Faithful Neighboring: How We Can Better Serve Immigrants and Refugees

Every day, US citizens here reports about Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, picking people of color up off the streets of our communities. Whatever our political persuasion, we Christians know Christ’s command to care for “the least of these” brothers and sisters (Matthew 25:31-46) and God’s commandments in Exodus 22 for the fair treatment of aliens and outsiders. So all of us are faced with questions about how we can be better, more supportive neighbors to immigrants and refugees among us.

On Monday, November 16, 12:00 noon to 1:30 pm Eastern Time, the Reformed Church Center will host three people with special insight to the needs and stories of outsiders in our communities in the webinar “Faithful Neighboring: How We Can Better Serve Immigrants and Refugees.”

Bernard Ayoola is the Pastor Director of the African Resource Center of West Michigan, where he leads community based initiatives that strengthen and support immigrant and refugee families. He is a Minister of the Word in the Christian Reformed Church and serves as an adjunct professor of Christian Theology and Church History at Calvin University and Calvin Theological Seminary. Trained in church music and theology, and grounded in an earlier career in civil engineering, Bernard’s work integrates pastoral care, community empowerment, and practical theological scholarship.

As Richard D. Oudersluys Professor of World Christianity at Western Theological Seminary, Ruth Padilla DeBorst teaches about Christian life and mission and intercultural immersion. She serves with the Comunidad de Estudios Teológicos Interdisciplinarios, a learning community with students across Latin America, and the Networking Team of the International Fellowship for Mission as Transformation. She lives in Costa Rica as part of Casa Adobe, an intentional Christian community with deep concern for right living in relation to the whole of creation.

JJ TenClay serves as Refugee Ministries Coordinator for RCA Global Mission. After working in Italy with people on the move from Africa and the Middle East to Europe–many experiencing forced displacement, human trafficking and exploitation–JJ now works with local, national, and global partners to provide compassionate, Christ-like care for refugees and displaced people worldwide, facilitating conversations on global migration & forced displacement and people affected by displacement, and equipping individuals, faith leaders, congregations, and more to live out the biblical mandate to care for people seeking refuge.

As with all Reformed Church Center programs, this webinar is free and open to everyone, but all participants must register online here.