THE MINISTRY OF WELCOMING THE STRANGER:

Refugee Sponsorship for Congregations

As Christians we act in love and compassion, reflecting God’s love for us. God’s word directs us in ways of hospitality and shows us the source of strength and wisdom for every service we do in God’s name.

In 1946, Canadian Lutheran World Relief (CLWR) was created to help people displaced by the Second World War. Our commitment to refugees continues to this day through refugee sponsorship. Your congregation can be part of this legacy.

Refugee sponsors act to “welcome the stranger.” In return, they have the privilege of developing new friendships and learning about a different way of life.

“I think people are always looking for ways to enact their faith. Refugee sponsorship is the perfect vehicle for this. It has definitely given the congregation a sense of being in mission beyond the walls of the church.”

—Pastor Brian Wilker Frey of St. Ansgar Lutheran Church, Toronto

WHO ARE REFUGEES?

Refugees are people

who have been forced to leave their homelands and can’t voluntarily return
who have been persecuted because of their race, religion, nationality, social group or political opinion

Our government helps a set number of refugees come to Canada each year. Canadians increase this number by privately sponsoring refugees through Sponsorship Agreement Holders like CLWR.

Refugee Portrait: A Family Reunited

Epiphania lost her husband and her home to the Rwandan genocide. She thought she had lost her two sons, Francois and Emmanuel, as well.

Epiphania fled Rwanda in 1994 with her four remaining children and was living in Tanzania when the family received sponsorship from First Lutheran Church, Vancouver, in 2003.

As First Lutheran helped the family settle into their new home, the whereabouts of Francois and Emmanuel haunted Epiphania. CLWR staff began to search for the boys. Six months later, Francois and Emmanuel, now young men, were found in a Malawi refugee camp. They had survived. First Lutheran immediately submitted a sponsorship application, and in 2009, after 15 years, the family was reunited in Canada.

WHAT DOES SPONSORSHIP INVOLVE?

Sponsorship is a one-year commitment to support refugees as they adjust to life in Canada. You will provide or help them access:

Food
Clothing
Housing
Transportation
Health care
Education for children
Job and language training
Employment

Your congregation will provide friendship, teach about life in Canada, & learn about the newcomers’ culture, values and religious beliefs.

FINANCIAL COMMITMENT

In Full sponsorships, committees cover basic living expenses for one year. For one refugee the financial commitment is about $9,000 ($21,000 for a family of four), though in-kind donations will lower that figure.

In Joint-Assistance & Family-Linked sponsorships, the government or a family member living in Canada covers any costs.

HOW TO BEGIN

Contact CLWR. We’ll help your congregation set up a sponsorship committee and review refugee profiles.
Work with CLWR to complete paperwork and communicate with Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC).
Begin fundraising and make a settlement plan, designating tasks among committee members.

Sponsorship Snapshots

First Lutheran, Calgary, welcomed 18 members of a Sudanese family in September 2010. The five men are employed and all family members are receiving ESL training.
	Afghanis Fatima Noori and her son Kareem are settling in their new home in Scarborough, where Kareem has found work at a meat market.

Iraqi Bataa Eldakan and two of her children, Suha and Hussein, arrived in 2010. They were sponsored by Advent Lutheran Church in Toronto, which initiated the sponsorship as part of its 40th anniversary celebrations.