today there is an unprecedented 65 point
three million forcefully displaced
people in the world about 20 1.3 million
are refugees half of them under the age
of 18 in 2015 out of 20 1.3 million
refugees only 107 thousand people were
resettled so who are these refugees
refugees are people like you and I there
are people who had homes they had jobs
they had dreams they had plans for their
future and all of a sudden they lost
everything that they had worked for they
lost them to circumstances that were
beyond their control to oppressive
governments war and famine civil war
religious war and they end up sometimes
here in this country and what is our
response about 19 years ago my family
and I left our home country through a
very difficult and dangerous path and
eventually came to the u.s. we walked
through the river and applies for asylum
here in the US and when we got to Dallas
a church reached out to us and that made
all the difference in the world for us
they loved us and they cared for us they
became our family so when I went to
seminary and finished my assignment at
the church where I was serving I started
a ministry called gateway of grace when
my husband and I were thinking about a
name for this ministry we thought what
is the one thing that really changed my
life and that was grace
you see grace is undeserved unearned
unmerited favor right people from the
church that helped us they didn’t have
to do that they did us a favor right we
received these favors all the time the
reason that you and I are sitting here
and enjoyed this beautiful surroundings
is because of the favours the
opportunities that life has provided for
us right we didn’t decide where to be
born what nationality’s to have what
race or religion those were just given
to us through our families or through
our circumstances but because we have
had those opportunities it doesn’t mean
that we are better than those people who
haven’t had those opportunities hungry
children in in South Sudan right now
right it just means that we’ve had more
opportunities we’ve had more grace but
the thing about grace is that it’s given
to us so that we can share it with
others grace is not given to us so that
we become these self-absorbed people you
know who work all their lives for just
their well-being and their betterment in
the in life right they have been given
to us these Grace’s have been given to
us so that we can share them with those
who are less fortunate so when I started
getting to have grace I wanted to share
the same kind of grace that had been
shown to me and my family with others
who were in the same situation or in
similar situations so Gateway of grace
is a ministry that mobilizes the church
to reach refugees with compassion our
goal is to bring hope to bring joy to
being restoration and healing into the
lives of refugees and into their
circumstances by meeting their practical
needs but also their emotional needs by
furnishing their apartment but also
with them and listen to them when they
are lonely and those are important
issues right doing those little things
matters so much but as we do serve
refugees it doesn’t mean that we have it
all figured out and those are only the
recipients of these favors we are
transformed by the love and mercy and
the grace that is shared we have seen
stories of healing and transformation
all along one of the greatest stories
that I have witnessed is when we had a
gathering and we had a group of Iraqi
refugees and a group of Iranian refugees
and we were having a meal and one of the
ladies from Iraq she had lost the baby
during an air raid during the war
between Iran and Iraq and very clearly
she hadn’t dealt with that because that
was heavy on her heart and as she shared
that she started weeping and at the end
of that gathering the Iranians and the
Iraqis embraced and they started
apologizing for what had taken place
during war so these are the kind of
healings that we are after we want to
bring hope and to communicate that
refugees have Worth and dignity we want
them to know that we acknowledge that
they are somebody right Gateway of grace
has started with nothing and after six
years today it’s the largest refugee
ministry in North Texas with over 70
partner churches and we are really
excited about that
but it wouldn’t have been made possible
this success had it not been for the
faithfulness of all the people who came
alongside with care and love and love
the refugees and serve their refugees
all the faithful partner churches right
it’s not about me it’s not the name
about the name of Gateway of grace it’s
about people who serve
and you all can be you know one of those
people you can be you can take part in
what’s happening in the lives of these
refugees here in North Texas or across
the world no matter where you are in
your life and as successful as that this
ministry has been there has been
challenges and I want to share with you
a few of the issues that I face as I go
about my work every day one of the main
issues that I face is fears and
prejudices and hatred that some people
have toward refugees and immigrants so
where do these fears and hatred and
prejudices come from part of it has to
do with media right the media outlets
that provide the news the problem with
with the media is that all media outlets
are biased there is no such thing as
objective news whether you listen to Fox
or CNN or BuzzFeed or whatever a slit
that you use you get a slice of the
reality it’s like cheesecake imagine a
cheesecake that has different problems
different two slices right and someone
who has never had cheesecake before and
you offered that person is slice of
chocolate cheesecake right if you don’t
offer that person anything else because
the flavor of chocolate is so strong
that becomes the reality of cheesecake
for that person right that person
identifies cheesecake with chocolate so
that’s what the media outlets do for us
they give us the slices of reality with
different flavors and those flavors form
our reality and therefore our opinion
about different issues another issue
that I have that’s another struggle that
I face
all the time is when I go to churches
and I see Christians who don’t like
refugees or immigrants and that is hard
for me I know some of you may not be
Christians and I respect that I’m just
sharing from my perspective what’s my
experience you see in Christianity if
you have if you haven’t read the Bible
the main thread that goes from beginning
to the end of the Bible it’s about
humans losing what they had becoming
refugees over and over and God reaching
out in love and mercy and grace over and
over and God becoming our ultimate
refuge and not only that but God calling
us to be like that in the world for
other people right so it’s very
difficult when you see people who don’t
understand these main concepts there are
hundreds of verses in the Bible about
refugees and immigrants and and helping
the poor and the stranger and oppressed
all those verses are there but most
importantly it’s the whole theme of the
scripture of the Christian scripture
it’s about reaching the poor so the
question is why is it that some
Christians don’t see that part of it has
to do it with it which is what we just
talked about the media outlet right and
then another part of it is our
affiliation psychologists are telling us
moral psychologists are telling us that
the way we form our opinion about
important issues has to do with our
social political groups and affiliations
right they can be our religious groups
they can be our political parties or our
guild or social clubs whatever they are
because as human beings we want to fit
in we want to belong and as close to as
cause these clubs and these affiliations
so do our opinions
now as a Christian for me and these are
mostly harmless right harmless topics
but when when our social of affiliations
take precedence over what God had told
us to do to love and to serve refugees
then that becomes a problem we want to
bring healing and restoration into the
lives of refugees we are all part of one
big human family I’m going to share
another story from the Bible with you
there is a story in the first book of
the Bible it’s called Genesis and about
these two brothers one of the brothers
gets jealous and kills the other brother
Cain kills Abel and then God comes and
God says to Kenny and God says King
where is your brother
and guess what Cain answers he says am I
my brother’s keeper
am I my brother’s keeper well yes you
are if you are not God wouldn’t have
asked you that question we are all each
other’s keepers regardless of our
religion or race or backgrounds before
there was a religion there was this what
we call general revelation there is an
order in – in the creation and part of
that order is that we are each other’s
keepers right so when our affiliations
our religious affiliations our political
affiliations they cause us to forget
that very basic thing we not only lose
our closeness to God but we lose what it
is to be a human
so today
my challenge to you is what is it that
you are going to do to be your brother’s
keeper your sister’s keeper right no
matter what field of study you’re in and
what life is going to have for you what
opportunities you are afforded you can
use all those opportunities to serve
others grace is not about being
self-absorbed or becoming self-absorbed
it’s about sharing the sharing that with
other people and that is what life is
all about is about making each other’s
lives better and it’s about being our
brother’s keeper and yes we are our
brother’s keeper thank you
three million forcefully displaced
people in the world about 20 1.3 million
are refugees half of them under the age
of 18 in 2015 out of 20 1.3 million
refugees only 107 thousand people were
resettled so who are these refugees
refugees are people like you and I there
are people who had homes they had jobs
they had dreams they had plans for their
future and all of a sudden they lost
everything that they had worked for they
lost them to circumstances that were
beyond their control to oppressive
governments war and famine civil war
religious war and they end up sometimes
here in this country and what is our
response about 19 years ago my family
and I left our home country through a
very difficult and dangerous path and
eventually came to the u.s. we walked
through the river and applies for asylum
here in the US and when we got to Dallas
a church reached out to us and that made
all the difference in the world for us
they loved us and they cared for us they
became our family so when I went to
seminary and finished my assignment at
the church where I was serving I started
a ministry called gateway of grace when
my husband and I were thinking about a
name for this ministry we thought what
is the one thing that really changed my
life and that was grace
you see grace is undeserved unearned
unmerited favor right people from the
church that helped us they didn’t have
to do that they did us a favor right we
received these favors all the time the
reason that you and I are sitting here
and enjoyed this beautiful surroundings
is because of the favours the
opportunities that life has provided for
us right we didn’t decide where to be
born what nationality’s to have what
race or religion those were just given
to us through our families or through
our circumstances but because we have
had those opportunities it doesn’t mean
that we are better than those people who
haven’t had those opportunities hungry
children in in South Sudan right now
right it just means that we’ve had more
opportunities we’ve had more grace but
the thing about grace is that it’s given
to us so that we can share it with
others grace is not given to us so that
we become these self-absorbed people you
know who work all their lives for just
their well-being and their betterment in
the in life right they have been given
to us these Grace’s have been given to
us so that we can share them with those
who are less fortunate so when I started
getting to have grace I wanted to share
the same kind of grace that had been
shown to me and my family with others
who were in the same situation or in
similar situations so Gateway of grace
is a ministry that mobilizes the church
to reach refugees with compassion our
goal is to bring hope to bring joy to
being restoration and healing into the
lives of refugees and into their
circumstances by meeting their practical
needs but also their emotional needs by
furnishing their apartment but also
with them and listen to them when they
are lonely and those are important
issues right doing those little things
matters so much but as we do serve
refugees it doesn’t mean that we have it
all figured out and those are only the
recipients of these favors we are
transformed by the love and mercy and
the grace that is shared we have seen
stories of healing and transformation
all along one of the greatest stories
that I have witnessed is when we had a
gathering and we had a group of Iraqi
refugees and a group of Iranian refugees
and we were having a meal and one of the
ladies from Iraq she had lost the baby
during an air raid during the war
between Iran and Iraq and very clearly
she hadn’t dealt with that because that
was heavy on her heart and as she shared
that she started weeping and at the end
of that gathering the Iranians and the
Iraqis embraced and they started
apologizing for what had taken place
during war so these are the kind of
healings that we are after we want to
bring hope and to communicate that
refugees have Worth and dignity we want
them to know that we acknowledge that
they are somebody right Gateway of grace
has started with nothing and after six
years today it’s the largest refugee
ministry in North Texas with over 70
partner churches and we are really
excited about that
but it wouldn’t have been made possible
this success had it not been for the
faithfulness of all the people who came
alongside with care and love and love
the refugees and serve their refugees
all the faithful partner churches right
it’s not about me it’s not the name
about the name of Gateway of grace it’s
about people who serve
and you all can be you know one of those
people you can be you can take part in
what’s happening in the lives of these
refugees here in North Texas or across
the world no matter where you are in
your life and as successful as that this
ministry has been there has been
challenges and I want to share with you
a few of the issues that I face as I go
about my work every day one of the main
issues that I face is fears and
prejudices and hatred that some people
have toward refugees and immigrants so
where do these fears and hatred and
prejudices come from part of it has to
do with media right the media outlets
that provide the news the problem with
with the media is that all media outlets
are biased there is no such thing as
objective news whether you listen to Fox
or CNN or BuzzFeed or whatever a slit
that you use you get a slice of the
reality it’s like cheesecake imagine a
cheesecake that has different problems
different two slices right and someone
who has never had cheesecake before and
you offered that person is slice of
chocolate cheesecake right if you don’t
offer that person anything else because
the flavor of chocolate is so strong
that becomes the reality of cheesecake
for that person right that person
identifies cheesecake with chocolate so
that’s what the media outlets do for us
they give us the slices of reality with
different flavors and those flavors form
our reality and therefore our opinion
about different issues another issue
that I have that’s another struggle that
I face
all the time is when I go to churches
and I see Christians who don’t like
refugees or immigrants and that is hard
for me I know some of you may not be
Christians and I respect that I’m just
sharing from my perspective what’s my
experience you see in Christianity if
you have if you haven’t read the Bible
the main thread that goes from beginning
to the end of the Bible it’s about
humans losing what they had becoming
refugees over and over and God reaching
out in love and mercy and grace over and
over and God becoming our ultimate
refuge and not only that but God calling
us to be like that in the world for
other people right so it’s very
difficult when you see people who don’t
understand these main concepts there are
hundreds of verses in the Bible about
refugees and immigrants and and helping
the poor and the stranger and oppressed
all those verses are there but most
importantly it’s the whole theme of the
scripture of the Christian scripture
it’s about reaching the poor so the
question is why is it that some
Christians don’t see that part of it has
to do it with it which is what we just
talked about the media outlet right and
then another part of it is our
affiliation psychologists are telling us
moral psychologists are telling us that
the way we form our opinion about
important issues has to do with our
social political groups and affiliations
right they can be our religious groups
they can be our political parties or our
guild or social clubs whatever they are
because as human beings we want to fit
in we want to belong and as close to as
cause these clubs and these affiliations
so do our opinions
now as a Christian for me and these are
mostly harmless right harmless topics
but when when our social of affiliations
take precedence over what God had told
us to do to love and to serve refugees
then that becomes a problem we want to
bring healing and restoration into the
lives of refugees we are all part of one
big human family I’m going to share
another story from the Bible with you
there is a story in the first book of
the Bible it’s called Genesis and about
these two brothers one of the brothers
gets jealous and kills the other brother
Cain kills Abel and then God comes and
God says to Kenny and God says King
where is your brother
and guess what Cain answers he says am I
my brother’s keeper
am I my brother’s keeper well yes you
are if you are not God wouldn’t have
asked you that question we are all each
other’s keepers regardless of our
religion or race or backgrounds before
there was a religion there was this what
we call general revelation there is an
order in – in the creation and part of
that order is that we are each other’s
keepers right so when our affiliations
our religious affiliations our political
affiliations they cause us to forget
that very basic thing we not only lose
our closeness to God but we lose what it
is to be a human
so today
my challenge to you is what is it that
you are going to do to be your brother’s
keeper your sister’s keeper right no
matter what field of study you’re in and
what life is going to have for you what
opportunities you are afforded you can
use all those opportunities to serve
others grace is not about being
self-absorbed or becoming self-absorbed
it’s about sharing the sharing that with
other people and that is what life is
all about is about making each other’s
lives better and it’s about being our
brother’s keeper and yes we are our
brother’s keeper thank you
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