New team in training to coordinate Quito refugee project

Work with the refugee project never ceases to be an enormously busy task with tough challenges in trying to stay on top of hundreds of complicated and difficult cases of families that continually arrive, mostly from Colombia.

During the past year alone, I interviewed 333 refugee families and followed up on many of their cases through our different aid programs and personal accompaniment. It continues to amaze me how many refugee families find their way to our small church looking for help. Almost more amazing is how much the refugee project and the church are able to accompany, support, improve and transform family situations.

On a daily basis, refugees arrive on the church’s doorstep who have no food to eat, place to sleep, medicine to treat their health conditions, or hope for a brighter tomorrow. It no longer surprises me when people arrive in desperate situations; our church is place of constant refuge.

It is difficult to put into words what this has meant for my own life and for the church, but I am convinced that our work forms a small part of the giant global network that struggles each day to tangibly build the Kingdom of God among us.

Another source of hope is the new refugee coordination team. After several years of working by myself in the tiring task of coordinating the project, it is a source of much joy and relief to have fresh faces and minds. I am confident that the refugee project with thrive with the new team. Over the past month, I’ve been immersed in a busy time of transition with the new coordination team, teaching them the ins and outs of how things function in the project, in Quito, and in refugee circles.

In the course of training the new team, I’ve realized how much I have learned and how much I will miss working with the refugee population when I am gone. It has been one of the richest experiences of my life.