October 17, 2024
MACON, Ga. – Georgia Baptists have been offering a hand up to help Afghan refugees streaming into the state to begin new lives after their home country fell to the Taliban.
Beth Ann Williams, leader of women’s ministries for the Georgia Baptist Mission Board, said an estimated 300 to 350 Afghan refugees have arrived in the state so far and some 1,500 more are on the way, all needing assistance from the state’s Christian community.
Williams, speaking to the Georgia Baptist Executive Committee on Tuesday, said people sometimes think engaging other cultures is the task of the International Mission Board, but, she said, the influx of refugees has opened the door for churches to engage with an unreached people group in their home state.
Mission Georgia, the Georgia Baptist Mission Board’s initiative to share the gospel within the state’s borders, is assembling churches to meet the immediate needs of Afghans settling in Alpharetta, Atlanta, Duluth, Marietta, Clarkston and Savannah.
“We’ve got several churches and ministries that are visiting the families and meeting needs, helping them get food and clothing, helping them set up apartments,” said Lorna Bius, a mobilizer for Mission Georgia. “The immediate needs are food and warm clothes. They need coats. They need shoes. Most of them came only with what they were wearing. They need everything.”
Bius said most of the families are in temporary housing, awaiting apartments to open up.
Resettlement organizations need more churches to get involved as the number of refugees grow.
“The most important thing the refugees need are American friends,” Bius said. “They need Christian friends. We need people from our churches to simply volunteer with a family, to be a friend.”
The resettlement organizations are responsible for finding housing and jobs for the refugees, signing them up for English classes and enrolling their children in local schools.
