Refugee Ministry Deepens In 2021, for the seventh consecutive year, Mercy House Global conducted more than 100 in-home refugee visits. Six of these refugees consistently created product for Mercy House Global and were paid as home workers. With every visit, encouragement was provided, needs were assessed, conversational English was practiced, and help was offered with daily tasks, such as answering questions about bills and assisting with medical appointments. During times of crisis, Mercy House Global held food drives, collected and delivered necessities, provided counsel, and intervened in difficult situations. Mercy House Global has worked extensively for more than two years with a refugee and his family to start a catering business. We supplied the curriculum and tutoring for his food handling and manager’s license over a six-month process. We connected him to a local church, helped procure the use of a food truck, provided marketing and logo design, scheduled catering gigs, hired him for Mercy House events, and offered opportunities for our donors and volunteers to support his business—all as a way to support this family. In the final months of 2021, Texas accepted more than four thousand people seeking refuge from the turbulence in Afghanistan. Many had only a few hours’ notice to flee and arrived with just the clothes on their backs. Mercy House Global saw this challenge as an opportunity for Christians in Houston to welcome our new neighbors from the Middle East. In partnership with YMCA International, Mercy House Global staff and volunteers helped with grocery deliveries, airport pickups, and setting up apartments for our new neighbors as they got settled. We were honored to help them transition to a new life, language, and culture in 2021, and we look forward to continuing this partnership in 2022.
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