According to a study conducted by LifeWay Research released Feb. 29, almost 2 out of 3 pastors in the United States (63 percent) have not heard about ways to help refugees overseas. That was one of the findings of a study commissioned by World Relief and World Vision — two internationally known relief agencies.
Perhaps one reason for pastors’ lack of knowledge is fear. Nationally 44 percent of pastors said there was a sense of fear in their churches about working with refugees. Among Baptists the number was higher, 56 percent. When one does not want to know about a topic, it is easy not to know about it.
The study found 86 percent of pastors believed Christians should “care sacrificially for refugees and foreigners” but only 19 percent reported giving money to relief organizations or praying for refugees. The percentage working with refugee families locally dropped to 7 percent.
The study may reflect the political debate going on in the nation as people weigh compassion for refugees against national security interests. According to media reports, the United States had about 250,000 refugees a year ago and plans to resettle about 85,000 additional refugees in 2016. About 10,000 Syrian refugees could be included in that number.
Germany, by contrast, could soon have more than 1 million refugees. Lebanon, a neighbor to war-torn Syria, reports more than 1 million registered Syrian refugees, leaving out the countless nonregistered moving across the nation’s porous borders.
People debate
Jordan, another Syrian neighbor, reports about 1.4 million total refugees living in tent refugee camps and elsewhere while Turkey reports more than 2 million.
The political debate in the U.S. frequently boils over as people debate where helping refugees in this country and/or overseas should fall among national priorities.
Frequently the extreme voices garner the spotlight with polarizing emotions and actions.
That is why it is important for cooperating Southern Baptists to remember that for most of the five years of the Syrian Civil War and political unrest in the Middle East, North Africa and elsewhere in the world, Southern Baptists have ministered to refugees.
Sometimes the relief has been basic material goods like a warm blanket, plastic sheeting to hold off the elements or a little heating oil for a fire.
Help from Southern Baptists
Through Baptist Global Response, Southern Baptists have provided infant milk, diapers, hygiene kits, boxes of food and more.
Career missionaries and short-term Baptist volunteers have walked the lanes of refugee camps like Azraq and Zaatari in Jordan countless times distributing basic necessities to keep people alive. At the same time they have shared the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Some missionaries offer long-term assistance. One works in a ministry providing education and trauma therapy to children. In addition to teaching English, Arabic, math and other subjects, she helps children overcome hatred and suspicion and lays the foundation for them to love again.
Baptists have stood alongside evangelical believers in the Middle East as well. Though not large in number these courageous men and women have used resources provided in part by Southern Baptists to distribute food, water and other necessities for survival.
One observer said of these national Christians, “They continue to come and go at great risk to themselves and they are finding Syrians, both Christian background and Muslim background, desperate for the hope that they offer in the name of Jesus.”
Baptist concern follows migrants across Europe too. One missionary tells the story of a refugee in France who lived under an overpass. He couldn’t find work. He was often hungry and the filth of his surroundings caused sores across his body.
On the day he decided to drown himself in the sea, a Southern Baptist missionary crossed his path and handed him vouchers to buy food. The food gave him hope and he decided to keep on trying to make a life for himself.
An anonymous donation in a Baptist church halfway around the world helped save his life.
Some believe the current political upheaval presents an unprecedented opportunity to impact the world with the love of Christ. “I believe God is working through the events of our day to move these least-reached peoples into arm’s reach of the Church so that they can encounter Christ,” said one missions strategist.
Others agree, saying refugees are not only hungry in a physical sense but also in a spiritual sense. The Civil War in Syria “means many Syrian hearts are open to the good news,” the missions strategist added.
These efforts are possible only because Southern Baptists make them possible through regular missions giving through the Cooperative Program and special missions offerings. Cooperative giving by the Southern Baptist Convention’s nearly 43,000 churches makes it possible for missionaries to be in distant lands. When needs arise, they are already there.
Cooperative missions giving provides resources — physical and spiritual — for these missionaries to share in times of need.
Baptists are not only helping in the Middle East, they are helping in Central Asia, in the Far East and every other part of the globe. To paraphrase what was said of the British Empire more than a hundred years ago, “the sun never sets on Baptist work.”
Pastors of other denominations may not know about ways to help refugees. Southern Baptists do. Pastors of other denominations may not have built-in avenues for helping hurting people in other parts of the world. Southern Baptists do. Pastors of other denominations may not know how to pray for refugees and those ministering to them. Southern Baptists do.
Doing more together
Southern Baptists work through missionaries living among various people groups around the world. Southern Baptists partner with national Christians everywhere. Southern Baptists practice cooperative giving so together we can demonstrate the love of God we proclaim day in and day out. Obviously we can do more together than any part could do alone.
How many Southern Baptist pastors were in the sample group used by LifeWay Research in their study is unknown but every single Southern Baptist should have answered that they not only know about the needs of refugees, but that they are doing something about it every single day through cooperative giving.
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