‘We need help, and we need it now.’ How a Tarrant County church is assisting refugees
Shortly after Kabul fell to the Taliban, the pastors at Northwood Church received phone calls and texts from World Relief telling them to prepare for refugees to arrive in North Texas.
They were also told volunteers were needed.
The church, with a long history of working in Afghanistan, stepped up and trained around 150 volunteers to help with everything from moving into apartments, finding donated cars, and looking for jobs.
Bob Roberts, global senior pastor at Northwood Church, said when the call came from World Relief, with the information that around a thousand refugees were coming to the Metroplex, he and lead pastor Scott Venable told their congregation that there was an immediate need for volunteers.
“We literally got up (during Sunday service) and said we need help, and we need it now,” Roberts said.
Roberts knew his congregation would step up and volunteer, and the church has raised $50,000 toward helping the refugees.
“We also know that we are living in a very polarized time right now in American culture and in American history, and so it’s critical for there to be alternative voices that are Christians and evangelicals that are saying hey, we love our neighbor and even people that some might consider our enemies. We love them,” Roberts said.
The deadline for the United States to leave Afghanistan was Aug. 31. According to news reports, the U.S. airlifted over 120,000 people out of the country since Kabul fell to the Taliban on Aug. 15. CNBC reported U.S. State Department officials said more than 23,876 Afghan refugees have arrived in the United States as of Sept. 1, and most are being housed at seven military bases throughout the country.
Refugee Services of Texas anticipates settling 574 special immigrant visa (SIV) holders and their families in Texas by the end of September. From Aug. 1 to Aug. 31, the agency settled a total of 77 SIV holders and their families, including 19 in Dallas and 10 in Fort Worth, according to an email to the Star-Telegram.
Catholic Charities Fort Worth said in an email that during the past two weeks, 30 refugees have been settled in Fort Worth and 19 in Dallas.
At Northwood Church, now that 150 members have been through the training, they are awaiting the arrival of refugees which could be at any time, Roberts said.
Training volunteers
Hurunnessa Fariad, director of outreach for the Multi-Faith Neighbors Network, and a refugee from Afghanistan, was at Northwood to assist with training.
Fariad and her family fled Kabul when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan. She arrived in the U.S. in 1983.
She said since Kabul fell to the Taliban, that she is experiencing many emotions as she got messages from family members wanting to leave Afghanistan and saw images of people killed at the Hamid Karzai International Airport.
But she said she is heartened by the support that she is seeing in the U.S.
“I am really so proud and so honored that a lot of Americans here in the United States are taking initiatives to help the refugees that are coming in whether they are Christian, Jewish, military personnel,” she said.
Fariad, who is from Washington, D.C., said the most important thing that volunteers must understand is that refugees are in culture shock when they arrive.
“They are coming from a very conservative society; everything is going to be a shock for them,” she said. It is important to have foods that are “halal” that meet Muslim dietary restrictions as they don’t eat pork or drink alcohol. Women will need modest clothing and hijabs, she said.
Roberts said that cultural awareness is a key part of the training to work with refugees. He said it is important to build relationships slowly as Texans tend to form friendships quickly.
Men should talk to men and women should talk to women, he said.
“These people are traumatized. They’re coming and they’re hurting, and they are going to be a little nervous. They have a very different culture, a very different world view, and I think we need to be Texan in the best sense of the word in serving them and helping them… You’re receiving people from one way living their entire lives in a civilization that’s been there for centuries and millenia, and so for them to be exactly like us is not the case nor is that fair,” Roberts said.
Niki Roberts, who is coordinating volunteers at Northwood, said she is putting together the teams to help the refugees. “We tell our people to go slowly. Love them (the refugees) but love them at their pace.”
Northwood Church has a long history of working with Afghanistan.
Shortly after 9/11, Roberts said he traveled to Afghanistan and began to mobilize with pastors and imams on projects such as building schools and clinics.
“How do we get along. How do we relate? How do we understand one another,” Bob Roberts said.
Ways to help
- Catholic Charities Fort Worth still needs Walmart gift cards and donations including clean furniture that hasn’t been exposed to pets. The agency is not accepting mattresses.
- Catholic Charities is also offering specialized training for volunteers who want to work with people coming from Afghanistan.
- Refugee Services of Texas is also in need of volunteers and donations.
This story was originally published September 7, 2021 at 5:45 AM.