Elder Mike Simonson, Downtown Disciples Church, Des Moines, IA #Pray4Refugees
September 27, 2018
“I’m Mike Simonson, with Downtown Disciples in Des Moines, and I’m also one of the chairs of the Missions Committee for the Disciples General Assembly coming up next year, and I’d like to share a story about refugee resettlement. Iowa was very fortunate to lead an effort in the late 70’s and early 80’s initiated by our Governor Bob Ray, at the time. As the story goes, he and his wife were watching the evening news, and asked, ‘What can we as Iowans do to help these people?’ who were refugees….They were able to get the U.N. to allow…10,000 Southeast Asians to immigrate (as refugees) to Iowa over a period of about 6 years, and each one had a sponsoring family in Iowa to ensure that the kids were enrolled in school, that they found housing, and that the parents found jobs….So we are hopeful that our government will allow 76,000 refugees to immigrate to the United States, because we have more than enough….We have so much, and we want to give.” –Elder Mike Simonson, Downtown Disciples Church, Des Moines, and Chair of Disciples Gen. Assembly Missions Committee
See his video here and please join Mr. Simonson to #Pray4Refugees and urge our nation to #Welcome75K refugees to be resettled in the next fiscal year. Please let your legislators hear from you by calling, as the decision will be made ASAP—and look HERE for more info!! Also tweet to the region’s legislators who have key roles as Judiciary Comm. members who are making this decision: @ChuckGrassley @SteveKingIA. Contact @RepDavidYoung who serves on the Refugee Caucus. Tell them our faith voices continue to say, #RefugeesWelcome and #Welcome75K !!! Send additional messages to the following leaders:
.@realDonaldTrump @StateDept @SecPompeo @VP @Mike_Pence @POTUS Ivanka Trump, @IvankaTrump
— please #Pray4Refugees and use your leadership to #Welcome75K refugees in the US next year!
@RepGoodlatte– please #Pray4Refugees and use your leadership to #Welcome75K refugees in the US next year!
