Reflections
Faster Pastors Running for Refugees
Posted on August 27, 2018 | Posted by Pastor Daniel
The Faster Pastors are at it again! Pastor Daniel will be joining a team of 10 pastors and church leaders to run the Flaming Foliage Relay, which is a 165 mile relay race from Idaho Springs to Buena Vista. The team will run over Guanella, Georgia, and Fremont Passes, reaching almost 12,000 feet in elevation. They’ll start before dawn on September 7 and finish midday on September 8.
Why would they do such a thing? Not for fun! Pastor Daniel is joining this team again for an important cause. The Faster Pastors choose to run because there are many people who are forced to run for their lives, from their homes and families and everything they know. They are refugees. Specifically, the Faster Pastors have chosen to target their efforts toward the Syrian Refugee crisis.
Syria has been locked in civil war since 2011. The resulting numbers of Syrians refugees are astounding, almost unimaginable. There are more than 5 million Syrians who have been forced to leave their country, and more than 6 million who are internally displaced within Syria. Four years ago, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said, “The Syria crisis has become the biggest humanitarian emergency of our era, yet the world is failing to meet the needs of refugees and the countries hosting them” (Antonio Guterres, “Middle East Star.” 28 August 2014). To this day, the world seems to lack either the will or the knowledge to do something about it.
Lutheran Disaster Response of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) has been providing, and will continue to provide, basic humanitarian aid for those fleeing war and oppression. They do this in partnership with agencies and companion churches in or near Syria to ensure food security, establish shelter, and provide better access to water and sanitation facilities, among other activities. They also bolster livelihoods by providing microloans and skills training to provide jobs and knowledge for health and wellness. Finally, they provide critical psychosocial support needed for the atrocities that many have experienced personally or witnessed.
The Faster Pastors run for our neighbors who need who run for their lives. If you care to support the team, their run, and this great cause, please send any contributions to Ascension with “Faster Pastors” in the memo line. Or, you can give online! Simply select “Faster Pastors” for the fund. Because we are able to work through Lutheran Disaster Response, a ministry of the ELCA, 100% of what you give will assist those directly impacted by this crisis and have fled for safety.
