A Crisis Compounded

Communities on the ground, caring for refugees in Jesus' name, are suddenly reeling

World Relief Chicagoland’s new legal clinic marks a hopeful beginning for people looking to restart their lives. Photo credit: World Relief Chicagoland

Our asylum laws, as well as our collective desire and energy to support refugees fleeing violence and harm, did not grow out of some wispy ethereal ideal but out of the sheer terror of the Holocaust and a World War, as they shattered what we thought we understood about basic human decency and morality. Yet the violence and the terror rumbles on. The need to support the most desperate has not abated. Jesus always moves toward the suffering.

Unfortunately, our immediate freeze on U.S. grants and funding has inflicted immediate chaos. Last night, I received word from my colleague and friend Ruth Padilla DeBorst that their work in Costa Rica (Casa Adobe and Casa Esperanza) providing shelter and food to fleeing asylum seekers (children and elderly and families in their care) will have to shut down immediately.

Then, World Relief, who for decades has consistently stepped into global crises in Jesus' name, is reeling, with the Refugee Resettlement Program abruptly suspended (and here’s their response to the current moment). Vulnerable and destitute families who are escaping great suffering are now at risk of being plunged back into even more suffering.

And there's hundreds of questions about other programs, other places of suffering, many of them right here at home.

It's incumbent on those with power, even as they attempt to repair things that are broken, to not break more things, and certainly not to break more people.

I'm asking our government to restore funding to life-sustaining humanitarian missions. And if you'd like to help, please follow the links above. Or help in the places where you belong, alongside the people you know and trust.

Edit: moments after hitting send, news hit that as a result of mass backlash and confusion, the President rescinded the freeze on funds. This is good news, and I’m grateful. How we got to this point baffles me, but I’m hoping this will signal more deliberation and a compassionate posture moving forward.