July 12 1999

ARTICLE TOOLS

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The media this year have given tremendous coverage to the plight of Kosovar refugees—and a big boost to the work of resettlement agencies. The agencies' work, once made difficult by apathy, is now complicated by a tidal wave of public sympathy. Richard Parkins of the Episcopal Migration Ministries claims that "there will not be a sufficient number of refugees for all of the groups that want to be involved in resettlement," according to a May 26 story in the New York Times.

How times have changed. With previous waves of refugees, relief agencies needed to beat the bushes to round up resettlement help. "I can't believe it," World Relief's Teri Jacobs, editor of the agency's soon-to-be-launched magazine, exclaimed to Christianity Today. "They're calling us!" Jacobs credits the interest to U.S. military involvement in the region and to media attention to the plight of Kosovars. Jacobs notes this is the first time the agency, and many others as well, have been involved in resettling people while an exodus was still going on (see "Coming to a Neighborhood Near You," p. 51).

Sponsoring a refugee family is no easy task. It is much more than writing a check, even a large check. Resettled refugees need more than money: they need orientation to a new culture; they need networks of new friends to replace the relationships from which they have been ripped by the hand of crisis. Above all, they need to regain the ability to trust.

It is here that churches have a special role to play. Churches (ideally) are not networks built on social or political affinities, but on a world-view that welcomes every person as a child of God. Hence, congregations can offer the strangers within their gates relationships with professionals and day laborers, ...