How Christians can solve the refugee crisis

“Sometimes I want to ask God why He allows poverty, famine and injustice in the world when He could do something about it, but I’m afraid He might just ask me the same question.” -Dr. E. Dewey Smith

Over 7 million Venezuelans—roughly a quarter of the entire country’s population—have fled their homeland. The US has taken thousands of them, and has struggled to keep up with the massive influx of humans entering our borders. After working with Venezuelan refugees for several months now, I have a different perspective on the entire situation.

And by “the situation,” I mean, “what the Bible means when it says to take care of the foreigners living among you, as well as how trying to help can often be more hurtful if you do it wrong.”

There are over 30 passages in the Old and New Testaments instructing the people of God to take care of the foreigner living among us. The imperative is always based on the fact that “you were foreigners in Egypt, so you know how it feels to be mistreated in a foreign land.” And of course, Jesus Himself was a refugee as a baby, fleeing an unjust government.

The problem with most Americans is that we were never mistreated in a foreign land so no, we don’t know how it feels. And we think that we indeed have rights to say who does and doesn’t get to live among us, as if most of our ancestors weren’t foreigners here at some point too.

I’ve seen these folks who have fled their home country, their home continent, and their own language to arrive safely here; most of them doing it for the sake of their children. Yes, there are the handful of bad apples who we had to kick out of the program, but we are dealing with human beings. And percentage-wise, it seems similar to the number of bad apples who happened to be born here in the US.

In other words, they didn’t bring sin and corruption with them…it was already here.

Anyway.

On many occasions, well-meaning church groups showed up to the shelter to dish out free meals and snacks to the immigrants. And we had to chase them off the property, so they could hand out their wares across the street and all the immigrants went over to them.

The problem with this was, the government had already paid to provide each one of them 3 meals a day. And when the churches—who did no homework to find out what would actually be the most helpful—came and unloaded their pickup truck full of hotdogs, we would have to throw away hundreds of perfectly good meals.

The issue with this sort of ‘ministry’ is manyfold. For one, it meets a need that doesn’t exist. The immigrants didn’t need food. But two, and perhaps more importantly, it allows these groups to feel like good people because they pooled some money, delivered some goods, and can clap themselves on the back, saying they helped the refugees living among them, without actually getting to know any of the people they’re ‘serving.’ No long-term relationships, no humanization or getting to know the people they’re serving; just throwing some money at a problem, showing up for an hour, and heading home.

Of course, there are times food is needed. The governments of many countries do not provide for the poor and needy among them, we are just blessed enough to live under one that does. In this case, the machine that is the State is meeting a certain need for these people (food and shelter), so the Christians living nearby should ask the question, “What, then, do these families NEED?”

And that’s where my idea comes into play. Instead of trying to serve the most people at once, what if a church ‘adopted’ one of these families for a few months, until they got on their feet?

The problem with adopting a family means that you may actually have to show up for them more than once. It means you, as a church body, may have to give them rides or sit with them for an hour in the DMV, or take them to a job interview, or help them get registered for health insurance. It means time more than money.

It means—like the term ‘adoption’ suggests—that these foreigners become a part of your family.

Families take time and care and relationship. Showing up with a trailer full of Lunchables is far easier than caring for a 5-person family for a few months.

I haven’t done the exact math, but I figure that if every church in Colorado adopted one migrant family, the issue wouldn’t exist. In every church is bound to be someone who can pay cash for some construction work, a family with a spare bedroom, and someone with spare time to lend some rides. (These people have been packed into a single hotel room, often sharing with another family…meaning as many as 10 people are crammed into a single hotel room. So even a single room in a home is an upgrade).

Isn’t this what the church is? It’s a group of people who can come together to heal the world. I don’t think any one person can solve this issue. But perhaps, by coming together as church communities caring for the neediest among us, we can solve a lot of these issues.

The State is a machine that does a lot of good (sometimes). But the Church is the beating heart that the machine can never offer. It’s the family that can never be bureaucratically arranged. The State covers quantity over quality, and the Church has the opportunity to cover quality over quantity.

Solving this issue should be a bipartisan effort: Conservatives will be happy that fewer of their hard-earned tax dollars are paying for sheltering and feeding these immigrants, and they will instead get to work and support themselves. And Liberals will be happy that we are helping these poor and needy folks who fled to our country, escaping an unjust government and in need of a leg up. 

And all Christians should be happy that we get to meet and develop relationships with ‘the least of these,’ those who represent Christ Himself.

I’m looking into how to arrange this system that could connect willing churches with families in need. If your church is willing and able to do more than drop off pizzas at a shelter, but wants to ‘adopt’ a family until they’re on their feet, please put your email into this form to stay updated, or email me at ethan@ethanrenoe.com so I can gauge interest and hopefully establish a system to connect the two parties.

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