Who will fill the gap?
Jul 13, 2023
- Rachael Lofgren
"What is happening on the Southern Border? How can we pray?" My pastor asks as we gather on a Sunday afternoon in my home to pray for refugees and IAFR.
Southern Border policies are changing in the U.S. again, making it into news headlines across the country. The people affected by these changes aren't so visible, but my pastor asks the question that reminds us that God sees these individuals and invites us to stop and see them, too.
Tough Decisions
A week later, I visit Central America on a work trip. On my drive from the airport in the capital city amid the bustle of traffic jams and inner-city life, I see them eking out an evening meal's worth of cash on street corners and at highway intersections—refugees from across Central and South America in varying stages of their journey. It's a journey that forces everyone on it to make tough decisions to survive. Teenagers wash car windshields or offer bottled water through car windows to potential customers waiting in traffic. Women and men sell sweets, salty snacks, or bouquets of long-stemmed roses and sunflowers. They hope to make enough money to feed their children for the night and continue their journey soon.
Veronica's Toxic Limbo
I think of my friend Veronica living here. She's been displaced for several years. Her physical health is declining with malnutrition, and her mental health is ragged with stress and fear for the future. She struggles to sell enough food on the streets to pay her rent. She faces hostility from her neighbors and landlord. She struggles with finding somebody to trust in her ache for community and her search for a home. So, though she has a temporary place to be, her future remains in a toxic state of limbo.
The Escape
When I visit a rural local church in the mountains, my friend's teenage daughter points out group after group of refugees from the car window as we drive by.
"Those are refugees from Venezuela."
The women and children walk slowly along the roadside under a merciless noonday sun. They carry babies and tired toddlers heavy in their arms. The quiet persistence in their faces and bodies speaks of their resilience and strength.
We pass a heap of ashes in a roadside clearing, where people warmed a midday meal and are now napping in the shade of a tree at the jungle's edge. They come from parts of the world with oppressive governments and much violence. They leave everything they know in search of a place of safety, to escape oppression and violence, and to give their children and families a future.
Filling the Gaps as the Local Church
Sometimes my local friends have an opportunity to share a place to sleep, a hot meal, food supplies, and prayers for the safety of people passing through. Further on in the journey, along the southern border of the USA, the local church will do the same when these women and families arrive weary and thirsty for welcome. But many gaps remain. Many needs go unmet. IAFR is committed to helping fill the gaps. We are in the early stages of discerning what that involvement will be.
Pioneer Leader Wanted!
Please pray with us for God to send us a leader with a vision to take our research and pioneer a new ministry so we can do our part to show up in life-giving ways in this region of the refugee highway.
CLICK HERE to learn more about this needed leadership role.