“Dear Pastor, Thank you so much for your sponsorship! You have given us at LIRS a reason to celebrate, knowing that another refugee family or individual now has a chance for a new life to begin, thanks to you… We deeply appreciate your partnership in the ministry of the Church. It is our hope that this resettlement experience will result in many blessings for you as well as for the refugees.”

-Letter from Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service to Resurrection Lutheran Church, Dec. 6, 1984

 

There’s a folder full of resources in my (Pastor Beth’s) office from the mid 1980s when RLC was involved in work to resettle Vietnamese refugees in the United States. Some of the resources are very practical: a list of Vietnamese language books and pamphlets and a checklist of responsibilities for sponsors to carry out, for instance. There’s a whole booklet of worship resources for a “Refugee” Sunday,” including pages of Bible verses about welcoming the stranger and immigrant, fact sheet bulletin inserts, and children’s sermon resources. There’s also the letter, quoted above, welcoming RLC into a partnership with LIRS (recently renamed Global Refuge) on behalf of the refugees who would enter into the Ankeny community.

Lutherans and Iowans both have long histories of welcoming refugees– and as Lutheran Iowans, we inherit the best of both traditions! When the war in Vietnam led to those displaced by violence or politics fleeing their homes, there was only one state that welcomed them: Iowa. Republican Governor Robert Ray, after seeing the conditions in Vietnam and the contributions of the Vietnamese who collaborated with U.S. troops, insisted that welcoming refugees to Iowa was the right thing to do. He even went to President Ford to get policies changed to allow refugees into the country. By the time RLC got involved nearly a decade later, networks of Lutherans had developed all over the country, and especially here in Iowa, to welcome refugees. Through this work, thousands of displaced people found homes in the U.S., so that by today, whole new generations of Americans have the opportunity to flourish.

Yet, this work was not without controversy. Among the questions and answers in the fact sheets was a concern about whether accepting refugees might come at the expense of Americans whose families had immigrated generations earlier. The pamphlet replied: “Keeping refugees ‘out’ implies that we are the sole keepers of whatever benefits and freedoms God has given us– and that we have totally forgotten where we have come from. Our nation of immigrants was founded on the hopes, dreams, and labor of our immigrant predecessors. But it is true that there are many Americans today who are suffering as well…Compassion for a refugee does not mean any less compassion for an American in need… But it means not giving in to negative powers that would close us off from God’s endless source of love and energy or that would blind us to those who need our love and friendship.”

What a beautiful reminder that the call to welcome comes from God’s endless love, not our own, often limited, supply. There is always enough room in God’s family for us to gain another sibling. The challenge might have been trusting not just in the “enough” of abstract gifts like love and friendship, but the concrete needs like housing, employment, and school enrollment. Given how wholeheartedly Iowans/ Lutherans responded to the call to resettle refugees, I think they got the message. They took the abstract truth: God has made us one family in Jesus Christ; then they acted on it in practical, concrete ways. 

Since we are heirs of the tradition of welcome to those who need it, care to those fleeing violence and upheaval, and support to immigrants like our own ancestors who came in search of a better life, let us use that great inheritance! We can continue to work with faith-based organizations like Lutheran Services in Iowa, ELCA’s AMMPARO strategy, and Global Refuge to support refugees and asylum-seekers. We can follow the example of Governor Ray and advocate to our law-makers, for entry into the U.S. for refugees and asylees, especially those like the Afghan refugees whose support of the U.S. has jeopardized their safety in their home countries.

As we do, I trust that the hopes of that 40-year-old letter in my office will come true once more: for “many blessings” upon us and those whose “new life” can begin.