There are large churches and other organizations that are beginning to take some interest in helping the refugee community. In some ways I am very excited and in other ways I am a bit apprehensive. In my experience, many large organizations with the ability to help in ways that are groundbreaking often miss the real opportunity. If they could just slow down while speaking, watching and listening to those who spend daily or weekly hours working, on the ground, face-to-face with those of need, then I think they would be better positioned to truly understand how serve and use their resources most effectively. Many throw money or stuff at the problems, but that is not going to fix things. That’s already been done on numerous occasions and it has not made anything better. As a matter of fact, that kind of help often hurts. (See, when Helping Hurts post. Also check out our Resources Page.)

Large organizations often look at the problems of poverty from a disengaged level- not a ground level. A friend of mine shared with me what I consider to be a perfect example of the point I am trying to make: an organization raised lots of funds and then purchased large bags of rice. They dropped the bags of rice out of airplanes into the villages of the starving and malnourished. They most certainly felt great about their efforts and may have shared with their donors that they were able to feed thousands. Months later, however, those that came to work on the ground with the poor realized  that the people there had no pots to cook the rice in! The people were eating the rice uncooked and were having major digestive problems as a result.

In my opinion, there are many large organizations who could really help, but not if they make decisions in a manner that will disregard the people at a ground level. It’s sort of like a president in charge of a prosperous company that makes all kinds of decisions from above not understanding or realizing how his decisions are affecting his employees.

I pray with all my heart that the Lord will bring organizations along side of Asha’s Refuge that are willing to invest some time before they invest their resources. I pray that the organization will not stand above the people on the ground, making decisions without knowing any of the workers or the poor a little more personally.

The work with Memphis area refugees is not like serving soup in a kitchen or packaging and sending out Christmas boxes. Bagging and boxing up all our old and broken stuff isn’t going to fix everything. While these ways of serving may be helpful at times, I believe it is more hurtful than helpful to my friends from other countries.

I’ll never forget the pair of seriously…and I mean SERIOUSLY… muddy shoes I was handed during a shoe drive to serve as a donation to a struggling refugee in need of warm shoes. I mean, the mud (I hope that is what it was) was CAKED on! And there were all the shoes that were all torn and tattered. Did someone seriously think that I was going to hand any of those shoes to my friends or the sweet children of my friends?? I know the refugees as my dear friends, I cannot imagine bending down and putting something like that on their little foot and smiling about it!! How can any American imagine bringing a pair of shoes to a little child or struggling refugee that are already used and worn with holes or mud?! “Forgive us Father, for we just don’t understand.”

I concluded that the shoe donors’ logic-however disconnected- was that if a person truly needed shoes then these were better than having nothing at all, and that I, as a worker with the poor, could certainly take the time to clean them or fix them for the needy before placing them on their feet. Sure I could, along with all the other 50 pairs I was given that needed cleaned up. Unfortunately, my friends’ feet were cold and they needed shoes that day, not weeks after I was able to clean and repair all the shoes. With the help of a big God, to whom problems like this are simple, we were able to purchase brand new shoes or find seriously like-new shoes for every person in need of shoes and deliver them in about a week’s time.

Asha’s Refuge will help collect items that our refugee friends need at times, but we never want to become like a large donation center. I think we will be more specific about what we need so we don’t run into as many challenges when accepting donations. I believe, we will collect items we can immediately deliver to the people in need so that a large storage room isn’t necessary to store junk, or even items in good condition but that simply are rarely needed. To accomplish our goals, Asha’s Refuge will need a lot of help from others and we will be patient with those trying to help but who may not yet understand what the true needs are. Please know, we are so very thankful for the organizations interested in helping, we just do not want to hurt those whom we have grown to love. So we are praying that those who wish to truly help will take some time to listen to us, get to know our refugee friends, and then work with us to develop strategies for how their organizations can have truly meaningful impact.

“Having stuff given to me from people I’ve never met and will never see is nice.  Having stuff handed to me from a friend means more.  I know then that I am not forgotten, I’m not alone, I am loved and I’m truly cared for.”