World Refugee Day: Remembering the World’s Most Vulnerable People

By Pauline J. Chang

World Relief, the Christian humanitarian agency that provides aid to refugees and victims of poverty worldwide, called on churches and media to focus their attention on the millions of people living as refugees inside and outside their home-country’s border during World Refugee Day, June 20.

According to the WR, many types of churches have already been participating in ministering to the refugees. Of them, one congregation in California and another in Illinois stood out for their unending dedication to the needy.

“Joy Christian Fellowship (JCF) in greater Los Angeles is filled with refugees from countries like Vietnam, Sudan, Indonesia, Burma and Iran, many of whom have suffered greatly as a result of their faith. One attendee, Martin, a young refugee, was jailed and tortured in Sudan because he refused to convert to Islam,” WR wrote in a news release.

Members of Hillside Free Methodist in Evanston, Ill., call themselves the "AntChurch," because they lift 10 times their weight. This 100-member church has helped resettle more than 120 refugees from places like Africa, Kosovo, Bosnia and Iraq,” the news release continued.

According to WR, hundreds of churches similar to those listed have worked alongside World Relief to help approximately 3,200 refugees begin new lives. The U.S. World Relief has resettled nearly 190,00 refugees since 1979, but the number of refugees around the world is still at 20.1 million.

This year, the theme of World Refugee Day is “A Place to Call Home: Rebuilding Lives in Safety and Dignity." Millions around the world are expected to focus on the search for, and implementation of durable solutions for refugees on that day. World Refugee Day was first internationally celebrated in 2001,

For more information about World Relief, please visit: www.worldrelief.org

For more information about World Refugee Day, please visit: http://www.unhcr.ch/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/events

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