COLUMBUS, Ohio (BP) – It happens with a couch or mattress. It happens with two chairs facing each other across a table.
While refugees’ initial days and months in America can be complex and filled with paperwork and immigration meetings, churches have learned that there are direct, simple ways to meet needs.
Not long after it began six years ago, Living Hope Church in Columbus was helping deliver donated furniture on behalf of a group of non-profit organizations. It became apparent that the items were going toward a growing migrant population consisting of those from the Middle East and Central America.
The white, middle-class community that Aaron Taylor, Living Hope’s pastor, had grown up in was rapidly changing.
“There are pockets of these communities around with people moving in from all over the world, and it opened our eyes,” he said.
The need grew, and soon the church took it on as its own. It began with a question to their non-profit partners: What would they like to see available to the refugee population?
The answer was a furniture store.
“About five months after that, we opened a ministry center next to our church that now serves 12-20 families a month on average,” Taylor said. “It stays stocked through approximately 12 non- or for-profit groups, so it doesn’t cost the church.”
Sometimes new mattresses arrive by way of a nonprofit donation. Coffeemakers and toasters get to the shelves through Walmart overstock. Recliners and other furniture items with small scratches or dents that prevent them from making the showroom floor are more than suitable for clients of the Living Hope ministry center.
“When we step in, in many cases we’re able to provide the large items for, say, a two-bedroom apartment,” Taylor said. “It changes the game for families.”
One essential need has brought major benefits to children trying to acclimate to American schools.
“We’ve provided children with beds and have heard back from school counselors that the child came to their school and had low grades and was always tired. They would have a lot of emotions to process still,” Taylor said. “They’ll get a bed of their own and six or eight weeks later the counselors will say it isn’t the same kid. Their entire demeanor has shifted.”
Further east, about 20 members of Pillar Church in Dumfries, Va., help with the English as a Second Language classes that benefit primarily those who have fled Afghanistan since the Taliban retook the country in 2021.
Pastor Colby Garman said the benefits go both ways.
“The conversations with our people have brought another level of understanding [for the situation],” he said. “It puts a face on what is a challenging problem and what it’s like to build a new life in America.”
His wife Annie taught ESL for years in public schools and brought those concepts to the English immersion classes.
The people his church serves are not believers, but the time together has led to discussions about faith.
“Many of them had family members who were killed and they’re trying to figure out what’s next. It has become an open door for the Gospel,” said Garman, whose church lies just south of Washington, D.C., and is located near Marine Corps Base Quantico, where more than 3,700 Afghan refugees were received and cared for when the Taliban took over.
In Columbus, Taylor has seen similar benefits to his church stepping forward to help.
“It’s been good for us,” he said. “I remember [former SBC president] J.D. Greear asking years ago that if our church closed its doors, would the community know we were gone? This has been a good way for us to establish a presence for our church that is meeting a tangible need.
“It has also led us to become a multilingual, multiethnic church. We have people from seven nations. Our worship services are two languages. We’re starting to see the diversity of the community finally reflected in our church.”
