When the news landed in January that our nation’s refugee resettlement program would be paused for 90 days for evaluation, the ministry of CBFNC churches involved in this work remained consistent. The churches across our state that operate and support Welcome Houses continued to do their work in partnership with the refugee resettlement agencies in their cities.
Understanding that our partner refugee resettlement agencies would be hurt financially by this pause, in February, CBFNC gave generously from the Welcome Network Grant funds to support our three main resettlement agency partners: World Relief Triad, World Relief Durham and the United States Committee on Refugees and Immigration (USCRI) in Raleigh.
CBFNC does not bring or sponsor refugees into the country. Instead, we support our resettlement agency partners who do that work as directed by the State Department of the United States government. As CBFNC Executive Coordinator Larry Hovis says, “CBFNC is, and has always been, one link in a long chain of many organizations and individuals working together to help resettle refugees in our state and country.”
The grants we provided in February to those resettlement agency partners were a tangible way to be consistent in our work of “welcoming the stranger” even as realities were changing day-by-day.
In March, it was announced that instead of evaluation, the President decided to cancel the contracts for all 10 refugee resettlement agencies across the country. Once again, CBFNC churches sought consistency in this ministry. We knew this would end, at least for this year, the arrival of refugees into the United States and into North Carolina.
We were deeply saddened and troubled by this decision. Our refugee resettlement agency partners were devastated. Funding stopped. Committed employees were furloughed or let go. Worse, refugees who waited for years and years, who were at the door about to come inside, had that door slammed in their faces.
Still, we sought to be consistent, to welcome those who were here, and to seek new ways to support our partners and our neighbors. That included helping with the resettlement of a group of Afrikaners from South Africa in May who were fast-tracked through the refugee vetting process to come to the U.S.
A small number were headed to Raleigh and we agreed that consistency meant supporting our resettlement agency partners if they took on these new cases. CBFNC and Welcome House Raleigh would extend the Christ-centered welcome to the next person at our door.
Throughout the changes that have occurred so far this year, CBFNC has proclaimed that that call for our Welcome Network ministry is to “welcome one another just as Christ has welcomed you” (Romans 15:7), and that doing as Jesus said to “welcome the stranger” in Matthew 25 cannot be qualified, no matter how hard the welcome becomes.
So, we continue in this ministry with consistency and faithfulness.
-By Randy Carter
CBFNC Welcome Network Director and Pastor at Temple Baptist, Durham
Learn more about CBFNC’s Welcome Network here.
