Extending Our Hands in Love to Afghan Refugees
by Sophia Calderon & the Rev. Linda Brown, Deacon
For well more than a year, we’ve been saying it’s a crisis. It’s the “COVID-19 crisis.” Yet we somehow grasp that we have been facing more than a crisis. We’re in an era ushered in by a pandemic and conflict at home and abroad. Struggles abound.
So as the church makes its post-pandemic way into this yet-unnamed era, we find ourselves called to imagine the struggle facing Afghan-refugee families finding themselves, suddenly, in the United States after generations of war.
In Leviticus, we read that God commanded his people to be compassionate toward the stranger: “The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God” (Lev. 19:34).
The opportunity to welcome is upon us: “Between a thousand to two thousand Afghans,” we heard on Colorado Public Radio, “are expected to resettle in Denver and Colorado Springs by the end of the year.”1 How are Episcopalians in Colorado called to love the stranger? How do we enter into the way of being church to families that have brought little with them other than the clothes on their backs? How do we walk in the way of love and life, through compassion and practical care, showing our newest neighbors that we are in fact their neighbors?
Presiding Bishop Michael Curry has spoken passionately of the need to help these newest refugees. He said the needs are great and they require our Episcopal congregations to stand with our Afghan friends and to come together to volunteer, donate, pray, and advocate.
Two organizations are asking for your help — from you, your congregation, and your wider community as a diocese — during this humanitarian crisis. These organizations are the Refugee & Asylee Programs of Lutheran Family Services (LFS) of the Rocky Mountains and Episcopal Migration Ministries (EMM).
Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service captured one family’s story in a recent interview:2
Mohammad’s Story:
In September 2021 Mohammad arrived in the United States with his wife. Together with their five children, they managed a harrowing escape from Kabul as the airport closed down to Afghanis. As a child, he shared with us that he had survived “dark moments” under the Taliban regime. He knew he needed to spare his family what he had experienced. When Mohammad and his family first set foot in the United States, he said, “Oh, my God. It’s like heaven.” Deeply grateful for the support he and his family have received through Lutheran Family Services, he now wants to help others. “Because we are human beings — we need to help each other. It’s our culture.”
From Sophia Calderon, member, Colorado Episcopal Service Corps (CO-ESC):
I am partnered this year with Lutheran Family Services Rocky Mountain Refugee and Asylee Programs. As I was completing my final semester of college, the opportunity to become part of the Episcopal Service Corps fell into my lap. It perfectly embodied my desire to devote a year of my life to the intentional work of serving marginalized populations while discerning my ministry in life. As a child of an immigrant, I felt a strong call to work with refugee and asylee populations. I grew up watching my mother serve as a language interpreter for refugee and immigrant families. Her work on their behalf broke down barriers and revealed that we are all human beings. Yes, we need many things — language and understanding, work, shelter, food — to begin our lives anew in a new country. The importance of serving your neighbors no matter what corner of the world they reside in was instilled in me. As human beings, we require connection with the community we are in and with each other — which is why we are called to work with every resident of Colorado including our new Afghan and other refugee friends.
Every day I try to imagine how I would feel fleeing the only home I knew, under terrifying circumstances over which I had no control.
I am inspired by Mohammad’s story every day to be one of the faces that greets new families at the doors of Lutheran Family Services (LFS), reassuring them: you are safe, you are welcome, you are loved. LFS has many opportunities for Episcopalians to be a part of these families’ lives — as a friend and mentor, donator of food and clothing, and more. There is a place for you in this larger story of welcome and service.
From the Rev. Linda Brown, Deacon:
As a deacon in the Episcopal Church, I often engage with people from the community who are struggling to simply live. This is the deacon’s call — to be a servant of all, especially of the poor, the weak, the sick, and the lonely. We come alongside our struggling brothers and sisters and all the while encourage the laity to join with us as we engage and build relationships with those in need. For the bruised and broken human being, Jesus asks us to imagine the goodness of the Good Samaritan, bound not by the law but by his common humanity, transcending the law. Lutheran, Episcopalian, Christian, Coloradan — human: we are bound by our humanity to welcome the Afghani refugee. I can’t think of a greater need or opportunity, now, for our Episcopal congregations and church members to extend our hands in love and friendship, to live the Good Samaritan way of life.
Lutheran Family Services/Rocky Mountain Region
Lutheran Family Services is seeking financial donations to help with housing, transportation and food costs: https://www.lfsrm.org/programs-and-services/refugees/refugee-donations/. This donation website also lists items that congregations can gather and donate to the refugee programs in Denver, Colorado Springs, and Greeley. Please also consider signing up to volunteer with cultural mentoring, serving on-call, and tutoring. See the LFS website for information on how to volunteer your time and be trained in these areas of service: https://www.lfsrm.org/programs-and-services/refugees/.
Episcopal Migration Ministries
Episcopal Migration Ministries (EMM) is the Episcopal Church’s refugee resettlement agency and is seeking financial support through its new “Neighbors Welcome: Afghan Allies Fund” to help with housing, medical, legal, and other basic needs of Afghan families. EMM is working nationwide and with its affiliates in several states to bring the necessary help and support to arriving Afghan families. The agency is not specifically working with refugees in Colorado, but encourages congregations to support EMM’s work at large or engage with local partner agencies, however we feel called serve. To make a financial gift to EMM, you may visit their website at https://www.episcopalmigrationministries.org/donate-afghan-allies. Other opportunities to be involved and participate are identified on EMM’s website: episcopalmigrationministries.org.
Jesus calls his followers to be engaged with the world through acts of love. “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). We can’t think of any greater need or calling for compassion at this time than to stand in solidarity with our new Afghan neighbors and give them a loving hand up into their new community. Learn more about resettlement locations and the needs of Afghan refugees by visiting episcopalcolorado.org/afghan-refugees.
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SOPHIA CALDERON is a Colorado Episcopal Service Corps Intern serving in Refugee & Asylee Programs for Lutheran Family Services Rocky Mountains. THE REV. LINDA BROWN is a deacon, serving at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Denver.
1 Claire Cleveland, Colorado Public Radio, September 24, 2021, https://www.cpr.org/2021/09/24/colorado-afghan-refugees-resettlement/.
2 “No One in Afghanistan Is Safe” — Mohammad’s Story, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, October 13, 2021, https://www.lirs.org/no-one-in-afghanistan-is-safe-mohammads-story/?mc_cid=a9b2595d7c&mc_eid=d9bf86cfc7.
