STARTING TO PLAN THE 2012 NABWU ASSEMBLY: During their meetings in Nashville last fall, the 2007-2012 officers enjoyed a free backstage tour of a popular local attraction. From left: Linda, Judy, Shirley, Samida, Martha, and Esther.

NABWU LEADERS FOCUS ON REFUGEES

There are more than 14 million refugees in the world. In 2008 about 60,000 of them arrived in the United States and Canada and began to build new lives. They were the fortunate ones. Millions of others languish in refugee camps for years, even decades, in appalling living conditions. But as NABWU board members learned at their annual meeting (held at Techny Towers near Chicago in early April 2009), even the refugees who come to North America have typically suffered during their journey along the Refugee Highway. And their suffering doesn’t end once they’ve found a home here.

Heidi Moll Schoedel directs Exodus World Service, which mobilizes and trains churches in the Chicago area and beyond to minister to refugees and speak up for them. She and Exodus volunteer Jane Stooller Schoff led the NABWU leaders through a simulation exercise that helped them understand the sacrifices, hard choices, fears, uncertainties, powerlessness, and grief that refugees typically experience. They considered the questions refugees face: What do you take with you? Whom do you trust? How do you communicate when you don’t know the language, customs, or rules?

But NABWU leaders also heard the success stories—the testimony of one former refugee, and inspiring examples of Baptist women who are helping refugees settle in a strange, new country. (Some of these ministries were 2009 Day of Prayer offering projects.)

Heidi also introduced the NABWU Board to Entertaining Angels, a six-week study of what the Bible says about refugees (published by Exodus and available through their website).