World Refugee Sundays
World Refugee Sunday is an incredible opportunity for churches worldwide to show support and solidarity with the forcibly displaced men, women, and children. World Refugee Sunday is promoted by the Refugee Highway Partnership and will be on Sundays, June 19 & 26 (whichever works best for your local church). On both of these days, churches will unite around the world in prayer in an effort to remember the millions of forcibly displaced. The RHP is a community of Christians from around the globe who share a commitment to welcoming and serving refugees; and a desire to see the church more actively involved in serving the forcibly displaced people.
Locally in the Portland area, several churches and individuals are involved in befriending our refugee and forcibly displaced neighbors who have come from all over the world.
Most of the refugees in our community come in recent years from places like Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Myanmar (Burma), Somalia, Sudan, Syria and the Ukraine.
We are truly blessed as a community to welcome these people and several of our mentors have been matched with children who speak Swahili, Somali, or other languages at home. Of those we serve, 14% of the total 70 or so active matches are from immigrant/refugee families. To identify children in need of a mentor from refugee/forcibly displaced backgrounds, we partner with Catholic Charities and IRCO.
Over the last 20+ plus years, the World Refuge Sunday has served as a platform to highlight the stories of forcibly displaced people and mobilize the global Church to respond to their plight – as well as being a source of solidarity and encouragement to forcibly displaced people. Refugees, Asylum Seekers, Internally Displaced People and migrants are complex topics for young people, but they can be easily understood if we help them to define the nature of displacement. This guide for children is especially helpful and includes a Bible story and crafts.
The theme of World Refugee Sunday 2022 is found in the book of Deuteronomy 10:18 The Lord defends the rights of orphans and widows. He cares for foreigners and gives them food and clothing (CEV). The Lord is the great Defender of those who are marginalized, he gives the foreigners food and clothing. As a representation of the body of Christ here in Portland, we stand together with the global church to uphold the cause of those who are impoverished and oppressed, and those who are forcibly displaced.
If you have a heart for our refugee and forcibly displaced neighbors, you may wish to follow the Refugee Highway Partnership North America and get connected to local friends in the Pacific Northwest who connect through WhatsApp, Slack and in-person at annual regional meetups. This October, Village Church in Beaverton will be hosting the multi-day “refugee roundtable” conference where you can meet up with like-minded followers of Jesus to worship, learn and share. Another great resource birthed locally is The Immigrant Story, full of lovely photography and fascinating stories of those born in other nations who have ended up making America, and often Oregon, their home.
