The road to recovery is long and difficult for refugees and asylum seekers. The effects of trauma are often delayed and persistent - especially for children.

IAFR’s Whitney Gerdes recently connected with a teenage girl who fled her homeland with her mom when she was 7 years old. She recently started having flashbacks of her childhood journey. Her unresolved pain and trauma is affecting her relationships, motivations, grades in school, and her self-image.

Whitney shares...

I have been able to make my living room a safe space for her to share her heart and process her trauma.

During our last time together she shared that she feels like she can be herself and totally honest when she sits on my couch.

It is a great couch, but it is the love of Christ that deserves the credit.

She is doing so much better now, and the resilience that already carried her so far was strengthened and re-framed through a supportive relationship and a place of peace.

It has become clear that even after refugees and asylum seekers finally receive permanent legal status in a new country, the journey is far from over.

Making space for refugee children is a sacred and beautiful opportunity.

What is the most important thing to a refugee?

As a friend and former refugee put it in a recent blog post, "The most important thing to a refugee, new to another world that does not know anyone, is a friend." -Chong Bee Vang

That's why IAFR believes hospitality and visitation are the starting points when it comes to ministry among people who have been forced to flee their homes and homelands. It is in safe spaces like Whitney's living room that our uprooted friends can find healing, peace, and hope.

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