World Refugee Day

In 2015, you might have seen a particularly moving picture of a boy named Alan. I know I did, and it started me on a journey of understanding the Refugee crisis today (at least more than I knew before). Alan died making the dangerous sea voyage out of Syria, like so many others. Having a three-month-old daughter myself, I was devastated. I posted my grief on social media, and was suddenly (and violently, it felt) attacked by people in my life who professed Christianity. People I had known for years. Apparently, I’d fallen into politics by accident. Here is what I wrote (with other links) after that time.

in 2017, I was invited to speak at a friend’s English as a second language class, made up of refugees in Indianapolis. I learned more than I taught. And then my friend who worked in refugee resettlement lost her job when the Trump administration effectively dismantled the system. Here is a video interview I did with her.

I had an honest friend who asked me recently: “I see you post pro-refugee things on social media—I don’t understand—are you against having borders? Do you think we should just let everyone in?” Her question shocked me, because to me it was two completely different conversations—or like ten completely different conversations. I do have thoughts about the border. I do have thoughts about immigration—legal and illegal-especially as a missionary who has had to deal with many of these issues herself. But this was a conversation about refugees in America: a specific program with specific qualifications and specific processes- which didn’t have anything to do with our border. Once our conversation progressed, she said, “Oh! Well that makes more sense to me. I think a lot of people don’t realize the differences.”

Which made me go “hummmmmm” and want to write something.