Refugee Christmas Project

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Refugee Christmas Project is an annual initiative to live out the vision and mission of World Relief, empowering the local Church to serve the most vulnerable. The fruit of this project is immeasurable. While thousands of gifts (which include much-needed items like coats, winter clothing, shoes, technology, gift cards, bedding, etc) are purchased by local churches and delivered to dozens of high-need refugee families at Christmas time, the most important fruits of this project are the relationships formed.Many local churches are unfamiliar with the diverse cultures, experiences, ministry opportunities, and unique needs that exist among neighborhoods just 5-10 miles away.

Each year, Refugee Christmas Project distributes approximately 150 unique “booklets” with images, names, and brief biographies of local refugees. Gift sponsors are encouraged to write notes or send photos along with their donated gifts so that refugee families can know that they have not been forgotten. That this city welcomes them. That the Church welcomes them.

The refugee families who receive these gifts on our Distribution Day are consistently more overwhelmed by the handwritten notes and photos from their sponsors than they are by the generous gifts. Upon the completion of Refugee Christmas Project, local refugee families know that their are Americans who have prayed for them, thought about them, bought for them, written to them, and want them to succeed. This gift is priceless.

The goal of Refugee Christmas Project is to connect local churches with local refugee families. Although generous Christmas gifts play a large role in the project, they are not an end in themselves, but a means to an end… a platform on which the Church can stand and be the hands and feet of Christ. It is our delight for Project sponsors to follow up with the families they sponsored by becoming Friendship Partners and developing meaningful, long-term relationships.

If your family or church group is interested to sponsor a local refugee family with needed items this Christmas 2013, please contact Chad Yates at cyates@wr.org. The deadline for sponsorship commitment is October 31, 2013.