Adventist humanitarian aid agency launches refugee campaign at La Sierra

The online campaign officially gets underway June 20, on World Refugee Day, through ADRA.org/refugees. ADRA’s activities at La Sierra served as a preview of June activities which will include participation in an Adventist Church World Refugee Day on Sabbath, June 18, as designated by the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. The purpose of the day, among other things, is to inform the world church of the refugee crisis, report what Adventist church organizations are doing to help refugees, to encourage prayer for refugees, and to offer opportunity for Adventists to help meet current needs of refugees.

ADRA is seeking pledges of support and advocacy for the world’s 60 million men, women and children who have been forced by violence to leave their homes and seek safety elsewhere. Those who pledge to serve as advocates agree to support refugee resettlement in their own countries and communities as recognized by Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The declaration was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948 as a first common standard for the universal protection of fundamental human rights.

The ADRA refugee webpage provides personal stories of refugees’ experiences. They include an interview with a 14-year-old boy who fled with his family to Europe. He describes traveling by truck for many miles, packed in so tightly with other refugees that breathing was difficult. “I do not want to remember a lot of the scenes I saw,” he says in the article.

Jonathan Duffy, president of ADRA International on May 3 served as speaker for La Sierra University’s chapel service. He described the plight of refugees and of poverty and disease-stricken populations around the world with a particular focus on children. 

“Why is it that our compassion for others seems to be directly correlated to whether people are close to us socially, emotionally, culturally, ethnically, economically and geographically?” he asked. “How might God think about the issue? Does He look at the suffering of a child in Cambodia or Malawi with a certain sense of emotional distance? Does He forget about their pain because He is preoccupied with other things?”

During a portion of his talk, Duffy asked the audience to clap in time with a drummer who was situated on the stage and beat a drum once every three seconds. As the audience clapped to the beat, Duffy read off statistics about hunger, literacy, sanitation, human trafficking, numbers of refugees and other issues. He concluded the exercise by telling the students, “Every time you clap, a child dies in this world.”

The data he cited included references to 900 million people who live in a permanent state of hunger, 20 million people who live as refugees and internally displaced persons, 2.2 million children who die each year due to lack of immunization, and 15 million who are orphaned due to HIV/AIDS. 

He talked about the one million refugees who streamed into Europe in 2015, an unprecedented number that sparked a crisis. “We now see countries closing their borders to them,” he said.

“In every one of these people we see the face of Christ. We recognize that how we treat them is how we treat Christ,” said Duffy. “What statement do we make as individuals, as a university, as a church, in how we engage in this refugee crisis? Are we willing to champion issues of justice even if they are unpopular?”

Following chapel, ADRA personnel stationed at a couple of booths outside of the Dining Commons handed out decals promoting awareness of child hunger and literacy issues, large post cards seeking support for refugees, and pins and black t-shirts printed with the message, “I Support Refugees.”

Erykah St. Louis, ADRA digital strategist said, “We want people to be comfortable with the idea of refugees. We want students to be advocates. We believe things will change as people talk. That’s what we as Christians are called to do.”

A few students seated near the booths reacted to Duffy’s presentation.  “I think it’s wrong. It’s a terrible thing,” commented Braxton Tynes, a junior neuroscience major in reference to the Syrian refugee crisis and border closings.

“It was pretty eye-opening,” said Mia Lauria, a freshman computer science major. “It really makes you aware of the problem.”