Embrace the exiled

Students Chris Hill and Gabrielle Drew begin initiative for refugee crisis

Across the Middle East, statistics from the humanitarian organization World Vision have tracked 13.5 million people who are currently suffering from the Syrian civil war. More than four million of those people are refugees, 6.6 million are misplaced, 320,000 have been killed, and two Liberty students are setting out to do something about it.

Liberty juniors Chris Hill and Gabrielle Drew said they were struck with grief last September when the Syrian refugee crisis began to take the spotlight in mainstream media. They strove to find a way to help the cause while at college, without the time or money to help physically in Middle Eastern refugee camps.

The result was a prayer initiative, which the duo named Embrace the Exiled. Hill and Drew created the initiative in hopes of raising awareness of the refugee crisis in the Middle East and organizing times of prayer in which students at Liberty can become actively involved in praying for both Christians and non-Christians being persecuted in Syria.

“God commands us to pray,” Hill said. “Now we don’t know exactly what God will do through prayer, but we know it’s better than doing nothing. It’s something that we can do where you don’t have to raise $5,000 to go on a weekend missions trip, and where it won’t hurt your schedule.”

Hill and Drew, who are both delegates for Liberty’s Student Government Association (SGA) themselves, are helping the SGA begin a project in which the body of student representatives hope to fund student-run initiatives. Hill and Drew were given $1,000 from the SGA to start Embrace the Exiled, which they used to buy decals, t-shirts and other promotional supplies.

The success of the Embrace the Exiled initiative could determine whether the SGA will fund student-run initiatives in the future, according to Hill. Both Drew and Hill noted that without the help of Student Body President Quincy Thompson, Vice President Jack Heaphy and other SGA members, the initiative would not be able to get off the ground.

The initiative looks to first engage Liberty’s campus in a month-long commitment of prayer for both the victims and the oppressors of the refugee crisis. In the beginning of March, Hill and Drew plan on distributing a list of refugee camps that are in need of prayer through the campus e-cog, a list of announcements from Liberty that are e-mailed to students weekly.

“We want to get on the e-cog for the month of March,” Drew said. “That way, prayer leaders can be aware of the issue. Hopefully we can get a few people to say, ‘Hey, this is what’s going on at Liberty. Let’s just take a moment to pray for the persecuted in the middle east.’”

At the end of the month, Hill and Drew plan to host an event in which people who were actively involved in the initiative can gather to receive an overview of what has happened in Syria since the initiative started, talk about what people have learned, and continue to pray for the situation in the Middle East.

“We’re trying to get Campus Collective to come lead worship, and then get a speaker who is really knowledgeable on the issue to come talk,” Drew said. “We want the article to be a praise report. Like here is what we prayed for, look at what’s been happening here and here in the Middle East.”

Hill and Drew said they hope the initiative will extend well beyond Liberty’s campus. They are looking to involve pastors in the Lynchburg area in praying for those in the refugee crisis, and hope to encourage students enough to bring the prayer initiative to the attention of churches elsewhere around the country.

The initiative does not take any political stance on the issue of amnesty for refugees. Hill and Drew expressed the intention to keep the initiative based on a spiritual perspective, to understand what Christians specifically can do to help those suffering in the Middle East.

“We hear what Democrats and Republicans think about refugees already, but this (initiative) is about looking at this problem through a spiritual perspective,” Drew said. “We’re excited to give that perspective to students because it really doesn’t cross people’s minds every day.”

To get involved in the initiative and find out more about it, search Embrace the Exiled on Facebook or follow on Twitter at @EmbraceExiled.

Young is a feature reporter.