Diaspora Missions: Loving Refugees, Immigrants, and Other Neighbors

Mar 03, 2022

Immigration. Urbanization. Diversity. Refugees. These are the issues and reality of our times. A few years ago, Syria flooded our screens, last year Afghanistan, and today Ukraine. The movements of people all around the world is undeniable and the refugee situation continues to unfold before our eyes.  

A couple weeks ago, I sat with a Bhutanese family and heard their story. They had been exiled from their home in Bhutan to refugee camps in Nepal for over 20 years before landing in the Atlanta area. We found that we had mutual connections in Nepal, including one of my closest Bhutanese friends from church, as well as connections in Minneapolis and Pittsburgh. Now they and their people are scattered to urban centers in a handful of countries around the world.

 

This scattering, coined The Refugee Highway, is more than just a map of figurative on-ramps, weigh stations, and off-ramps for refugees. It is a scar – a scar of loss, brokenness, and uprootedness, a scar of sin on our globe. We can choose to look at this from the perspective of loss, where sin rears its head as we hang our heads in defeat. We can choose to look at it politically and enter into the heated debates of our day. Alternatively, we can look at it theologically: perhaps God in His providence, despite the scar of sin, can use uprootedness for His glory and honor. Could the Lord be ordaining the times and places where people should live?

 

 

“From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us,” (Acts 17:26-27).

 

In addition to refugee uprootedness, there are many reasons for this scattering including opportunities for education, economic advancement, job relocation, and a whole spectrum of nuanced circumstances. A general term for this dispersal of people outside their home country is diaspora, and in the mission world today, cross-cultural ministry in all of these contexts can be considered Diaspora Missions or Diaspora Missiology.

When we think of the mission enterprise in the 21 st century, there still seems to be a notion amongst many Christians that it exclusively takes the gospel to places geographically distant. Though we know that urbanization and immigration is the narrative of our day, somehow we can miss the memo that this too influences Christian mission. As our cities become more and more diverse with the diaspora from all over the world, we can choose to turn to skepticism and fear or turn to opportunity and hope.

Joining Jesus in Diaspora Mission 


The recent refugee crises have resurfaced the issue and the great need for God’s goodness and hope. In addition to immediate relief efforts, consider these simple ways to join Jesus by getting involved in your local context.

  1. Pray, pray, pray. The Lord is showing you that you have neighbors from around the world. Begin to pray for them. Ask the Lord to give you His heart for your new, changing community. 
  2. Know your community. A drum I have been beating for years is to get out of your car, walk around in places where internationals live, and make observations. Who do you see? What activities are taking place? What do these things tell you about your neighbors? Eventually you need to open your mouth and introduce yourself. God will give you the courage and direction to do so.
  3. Brainstorm creative access points. Sometimes half the battle is finding an authentic way to get to know our new neighbors. Volunteering at an ESL class, joining a soccer league, visiting a local community center, attending an ethnic church, frequenting an ethnic coffee shop consistently – the opportunities and access points are nearly endless.
  4. Learn some basic greetings and exchanges in your new neighbor’s language. This effort is minimal but can go a long way. There is nothing quite like seeing a Bhutanese, Somali, or Hmong neighbor’s face light up when you greet them in their language. As you get to know more and more people from a population, you may be surprised by your desire to continue learning their language in hopes of deeper conversation.
  5. Be consistent. Let this new interest become a habit. Don’t give up too early as it will be challenging at first. Stick with it.

There are so many wonderful ways to get to know and serve the diaspora. Missionaries move to foreign lands all the time, often returning within a few years before they know much about language or culture. Just when they start to get to know how a country works, they come home. By contrast, you know your country. You may have lived here your whole life. You sit in a unique place to guide internationals along when they are new to the country, and a beautiful dance of give and take between cultures can occur. Diaspora mission is not just for professional missionaries. You can engage right where you are. Pray. Walk up and down the street. Say hello. Learn a few new phrases in another language. Do it often. Watch God do only what He can do!

Written by: John Trotter

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