Serving Refugees with World Relief

Transcript: 

Jeremy:
I am here with Alex from World, I'm going to say it wrong, I just knew, what is it, Alex? World

Alex:
Relief. Yeah. World relief. Not Vision, not

Jeremy:
World Vision. World Relief. Gosh. I was like all ready to go and then all of a sudden it just hit me as so world relief. Great. And so Alex, tell us who you are and where you're from and your official title at World Relief.

Alex:
Yeah, so yeah, my name is Alex Irby and I work for World Relief. I'm from Burleson, Texas, is where I grew up. So just south of Fort Worth and live in Dallas. I've lived in Dallas for the last, I guess coming up on five years now, which is crazy. And my title with World Relief is Church Mobilizer and Good Neighbor team coordinators. So I help with all of our church relationships in Dallas and then our Good Neighbor team programs. So teams of people that want to welcome refugees, I get to help come alongside and coordinate that.

Jeremy:
Yeah, that's quite the title. I think every time I try to remember it all is out there. It's

Alex:
A lot. It's big. Yeah,

Jeremy:
Yeah. But it's a big job though. So I guess real quick, let's start off with what is World Relief in a nutshell? How would you describe it to somebody?

Alex:
Yeah, so World Relief is a Christian humanitarian nonprofit organization. Their heart and mission is to empower local church to serve the most vulnerable. And so in the US we are a refugee or settlement agency. So a lot of welcoming refugees that are coming for the first time to the cities around the US that we are working in. And then internationally, it's a lot of just helping mitigate reasons why people are having to, might have to flee to begin with. And we're coming alongside local churches in those places. A lot of natural disaster responses too, and just really helping to step in where there might be immediate need internationally.

Jeremy:
Yeah, so I think I told you this before, but this work was not on Journey's radar at all. And in fact, when I came to listen to the presentation or I heard about the presentation, I still had no idea what I was getting myself into. And the way that I got turned onto it is there's a Facebook page, Facebook group for millennial clergy members that I'm a part of and one of the people in there just said, Hey, we're coming to talk to the DFW area, come and listen. And I was like, oh, that sounds interesting. Maybe I should go if nothing else, get free lunch out of it how the ministry world works sometimes. So I said, I'll get free lunch. I told Jonathan that, Hey, I'm going to go check this out. Do you want to come with me? He said, yeah, sure, why not?

So we, we listened to this presentation about word relief and immediately our wheels started spinning for what we could do to help out world relief and to come alongside as partners through this, through something called the Good Neighbors Team, which we'll get to here in just a little bit. But this problem of refugee and asylum seekers, not problem, but this language gets used a lot to I think kind of sometimes muddy the waters of who is good and who is bad and what's the appropriate response. And one of the calls we have at Journey is to follow the ways of Jesus and to be present. And so following Jesus is the great commission and to love God and love your neighbor. That's what we've been talking about this whole series is loving God and loving your neighbor and who is your neighbor. And then being present is just acknowledging that wherever we are at, there's work to be done, which is kind of what I think World Relief does very well because it partners with churches that are local. Right. So you're working with people directly in the area where refugees are being resettled, right.

Alex:

Yeah,

Jeremy:

I think we could talk. So let's talk about some of this language then Refugee and asylum seeker and all that. I'm going to pull up the slide and then we'll kind of start there and then we'll go backwards through what the narrative is that World Relief sees through scripture and all that. So lemme pull up, let's start with this one. I think this is an interesting slide here. So talk just a little bit about the 110 million

Alex:

So worldwide and these numbers. I think before October of this year, it was closer to 108 million people worldwide that are forcibly displaced. And yeah, I think a lot. And the last year is why those immersive increased a lot is even you think about the Ukrainian crisis and with Afghanistan, and it feels like in the last couple of years too, the global crisis have just continued to increase a ton. And so yeah, we're at now, which I think is probably a record in the sense of how many people worldwide actually displaced. And so I guess the U-N-H-C-R, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees categorizes within forcibly displaced people into different types of descriptions of where people their statuses or where they're at in that process and be how they got there. And so with forcefully displaced, they kind of break it down into different categories of refugees, asylums, asylum seekers, IDPs, which are internally displaced peoples and thens which are the special immigrant visas, people that work for the military or the government, IDPs that are internally within their own region and displaced. And I think on Sunday we talked about in Ford out in Texas that you had to, and we had to flee to New York, then we would technically be considered internally displace people.

Jeremy:

I think the last week or the Sunday before I had shared about moving to Texas, so I'm originally from Ohio and I just celebrated two years of Texas living in November. And I shared with them how even little differences there were confusing and jarring. Something as simple as registering your car, we register our car at different dates in Ohio, it's on your birth date, but in Texas it's on the day that you register your car. So I registered the car in June or something crazy like that. My birthday's in July. So that's just enough of a hiccup to make it confusing. And I came with all of my stuff and my family and a welcoming environment and a job and I was ready, I was taken care of and it was confusing. So to think about just picking up with nothing or very little and being stressed because of what persecution or war or whatever, it's just sometimes incomprehensible to me and it's hard to fathom, I think, for a lot of people. And you said 110 million, I think it was very interesting. Do you remember the statistics you gave on Sunday for how much that represents in the world population as a whole? It was pretty small, right?

Alex:

Yeah. It's only 1.4% of the world's population. I think I googled it and it's like today there's estimated around 7.8 something billion people in the world. And so yeah, that's just something that is kind of just eyeopening in the sense of that's actually a small percentage, but then you see 110 million and you're like, that's a lot of people. So it's kind of this interesting dynamic, but at the same time it's like, man, those are people that are made in the image of God and that he caress about and he loves and that are in a lot of difficulty right now. Like you said, they're very overwhelmed. There's a lot of trauma you've gone through. Yeah. So it's 1.4%.

Jeremy:

Yeah, I just looked up, I was very curious about that number because on the one hand, you're right, it seems like, oh, okay, it's only 1% of the population, but that's the macro level of it. But the micro level is those are 110 million people. And what that is is the DFW area, Dallas Fort Worth, that's two cities, which if you're not from this area, I think is kind of cheating because they're actually 45 minutes apart, but whatever, that's a whole different story, a different gripe for this area, but that's 7.2 million or something like that. So that's over 10 DFWs of people that are displaced. And when I put it like that, at least that's a lot of people. I mean, could you imagine 10 of these cities, this area, this metro area of people that are just kind of lost in a sense and sometimes for a long time. So let's talk about, I guess some of these actual definitions so you can get the technical terms for people to have a frame point. So here are what you had given us. So walk us through some of these.

Alex:

So refugees are probably the largest category that we see. And specifically at world relief, we majority are working with refugee people that have refugee status. And so yeah, refugees are, again, people fleeing from their home country due to fear in one of those areas of race, religion, nationality, or some kind of particular social group or opinion. But for a refugee, they have to cross a national border into a second country in order to apply for refugee status. So if you're trying to, the war breaks out in Syria, you can't apply for refugee status. So then Syria, you have to cross over to the neighboring home country and then apply for refugee status, which is a lot of processes and screenings, and it takes a really long time for that to happen. And then assignee. So there's a similar reason for why they're fleeing, but they've had to travel to a US port of entry.

So they show up at one of the ports of entry and then they state their claim there at the US border and then are granted asylum while they're in the us. And then asylum seekers are really just a term for those that they've come and stated their claim, but they're still waiting to be granted their site lease status, a world relief tech. We don't see a ton of asylum seekers. There are some good, there's actually an organization called Dash that's in Fort Worth that just works with asylum seekers because there's a lot more difficulty with that when you're an asylum seeker and you're coming and you're kind of in this weird limbo time. So there's a lot of needs and assistance that asylum seekers have. And then the SIV cases would be those who partner with the US government, military, and their home country and their lives are endangered in some kind of way. And again, the Afghanistan crisis is a good example of SIV cases because a lot of the people that were being flighted on all those massive planes that came over were working with the US government. And so they were kind of expedited in that process under a special gram visa.

Jeremy:
I had never known about that SIV test. That one's kind of important for I guess myself and some of the people, I was in the military for a while, so we knew translators and people who helped us. So that was an important one, and I think I saw some of the miscommunication and trying to understand what some of these statuses are. And I guess then, just to clarify a little bit further, refugees aren't necessarily going to be refugees are people that have just fled to different country because of an immediate need. So Ukraine, they flee to Germany, and when they're a refugee in Germany, they might get resettled somewhere else, but an asylum seeker is they're trying to seek asylum in the country that they're entering. Is that kind of the difference?

Alex:
I believe so, yeah. I'm still, I've worked on staff now for nine or 10 months, and all of this was new to me even coming into this. And so I'm still learning and trying to understand all the technical terms. But to my understanding, yes, that is, that is accurate. A lot of Ukrainians, and even today there's a lot with Cubans and Haitians and Venezuelans that are having to flee. And a lot of, I know Ukrainians, a lot of them are coming on what's called a humanitarian parolee status, and I think similar to some of the Venezuelans Haitians. And so those are more a temporary acceptance into the us and so that there's an expiration date on that. I think it's around, it's a two year thing. And so that has to then be, the government has to decide, hey, are we going to extend this or are these people going to have to, are they getting safety first this period of time? But then they're going to have to go back to their home country once expires

Jeremy:
Expires. So it's kind like you're going to hang out here until the war's over and then we'll send you back over. Gotcha.

Alex:
Okay.

Jeremy:
Yeah, so interesting.

Alex:
Yeah, and I think there was somewhat, for some of the Afghans that were coming, there was a similar thing. I know that a lot of the clients that we serve, they were kind of nervous on that two year when this past August came up of expiration dates of things happening. And I think it was extended, but there are different, which is I think also an important just encouragement of advocacy for families that are coming. And there are ways that we can help advocate within even the government of our local senators and just people for different policies, for just helping our refugee neighbors that are here that are maybe living in that kind of uncertainty if they're going to be able to stay or not stay.

Jeremy:
Yeah, there's so many moving parts. I think. Yeah,

Alex:
There really are

Jeremy:
Dealing with real lives and real people. I thought you put this slide up on Sunday. That's interesting. So out of the 110 million people that were forcibly displaced, and I do want to take a moment here to pause, and that word forcibly is important because I think sometimes people think, oh, well, you chose to leave your country or you had to leave. But again, I just want to reiterate that most of the time people are leaving for safety. I think that even Jesus, when he was surrounded by crowds, slipped into the cracks of the wall to escape being persecuted at the point that he was. So there's very real fears that you're forcibly removed, not because you want to leave your homeland or you want to leave the country that you call home, but because if you stay, it's going to be really bad. And so 110 million people forcibly displaced, 62.5 are internally displaced, which is what you had said earlier.

People are kind of shuffled around their home area and not really leaving their countries. 36.4 million are refugees. Those again are the people that have fled to a second country because of whatever has happened in their own country. 6.1 million are asylum seekers, which is, I think that number was shocking to me. I think here we have people that watch this from different states and around the country and stuff, but in Texas, that's a huge talking point that everybody's coming in here to seek asylum and they're like trying to scheme everybody, but it's 6.1 million people. And you had pointed out on Sandy that most of these people are not 110 million people here that we're looking at are not in the United States area. We're pretty low on the list of people that are coming.

Alex:

Yeah, so I think it's 1% of, I don't know if it's of the 110 million, but it's a very small percentage that we actually end up getting resettled all the way to the us. And so majority of refugees will end up, I think it's a 76% is a statistic that I heard of refugees hosted are hosted in low and middle income countries. So, which is just crazy to think about where there's already people already fleeing and then they're being resettled in a country that's already maybe in a difficult spot themselves. I think a majority of refugees end up in Turkey, Iran and Germany I think are maybe the top three host nations worldwide for refugees around the world, which even is crazy to think about with the Turkey and the earthquakes that happened, a lot of where the earthquakes happened were Syrian refugees that had fled from Syria and were being hosted in Turkey from the Syrian crisis in 2015. And then, so they're even more so a lot of the people within Turkey in that time period were probably considered internally displaced people's IDPs, but yes, yeah, majority is not actually coming to the us. A lot of them are in other parts of the world. So I think that to me, that just shows how even farmer removes, we actually are from the crisis at large,

Jeremy:

And I only point that out to just not downplay, I suppose, the Vera real struggles that certain communities face because of an influx of people wherever. But it is kind of I think, helpful to take a step back to look at the bigger picture, to see what's actually happening so we can better allocate our resources and our energies and really sometimes our fears, I guess. I don't know that there's work to be done and we're just got to keep going. And so this is all important. And I did want to bring up, I love this part. You kind of give this grand narrative throughout scripture of why this is important. And I'm going to put this slide up here and don't have to, if you don't have your notes right here in front of you, unless you're a rock star and you have all these spots memorized, but just kind of go through the whole narrative from really the beginning to the end of scripture.

Alex:
Yeah, yeah. And I learned, someone shared this with me when I was in college, and it was just really impactful for me to see, because I know we see the grand narrative of scripture in the sense of God is writing a story of saving people and that is what this is, but also even a grand narrative of what he's inviting us into as followers of Jesus. And I think it's really helpful because I think when we talk about missions, when we talk about outreach, it can often be like, that's for those select people or the few. But really what I love about this is it just kind of shows throughout scripture that this is for every follower Jesus, and it's something that God is inviting us into. And so yeah, and Genesis 1 28 is really just this commissioning for God is saying to Adam, be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth and to do it.
That's kind of the command and the task at the beginning. And then in Genesis three, that's when the fall when sin enters into the world. And so this kind of image is being marred of like, okay, God's design is to fill his image all over the world and multiply, be fruitful, and then sin comes and kind of crushes that in a sense. And then we see sin on full display. One example of that is in Genesis 11 when the Tower of Babel scene and these people are basically wanting to just make an image and name for their own selves and not for God. And so they kind of get together and they start building this tower, and it was as high as the heavens, and God clearly didn't like that he only wants to be worshiped and glorified and not a man. And so he confuses their languages and so they can't communicate with one another, and then he scatters them throughout the world.

And so that's kind of where we see people groups forming, languages forming, which was very eyeopening to me whenever I was first learning that. And then you get into Genesis 12, two and three, and this is really just the call of Abraham and God's plan he says, is to that through Abraham, all nations will be blessed. And then we see themes of God blessing the nations throughout the Old Testament, even not just in the Great Commission, but one Chronicles 16 is an example of that where I think that verse says something along the lines of declaring God's glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all peoples. And even scriptures like Psalm 46, 10, that's a very classic one of be still and know that I'm God. But the second part of that verse says, and I will be exalted among all nations. I'll be exalted in all of the earth.

And so it's this, it's both. And it's like, yes, be still no God, but he's like, I'm doing something among the nations. And then Galatians three, seven through nine is really just kind of this addition to, Hey, God blessed Abraham and said through all nations will be blessed, but those who are the children of Abraham, the children of faith inherit that same blessing. So that means that through the children of faith, all nations also will be blessed. And so we have that command and responsibility alongside Abraham, which is just really beautiful as this beautiful thing that God's given us as believers to steward that we've been blessed with salvation and the gospel to bless the nations.
And then Matthew 10 is just an example in demonstration that the gospel first went to the Jews and this gospel of the kingdom that we read about throughout the gospels is for the Jew. And then in Acts one, eight, it talks about that that now extends to all nations from Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, to the ends of the earth that this gospel should go forth. And then Matthew 28 is the great commission where Jesus tells his disciples to go and to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, son and the Spirit, and that he will be with us as we do this. Then we see even further into the New Testament, Paul, who we know how fierce he was to share the good news of Jesus, but his ambition, he said, was to preach the gospel in Christ where it had not yet been named.

And so taking the gospel to some of the most least reached places of the earth. And then we have these beautiful pictures in Revelation, revelation five nine is I guess a promise that or a picture of God redeeming people from every type tritan nation. And so that he had done that for when Jesus died on the cross, that was for every Tritan nation and people on the earth. And then Revelation seven, nine is an image of the completion of that where there will be a before the throne that all people from every Trianga nation are standing and worshiping the lamb. And then even if you'll look at Revelation six, nine, it talks about even that people will be killed and put to death for bringing the good news to all nations. And so yeah, anyways, that's kind of the gran out of scripture and what God's up to and inviting us into. So yeah.

Jeremy:

Yeah, that's cool. I think that I say this, it is not just to clarify that somebody even had this question yesterday that people you won't turn world relief will not turn away people from help if they're not Christian, right? So the idea is, from what I've heard, all the talks so far is that these narratives and these beliefs through scripture shape and form who world relief is, which then causes them to act because their neighbors are the people that might not look like them or believe like them or act like them. But because that's who we are compelled to be even based on some of these scriptures that we have up here, is the Leviticus I preached on this one before a funny story. A stranger resides, sorry, when a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall do him no wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you and shall love him as yourself for you or strangers in the land of Egypt.

I'm the Lord your God. Just a quick aside, I preached a sermon on this end. I mean, the first question that somebody came up to ask me after a half hour, who knows? I'm going to say it's a really good sermon, but who knows if it was, it did not resonate with this person. He said, if an immigrant came into our church right now with the bomb strapped to their chest, what would you do? And I just looked at him and I said, I don't know what would a sane person do? But that's just kind of this idea of where the warped view of others can come into play that I don't think if you know that whole grand narrative of redemption, we do know the story of Jesus comes back to save us from our sins. That's kind of the personal side of it.

But I mean, the reality is we exist now before that the ending happens. We are in the current midst of broken world right now. And so sometimes the best thing we can do is just bring a little bit of light no matter what. And one of the things we try to say at Journey is so it's follow the ways of Jesus and to be present. So follow Jesus and be present in our neighborhood and then give generously without expectation of return. And that helps keep us humble that what we can give to others is not so we can get them to come to church necessarily because I think that shapes and warps our mission, but is that so people can be blessed because we have first been blessed. And I think an outpouring of that is it radically changes the interactions you have with people.

Alex:

That's because we know the story. And I think going back to what you said earlier of just these people aren't coming, they're not just coming to come per se, they actually are grieving having to leave their home country, and they weren't expecting that that would happen. And so yeah, I think that can be a misconception. I think a lot when thinking of refugees or people coming and through these specific processes, I know there's a lot of different types of way that people are coming, but so I think when we can actually see them as real humans with real lives and real stories and put ourselves in their situation and they're humans too, then I think it can help us break through some of those things that I don't know, some of that might be the enemy. I think he does a lot of trying to divide and bring disunity and put up walls and barriers between different types of people. And there could be a number of things of reasons why there can be such hostility. And a lot of refugees do face hostility in coming to the us, but I think it's good to recenter our hearts on, okay, what does scripture say? What does God's heart for all peoples and for the foreigners that are coming?

Jeremy:
So with that, I want to bring up the mission then of World Vision. Lemme pull this. And so we'll do mission and then vision and then how that plays out from both the structural side of you all and then how you guys partner with us as local churches and what that kind of looks like. So we'll start with mission, then the vision, and then we can talk about both sides of them working together.

Alex:
Yeah. So with the mission, again, it's to empower the local church to serve the most vulnerable. And so yeah, world relief. We really do believe that the church is a key player in welcoming our new neighbors to the communities around us. And so the church is one of the largest, most culturally diverse two organizations within the world. And there's a unique calling and responsibility for the church to, and the church is uniquely equipped to respond to the crisis, to needs to this reality. It's like governments, nonprofits, they're going to come and go, but the church truly will remain and is ultimately God's pillar and the strength and light to communities across the world and to these families that are coming. And so that why, yeah, this ISS World Relief's mission and our vision is to partner with local church and to really see the vulnerable people transformed in a holistic manner and really believing that when clients are served more in a holistic approach, that they're able to truly thrive and integrate well into their new communities.

Jeremy:
One of the things that I think really draws me to an organization like World Relief is what drew me to the Church of the Nazarene. So we don't really talk a lot about our denomination is the Church of the Nazarene. And it is one of the statistics, somebody, we're one of three truly worldwide church denominations in the sense that we plant churches in different countries and have leadership structures in different countries, and they all report to a global centers like us in the Catholics, and I forget who the other is. But anyways, what I like about it is we have the idea of going this vision that you have. We have an arm called the Nazarene Compassionate Ministries, which oftentimes are some of the first people to go to natural disasters and stuff like that because we have churches literally in those areas already that can already start providing the ground support.

And if we don't have that, then we have missionaries. A lot of other churches have missionaries, but so we have this big worldwide network to help and to not only just take over the country or to send, I dunno, don't, not imperialism. We're not trying to send a bunch of white people out to a bunch of different countries and make them just like us. It is about empowering the local person, the local church, where they're at to empower their community. So that's what really draws me to this. It's not just about rescuing somebody to feel good about yourself, to provide the resources so that they can then go forth and be successful as well, and not as look at what we did, but that's what we were called to be, which goes into these three focus areas of which you all do. Let's see if it'll switch slides here, the vital services, adjust and welcoming community and bring people together. It seems like so simple when you break it down to these three things, right?

Alex:
Yes. So simple, but also very complicated, but providing vital services. So that's not necessarily unique to world Relief because any resettlement agency, so of I think there's like nine to 11, 10 or 11 federally recognized resettlement agencies in the nation that work with the Department of State. And so providing vital services are really just the things that the government is telling is saying, Hey, if you're applying for refugee status here, these are the things that we're going to provide. And so there's a list of services that we are providing for these families, which is so helpful because if we didn't have those, then that would be a really difficult situation that people are in. But we do believe that some of our best work is done is really through the building, just milking communities and bringing people together. And so really with building just Milk communities is just really trying to empower and educate our community churches just in any way that we can so that we can really welcome people that are coming well, and then do that in partnership with the local church.

And so yeah, we want our clients ultimately to integrate and invest into the communities that they're in and have long-term be self-sufficient. And so that is our hope is doing that and empowerment through empowerment and education within the communities and then with the clients themselves. And then bringing people together is really just this idea that engaging with people from different cultures is really a mutually transformative experience for everyone that's involved. And so we want our clients to be cared for, but we also want to see our cities and communities transformed by the knowledge and experience that our immigrant neighbors are bringing to the table. And so really, even as we see in God's Heart for all people is that there is something really beautiful when we're sitting across the table from a Syrian family or an Afghan family, and we're getting to have that interaction and communicate in exchange and learn about one another's cultures and relationships. And there's something really beautiful that I think reflects the heart of God in that. And so yeah, those are kind of our three focus areas.

Jeremy:
And I think that last point is so important about a mutually beneficial relationship because I think some people can very quickly turn into, I have all the power, I have all the knowledge, I have all the resources, I have all you can really Lord it over them. But really it's a position and a posture of humility that you're going to serve somebody else who is in a difficult spot in their life. And like you said, through that, we get to see, I think the heart of God, the creation of God in front of you through somebody else. And that's a very cool thing, I think. And if you've never had that opportunity, and that's not even just through just sitting down with somebody else from a different culture, I mean just to pick their brain is a cool thing to do, and we also get to do that then here. Well, you all get to do that through providing those resources and hopefully enriching people's lives. And we do that through the Good neighbor team. So tell us a little bit about what the Good Neighbor team is.

Alex:
So a good neighbor team program is really an opportunity for a small group within a church or just a team of people that want an to welcome and walk alongside a refugee family for, we kind of put a timeframe just for, I dunno, clarity's sake for everyone about six months, but knowing that those relationships can for sure go beyond that timeframe. And so yeah, good neighbor teams are really a beautiful, honestly, within a church context, a great discipleship opportunity as a group, getting to live for a season together in some even missional community rhythms of learning to work together and to communicate and coordinate and serve together, I think is a good way for us to grow. And so I think it's a beautiful group opportunity to do together to learn how to be the hands and feet of Jesus and to grow in empathy and a lot of things, and a practicality.

They walk alongside the refugee family for six months, and then you work alongside the good neighbor team coordinator at World Relief, and then the caseworker that's assigned to that individual family, and you're building relationships, investing relationally at the same time, helping provide some of the core services, which I see you have that on the slide up there. And so there's a variety of things that kind of go into the good neighbor team and that caseworkers provide, but we just kind of off of the nine stability factors that we looked at on Sunday, just kind of thinking like, Hey, what's the holistic approach here? And so wanting to provide opportunities for good neighbor teams to step into some of just practical needs. And so some of that is fulfilling some of the core service requirements that we have provide as an agency on behalf of the government for these families, but then some of those opportunities helping them set up a bank account that's not technically a core service that we have to provide, whereas securing housing is a core service that we have to provide.

So the good neighbor team is kind of a mix of opportunities of things that we feel like would help a family flourish while at the same time helping provide some of those core services. And so things like helping them get to medical appointments or thinking through short-term or long-term transportation options. So they need to, where's the nearest bus route that they can get on since they don't have a car when they arrive? Or can you help enroll them in their children in school? What is that process in the study of Dallas? And just really kind of walking and taking them hand in hand at first, but ultimately to model for them, Hey, this is how you do this, and then hopefully the next time they can maybe do that by themselves or will need a little less assistance so that ultimately they can really be set up for success to thrive in their new community.

Jeremy:
Yeah, it seems like the word I thought about when you were explaining this on Sunday and the meeting before, it's almost like being a parent really fast and teaching as many American life lessons as you can in a short amount of time. And then I think the interesting thing that you have as part of this requirement with a good neighbor team is that six month commitment. Because if I remember correctly, you said that the government requirement roughly is about 90 days. So 90 days is what the government essentially, or whoever says, this is what we have to get. That's three months. I mean, that's nothing. Going back to Texas, I've been here for two years and I'm still learning stuff. You know what I mean? Yes. So to be like you got three months to, and again, uproot. So some of these people have been waiting for multiple years in a refugee camp, like 10 years, 15 years, and it's like all of a sudden they're like, oh, green light go.

And then, okay, so maybe you've even settled there for a decade and gotten used to that lifestyle from wherever you came from. And they're like, okay, let's go. And they put you on a plane and they fly you here, and here you go. You get three months of government assistance and you're on your own. So the good Neighbor team I think is fascinating because you're committing for six months, which I would imagine love or hate, six months is enough time to get people set up, and hopefully it blossoms into a good friendship and relationship beyond that

Alex:
As well. Yeah, for sure. I know when I lived in Arizona for one year, and it took me, I feel like, yeah, over a year to, I feel like just it was time for me to end up leaving. I'm kind of starting to get my feet settled, and I'm like, that's in America. I speak the same language. And so yeah, imagining coming from a really difficult situation and then completely new language and context, it's going to take a while for you to feel more acclimated.

Jeremy:
For sure. Well, I think what we're going to do then is we're going to offer this opportunity. The people in Dallas have already been offered the opportunity to sign up for this good neighbor team, and I know we'll have to get maybe a little bit creative with some of our online people. I said, some of 'em live in different parts of the country, but maybe this can spark something for them. Oh, I have a list of which states you're in, I think, right? You have a list of states that, so if you happen to be watching from one of these states, or even one of these countries, because here you said mostly we, you all do

Alex:
The reset.

Jeremy:
Yeah. Resettlement. But if you're in a different country, you might be doing other stuff as well. And if world Relief is not in your city, then there's other, you can always help the whole cause by looking for different organizations as well. But here, if you live in California, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, or Wisconsin, then you'll have a world relief group around you. And you don't have to be a part of a church to be part of a good neighbor team. You can just get your friends together like a bunch of do-gooders.

Alex:
We had a nonprofit team that they actually did similar work, but they were like, we want to do a good neighbor team together. And we're like, great. Sign up. So yeah.

Jeremy:
So it could be like your book club as long as you were committed to serving people who

Alex:
Serving families.

Jeremy:
Yeah, yeah. Need it. And then International Burundi, Cambodia, Dr. Congo, Haiti, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, South Sudan, and Sudan itself are the world areas that you have put up here for us to know. So yeah, so I think if you are a part of that, then by all means connect. If you are more interested in helping us, you can just let us know. I'll put a signup thing here in just a couple minutes, and then we'll go from there and figure out how to integrate you. But part of this is just helping you to know what we as Journey are doing with the help of Alex and World Relief, and we are super excited to be a part of it. Alex, thank you so much for joining us on here.

Alex:
Yeah, thanks for having me.

Jeremy:
Yeah, sharing your experience and your story, and we'll see you again, I'm sure. So it sounds great. Any parting words you got for us?

Alex:
I don't think so. Yeah, I just thank y'all. It's a gift to be here.

Jeremy:
Cool. Thanks. Well, I'll see you all later and we'll catch you soon. Okay.