So what’s this refugee thing really all about? To find out the answer to that question, a group of us travelled to Clarkston, Georgia to see and hear first hand about this “refugee crisis” from several different perspectives. The first was from Global Frontier Missions, a missionary training organization tucked away in a nondescript basement of one of the many apartment complexes tightly packed into this community. After a brief tour of the facility, we sat down and talked about the history and mission of GFM.
The more we talked, the more I could see of an entirely new world that I didn’t know existed. Conceptually, I get that there’s a refugee crisis, but when we throw numbers around – 20 million people living outside their countries as refugees – it’s hard to see the trees for the forest. The mind has a hard time taking in the personal nature of the crisis when talked about in the aggregate. It’s easy to think in terms of numbers and “camps” and government agencies; it’s hard to connect with this crisis at a personal level, assuming that one is even open to connecting. The political rhetoric makes that hard to do. The story that refugees are just terrorists trying to get into the country and infiltrate our communities sells all too easily in a media-fueled culture of fear.
But sitting in the basement office of GFM in the middle of a refugee laden apartment complex in Clarkston, Georgia, the view is very different. Here, the lens has zoomed in and the particulars become more clear as we talk with Rory Bonte, GFMs Director of Mobilization about the first-hand experience with the refugees in the community.
When we talk about refugees, it’s important to get a clear understanding of exactly who we’re talking about so we don’t confuse them with other international peoples who we might hear about or meet. Refugees are defined as someone who has left the physical boundaries of their country as a result of persecution or fear of persecution. Specific to the refugees who are in Clarkston (and the US in general), these are individuals and families who fled to a United Nations run refugee camp where they applied for refugee status with the United Nations. That’s a process that involves extensive background checks including many levels of interviews and identification verification. Many folks seem to have the idea that these refugee camps are just way stations that these folks temporarily stop at on their way to the US or some other western country, however the fact is that refugees may spend a significant part of their lives in these camps, on average 17 years. Think about that.
Of the 20 million refugees in the world today, the US will resettle about 85,000 in the US in 2016. And the US represents about ½ of all of the refugees who will be resettled in the coming year. The remainder will be spread out between other G12 countries that are willing to accept them. That’s roughly less than 1% of refugees resettled worldwide in a given year. With stats like that, it’s easier to understand the fact that many refugees may spend a significant part of their lives living in these camps.
Rory is soft spoken and thoughtful, yet his passion for ministry among the refugee population is evident as he describes the crisis and the opportunity. These refugees living above and around the office and throughout the community are people who have fled their countries as a result of persecution, or fear of persecution, specifically because of their race, religion, political opinion, national origin or social group. Things that we take for granted in the US and which are constitutionally protected.
There are currently 110 different ethnic diversities represented in the Clarkston community. What a perfect opportunity for missionary training! This is the purpose of GFM – missionary training to reach the unreached people groups of the world – and what better way to prepared for immersion in cross-cultural missions than to work with refugees from all over the world as a part of that training? GFM offers a regionally accredited Associate, Bachelor, and Master of Ministry in Intercultural Studies degrees in partnership with Covenant Theological Seminary in Greenville, SC.
It’s interesting to note that according to the Joshua Project website, some 40.3% of the world’s people groups are considered unreached, meaning people groups among which there is no indigenous community of believing Christians with adequate numbers and resources to evangelize this people group. That translates to just over 3 billion – yes, billion – people in 6,573 distinct people groups. It is a strategic reality that the refugee crisis and resettlement efforts can open doors for the gospel that are not currently open among otherwise unreached people in their own countries!
Of the many stories that Rory shared about the refugee community, one that particularly stuck with me was one that wasn’t even directly related to GFM’s primary work of mobilizing the church, training missionaries and multiplying believers, but one that demonstrates the redemptive and restorative effect of the church. Rory shares that this apartment complex, Clarkston Oaks, used to have a reputation as a dangerous place to live. Crime was a problem and it wasn’t uncommon to occasionally discover a dead body. The refugees living there were particularly vulnerable because there was a general fear of calling the police, a thing that I found sadly fascinating.
Even though these refugees had legal status to be in the US – a process that includes an extensive screening process by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in consultation with the Department of Defense and the Federal Bureau of Investigation – they were afraid that the police could mistreat them, claim that their papers were invalid and send them back to their countries or require them to pay bribes. Why? Because this was the reality of their experience with police in their home countries.
When GFM moved in, they set about impacting the complex in tangible ways. In addition to starting an after school program for kids at the leasing office (which quickly outgrew that facility) they also assisted the families in policing the complex and serving as an advocate for the families, particularly with law enforcement. In the 5 years that they have served the community at Clarkston Oaks, the complex has seen a dramatic turnaround and has been recognized by local police as a safe community. What an incredible witness of the transformative power of the gospel not only to the refugee families that live there, but also to the owners and property management who are not believers in Christ!
GFM students live among the refugees while they are enrolled in the program and are required to engage in 12-15 hours of ministry per week. While many missionary sending organizations do have their own training programs, one of the key differentiators of GFM is that students are directly engaged in cross cultural ministry while they are attending classes because they are building relationships and working hands on with refugees in the community. Rory calls that “incarnational living” and I think he summed up the benefits of this immersion into the refugee community when he commented that as a part of GFM, “I get to see pieces of God that I wouldn’t get to see otherwise.”
The other thing that really connected with me was the emphasis on worldview that is a part of GFM’s training and as I’ve been learning more about cross cultural missions, this is something that most western Christians don’t seem to fully grasp. It’s what Rory refers to as the 3D Gospel, based on the work of Jayson Georges. This topic deserves a lot of attention, but briefly it is the 3 primary cultural value perspectives of how people view the world. They are defined as spectrums of Guilt/Innocence, Honor/Shame and Fear/Power. Not only are American Christians generally unaware of these powerful cultural values, we tend to project our cultural value of guilt/innocence on others without realizing it and in doing so often undermine efforts at evangelism and discipleship.
Another valuable resource is Werner Mischke’s The Global Gospel, a detailed and well-researched book focusing specifically on the Honor-Shame cultural worldview.
Missionary training is just one of the many exciting things going on in Clarkston. Reaching those who need to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ in their own countries is near and dear to my heart, but we also have an incredible and strategic opportunity to minister to them when they find themselves here as a refugee! And that’s a fitting thought leading up to our next meeting with World Relief.
In case you missed the other posts, you can click here to read about World Relief and Friends of Refugees.
Check out this infographic on refugees from World Relief.
What Can You Do?
If you’re interested in learning more about cross cultural ministry, GFM has some great resources for you to take advantage of right now.
- First of all, pray for the unreached!
- Consider investing some time in their online intro missions course.
- Take a trip to Clarkston. GFM offers short-term one day and one week programs that include awareness, training and hands-on experience with internationals.
- Participate in a summer internship program.