Jingles for a Refugee Family

[Rhianon]

I'm heartsick and am here for comfort and hope.

I've been involved with a group sponsoring a refugee family. This is a thing folks can do in Canada--you form a group, raise money, and help a family get to Canada. You then support them for a year--financially and in every other way you can as friends. I can't say much about the family for privacy reasons, but we've gotten to know them via Viber (like Skype), and they are wonderful people who have given much of themselves to others and are now deserving of a chance of a future for their children.

Today we got news that due to a government policy change that is no fault of ours or the family, their application may be on indefinite hold. We told them they could expect to get here sometime this year. Now we have no idea. They are hanging on by a thread.

Please hold this family in your heart and jingle or pray for some solution. We are all so very lucky to live in peace and plenty. It shouldn't be so hard to share a little.

[Kyra's Mom]

Jingles to you and the family...such an uncertain world these days.

Susan

[fergusnc]

I am so sorry. Don't give up hope...miracles happen...friends adopted twins from Africa who they were told midway through the process would never be adoptable due to red tape. They were told to pick different children (????!!!!!??) after over a year of having a relationship. Long story, much more time, more trips and more on site support in Africa, but the twins came home with them. And a year or two later, a cousin did as well. The family visits Africa regularly to help their village, raises money for wells and power, helps educate the children. But it was "impossible" per the powers that be. I really hope a similar miracle will happen in your family's situation. Prayers for their safety. Thank you for opening your life like that.

[PaulaO]

Prayers for a swift and happy outcome.

[Tabby]

Jingling!!!!!

[amygdala]

jingles!!!

[Canyon]

Please hold this family in your heart and jingle or pray for some solution. We are all so very lucky to live in peace and plenty. It shouldn't be so hard to share a little.

This is so true.

Jingling for a solution to the situation for you and the family!

[Code3]

I think most of us have no idea what it's like for refugees and others less fortunate. That is why I am embarrassed and sad for what some in my country are representing. Many jingles that things fall into place for this family.

[piedmontfields]

Tons of jingles and heart-holding for all.

Like many in the US, my DH and I are from families of immigrants. It is a harrowing journey to leave one's land and try to get to somewhere safer.

[boots-aregard]

I can't imagine what it must be like for them to have left _everything_, to have _nothing_, then to have some hope dangled in front of them and that snatched away. We really must hold these people close in our hearts, because they have nothing else.

[orono]

Gosh, I hope things can be sorted out so they can still come to Canada. Is there an agency handling the sponsorship can that help cut through the red tape?

[Chisamba]

When we left Zambia on short notice without being able to bring our assets we had very few resources. Literally what we could carry in the truck. At least we could drive and we're not forced to cross an ocean on a dangerous craft, but we did not have resources, no electricity, no phone, no running water. There things did not become available to us until Dad, using the truck we traveled in, brought in money moving freight and livestock.

They made arrangements for a home, and mom started a small local store and driving a rural bus. Every day I spent minding the store and doing my school work.

All this enterprise was based on debt, and my poor mom was constantly trying to pay enough bills to keep going and Dad was always on the road.

Its not easy to start over in any circumstances. You are doing a very fine thing.

[Rhianon]

Gosh, I hope things can be sorted out so they can still come to Canada. Is there an agency handling the sponsorship can that help cut through the red tape?

Alas, no. There is an agency that oversees groups like ours, but they were blindsided by this about-face on the part of the government. We are all organizing to try to put some public pressure on the government to simply let people come through who already have sponsors ready for them.

It's not just our group and the family we are sponsoring, this is happening to sponsorship groups all across Canada, and the families they are sponsoring. We were actively encouraged to engage in sponsorship. Then the door closed without warning. Some sponsorship groups had rented accommodation for families they thought would be arriving soon. Limits, okay if they have to. But not to suddenly slam the door when there is a foot in it.

It's not like it is just a wait for these people. They are unwelcome and in danger in their "country of asylum." Every day is a lifetime of anxiety for them.

Victims of genocide in their home country. Victims of "make a show then shut it down" politics in Canada.

[Rhianon]

Thank you for your jingles and prayers!

It seems we may have a chance of getting their application in if we hurry like heck. (It's a complicated process, I'm working through translators, and you can't make mistakes on the documents, so hurrying is tricky ...)

[piedmontfields]

Thinking of you and your immigrant family. Good luck!

[Rhianon]

I'm so exhausted. We spent two hours on the phone today asking questions prying into the most horrible events in these people's lives. They were gracious. We all cried. It was necessary. Visa officers will ask the same. They need to be prepared.

I have never, ever in my life so appreciated my Canadian passport.

[piedmontfields]

Any update? This is such a hard process. Really makes me remember the tenacity and endurance people have to have to survive as a refuge.

[Rhianon]

Whew. We got their application in yesterday, just under the gun.

Please, please, please jingle I didn't screw anything up. At the last minute there were a couple of major complications and the proofreader couldn't proofread, so it was up to me. And I was going on 3 hours sleep! There are 8 complex forms and dozens of family documents--many of which have to be translated. The translator pulled out all stops to get something done that nobody had told us we needed to get done. It was supposed to get a final check through at the agreement holder's office before it went off. By the time I got home, they'd sent it! Obviously no final check. I felt like throwing up.

If the Lord's willing, the creek don't rise, I didn't mess up, and the officials don't find any holes in their stories, they have a good chance of being here by Christmas.

[fergusnc]

Fingers crossed....it sounds encouraging!

[piedmontfields]

Jingling for all!

[boots-aregard]

If the Lord's willing, the creek don't rise, I didn't mess up, and the officials don't find any holes in their stories, they have a good chance of being here by Christmas.

Jingling for you, but really -- 6 more months? Those poor people!

[Canyon]

Rhianon - any updates?

I hope you and your group are making progress with the bureaucracy!

[Rhianon]

Thank you so much for asking. This has become my life.

Their application has been approved and sent on to Lebanon. Just waiting for them to get their in-person interview and final security check. Now not expected to get here until March of 2017. Nothing to do with their application--it's just understaffing at the Canadian Lebanon visa office. They have to wait for their application to make it to the top of the pile.

We have raised most of the funds we need. We have most of the furnishings for their home. We're set to go. Just need the family.

Because Lebanon is not a signatory to the UN Mandate on refugees, they get no special protection there. The UN recognizes them as refugees, but they are just illegal aliens according to Lebanese law. They are tolerated, but have no legal rights to work, education, or healthcare. Iraqi refugees there are routinely arrested for nothing--just a shakedown to get money out of them. Every day is nerve-wracking. We cannot send them any money--all money raised has to be used to support them here. And it would draw attention to them.

I work with them three times a week on English--over the phone. They amaze me with their resilience and determination. I can't give you details to protect their privacy, but I can tell you that it is astounding what the heart can endure.

And this is timely. They are refugees from Mosul--forced to leave or be beheaded when ISIS took over in 2014 (they are members of a minority faith). At the moment there is an attempt to retake Mosul from ISIS. The UN anticipating a humanitarian crisis greater than anything else going on at the moment. Around a million civilians displaced. (BBC has good coverage.) Family and friends of the family we are sponsoring.

If you pray, this would be a good time to do it.

[Moutaineer]

Thank you for the update. I can't imagine the horror that they and so many other souls are going through in that part of the world at the moment.

And we just fiddle while the Middle East burns.

And no, I don't have a solution that doesn't involve a time machine.

[Canyon]

Yes, thanks for the update. It sounds like the wheels of justice are slowly moving in a positive direction.

Prayers for your refugee family, your group, and that entire messy region.