My heart has been so torn with this current refugee crisis. The sheer magnitude of the situation is overwhelming and as I look at this crisis more struggles keep coming up. I want to clarify that I believe every person is made in the image of God, that every person has a right to life.
This is why some of my concerns about the refugees have come up especially as my nation (Canada) is fast track placing 25,000 Syrian refugees.
What about the other refugees?
We all saw the picture of 3 year old Aylan and it broke our heart. Aylan is or rather was ONE of more than 19.5 million refugeesworldwide. Another way of looking at this that "every day last year an average 42,500 people became refugees, asylum seekers, or internally displaced." UNHCRThere is more non Syrian refugees than there are Syrian refugees, yet all we hear about in the news is the plight of the Syrian refugee (which is more than awful). In sub-Saharan Africa there are over 3.7 million refugees and 2.59 million from Afghanistan. Are these people not as important or news worthy?
Why are we flinging open our doors to Syrians and not the rest of the refugees? Why are we favouring one kind over the other? Yes, our nations take in refugees but with the Syrian crisis, Syrian refugees are by passing the systems we have in place to hurry their arrival.
Refugees from Somalia for instance do not have that option to fast track to our nation; they have to go through the normal process. I am struggling with how is this fair to the refugees who have been waiting months or years to come to our country and are being put on hold while we deal with the Syrian crisis.
What about the homeless and starving orphans?
I struggle as I look at the orphans of the world. Why aren't we letting them in when we have many families who are willing to adopt them? Families that have paid to adopt these children, people like my friend who has legally adopted a child from Africa. It is now been two years of waiting for her child to come home.
The government of Canada needs to step up and advocate for these adopted children in Africa, so that this African nation will release the right paperwork for their children to be able to leave Africa and finally come home. My friend is heartbroken as she can only see her child via Skype; she can't kiss them, or tuck them into bed at night, even though they are legally theirs.
This is one of many families who aren't allowed to be together. My struggle is why isn't the government opening the doors to these families? These children have a legal right to be here but aren't being allowed.
Only so much money we can spend
The truth is we only have so many dollars personally and from our government to give to the crisis; so we should use it wisely. Franklin Graham CEO of Samaritans purse who has worked 40 plus years with refugees explained that most refugees want to go home once the crisis is over and that we should make safe zones to protect the refugees in and gives them a way to life in peace until this war is over.
Would our money be better spent keeping the Syrian refugees in safe zones in their home country or near their home country? What if instead of sponsoring 25000 to come here we could support 4 times as many by keeping them there. Wouldn't it be better to help more refugees? I know that I want to help as many people as possible.
Our opportunity
Let us find beauty amongst the ashes of this awful situation. The Church is called to love our neighbour as our self and we can't turn a blind eye to Syrian refugees or any refugees as the in Matthew chapter 25 verse 40 tells us that what we do onto the least of these we did unto Jesus.
The church and Christians have the opportunity to rise up and present and be the gospel to our new refugee neighbours. I believe churches and Christian individuals are called to should sponsor the refugees that are arriving or apply for new ones (not just Syrian ones). We are to proclaim the truth of the gospel to them, we are to love them and help them find their way in a new country. How amazing will it be when some of these refugees witness our kindness and the love we have for them because Jesus first loved us?
We are also called to give, so I encourage you give to Samaritans Purse who is on the ground helping the refugees. We need to try and help the refugees that God is bringing here as well as the one we will never see. Let us not only give but I challenge you to give sacrificially. Go without in some area so that other may have some, that some may here about our great God.
And finally please pray! Pray for all refugees in the world, as they need to know that there is a loving saviour. Pray and seek the Lord on how you are to respond to the world's refugee crisis, not just Syria's.
Genevieve Wilson is a happily married stay at home, home-schooling mum of 3, whose passion is to see people come to know Jesus. She worked 8 years as a missionary with Youth with a Mission (YWAM). She has a heart for justice.
Genevieve Wilson's previous articles may be viewed at http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/genevieve-wilson.html