becomes more difficult to imagine this, however, when we think of refugees and displaced people as a “faceless mass”, a “mob” or “invasion”. Numbers can be dangerous. Jesus’ parents were caught up in a numbers game. “In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town.” (Luke 2:1-3) Caesar caused the known world to get up and move in order to tax them. But he could not know that in so doing he was helping fulfill a prophecy that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. Mary and Joseph were just two of many people forced to travel by this decree, but they were of eternal significance. They weren’t lost in the “mob”. They mattered. So it is with every single one of the 79.5 million displaced people in our world. So it is with you, too. God knows every single one of us by name and circumstance, and he loves us. We are not faceless to him. And each of us are more significant to him than the whims of Empire that continue to cause displacement. Read: Luke 2:1-7 Prayer: Find a news source talking about refugees, and search for the name of an individual or family mentioned in the story. Pray specifically for that one person or family today. Pray that they would be brought to safety and know the love of God. Continue to pray for them for the rest of the Advent season. by Aaron White, 24/7 Prayer Canada Jesus is in the caravan. It is 2021, and life is as hard for migrants, refugees, and displaced people as it has ever been. Many borders are closed, agencies are hard-pressed to help, and even our neighbours are suspected of being dangerous to us, let alone strangers from other lands. Politicians continue to inflame fears against foreigners and refugees to provoke anger against their political foes. We tend to pay attention when things are sensationalised or politicised, but then our attention moves on to other things. But refugees are not political leverage or media fodder. The stories of the millions of internally displaced persons and asylum seekers all around the world story haven’t ended just because our attention has been diverted. Each displaced person is a beloved child of God, made in His image, intimately known. And Jesus is present with them. Advent is a time in the Christian calendar when we remember the incarnation of Jesus and prepare for his return. The story of Jesus’ birth - well-worn through Nativity plays, Christmas carols, and seasonal television specials - seems overly-familiar. But perhaps the actual Biblical story is less familiar to us than we think. If we celebrate the forced journey of Jesus’ family from Nazareth to Bethlehem; sing about mysterious wise men from the East causing political unrest in Jerusalem; and read about the violent policy that forced the holy family to escape to another land; but fail to see how this might connect to the 82.4 million displaced people in our world today, then perhaps we really haven’t understood the story as well as we should. Scripture is consistent in its view of how the people of God are to receive orphans, widows, and strangers. "Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers..." (Heb 13:2) "God executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt." (Deut 10:18-19) Jesus became the ultimate sojourner, taking on human flesh not in comfort and security but under threat and displacement. If we can believe that Jesus is present in our worship services and around our family tables, then we must be able to imagine Jesus on the road with people who have lost everything, a situation Jesus and his family knew first-hand. Mary and Joseph sought shelter when they arrived in Bethlehem for the birth. People from all over the world are still looking for shelter and welcome as they arrive in our communities at increasing rates. There are things we can do to receive them well.
Pray:
Rebecca Swarbrick, Grace United Church, Chelsea, QC On a cold and damp Sunday afternoon, our family and others from Grace United Church set out on our prayer walk for refugees. None of us knew what to expect. The kids wanted to run and enjoy the trail, the rain wanted to let loose, we had to remember to stay socially distanced, yet we were given the time to stop and pray, to learn and remember. There were times of laughter, chatter and silence, enjoying the fall colours, making new friends and getting to know acquaintances. Though it was difficult to walk through and consider the lives of refugees spread across the world, we did so together and were glad to focus on something beyond our four walls. We took turns reading the points for prayer at each kilometre. A particular powerful moment was when Nancy, who leads the children’s work at church, found her voice breaking as she read the statistics for the amount of refugees per country in recent years. We stood in silence, staggered by the stark reality we were faced with. Even our children stopped rushing ahead and stood quietly to listen! It was the first time many of us had seen each other since the lock down began in March. We were used to seeing each other’s faces at our Sunday services online, but to be together in person to walk for a purpose and raise money for such a life-giving organisation like IAFR, was so wonderful. The following week such gatherings were prohibited; the timing was perfect. Did You Know? This past August, 24-7 Prayer Canada invited churches and individuals across the country to a 10 KM Prayer Walk for Refuge, raising funds for IAFR Canada's ministry with refugees. Over $8000 was raised by more than 20 groups! We are so grateful to each one who walked and each one who is helping refugees by sponsoring them. Watch for 24/7 Prayer Canada’s Prayer Walk for Refuge 2021, coming again across Canada this June! If you would like to pray for refugees while you practice social distancing this winter, here is the guide that was shared with participants, with a prayer point for each km you walk.
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Our vision is to help people survive and recover from forced displacement. We do this together with the church, both globally, and locally in Canada. Archives
January 2024
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