Today my mind goes back to the first time I connected with refugees. I was visiting some fellow International Team Missionaries in Straubing, Germany and was getting ready to host a short-term team along side them.
What I remember so vividly to this day is how passionate and how 'doing life' alongside refugees was so 'natural'. I have SO many memories from my time there.
(Thank you Gord, Sharon, Sarah, Richard)
As the years passed and I travelled more around the world connecting with various long term teams ministering alongside and to refugees, the term 'Refugee Highway' surfaced.
It made SO much sense.
The essence ... People move. You can draw lines around the globe from where people are displaced or fleeing from persecution, violence, war, etc and see where they go - from this location to this location to this location. It's a fluid 'highway'. Locations change.
The Dream... Wouldn't it be amazing to have people who love Jesus at all the 'off ramps' and along the 'highway'?
I love that dream ... and still do.
I've been in Rwanda for 14 years now and have worked alongside the International Teams ministry in the Kiziba Refugee Camp for that entire length of time. We are well aware that we are their first 'off ramp' location.
How do we live Jesus to each and every one that crosses our path that they want to know and seek Him as the Way, the Truth and the Life?
Today, IAFR - International Association for Refugees - offered a map to help explain the essence and the dream . The dream lives on in and through many people around the globe.
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| You can do to download your own map at the IAFR Toolbox |
The following is a snippet from the the March 2018 UNHCR - United Nations High Commission for Refugees - Operational Report for Rwanda.
You can check out the whole thing here if you're interested in details and what is happening on the ground with refugees in Rwanda.
People are moving on the 'highway' EVERY. SINGLE. DAY
For all kinds of reasons that most of us who live in the west have no idea about.
Don't turn off the TV or turn a blind eye when you see or hear about people... made in the image of God, who are fleeing for their life.
Try to put yourself in their shoes and seek to understand and then seek God what your response might be.
We are now witnessing the highest levels of displacement on record.
An unprecedented 68.5 million people around the world have been forced from home.
Among them are nearly 25.4 million refugees, over half of whom are under the age of 18.
There are also an estimated 19 million stateless people who have been denied a nationality and access to basic rights such as education, healthcare, employment and freedom of movement.
In a world where nearly 1 person is forcibly displaced every two seconds as a result of conflict or persecution...
