We Need You to Advocate for Refugees

President Trump is considering setting an appallingly low refugee admission number.

We can’t let that happen. As Christians and Americans, we must stand for the vulnerable and the voiceless.

World Relief Spokane is engaging in an advocacy campaign to encourage the President and our Congressional Representatives to set the refugee admissions limit at 75,000 people or more. The money to resettle that many refugees is already in the appropriations budget, so the government is prepared to welcome that many people if the President sets that number for admissions.

Here’s what you can do:

Call your Congressperson, both Senators and the President.

• For Spokane natives, that means Cathy McMorris-Rodgers (202-225-2006), Maria Cantwell (202-224-3441), Patty Murray (202-224-2621), and President Trump (202-456-1111).
• If you’re not a Spokane native, call the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask to be connected to your representatives.
• If you’re nervous or not sure what to say, we have a short script below as well as some additional facts further down this post about refugees in America.
  • Script for Congresspeople and Senators: “I’m [NAME], your constituent from [CITY/TOWN]. I strongly support refugee resettlement and am deeply concerned by reports that President Trump may set the refugee admissions goal for next year at less than 50,000. I urge you to do everything in your power to see that the administration resettle at least 75,000 refugees in 2018.The money to take in 75,000 refugees is already in the Congressional budget. My community welcomes refugees, and I urge you to reflect the best of our American values of compassion and hospitality.”
  • Script for the President: I’m [NAME] from [CITY/TOWN]. I strongly support refugee resettlement and am deeply concerned by reports that President Trump may set the refugee admissions goal for next year at less than 50,000. I urge the President to decide resettle at least 75,000 refugees in 2018. The money to take in 75,000 refugees is already in the Congressional budget. My community welcomes refugees, and I urge you to reflect the best of our American values of compassion and hospitality.
• If this is your first time calling Congress or the President, thank you! Your support for refugees means the world to us and to them.

Write a letter to your Congressperson, both Senators and the President.

• Handwritten letters from real constituents matter. Our government represents us, and the time spent writing a letter reflects how much this matters to you.
• Use the same information from the calls, tell a personal story, or include some facts. Anything helps.
• Mail your letters to the addresses below.

U.S. Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers

1314 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515

Senator Patty Murray

154 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510

Senator Maria Cantwell

511 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

President Donald J. Trump
The White House.
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20500.

Put your Twitter account to good use.

• Tweet at your representatives and tell them to publicly support a refugee admissions limit of 75,000 people.
• Retweet @WRSpokane and @WorldRelief as we call for a 75,000 person limit.
• Share articles, op-eds, and other important information with your followers
• Let us know you called or wrote letters. Direct message or tweet at us to tell us you called. We love hearing about your involvement.

Like and Share our Facebook posts.

• Kindly tell your friends and family to call in support of refugees.
• Share articles, photos, and videos encouraging friends to support refugees.
• Let us know you called! Send us a picture of your letter! We love hearing from you.

Before posting facts about refugee resettlement for your calls, we simply would like to say thank you for your support of World Relief and your support of refugees. Every call, letter, and tweet matters to the moms, dads, and kids around the world who need your help.

Refugee Resettlement Facts

Linked below are two helpful, factual articles about refugees. The first is about how refugees contribute to the U.S. economy. The second revolves around the refugee vetting process. Both links are followed by highlights from the articles.

• Refugees contribute to the American economy
  • Refugees paid nearly $21 billion in taxes in 2015
  • 13 percent of refugees start their own business, compared to 9 percent of native born citizens
  • Refugees added $56 billion in spending power at American businesses in 2015
  • 84 percent of refugees become American citizens
• Bringing Refugees to America is safe
  • The Cato Institute’s research puts the annual risk of a refugee-committed terrorist killing on U.S. soil at 1 in 3.6 billion, which is about 1,000 times less likely than being killed by a lightning strike.
  • We do know who these refugees are. They go through a multi-step process that generally lasts anywhere between 18 months to 3 years, and includes fingerprinting, biometrics, retina scans, and multiple interviews by different agencies, including the United Nations, State Department contractors, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
  • The refugee admission process is the most thorough of all entry processes into the U.S.

 

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Little Moments: “Beautiful”

As you can see in the photo above, our office recently got a makeover. With a bit of help from Sun City Church, the World Relief lobby got a new paint job, and we decided to take our redecorating a step further by adding some of our favorite photos from past years to the area. You might recognize one of them from a prior post on this blog. We put the photos up on the wall behind the desk to convey a simple message to our friends: This will be you.

Two days ago a family with a little girl walked in to our office. They were there for an appointment during their resettlement period, which is their first 90 days in the United States. If you’ve never talked to a family during that period, they usually have some mixed emotions. There’s excitement to be safe and secure in their new homes but it comes with nervousness and uncertainty at this new place as well. New lives are hard. This little girl walked in to our office, pointed at the photo on the upper right side of the group, smiled, and said, “Beautiful!”

We choose to share this small moment with you because the moments we celebrate aren’t just the stories that come to nice and tidy endings. The little moments along the way are worth celebrating too. Sometimes, a little girl walks in to our office, sees a photo, and realizes that’s who she wants to be. That’s what we do at World Relief. More than anything else, we remind each of our friends that they’re a beautiful part of our community and a beautiful gift of God. Every person who learns that, or even part of that, is worth celebrating, and we hope you’ll join us in doing so.

Staff Feature: Diana Borisova

It’s difficult, and sometimes impossible to understand something until we’ve done it. As much as we try to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes, they don’t always fit. We can sense how uncomfortable they are or see that someone can use a replacement pair, but it’s tough to get someone else until we’ve worn the same pair as them.

Diana Borisova has worn the shoes of the refugees she works with every day at World Relief Spokane. It’s part of the reason she’s a great case manager.

Diana’s family fled a war between Armenia and Azerbaijan in the early 1990s, entering Russia as refugees. She met her husband while in the country, and discovered just days after their wedding that her husband’s family had applied to be resettled in America.

As Christians in Russia and (formerly) the Soviet Union, her husband’s family had been persecuted for years and feared for their lives and well-being. Members of the family had lost jobs and been refused services by members of the Soviet and Russian governments. Diana’s mother-in-law had nearly been removed from her parents because they were Christians.

After a series of interviews, background checks, and applications which spanned four years, the family was sent to Spokane in August 2005. Diana and her husband had recently become parents as well. So in addition to learning English, understanding American culture, and potentially finding a job, Diana was also a full-time Mom.

“I started my life in Spokane with a baby in my arms, zero English, and almost no friends,” Diana said. “I started my life here just like everyone else.”

Many of Diana’s refugees come to Spokane in similar situations. Whether it’s a single mother who needs to learn English or a individual man looking for a job to pay for rent and utilities, Diana has an anecdote for each person who comes through the door.

For a refugee who held a degree or certification in their home country but found it didn’t hold weight here, Diana can tell them about her experience having to return to school despite being a certified nurse in Russia. If a client finds they don’t understand their English classes, Diana tells them stories about her struggles in the exact same classrooms.

“I just love them,” Diana said. “I know a little bit about how they feel.”

The stories, strange hours, and hard work are all about giving back to a community which welcomed Diana twelve years ago. Her father-in-law planted a church in Spokane that now supports refugees through Good Neighbor Teams. Diana’s first experience serving through World Relief came on those teams. She said her team worked with a Sudanese family of nine and “spoiled them a lot.”

The experience motivated her to apply at World Relief when a job opened up as a case manager last year. With nearly a year of using her experience to teach her clients the ins and outs of America, Diana’s motivation to serve has stayed the same.

“I fell in love with refugees,” Diana said. “I just want serve them.”

A father’s hard work and a family reunited

Resilient is probably the perfect word to describe most of the refugees we work with at World Relief Spokane, and few exemplify what that means better than our friend Hassan.

With a war raging in Sudan, Hassan and his family fled the country. The family traveled across Africa, moving from one country to another. They struggled through refugee camps and countries in turmoil before receiving a piece of happy news: Hassan had been approved to come to America.

So Hassan came to America in 2012 and got right to work. He knew if he worked hard then he would be able to bring his family to the United States, and all he wanted was to see them again.

“I worked so hard to be able to see my kids again,” Hassan said.

The transition wasn’t easy. In addition to learning the skills his new jobs would require, Hassan also had to learn English and complete the necessary paperwork to be approved to work. He would also have to learn American culture, a sometimes overlooked difficulty for almost all refugees. For his kids though, Hassan overcame the challenges.

After four years of working two jobs, Hassan’s hard work paid off. In October, his children and wife joined him in Spokane. He was overjoyed.

Now, the kids have just finished their first year in Spokane schools, one in high school and three in grade school. They saw their first snow here, and the family went sledding and engaged in some friendly snowball fights to celebrate. The education his children get here what Hassan says he appreciates the most about America.

“Schools in Spokane do a very good job,” Hassan said. “I want my kids to do well in school so they can help other people like other people helped me.”

His attitude of gratefulness for Spokane moves past the schools too. Hassan said he loves his job at URM and seemingly couldn’t stop praising the people of Spokane. Coming here, he said, has given him hope for his future and his kids’ futures as well.

“I want to say thank you to the people of Spokane,” Hassan said. “I wouldn’t want to go anywhere else.”

The family, now reunited, is all smiles.

Hassan and his wife are expecting a baby, their first American child, in the upcoming months. Being born in America, the child will be an American citizen. He or she will grow up without the language barriers of his or her parents nor their shared experience of coming here.

The child will, however, grow up around a family who exudes gratefulness and resiliency; two character traits which are in short supply in the world today. And that’s why we have no doubt that their future child will be a blessing to everyone they are around, just like their father.

Quiet Generosity, Big Impact

⁴¹ And he sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. ⁴² And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. ⁴³ And he called his disciples to him and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. ⁴⁴ For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”

Mark 12:41-44

When we think of generosity, most of us probably envision large donations from athletes, actors, politicians, or the wealthy, usually intending to accomplish an audacious goal like curing a disease or ending world hunger.

The Coyle family sees giving through a different lens; a quieter generosity. When they think of hospitality and generosity, they see refugees.

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The Coyles began volunteering with World Relief just over five years ago. The family of five, Danny and Bonnie, as well as their children, Debbie, Michael, and Hadassah, planned on becoming missionaries in India, and hoped they could mentor a Nepali or Bhutanese family; two of the many people groups we resettle in Spokane.

“I guess God had different plans for us,” Danny said with a laugh.

World Relief staff placed the Coyles with an Iraqi family five years ago, and the two families have since become one.

“We’ve just really enjoyed getting to know them; getting to know their culture,” Bonnie says. “We’ve loved becoming their friends.”

The two families are currently celebrating one of the Iraqi family’s daughters, who recently took home the Cooper Jones Award at her sixth grade graduation. The award was a special surprise for the families and recognizes the kindness in the girl that every parent hopes to see in their child.

The daughter’s kindness, as with most children, is likely a reflection of the character she observes in her parents. The Coyles see this in the generosity and hospitality of the multiple refugee families they now mentor. Their giving nature doesn’t make headlines, but it makes an impact.

The family tells plenty of wonderful stories about refugees’ generosity, but one stood out.

When Bonnie gave birth to Hadassah just over three months ago, the family said they were almost overwhelmed because five families showed up at the hospital to celebrate with them.

“As we reflected on that over the next couple weeks, we saw how special it was,” Danny said. “They all brought gifts and just wanted to pour into our lives. It’s always been like that.”

Often, the Coyles will spend hours at the homes of refugee families, where the families make and serve them dinner. Days where the families spend less than a couple hours together are the exception, not the rule. Celebrations of each others triumphs, like the award and impromptu baby shower, are standard.

“I think I’m learning what it means to be hospitable through the way they’ve shown that to me,” Bonnie said.

Bonnie may be understating her family’s impact though. In their five years of volunteering with World Relief, the Coyle’s serve refugees with open hearts and big smiles. In addition to the families they mentor, Danny and Bonnie help refugee children with their homework, taught new arrivals the Spokane bus system, and even set up doctor’s appointments.

They do it for many reasons, including as a way to live their Christian faith. 

“We’re called to love those who are hurting; the least of these,” Danny said. “People are coming out of situations where they’re really desperate, which gives us an opportunity to reflect Christ’s love to them in the way we think he would want us to.”

In that way, the Coyle’s are showing off some generosity of their own. Like their refugee friends, they provide help where they can, within their unique circumstances to make a positive difference.

For them, it doesn’t seem to be about how many copper coins you have. It’s about how they and their refugee friends make them count.

For host family, a little empathy pays big dividends

At World Relief, the help of volunteers gives us the power to serve refugees who make Spokane their home. Without their help, it would be nearly impossible to serve the people to whom we are called, and we are incredibly thankful for them.

Matthew and Laura Crotty decided to volunteer with World Relief in late 2015 after being prompted by separate events which stirred empathy within them to help the most vulnerable.

For Matthew, a military veteran who spent time in the Middle East, fear-inducing statements about Islam in the 2016 presidential primary season prompted involvement. He saw a need to get involved and help those who would be hurt most by the statements. Around the same time, Laura was stirred to action by photos of children who washed up on a Turkish beach.

“Those photos hurt me, as a mother,” Laura said. “I couldn’t stop thinking about them and grieving for them.”

Their empathy is part of what drove the Crotty’s to take on one of World Relief’s most unique volunteer roles: hosting refugees for their first nights in America.

The family began welcoming some of the world’s most vulnerable people to Spokane in May just over a year ago. Since then, their house has been a temporary home for families and individuals during their first days or weeks in America.

The Crottys welcomed their first refugees in May 2016. They waited up until 1 a.m. to greet a family of six from Aleppo, Syria. To say they were nervous would be an understatement, but Laura described the experience as “beautiful.” The families communicated via Google Translate and body language for the weeks they were together and have since remained friends.

The Crotty’s kids, Avery, Jay, and Charlie, have been impacted by the experience too. Laura recalled an instance where one of their Syrian friends accidentally messed up one of Jay’s Lego creations. As happens with most children, Jay wasn’t pleased, but Laura found a way to put destruction in perspective. She showed Jay photos of Aleppo. An empathy-building experience to be sure.

“To be able to say to your kid ‘that’s Aleppo, that’s their city’ and see the growth that comes from that conversation is huge,” Laura said. 

The kids gained even more than a lesson’s worth of perspective too. They’ve become friends with many of the folks who walked through the Crotty’s door in the last year. The families are still connected in mutual admiration and thankfulness. They share Thanksgiving dinners together and Laura’s mother is their American grandmother.

“It’s hard to let go,” Laura said. “You bond so much when someone is living in your home and communing with you. You really grow to love them.”

The relationships aren’t one-sided either. The Crotty’s say they’ve learned lessons about generosity and gained encouragement from seeing the Spokane community bond together to welcome refugees to the area.

“I think I’ve gained way more from this than they’ve ever gotten from me,” Matthew said.

In that way, it’s pretty amazing what a little bit of empathy can bring you.

We need you to Stand with Refugees

In America we mostly think of our participation in government in terms of voting to elect our leaders. However, voting is really just the surface of our democracy. Politicians change their minds. This is actually a sign of healthy democracy if they are changing their opinions because of learning new information and listening to the voices of the people they represent. As Americans we have the great privilege and opportunity to influence our leaders to stand for our values and guide our nation in the directions we believe are best. Regardless of whether we voted them in to office or not, every phone call or email we send to our leaders counts just the same. And I’ve seen firsthand how leaders can shift their positions when large groups of people raise their voices as one to advocate for what they believe is right. Please join us to make a phone call or two and raise your voice on behalf of the most vulnerable and voiceless – millions of refugees who our nation is poised to help if our government will but open the doors.

Mark Finney

Executive Director: World Relief Spokane