New World Outlook - Summer 2017 - Open - 7

Ros Ruiz, of Oakland, California, hiked through the desert of southern Arizona in order to place water for
migrants crossing from Mexico into the United States. She was part of No More Deaths, a group dedicated
to stopping the deaths of migrants along the border.

New World Outlook

SUMMER 2017

PHOTO: PAUL JEFFREY

enlivening our churches in Germany,
Italy, and Ireland," he said. In this
issue of New World Outlook, Global
Mission Fellows and missionaries working with immigrant populations and congregations in Ireland,
Germany, Belgium, El Salvador,
Mexico, and the United States have
contributed stories about what they
are finding among the people of God
in their places of assignment.
Just before the April board meeting, Global Ministries hosted two
meetings on Global Migration, bringing together members of the United
Methodist Immigration Taskforce
and representatives from a number
of different UMC agencies, as well
as representatives from partner organizations, such as Church World
Service (CWS), an ecumenical organization that is one of nine registered
refugee resettlement operations in
the United States, and the National office of Justice For Our Neighbors. Erol
Kekic, a staff member of CWS, said
that while globally 1.2 million people need resettlement, global capacity exists for resettling only about 15
percent of that number. The average
length of stay in a refugee camp today
is more than 21 years, he added.
Kekic also said that refugees who
resettle with church sponsors are
five times more likely to be successful in the integration process than
those in other kinds of situations, so
CWS tries to find church sponsors for
all refugee resettlements it coordinates. The organization is struggling
to find enough congregations to step
forward and hopes to encourage 200
new United Methodist congregations
to sponsor refugees in 2017.
Participants in the meetings also
discussed what's happening in the
United States, particularly since
the election of a new president and
a number of executive orders he
signed in his first 100 days of office

that dealt with immigration and enforcement. Bishop Carcaño of the
San Francisco Area, who chairs the
Immigration Taskforce, said that in
her area, parents are being arrested
in immigration raids while their children are in school. The children are
unaware of what is happening to
their parents.

A Call to Migration
Ministries

The articles in this issue focus on the
different ways the church is moving
to accompany migrants and displaced
people who end up on the margins of
society. As mentioned above, United
Methodist missionaries, whose presence in migrant communities is increasing (currently 41 out of 340),

and continuing work with immigrants
in the United States and around the
world is United Methodist Women.
The national office currently produces resources in multiple languages addressing immigrant needs and
concerns, and it sponsors mission
studies that focus on education and
personal transformation for participants. A section of United Methodist
Women's website is devoted to global migration resources and content
at www.unitedmethodistwomen.
org/immigration.
Global Ministries administrates
four racial/ethnic ministry plans that
reach across international borders in
church development and service-
Asian American language groups,
Korean ministries, Hispanic/Latino

Rob Rutland-Brown, executive director of the National Justice For Our Neighbors, addresses
members of the global migration gathering held at the General Board of Global Ministries'
offices in Atlanta, Georgia. PHOTO: CYNTHIA MACK

have contributed most of the stories.
The United Methodist Committee
on Relief (UMCOR), founded 77
years ago specifically to address the
global refugee situation created by
World War II, continues to answer
the call to ministry with refugees and
other migrants displaced by natural disasters, wars, and persecution.
In the last five years, it has allocated
$5 million to projects assisting refugees from the conflicts in Syria and
Iraq. Another agency with historic

ministries, and Pacific Islanders.
Resources collected and provided by
National Plan for Hispanic/Latino missionaries can be found on pp. 24-25.
Another section of this issue focuses on the work of Justice For
Our Neighbors, an UMCOR-founded,
now separately incorporated, program providing free legal assistance
to migrants in the United States.

Christie R. House is the editor of New
World Outlook magazine.

http://www.unitedmethodistwomen.org/immigration http://www.unitedmethodistwomen.org/immigration

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of New World Outlook - Summer 2017 - Open