John's Next Step

Imagine you and your children have been repeatedly attacked because of your race, nationality, religion, ethnicity, or social group.  Really think about it. You try everything to keep your head down and protect your children, but still there are death threats.  You move to a different part of our country but persecution and danger continues.  What would you do?  Would you try to find safety and opportunity for your family in a different country? As discussed last week, you can apply to be a refugee while you are in another country.  However, if you are at our border or already in the country then you have an international and national right to apply for asylum. The asylum process is long and difficult.  Just to start there is a 12 page form to describe the threat faced.  The threat must be based on race, religion, social group, nationality, and ethnicity. If the threat is based on some other factor it doesn't matter how real or serious you will not be ...

I wanted to share a little of what I’m learning about refugees to our country.  Refugees are human beings who have been forced to flee persecution, war, violence to save their lives and those in their family they can help escape.  They didn’t volunteer to become a refugee and it can never be an easy decision, but if we know their stories we can understand and admire them.  We can offer assistance from our hearts  Learning and sharing some of their stories is one way to help. A refugee is given legal status in international law through a series of clearances and reviews.  Their best solution is to eventually safely return to their homes .  If that is not possible perhaps asylum in a neighboring country is typically preferable.  Resettlement in a distant country is a last resort, but a necessary one in our community of nations and human family. Strong, brave, hard working. The process to come to the states as a refugee is very involved as shown in the di...

My apologies for the delay in this post. I’ve been working to find my next step during this pandemic and it has taken some time to have something to write. Ethiopia and Peace Corps  After my sudden evacuation I was hoping to help my mom around the house and return in November of last year, an early tentative date proposed by Peace Corps. The continued pandemic and sad political events in Ethiopia continue to delay target dates. A return might be this November or maybe later.  I feel for the strong, brave, hard working, intelligent people of Ethiopia. They have had to face a locust plague, the global pandemic, and political unrest that turned horribly violent. When Peace Corps reopens the current rules would rule out returning to my site and probably my region due to health and security issues. I continue to pray for Ethiopia and the amazing people. God willing I will return, but I’ve decided to find another service opportunity at home.   Volunteering  As reader...