A Monumental Day…and much more to ask!

For any of you who have been praying along with us through this whole journey with World Relief Durham, you know that there have been definite challenges, but we have also seen God show His faithfulness in incredible ways. Tomorrow is a huge answer to a prayer that many times seemed that it would never be answered.  Tomorrow, World Relief Durham will become a full-fledged affiliate in the World Relief Network.  For the first 3+ years we received wonderful support and empowerment from the WR High Point office, which founded our office.  We are very thankful for High Point’s support,  and the accomplishment of becoming a separate affiliate is a tremendous success and allows us to reach to new heights of the work God has given us.

Over the past year and a half that we have been a part of this work in Durham, it has been incredible to see God bring together a world class team of people whose hearts are passionate about both serving the most vulnerable and empowering local churches and communities to serve these people.  We have witnessed God doing miracles on a daily basis.  It is such an honor to work along each person on this team.

An equally wonderful privilege is to see how God is at work through His Church in the Triangle area to welcome and love the “strangers” who are coming to our area.  While we have seen God mobilize the church in phenomenal ways we know that we are just at the beginning of how the church is beginning to step up to show His love to the vulnerable in our community, whether refugee, immigrant or victim of human trafficking (HT).

Now as we begin the next chapter of this work He has given us, we are taking huge strides in faith.  Our direction is clear and there is much work to be done.  We cannot do any of it apart from our Father performing great miracles along each step of the way.

Please pray with us that in the coming days and weeks ahead, God will work miraculously in our receiving of grants that have been applied for (so we will have the infrastructure to do these new steps of work before us), in great new steps to empower the Church to new levels of engagement and support among the refugees, immigrants and HT survivors we are working with.  Above all, pray for His glory through all of it.

Thank you!

 

Big Thanks, Big Requests

It is so awesome to see with new eyes the awesome things that God is doing in the ministry of World Relief and the churches we are privileged to empower.  I want to start this update off with a big praise to God for the success of our first Job Skills Workshop over this past weekend.  40 refugees attended, with over 20 volunteers investing into them on Saturday afternoon.  Several of the volunteers participated for the first time, and are excited to have more regular involvement.  We are so thankful for the hundreds of volunteer hours that were given to make this event a big success.  Now we’re praying for many job opportunities as a result of the training that took place!

God is doing tremendous things in many other areas, and we have some very specific prayer needs to ask you to faithfully lift up to our Father:

• Pray for continued growth in church involvement, both in numbers of churches involved, and the scope of involvement that each church engages in.  Specifically, we are planning to have a conference toward the end of April, called “A Biblical Perspective on Immigrants,” and would really appreciate your prayers for a strong host church, and very strong promotion of this important event among the churches in the RDU area.
• I mentioned before that we recently applied for a large grant in order for our office to be able to provide comprehensive employment services to our refugees.  We anticipate hearing back about this by the first week of February.  Please pray that we will receive this grant in full.
• Anti-Human Trafficking work.  Our office is on the verge of beginning this work.  In such a spiritually dark area, much prayer is needed.  We are also seeking several grants over the next couple of weeks that are very important for us to be able to establish a strong infrastructure for this new program.  Please pray for God to open doors for this transformative work to begin.
• Important meetings: Over the next several days I will be having several very important meetings with individuals who could be very instrumental in helping the larger Christian community in our area become aware of our work as well as opportunities to strategically partner.  Please pray for many new bridges to be formed and many new partnerships to result.
• Finally, please pray for a refugee family that we resettled in December.  Because of some specific needs they have, it is in their best interest to move to a different part of the city.  But they are currently in a lease agreement with their current apartment.  Please pray for someone to take over this lease so this refugee family can relocate to a more appropriate area of town.

Well, that is a long list of requests, but each of these is very important and we are so thankful for your faithful partnership through prayer!

 

This is real life

But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.  More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being confirmed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Philippians 3.7-11

Do I really treasure Jesus in any form close to what He has designed me to…considering that there is value surpassing anything else in knowing Christ Jesus my Lord?  Do I slow down from the million things on my to-do list (good, just and godly responsibilities I have) and savor Him in the midst of the rat race of any given day?  I’m learning that I don’t nearly enough.

When I do, not only does He become my joy through that day, but He carries me through every part – whether routine, highly complicated or joyful tasks.  He colors how I see every person, every circumstance.  Even more than that, I begin to realize that He is whispering in the nuances of every circumstance, conversation and even thoughts that I have.  He is drawing me closer to Him, inviting me to enjoy Him and release my stresses into His care.  And then, even in the midst of that busyness, somehow He brings His glory into the midst of it and He becomes my inexpressible joy through it.

I want this to be every day…not just the once in a while that it seems to be.

In this context, I’m also reminded of our Father’s heart for the Nations – that He is drawing all peoples to Himself and offering them life, hope and peace far outweighing anything that anything or anybody in this world can give them.  He is offering to awaken each one to their full reason for being created.  And so He will be glorified by every nation, tribe and tongue.

Then I remember this work that He has given each of us in His Body to do…whether it is among other peoples or our own people.  They are right here among us – every day in all of our activities.

Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. – 2 Corinthians 5.20

God has placed us in the exact places and among the exact people where He intends us not only to let His love live out, but for us to invest deeply into those we are around.  To care deeply and love them.  To let the light of the gospel shine through us, and to obediently speak of His love with those we interact with every day.  We are ambassadors for Christ.  God’s Spirit wants and intends to live through us and speak through us His invitation and pleading to a dead world to be reconciled to Him, and be brought to life.

This is the most authentic and humble life, realizing that we deserve nothing, but God has made us His children co-heirs with Jesus.  What greater, more humbling joy can there be?  This is what life is, friends…and if we are really realizing it and living in its reality – it is contagious!

May it be true in my life more each day, and in yours too.

 

Quick Prayer Update

Thanks to each of you who has been praying for us as we continue our daily work among the refugees and other vulnerable peoples in the RDU area.

We have several updates on our last round of prayer requests:

1. God has been doing some really great things among our staff and we’re excited about the growing team and sense of unity among all of us.  Please continue to lift this up to Him.
2. With many refugees urgently needing jobs, as well as our constant efforts to engage new people from the church and local community, we are hosting several events designed both to provide practical help for our refugees while also engaging many community members.  We are praying for a very big turnout of seasoned as well as new volunteers to participate in both of these events.  Here are the links for each event: Job workshop (http://wp.me/p1KluO-35) Picture Day: (http://wp.me/p1KluO-39)
3. Several of our refugees enrolled in a special employment program have decided to move and abandon the program.  This puts our office in a very precarious position in making up funds spent on these refugees, since they did not complete the program.  Please pray that God will work out a miraculous solution to this situation.
4. We are expecting to hear back on the results of a grant application we submitted a couple of months ago, and are also submitting a new application next week.  Please pray for us to receive both of these grants.
5. Finally, I met this week with a key church partner and we are working on many new opportunities for both giving vision to new churches who have not yet been engaged with refugees, as well as identifying new areas of ministry in which they can participate.   Thanks for praying for God to open many new relationships.

Thanks so much for your prayers for all these items.  Finally, please pray for strength and endurance in all of this work.  While many parts are very exciting, it is also very intense, and we appreciate your prayers and encouragement.

 

The Work Continues

Merry Christmas everyone.  We hope you are captivated in a fresh way by the wonderful mystery of God becoming man and the special celebration we have in this season.  Praise God for His great love.

We want to thank you for your prayers in the past couple of weeks.  We have seen several answers to the requests we shared in the last post.  One of the biggest is that World Relief learned from the proper government authorities what was required for us to be considered the full category of office, and has fulfilled those requirements.  So we are now in the final stages of transitioning the office status.  Praise God!

There are a couple of quick requests we’d like to share with you:

• Most of the refugees who are being resettled have church partners who are assisting them.  Please pray that especially through this season they will see, perhaps for the first time, how great God’s love for them is.
• Please pray for strengthening and growing unity among the staff within our office, as we’ve had some changes among staff in the past several weeks and a couple of additional changes upcoming.
• We are very thankful for the volunteers who work with our refugees, but an essential part of their involvement that the big majority of them forget is the filling out of their volunteer logs.  While we have had all of the volunteer involvement we need and more, our funding requires us to receive volunteer logs from each volunteer, documenting their time spent with refugees.  Because we have received so few logs back from our volunteers, we currently owe a considerable amount of money back to one of the grant programs we participate in.  We do still have several more months to get all of these logs in, so we are communicating the urgency to the volunteers.  But please pray that they will follow through and submit their logs.
• A final prayer request is that the many churches who partner with us in so many wonderful ways will also recognize the opportunities to invest into our work through regular financial partnership.  Not only does this bless our refugees through continually strengthened service, but it blesses the churches involved.

Thanks so much for your prayers for us and your encouragement.  It means a lot…

And Merry Christmas!

 

God is doing amazing things!

We have been in touch with many of you by other means, but for those who only keep up through our blog, we’re sorry for such an unbelievably long time since our last real update.

We are thrilled to share with you a long list of amazing praise reports from our ministry with World Relief Durham, for which we are thanking God.  Each one of these has a prayer request connected to it as well…

1) We are praising God for a very strong close of the past year of partnership with churches as we serve the most vulnerable here in the Triangle, even in spite of considerable setbacks that were experienced during the year, through refugee arrivals being frozen and considerably reduced due to complicated security screening changes.

The prayer request for this is that these new security screenings will be modified so they both accomplish their intended purpose, but do not create backlogs of refugees who are unfairly delayed or denied travel clearance

2) We are praising God that our office in Durham has been approved by our Home Office to become a full-fledged affiliate in the World Relief network.  This new status is to be implemented some time in January.

Please pray that there will be no delays in our important transition.

3) God has opened a door for World Relief Durham to become directly involved in Anti Human Trafficking (AHT) work.  We are very excited to jump into this important by very serious area of seeking justice for this vulnerable group.  There is a lot to learn, and many important relationships to be formed quickly.

Please pray on several fronts here: the AHT work is very dark, as it deals with modern-day slavery in its most depraved forms.  Please also pray for us as we seek to build networks of relationships to span multiple areas of need for those we are serving and helping to begin rebuilding life.

4) We are on the threshold of beginning some new work with a broader scope of immigrants in the Triangle.  Part of this is working together with church partners in the area to help the Church across our area to gain or be strengthened in a biblical perspective on God’s heart for the nations and ministry to immigrants, regardless of their status in our country.

While Scripture is clear, this is a divisive issue as political viewpoints tend to influence our perspectives on such issues, even more than we allow the Scripture to.  Pray for strong relationships with partnering churches, as well as many new doors for ministry to be opened.

Believe it or not, there is even more exciting news to share, and need for prayer, but I think I’ll stop this update here so we don’t lose your attention.  Thank you so much for your prayer.  You can get regular (usually daily) updates on the ministry of World Relief Durham both on our facebook page as well as on our blog.  And our newly revised website has a wealth of information and opportunities for getting involved as well.

 

Answers to the Pain of Human Trafficking

Human Trafficking (HT) is an evil of the greatest extreme, and currently the fight against it is not only growing but has become quite popular, with many recognizable personalities speaking out against it.  The approaches to dealing with it are varied, both in care for the survivors and in seeking out the perpetrators and buyers of it.  But with Human Trafficking being the fastest growing crime in the United States, and tied for the second largest crime category, we must ask another question:  What is the source from which this is coming, and equally, how is this stymied or stopped altogether?

My role in this fight is new, but quickly growing and I am both sickened by what is happening and all the gruesome details I learn, but am also compelled to lead this fight against such exploitation, abuse and injustice.  I was invited to participate in the screening of a new documentary, Sex + Money, a couple of weeks ago at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), and afterward to participate in a panel of experts to answer questions from the audience.  In the days since that event, I have grappled with one primary memory from that evening: the faces of the bewildered students as, in shock, they asked questions for nearly 45 minutes.  The majority of the questions were not regarding survivor care (although that is very important and we at World Relief are actively involved in this aspect of the Anti-Human Trafficking (AHT) battle).  The questions grappled with how such evil can flow from individuals, and if I were to consolidate the major theme of the questions into one inclusive question, it would be: Where is this coming from and how do we cut it off at the source?

That night, the others on the panel included two FBI agents, along with the Director of the UNC Center for Women’s Studies.  While we all greatly value to work of those in the FBI to capture perpetrators of crime and rescue those who are victims, these panel members had nothing to offer the group in answer to these deeper questions.  Similarly, while the other panel member’s knowledge of the HT problem was impressive, to say the least, the best she could offer toward eradicating this terrible evil was motivating policy makers to enact more aggressive punitive measures.  As one who deals first hand with those who have been sold, used, tortured and ruined, it is quite obvious that much more is needed than a reactive, retributive policy.  While well intentioned, all of this rings hollow in the context of such a vast problem.

The sources of the HT problem are many and include greed, exploitation, lack of valuing life, uncontrolled pursuit of sexual pleasure (which becomes perverted), and finally the perpetual pursuit of more and deeper forms of the practices that are included in HT, particularly sex trafficking.  While the perpetrators and buyers of this crime must be punished, how could we ever think that it will be controlled, reduced or stopped simply by supplying strong retribution to those who constitute its source?  The motivating factors mentioned earlier are deep wells within the hearts of individuals, to which they run to find meaning, significance, power and purpose.  To put this in very simple terms in which we must now deal with this problem: the root causes are sin in the heart and the misguided pursuit of purpose and pleasure.

The answer to these great evils is the same answer that I and many others have found to the raging passions of our own hearts.  You see, at the level of the heart, no one person is better than another.  Given the right set of circumstances and desires, each one of us would fall to one of the evils we have been discussing here.  But the great news of hope and restoration is that we can be delivered from the slavery within our own hearts to sin – the raging passions and greed within us that, apart from salvation, rule and kill us.  And here is how that works.

Because of the sin in our hearts, we were each born into condemnation from God who created us.  But because of His great love for us, He provided a way of salvation to us.  Through placing on Jesus, His own Son, the fullness of His wrath against sin, and Jesus’ resurrection from the dead three days later, God made possible for each of us the freedom both from the condemnation into which we were born, and from the raging passions that naturally rule over us and lead us into the most horrible of thoughts and actions.

But to any who receive this free gift from God and yield their lives entirely to Him and His leading, not only is forgiveness and restoration of relationship with their Creator provided, but their hearts and eyes are opened to what they truly have been craving their whole life: peace, belonging, purpose and direction.  None of these are based upon what any of us do: it is a gift that can neither be earned or taken away.

The problem of Human Trafficking mutilates the souls of all involved – whether victims, exploiters…or buyers, making them less than human.  To offer education and retribution as the only remedy for so great a tyranny is to minimize both the worth of the people who are caught in this evil as well as the pain that has been the reality of their existence.  While there is value in other answers, the only true remedy for those who perpetrate such horrific crimes, as well as those who are made victims of them, is the deliverance and change of heart that is only possible through forgiveness and restoration with God through Jesus Christ.  Nothing else can withstand the weight of this evil.

Think of the powerful hunger for pleasure that would drive a person to purchase another human being, to that person’s harm, for a few moments of fleeting pleasure.  Think of the thirst for money and power that would drive a person to be a slave driver over the minds and bodies of women and children, and to abuse them worse than they would abuse an animal – for the sake of the money they would receive in exchange.  These are powerful, though depraved, choices being made.  They are fueled by an even more potent state of heart, causing individuals to willingly carry out these activities.  But for millennia, the most corrupt of us who has met and surrendered to Jesus Christ has been remade and given hope that transforms us from the inside out.

In conclusion, both the victims and exploiters in the area of human trafficking can find freedom and restoration.  The change comes first, not from stopping activities, but from changing who is in control of the individual’s heart.  Those who embrace this deliverance can say this to God with confidence and peace:

* In Christ, there is nothing I could do to make You love me more; nothing I have done that makes You love me less.

* You are all I need today for everlasting joy.

* As You have been to me, so I will be to others.

* As I pray, I’ll measure Your compassion by the cross and Your power by the resurrection.1

 

The result of such a peace and state of heart is the opposite of exploitation.  Rather, the seeking of good and the uplifting of others who have been torn down.  This is the only true and sustaining source for empowering positive transformation in our world.

 

1 “Gospel Prayer” taken from Gospel by J.D. Greear.  © 2011 B & H Publishing Group

 

A long overdue update

We’re sorry for the length of time since our last update.  As you know, last month was a very busy month with 39 people arriving in the space of less than 2 weeks.  We praise God for raising up an army of dozens of people who have begun relationships with nearly all of our new refugees, as well as helped with donating furniture, setting up apartments and taking the new arrivals to important appointments within their first week here.  Especially in light of the holiday break, we praise God for how well everything went.

There are also many other exciting developments.  We are currently talking with several partners about some very exciting possibilities for connecting churches to specific mobilizers to get a whole new level of work going among these refugees.  It’s best not to get into all of the details until things have actually started, but please be praying for God’s Spirit to bring unity among all who will have an important meeting at the end of this month, and for many to get involved, resulting in increased assistance in helping these newcomers learn to navigate life here –  a strategic living out and sharing of the gospel to them.

We’ve recently heard from several church partners who tell us of a group of Bhutanese who have recently become believers and will soon be baptized.  Praise God for this.  Please also pray for our Sudanese friends.  We spent several hours with them last night and they are doing very well.  We are asking God to bring them to a place of being ready to hear the Gospel.

It’s been truly overwhelming to see all the many ways that God has been moving – both in new connections with those who want to be involved in this work, as well as in the hearts of the people who have come.  Thank you for your continued prayer!

 

Praise God!

The past week has been quite overwhelming – in a very good way.  All week long we saw God’s Spirit moving in His Church and drawing dozens and dozens of people to serve this influx of refugees who are coming into the Triangle area this month.

God has raised up teams to befriend and help these new refugee families as they begin life here, beginning with greeting them at the airport.  Many more have given time to help set up their apartments prior to their arrival.  Still more have offered more furniture than we were able to pick up last week.

Part of what makes this so exciting is that a majority of those who have gotten involved have never heard of World Relief or the opportunity to bless refugees through working with us prior to the past couple of weeks.  But when they heard, the quickly jumped on board with the wonderful work God is doing among these peoples.

So we praise God for all He has done so far, and for the much more that is still to come.

Thank you for your prayers for us and your involvement in the ways to be involved that God gives you.  And most of all, thank you for praying for the working of God’s Spirit in the hearts of these people who are arriving, for the beginning and deepening of friendships with the teams and small groups helping each family, and for God’s glory among all peoples!

 

Here we go…

Well, thanks for your prayers as God has been at work in amazing ways, and as He continues to do so through each day of this adventure!  It is so exciting to see God glorifying Himself as dozens of individuals from various churches in the area, as well as small groups step up – all looking for their opportunity to be involved in blessing these refugees who are arriving this week and next.  The first family of the week (Bhutanese) arrives in about 90 minutes.  Then tomorrow we will welcome a family of 6 (Somali).  The next morning, an Iraqi family of 3 arrives, and the following afternoon we welcome 14 Burmese people (2 families).  Praise God, each of these families has a team from a church or group of churches partnered to walk with them in their new journey here.  God is glorifying Himself among the Nations – and it is so cool to get to watch!

Please pray for all that is involved this week and in the coming weeks.  There is a lot that has to be done with each family.  Pray, in particular, that the ethnic communities who are already here will help these latest newcomers, especially in this Christmas season!

Praise God!  It’s exciting to see God at work and join Him in it!