First Baptist Hillsborough turns opportunity and need into Welcome House ministry
By Randall Austin
Member of First Baptist, Hillsborough and coordinator of Welcome House Hillsborough
Unique opportunity and desperate need merged to prompt First Baptist Church in Hillsborough to convert its former parsonage into a Welcome House, providing safety and comfort to more than 100 refugees to America.
The opportunity emerged a decade ago, when the church met Kim and Marc Wyatt, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship field personnel based in nearby Raleigh. On a Wednesday night in 2014, the Wyatts explained their call to provide Christ’s love in the form of hospitality to refugees arriving in North Carolina, and particularly in the Triangle.
They envisioned opening what they called Welcome Houses — temporary residences for refugees immediately after they arrive in the United States.
Their mission goals and approach stirred our hearts, and a spontaneous call to “pass the hat” garnered $2,000 to help open the first Welcome House in Raleigh.
As the Welcome House movement developed, our church enthusiastically supported Hope Valley Baptist Church in Durham. We provided volunteer labor to help them convert their old parsonage to become Hope House, the second Welcome House in the Triangle.
Meeting A Need
Desperate need surfaced when the Taliban captured Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, late in the summer of 2021. Thousands of U.S. allies sought to leave the country before the border closed. Horrific news reports, eerily reminiscent of the fall of Saigon, filled the media.
The U.S. pullout left thousands of Afghanis, particularly those who fought alongside our troops or similarly aided American interests, at risk of Taliban retribution. The U.S. government responded by granting special visas to these people and their families, all of them vulnerable.
This humanitarian response to the Afghan crisis expanded their need, raising important issues:
What will these refugees do when they get here?
Where will they live as they restart their lives?
Those questions — along with what First Baptist Hillsborough could do about them — became a topic of much discussion at our church. When we realized we already had a relationship with a CBF ministry that directly addressed support for refugees, our congregation decided to explore options for meeting the need.
Church members interested in participating met with the Wyatts and with Sam Harrell, then associate coordinator of CBF Global Missions, in our former parsonage, which we called the Annex.
What We Learned
We learned a Welcome House fills a critical gap in refugees’ progress from arrival to settling in as our new neighbors. The Welcome House ministry — now called Welcome Network — works with nonprofits such as World Relief and Lutheran Services, which contract with the government to help refugees process paperwork, find homes and get jobs.
But when refugees first arrive, they wait for long-term housing and for the wheels of bureaucracy to turn. So, a Welcome House provides two resources — short-term housing, typically measured in days or weeks, and friendship to a family arriving in a strange land with strange language and customs, as well as an uncertain, scary future.
We also learned a Welcome House does not sponsor the refugees; it does not provide finances or get involved in government processes. While it partners with the resettlement agencies, it stays in its lane, focusing on housing and friendship.
When our study team reported back to the church, members voted unanimously to convert the Annex into a Welcome House. First Baptist still owns the property and can use it for other purposes, such as housing for furloughing missionaries, as needed. Designated gifts, not budget funds, support the ministry.
Welcome House Hillsborough Opens
Opportunity and need blended into heart-warming joy when Welcome House Hillsborough received its first guest Oct. 8, 2021. A young man who bravely served in the Afghan Special Forces alongside our U.S. troops arrived, carrying all his worldly belongings in a half-empty pillowcase.
He spoke very little English but communicated with a big smile. Our team took him hiking around Hillsborough, to an Orange High School football game and to our church’s Halloween pumpkin-carving contest. People welcomed him warmly wherever he went.
At one point, someone asked him about his family, whom he had to leave behind in Afghanistan. “You are my family now,” he replied.
Welcome House Hillsborough’s ministry has been noticed across our community.
Members of other churches have provided monetary donations, material support and, most importantly, volunteers. New Hope Presbyterian Church has been a key partner from the beginning, supplying team members, materials and encouragement. Fairview Baptist Church has allowed our guests to use its free community clothes closet. And most recently, Trinity Baptist Church in Raleigh sent a team of volunteers to renovate a bathroom.
Together, we have enabled Welcome House Hillsborough to be a temporary home to 107 refugees in 20 family groups. Since our house is large, the resettlement agencies tend to send us big families. The largest was a family of 11, and the average size is about seven. In addition to Afghanistan, they have come to America from a wide variety of war-torn countries and from diverse backgrounds.
Every now and then, serendipity happens. For example, when we welcomed a family late one night, we explained Welcome House is not associated with the government but belongs to the church next door.
“What kind of church?” the wife asked?
“Baptist,” we said.
“We are Baptists!” she exclaimed.
Whatever their background and faith, we have discovered our ministry of friendship is most important. Team members have sat for hours with our guests at the hospital, waiting for a family member to be examined in the emergency room. We’ve picked up new friends from the side of the road when their car broke down. We’ve played games with the children and cooked meals with the mothers. We’ve played corn-hole on the lawn and taught new friends how to ride a bicycle.
And every day, we explore what it means to be a neighbor.
Jesus explored that meaning, too, when he told the parable of the Good Samaritan, recorded in Luke 10:25-37.
Jesus closes the parable with a question and a command: “Which of these three (people who saw an injured traveler) do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” Jesus asked.
The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
