{"id":12463,"date":"2022-03-20T08:26:46","date_gmt":"2022-03-20T12:26:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=12463"},"modified":"2022-03-20T08:26:48","modified_gmt":"2022-03-20T12:26:48","slug":"the-humanitarian-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=12463","title":{"rendered":"the humanitarian crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As we\u2019ve been poignantly reminded in recent weeks how fragile and precarious the world can be, emotions seem to be running a little higher. And when emotions run high, it\u2019s easy to become fixated on specific people. (With the unfortunate plethora of media bias and hence agenda, some seem especially fixated \u2014 lookin\u2019 for blame in all the wrong places \u2014 dare I semi-humbly suggest.)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But if there was one person that would be wise for each of us to at some time focus on as countries continue to clash, in and out of cease fires, my sense is it would be the refugee\u2026 the one who has been forced to leave their home due to war, persecution or disaster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 1951 Refugee Convention specifically defines a refugee as \u201csomeone who is unable or unwilling to return to their country of origin owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion.\u201d They are protected by international law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m grateful they are protected. But my goal today is to make this a little more personal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the United Nation’s refugee agency (UNHCR) \u2014 and this number keeps changing \u2014 millions of Ukrainians have fled their home country and crossed over into Central Europe.\u00a0 Poland and Romania have each welcomed significant populations of displaced persons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the Polish border guard service tweeted, when their welcomed refugee count topped 1 million, “This is a million human tragedies, a million people banished from their homes by the war.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A million human tragedies\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As has been noted here \u2014 Ukraine, Poland, Romania \u2014 they are some five, six thousand miles away. It\u2019s easy to dismiss what\u2019s far away. It\u2019s easy to not dwell on what we don\u2019t see. It\u2019s easy to care lesser. We tend to care most about what\u2019s most in front of us, issues and experiences in which we can more clearly envision and relate to an aspect of the overall impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t want to do that with the Ukrainian people. If I\u2019m honest, as someone who believes with my whole heart that all<\/em> are created in the image of God and therefore we should be treating all <\/em>as such, I don\u2019t want to be dismissive of any.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And so my mind continues to contemplate the question of a wise friend\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHow am I actively sitting in the suffering of others?\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is it out of sight\/out of mind?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That doesn\u2019t seem right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is it, \u201cWell, it depends on who\u2019s supporting that group of people politically. If _______ supports them, so will I.\u201d Fill in the blank with whomever you wish; the reality is that such shows my compassion and care is selective.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That, too, doesn\u2019t seem right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Friends, I have no easy answer this day. I continue to hear selfless stories of volunteers and servant-hearted citizens assisting refugees at the border. It\u2019s tireless work. How do we best help those who\u2019ve been forced to flee?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How do care for those who\u2019ve left family behind? \u2026 family they may never see again? How do we serve those caught up in this humanitarian crisis?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No answers. No simple solutions. Thankfully, no less, miles between are incapable of minimizing the power of prayer. I still question what more we can do\u2026 money, donations, care\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, though, I just didn\u2019t want to ignore the perilous, heartbreaking plight of those on the other side of the planet. I didn\u2019t want us to fail to focus on the refugee. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That doesn\u2019t seem right either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Respectfully\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As we\u2019ve been poignantly reminded in recent weeks how fragile and precarious the world can be, emotions seem to be running a little higher. And when emotions run high, it\u2019s easy to become fixated on specific people. (With the unfortunate plethora of media bias and hence agenda, some seem especially fixated \u2014 lookin\u2019 for blame … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “the humanitarian crisis”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-event"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12463"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12470,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12463\/revisions\/12470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}