Welcoming The Stranger- Testimonies of Sponsoring Refugee families
I am so grateful for the many churches across the CBWC that have reached out to global refugees and offered them hope for a new life in Canada. Some churches assist Canadian newcomers to sponsor refugee family members to join them here. This is called a private sponsorship, as you are applying to sponsor a specific refugee. Mill Bay Baptist Church on Vancouver Island has a passion for assisting persecuted Pakistani Christians and has several sponsorship applications, in partnership with other churches to form a community among them. Emmanuel Iranian Church is reaching out to bring many Persian Christians to Canada, and other churches continue to sponsor Syrian refugees through the families they have previously sponsored.
Another pathway is the “Blended Visa Office Referrals” (BVOR) of our Canadian Government to bring refugees in urgent situations, who are already pre-approved for settlement in Canada, and the Government offers some funding support for these sponsorships. In 2019, White Rock Baptist church stepped out in faith to sponsor a Somalian woman with the assistance of an additional funding grant through the Jewish Foundation of Greater Toronto. Finances, however, were not to be the greatest challenge of this sponsorship. Fay Puddicombe quickly took Fih under her wing and began the daily commitment of helping one who speaks no English and is illiterate in her own language, but is fiercely independent, begin to navigate life in Canada. Finding accommodation with those having Somalian connections was helpful, but the learning curve for banking, language and other life skills was a huge challenge. Fay quickly realized that it would take much more than 12 months to help Fih get on her feet. Then COVID restrictions complicated the ability to access language classes and other support services. Those offering accommodation soon found Fih not the easiest person to live with, and her housing arrangements changed several times, often without Fay finding out until weeks later. But she persevered in caring for Fih, long past the end of the official sponsorship and recently wrote:
“Well, I feel like a mom after her chick leaves the nest. (Worried, hopeful, teary, relieved, and more!) Today I handed Fih the file of paperwork I was keeping for her rent/expense money for March and April, and the bank card for her account. She will need someone else to help her with it, and I hope she has honourable friends…. It’s not easy helping someone when you can’t communicate, but her smile says a lot. When we left and said we would visit again, that we care about her, she smiled and through the translator said that she cares for us too.”
This is agape love in action, and I give thanks for those who have given sacrificially for the sake of another
Wendy and Peter Burnham had the opportunity through CBM to travel to Lebanon and became connected with a Christian refugee family during their visit. They came home with a burden to help this family come to Canada and began the process of sponsorship, with the help of their home church, Altadore Baptist. The family arrived in March 2020, one week before the COVID lock down took place. Suddenly, all of the immigration support services were closed, and language assessment tools inaccessible, which hindered the ability to begin language classes not yet established online. Canadian Government offices, which process Permanent Resident Cards, was closed—making everything more difficult for the family to get established in Calgary. Wendy and Peter, along with friends and many others, perseveredin assisting the children to get into school, get their Benchmark assessment and into language school, finally obtain their PR card, banking established, health cards, dental and medical care. In the end of their 12-month sponsorship, Wendy writes:
They made out well in their apartment, with their two children in online Catholic School. The dad worked for the last half of the year in a construction/demolition/painting job with some fellow Arabic speakers, and the mom studied hard at her English course and made great strides in speaking English.
This family missed social interaction with family and friends very much through the year, as we all have. They decided they would, at the end of their sponsorship, move to Windsor where they have an aunt, uncle, and friends from the Iraqi village they ran from in 2014. And so, today we said goodbye at the airport. While we were sad to say goodbye, we could sense their anticipation as they moved to this new life with a community they know. Such is Canada, that persecuted people from a bombed-out village in Iraq can move to Canada and return to the warmth of their village. But now the village is in an area of Windsor, with safety for them all and opportunity for their children.
Sponsorship is not always easy, but graciously rewarding, and is one way that we as citizens of God’s kingdom can continue to welcome the stranger and offer a cup of cold water in the name of Jesus. Perhaps God is calling your church community to do the same.