refugees Archives - Nikole Hahn

Refugees: A Deadline Approaches

Did you know that tea is big in the Middle East? Deals are brokered around tea. Community is formed around tea. On Wednesday, I nearly emptied my china cabinet into three boxes and sent two sets of dishes and tea sets down to Phoenix for my friend’s ministry of helping refugees get acclimated in the United States through Desert Springs Community Church.

And they need YOUR help! Two families are coming in this month. Below is the link for what they still need. I will continue to include in my newsletters and social media future needs for missionary friends serving with refugees. With the United States being the third largest country in the world of unreached people groups, isn’t it time we started paying attention to what’s in our back yard? CNN stated that the United States will have 110,000 refugees by 2017.

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I kept a couple tea things for future ministry opportunities. One never knows when helping refugees or ministering to international students may come my way. These days, I take my tea in mugs and drink mostly coffee. In America, our deals are brokered at Starbucks and conversations and community happen around coffee houses. This gives us some common ground, doesn’t it?

God gives generously inspiring us to give. Most of us probably have things we don’t really use anymore that would bring a family joy who have come from nothing and have lost everything. This verse during my devotions felt appropriate:

Pursue the goal of peace along with everyone—and holiness as well, because no one will see the Lord without it. – Hebrews 12:14 CEB

Please pray for this family and this missionary’s refugee ministry. You can read more about it here. Attached is a PDF of all the refugee agencies around the United States. Pray about how you can reach a people group in your area.

How Can We Tell Better Stories?

My biggest stumbling block are anger-based or accusation-driven blog posts pointing fingers or treating people like they are crazy or fearful for wanting to protect their own neighbors, jobs, etc from a large influx of refugees or immigrants. Instead, we should be finding some kind of solution between closing the borders (isolating ourselves) or laying out a welcome mat. The refugees are here and, according to some of the numbers I have seen since becoming a WorldVenture missionary appointee, they have been coming here for some years now. So my question is: How can we tell better stories to persuade rather than treat insensitively any invalid or valid concerns?

The UN Refugee Agency posted this story about a Syrian Refugee:

Miraculously, the disabled boat washed up on the Greek island of Lesvos. Everyone survived, thanks to the swimmers. But now they had even lost the shoes on their feet. The sisters set off on the Western Balkan route for Germany where they hoped to be able to rebuild their lives. Yusra could not have guessed then that she would soon be preparing for another journey, under very different circumstances. The dream she has nurtured for more than a decade may soon come true. This summer, she hopes to travel to the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, as part of a team representing millions of refugees fleeing war and persecution throughout the world. (FROM HERE)

What struck me about the post was its non-political nature. It told a story. It didn’t point out who was doing it wrong or right. When I watched a video about the Syrian refugees from David Platt, the boy planted face down on the beach with the waters rushing around him made me want to cry. While, as writers, we need to be careful not to use story as manipulation, we also need to point out the reality of our situation to encourage those being called to GO and serve those needs.

So, as writers, let’s write better stories. Maybe God is calling you to Sports ministry?

David Platt and The Refugee Crisis

David Platt Challenges Us

Tony says, it’s because I am growing as a believer.

I am a different today than I was ten years ago. Different than the person who turned 30. My heart ached for the child laying face down in the wet sand with the ocean lapping around him. Syrians had a country. They had jobs. What started as a protest became a civil war. Don’t they deserve to know Jesus, too?

Sure, there are terrorists now being identified as hiding among them, but when, in the history of Christianity, was it ever safe to speak the name of Jesus? I agree with common sense security and we should clean up the red tape that exists for people wanting to come here legally. If you are called to serve the refugees, please look deeper into technology. Listen to the webinar by Mobile Ministry Forum here. Some are already in the United States. The harvest is in our backyard.

It’s a long video, but please, take the time to listen to David Platt. Feel free to share your thoughts, but remember to keep it discussional. I’m interested in solutions. The harvest is at hand.

Watch Here

The Bible Challenges Set Prejudices & Beliefs

Anne Lamott — ‘You can safely assume you’ve created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.’

I shared an image with this quote on Facebook one day. The responses were good–the kind of responses that bring about real change. In my heart, I absorbed its truth. It wasn’t until later that it hit me.

As I raise financial partners, learn about the peoples on the move, and serve on social media and in the local church, God is challenging my previously held beliefs and prejudices. Again, God isn’t always agreeing with me. I am a conservative politically and to my chagrine, I realized how being an American and my politics had become an idol and even an identity. From our divided and violent country where one person’s rights override anothers that made me re-think things.

Sunday found me reading Luke 5:28-30:

Levi got up, left everything behind, and followed him. Then Levi threw a great banquet for Jesus in his home. A large number of tax collectors and others sat down to eat with them. The Pharisees and their legal experts grumbled against his disciples. They said, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”

Matthew Henry’s Commentary had this to say,

It was a wonder of his grace that he would not only admit a converted publican into his family, but would keep company with unconverted publicans, that he might have an opportunity of doing their souls good; he justified himself in it, as agreeing with the great design of his coming into the world. Here is a wonder of grace indeed, that Christ undertakes to be the Physician of souls distempered by sin, and ready to die of the distemper (he is a Healer by office, Luke 5:31)– that he has a particular regard to the sick, to sinners as his patients, convinced awakened sinners, that see their need of the Physician—that he came to call sinners, the worst of sinners, to repentance, and to assure them of pardon, upon repentance, Luke 5:32. These are glad tidings of great joy indeed.

My husband told me about an interview on Focus on the Family (I saved it to listen to later). A former LGBT spoke about how they can tell when they are treated differently. People assume certain things about you politically if you choose to develop a friendship with an LGBT. I said online, “How can they know Jesus if we don’t show them through sincere friendship what He means to us?”

In Luke 5, Jesus sat and dined with sinners. It is important to note that not once did Jesus affirm a sinful life. He became the example. I don’t know a single believer who hasn’t sinned (and this includes myself). Love manifests itself in the service and love we give to others by living out our faith. A pastor once preached that both your head and heart must work together. Too much of one or the other is ineffective.

As I get deeper into mission history, God is challenging previously held prejudices and beliefs set by my American identity and political beliefs. A tribe in an area that I can’t recall from one of my readings talked about how religious teachers would be considered remiss if they didn’t share their religious views with a non-believing person. If a person is drowning, wouldn’t you want to throw them a life vest or jump in after them?

Links From The Webinar @EthneCity #missions #SocialMedia

Thank you for attending the webinar today. I will post a link to the video for review or to see it for the first time as soon as it posts. Meanwhile, here are the links where I get all my information. I encourage you to explore and learn more. Think outside the box in how you can use these resources to reach others. God is inviting you to serve in His kingdom.