refuge Archives

Minute for Mission: United Nations Day 2021 – Vision for a Better World

Posted September 22nd, 2021

On this day in 1945, the United Nations Charter came into force. “We the Peoples of the United Nations determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war … to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbours …”

Outdoor sanctuaries: Churches find potential in their property

Posted July 28th, 2020

It’s a weekday afternoon in Parsippany, New Jersey. The bumper-to-bumper morning commute has long been over; the harried evening rush home has yet to begin. Still, the traffic whizzing by Parsippany Presbyterian Church has not let up — nor will it. “Thousands of cars” easily pass by the church daily, the Rev. Donald A. Bragg explains.

One Great Hour of Sharing gifts save lives and livelihoods in famine-stricken countries

Posted May 27th, 2020

Before a hunger emergency struck Somalia, Hawo Abdi and her husband were successful herders near their country’s border with Kenya. However, two years of intensive drought parched the land to the point that they could no longer raise the camels, cattle, sheep and goats that supported their pastoralist lifestyle. The country’s civil war added further complications to the situation. As her family faced economic ruin, Abdi’s husband died, and at the time of his death, she was two months pregnant with the couple’s fifth child.

Do you speak mission?

Posted March 26th, 2019

Every morning when I wake up here in San Jose, Costa Rica, I wonder what the day will hold. A trip to the hospital? A phone call from a family in need of food? Over and over in recent months, I have been reminded that being a mission co-worker of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) means standing alongside those in need. Accompanying vulnerable people means entering into their vulnerability and experiencing the unpredictability of life for those who have fled to a new country in search of refuge.