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Until she started working at Naomi House, Candace Loewen was unfamiliar with the many challenges faced by refugees.
“I knew what a refugee was, but that was the extent of my knowledge,” she recalls. “I really had no clue.”
Now, as Director of Refugee Sponsorship at the church-based ministry in Winnipeg, she helps others learn about the experiences of newcomers to Canada who have fled war, famine and any number of other traumatic situations.
“I think there’s something powerful about stepping out of our own stories and into someone else’s,” she says.
She means it in a literal sense.
Naomi House and City Church are inviting people to step out and Explore the Refugee Highway on Saturday, September 20 at Kildonan Park. An interactive experience, Explore the Refugee Highway is open to participants from all walks of life and is designed to be fun, informative and family-friendly.
“Picture 40 tables spread out in the park,” says Tim Nielsen, Naomi House Director. “You come to the first table and you’re presented a scenario of conflict where you have to decide how you will respond – will you flee, will you try to stay? Then, based on your choice, you go to another table and learn more about the situation and the consequences of your decision. Some consequences will be positive and others negative. At the next table you’ll be presented with more important choices you have to make. Soon you are making your way through the refugee highway.”
The idea, he explains, is for participants to learn about the many decisions refugees are forced to make – as well as the decisions made for them – over the course of their journey. By the end of the experience, he hopes people will have enjoyed themselves while developing a more profound understanding and empathy for refugees, and maybe even be encouraged to befriend a newcomer in their own community.
The event will begin at 9:30 a.m. and continue until 11:30 a.m. Tickets are $10, but attendees (and those who can’t be in attendance but would like to support the event) can donate additional funds online. There is also a free ticket option to ensure financial accessibility.
Nielsen points out that the term “refugee highway” was coined by the International Association for Refugees to describe the pathway refugees take from the time they decide to leave their home country to resettle in another. Travelling it, he explains, has helped him, and can help others, see the world differently.
“You understand your own culture better because you’re viewing it through the lenses of other people,” he says. “You see the beauty and the flaws in your own culture more clearly, which is really life-changing.”
The relationships you forge along the refugee highway can also be transformational.
“Once you build a friendship with a former refugee – and we use the term ‘former’ because once they arrive, they’re no longer a refugee – your worldview changes,” he says. “You understand struggle; you understand suffering.”
Naomi House, in fact, was established through just such a relationship.
As far back as 1997, Nielsen was making connections with people from Myanmar, formerly Burma. One of those friendships helped establish City Church at 484 Maryland St in Winnipeg, as well as the parallel ministry City Connexions. In 2017, Naomi House was opened.
Named for the Old Testament matriarch who was a displaced person living in Moab (Ruth Chapter 1), Naomi House is a seven-bedroom transitional home for newly-arrived refugees and asylum-seekers. It has so far hosted more than 70 residents and sponsored close to 500 refugees from 24 countries.
“We are also a sponsorship agreement-holder, which means we have an agreement with the government to sponsor and resettle refugees to Winnipeg,” says Loewen. “This means we’re able to sponsor refugees by name. If there’s a family here who is looking to sponsor someone, or if someone has reached out to a church to sponsor someone and bring them to Canada, we’re able to help facilitate that.”
The result is that Naomi House can sponsor persecuted Christians and reunite families.
“Canada is the only country in the world where you can sponsor a refugee by name,” she explains. “It’s really significant as it allows a personal touch. As Christ-followers, it’s a way for us to really extend love and care to people.”
As more and larger families arrive in Winnipeg, Naomi House has had to seek out housing options beyond its own facility – though that process is about to become easier.
“The Lord has opened up the opportunity for us to buy the building beside Naomi House, so we’re in the thick of working that out,” says Loewen. “We’ll have some more programming space and also three family-sized apartments for refugees when they arrive.”
She adds that one of the blessings of working at Naomi House is seeing God move in the lives of people.
“If you see a former refugee in Canada, you can bet that it wasn’t easy for them to get here,” she says. “Once they arrive in Canada, their sponsorship is for one year, so we walk alongside them very closely for that year, and we do this through churches who are the hands and feet of Christ.”
Nielsen also emphasizes that helping the forcibly displaced is a wholly Christian act.
“You’ll notice that there are lots of references to refugees in the Bible, from the nation of Israel to Mary, Joseph and Jesus. The refugee story is actually spread throughout the Bible,” he says. “Our Christian conviction is that when refugees arrive, we look through a Christian lens and show the compassion of Christ based on who the Lord brings our way.
“If we look at migration through God’s eyes, it’s a sovereign act by which He moves nations around for the proclamation of the Gospel.”
For Naomi House, the Explore the Refugee Highway event is one way to help people see the refugee experience from a Christian perspective.
“If you’re like I was a few years ago and didn’t know a whole lot about refugees, come out on September 20 and explore what it’s like,” says Loewen. “We’ll have staff and volunteers there, and you’re welcome to contact us beforehand.”
Naomi House can be reached by calling (204) 415-1752 (ext 102), and their email address is citychurchsah@gmail.com. Additional information is available on their website, and details about Explore the Refugee Highway can also be accessed online.
