Forced Displacement

A prayer of Lament to El Roi, the God who Sees.  Lord, surely you see  the fathers and mothers across Iran  who grieve for their children, the young who went out into the streets  to protest for a better future and never came home. Lord, you weep with families watching their loved ones torn from their communities, accused of crimes they did not commit. You weep with those who fled violence and persecution, now threatened with return to the places they escaped. Lord, you hear

Sudan. The scale of violence, particularly in the capital of North Darfur, El Fasher, has reached horrific levels. It's the world's worst humanitarian crisis and it brings me to these questions: God where are you in the midst of this suffering?

"What surprised me most was the individual stories of all the refugees...a lot of them have nowhere to go." I read this reflection from a twelfth grader, a few days ago after I had spoken in their class. This is what happens when we move from headlines to human beings. When we stop talking about refugees as a ‘crisis,’ and start talking about real people (parents, teenagers, children, grandparents) with homes, dreams, and communities. People who flee their homes because they

Last week, I had the privilege of speaking in a seventh grade class to talk about what it means to follow Jesus and build bridges like Jesus did. Together, we studied John 4:4-42: Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well. It’s one of those stories we can become so familiar with that we might miss just how radical and intentional Jesus was in his interactions with her.  The Barriers Jesus Crossed To set the scene, we imagined the dusty roads Jesus walked to get to

Who are Asylum Seekers? When someone first flees and applies for protection, they become an asylum seeker. They go through a process called Refugee Status Determination (RSD), which can be long and painful: Multiple interviews where they must retell traumatic experiences Sometimes conducted in a language they don’t fully speak, without good interpretation Proving a “well-founded fear of persecution,” often without documents Waiting months or even years for a decision Labels l

"no one leaves home unless  home is the mouth of a shark  you only run for the border  when you see the whole city running as well"  An...

Imagine waking up tomorrow and realizing you can’t stay in your home–not because you want to move, but because your life depends on leaving. Maybe there’s a war, armed police knocking on your door, a flood has swept through your town unexpectedly, or a drought has destroyed your crops. Whatever the cause, the decision to leave all that you've ever known is not truly a choice–you're forced to leave.

Stories of migration are deeply woven into the Bible . Most notably in the Old Testament is the story of Abram, later renamed Abraham,...