Mary* and her family belong to a minority group in the Middle East that is predominantly Muslim. When her father embraced Jesus and identified as Christian, he was persecuted. He spent two years in prison for his faith. When he was released, it was under the condition that he immediately leave the country and never return.

He and his family found temporary refuge in a nearby country – but the writing is on the wall. They will not be tolerated there for much longer.

Meanwhile, life is hard and filled with uncertainty.

Remember Ministries, an agency serving persecuted Christians, is working to help Mary and her family resettle to a country in which they can begin to rebuild their lives. But the process is slow. It may take years before they arrive in their new homeland.

In the midst of her struggle, Mary longs for theological training.

I recently crossed paths with Jenny Miedema, Executive Director of Remember Ministries, during a Zoom conference on religious liberty. When she heard that IAFR is providing refugees with theological training, she reached out to us. For Mary had told her that theological training was among her deepest desires.

Life-giving faith is essential to hope and human resilience.

I reached out to Dr. George Kalantzis, IAFR’s Senior Fellow for Theological Development. After meeting with Mary and Jenny online, George and I were sold!

Mary's faith is beautiful. Her English is excellent. She can handle college level material. She has access to high-speed internet. We began planning an online theological training program for her.

And then it struck us.

What if there are other refugees and asylum seekers out there with a similar longing?

We quickly contacted our IAFR teammates to see if they knew of such people. To make a long story short, we now have six refugees and asylum seekers signed up for the online training. They are presently living in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the USA. The cohort will have their first meeting with George this weekend.

This all came together in a matter of weeks. What a privilege to serve our forcibly displaced brothers and sisters in this way!

IAFR offers theological training for refugees.

Refugee pastors and church leaders often express a longing for theological training. But they have no way to access it. Dr. Kalantzis has been serving with IAFR for many years to bring such training to Kakuma refugee camp (Kenya). Taking advantage of Zoom, his work with IAFR is now going global.

CLICK HERE TO DONATE and partner with Dr. Kalantzis to bring theological training to refugees.

Many thanks to our faithful and generous financial partners who make it possible for our team to show up in the lives of refugees and asylum seekers every day!

‍*pseudonym