Life in a Palestinian refugee camp is a combination of desperate conditions and also a hopeful disposition by many of the refugees who live there.
Conditions in the camp reflect a high unemployment rate, particularly among youth. In the refugee camps of the Gaza Strip, the unemployment rate reaches over 50%. Most young people, particularly women, do not find the opportunity to work. Likewise, in Jordan and Lebanon, unemployment among youth in the refugee camps there reaches nearly 40%, making life in these camps quite difficult for young people. Read more »
November 21, 2019
Living in a Palestinian refugee camp
Life in a Palestinian refugee camp is a combination of desperate conditions and also a hopeful disposition by many of the refugees who live there.
Conditions in the camp reflect a high unemployment rate, particularly among youth. In the refugee camps of the Gaza Strip, the unemployment rate reaches over 50%. Most young people, particularly women, do not find the opportunity to work. Likewise, in Jordan and Lebanon, unemployment among youth in the refugee camps there reaches nearly 40%, making life in these camps quite difficult for young people. Read more »
Fifteen years after being sent to Iraq as a U.S. soldier, the Rev. Matthew Fricker felt compelled to return in response to a higher calling.
“I felt affection for the country, and I could feel God calling me back to this place because of the needs of the churches over there and the needs of all the Iraqi people,” Fricker said. That calling, he added, extended to his personal need for healing and reconciliation. 
As the new year begins, McGregor Presbyterian Church its pastor, the Rev. Julie Walkup Bird, are looking ahead with renewed energy and excitement as the result of a two-year program to enhance congregational vitality.
McGregor Presbyterian Church in Columbia is one of the churches in South Carolina’s Trinity Presbytery that participated in the two-year Vital Congregations initiative. 
A Catholic priest, a charismatic layperson and a Presbyterian pastor met with the patrol officer in charge of the Douglas border patrol station to discuss possible responses to the increased number of people dying while migrating in Sulphur Springs Valley, the valley in which Douglas, Arizona, and Agua Prieta, Sonora, Mexico, sit. The “prevention through deterrence” border policy instituted by the Clinton administration, the economic boom of the 1990s and the devastation of the Mexican economy had turned our sleepy and isolated valley into the primary crossing point for unauthorized migration into the U.S. As a nation, we chose deserts and mountains as deadly deterrents to migration. Our policy is intentionally lethal. 
On World Communion Sunday (Oct. 6), individual members of Temple Terrace Presbyterian Church (TTPC) in Florida lifted a loaf of bread from a country where they had lived and recited the words of institution in the language of that country — Arabic, German, Spanish, Greek, Tamil and others. 
Refugees and migrants are at the heart of the mission and calling of Protestant churches in Italy. The geopolitical position of Italy in the Mediterranean Sea has made it one of the European countries most involved in the dynamics of migration. 
“Yes! This is what’s missing in the church. This is what I’ve been seeking.”
It was my first year of doctoral studies in spirituality. I was immersed in the spiritual classics course, a three-semester deep dive into the writings of Christian spiritual masters throughout history. 
Like most recently released ex-offenders, Craig Rockenbach faced the challenge of reentering the workforce carrying the stigma of a criminal conviction. 
Does enough exist? Is there ever enough time, money, sleep, love, faith, justice, energy or peace for us? Why does it feel like we are always lacking in these and other areas of our lives?
While reading Ellen Davis’ “Getting Involved with God,” I was struck by a passage in the chapter “Greed and Prophecy: Numbers 11.” 
The root causes of migration are many. The answers are sometimes elusive. But Presbyterian World Mission, its mission co-workers and global partners are working together to find those answers.