Shalom and warm greetings from Jerusalem.
Here is a press article for you.
1Tishrei 5776 – Sept 14th 2015
Re: Rescuing Refugees – One Family at a Time
by Dr Jay Rawlings
Day by day watching current international TV news reports, one witnesses a flood of humanity flowing out of Africa and the Middle East towards Europe. Their search for refuge is too often accompanied by tragedy at the hands of ‘wicked’ handlers who charge enormous sums to lead them to a ‘promised’ land. Terrorism and war are driving these ‘desperate unfortunates’ who have lost everything and therefore take impossible risks in order to reach somewhere, anywhere… that has to be better than the hell they have left. Seeing the police enforcements, the walls of barbed wire, dogs, and tear gas used against sick and poor harkens back to post WW2 days when Jewish refugees fled their prison camps and looked homeward to Palestine with no one to help them. But, God had made provision for his people thousands of years before. There was no other precident like it known in human history. And to this very day, Jews continue to ‘return home to Israel’ from the Ukraine, France and North America. The obvious difference is that the flow of today’s refugees is not from Europe but into Europe!
Like many, I have been deeply moved by the plight of the refugees ongoing isolation, pain, hunger, thirst, desolation and weariness. The blatant insufferable indifference they encounter from the oil rich nations in the Middle East, I find almost impossible to grasp. There is little if any compassion for such hapless souls who are obvously, not wanted, and have no where to turn.
Refugees have swollen to numbers not seen since WW2. Today, they comprise one of the greatest challenges to face our post modern world! According to the June 2015 report by the United Nations High Commission on Refugees, there are now more than 60 million refugees globally. This is the highest total ever! That number is growing by a staggering 42,500 people per day. Half of them are children. No organization or country exists with the necessary geographic, demographic or financial depth required to absorb this mass of homeless humanity. If they were a country they would be the 24th largest in the world. This is the grim reality.
Looking at the problem as a whole it seems insurmountable. What can one person do? We have a precedent established during the Holocaust. There were brave souls who risked all in seemingly hopeless conditions, and lives were saved! Change begins when one person reaches out to another person. The essential missing element from the current seemingly hopeless equation is this one to one action. Let us never underestimate the fact, that, ordinary people still choose to do extra-ordinary things! Ancient inspirational instructions to the human heart can lead to wise and successful actions, which will make profound differences in the affairs of men.
For you have been a defense for the helpless, a defense for the needy in his (her) distress, a REFUGE from the storm, a shade from the heat, for the breath of the ruthless (warmongers and terrorists) is like a rain storm against a wall”. Isaiah 25:4
I see the nations, especially in Europe, desperately trying to decide what to do with the refugees on their borders. We honor those citizens of Austria, Germany, Sweden and other nations who have opened their arms and hearts to succor the helpless. Many kind souls bring them food, water and clothing. We are witnessing “people to people power”. Ordinary folks are making a difference, and this grassroots movement must never be underestimated.
This summer, as I gave 65 lectures across Canada from Ottawa to Vancouver, I challenged Christians and Jews to “adopt” an individual refugee or family. My family and I have successfully seen eleven refugees saved from destruction and death to be given a new life in Canada. Such action is not only possible, it is happening, right now in amazing places. Inertia is overcome when one is moved with determination and compassion to “do something”. In Judaism we call it “healing or repairing the world, or in Hebrew, “tikun ha Olam”.
I am delighted to tell you that after struggling for 7 years and losing two children in squalid Ethiopian refugee camps, our adopted refugee family of seven, the Dobuols, from South Sudan: have finally arrived safely in Toronto. They have settled into their rented apartment with the assistance of a local “community sponsor” led by Pastor Teck Uy and his Filipino church; of whom, many are new immigrants themselves. Michael is now working, while his wife Nicole is studying English in order to become a nurse. Their five children are in school and nursery care. We also applied for immigration for Michael’s cousin and his family. The latest news is that they too are to receive their Permanent Resident visas for Canada, any day now. He hopes to be a pastor for his own people in Canada. One of the secrets in this success story is that I refused to take “NO” for an answer from beaurocrats, and never stopped working for their release.
Our Israel Vision NGO administrator in Germany, Harald Goldsche and his family have now adopted a family of Christian refugees from Georgia, FSU. This traumatized family of five live in a renovated apartment above the Goldsche’s home near Bremen. This means that our small NGO with offices in Israel, Canada and Germany has now rescued seventeen souls.
Meanwhile, my wife Meridel, a psychologist, continues her private counseling. This week she will mentor fifty counselors from across Switzerland, at a seminar in Zurich. Organized by “Heartwings” an NGO that lead street workers in several “red light districts” is taking the initiative. They requested that she speak out of her own life experience, and teach “how to” reach the traumatized and plundered. She is raising funds to help support the on going work of her Nepali “adopted” daughter, Indira, a former Dalit. Indira, a political scientist, has rescued more than ninety children, out of brothels. Her girls and boys, range in ages from 4 to 16 years. We called her the day of the earthquake in April 2015, her voice rang out loud and clear, “Moma, we are ALL just fine” she exclaimed, from the center of ravaged Kathmandu. Indira continues to rescue children from lives of sexual slavery. These young Nepalis become impoverished refugees destined for India, the West and the Muslim world. Defying fear and tradition she is the only person in the history of Nepal to have had a pedophile and a rapist imprisoned for decades for their heineous crimes against children.
Some people ask, “What is Israel doing for the Syrian refugees?” Please remember that Syria has been at war with Israel since the 1967 Six Day War. However, during the last four years, since the start of the current civil war in Syria, Israeli medical personnel have cared for more than one thousand seriously injured Syrians. Inspite of border crossing challenges, rockets and mortar shelling into Israel, the number of incoming victims from all sides grows daily. In this case Israel is caring for her enemy. The humanitarian needs of the critically wounded Syrians eclipse the security needs of Israel.
Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked…P 82:14
Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his Maker, but he who is generous to the needy honors Him. Proverbs 14:31
You too can be a vital part of this rescuing work. The needs are everywhere. Your, actions, prayers, words of encouragement and “adopting heart” make “loving your neighbor” not just a spiritual ideal but a reality for everyone, everywhere. Adopt a refugee family today and you’ll never be the same again… and neither will they!
For more information:
Drs. Jay and Meridel Rawlings,
Founders of Israel Vision
Canadian/Israeli writers and documentarists live in Jerusalem.
tel +972 54 752 4488
email: jvrawlings@gmail.com
www.israelvision.tv
www.stillsmallvoice.tv
Thanks for your prayers, word of encouragement and financial help that makes all this possible.
Jay and Meridel