Community Fellowship and World Relief Refugee Assistance
R2-D2 – Refugee Response-Donation Drive
Like the fictional droid character of Star Wars fame - are you ready to help be part of the solution?
R2-D2 - Episode 1 - In 2021 the CF Shalom (Outreach) Team invited the church to participate in R2-D2 a refugee response donation drive to help provide essential household items for refugee families that were resettled by World Relief in the Chicagoland area. In a time of need, the response from CF was tremendous. Together we donated three (3) complete Welcome Kits to World Relief.
The Return of R2-D2 – In 2023 with new refugee arrivals from countries like Ukraine, Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba and Syria there is an urgent need for Welcome Kits. In response to an appeal from World Relief, our church has launched The Return of R2-D2. Our goal is to donate two complete Welcome Kits. We invite you to be part of this Refugee Response – Donation Drive.
An Amazon list of the most essential household items, ranging in price from $5 - $80, has been assembled. Please browse the R2-D2 list to select and purchase items of your choice.
All donated items will be delivered by Amazon to CF. CF will collect the two Welcome Kits and deliver them to World Relief. The Welcome Kits will be used by World Relief to set up homes for newly arriving refugee families.
Your generous donations will help provide a warm welcome to refugee families.
Help be part of the solution – check out the R2-D2 list today!
CF background:
As a church we have always had a commitment to caring for those in need.
- We have raised funds in response to various global disasters – including a financial response of over $20,000 to the 2023 earthquake in Turkey and Syria.
- We have helped provide food to sustain the poor and the hungry.
- In 2022-23 two Good Neighbor Teams partnered with two refugee/asylee families providing assistance and love as they acclimated to life in America.
- In 2010, CF established a refugee team to welcome and care for a refugee family from Myanmar (Burma).
- We have provided volunteers to tutor and help with citizenship clinics.
Through all these years CF has had a strong and meaningful partnership with World Relief Chicagoland.
And now we are faced with a new opportunity in this partnership.
World Relief Background:
World Relief is a global Christian humanitarian organization that brings sustainable solutions to the world’s greatest problems – disasters, extreme poverty, violence, oppression, and mass displacement. World Relief partners with local churches and community leaders in the U.S. and abroad to bring hope, healing and transformation to the most vulnerable.
World Relief Chicagoland is one of many refugee resettlement locations in the US. Over the past twenty years World Relief, with the partnership of many local churches and individuals, has welcomed and helped thousands of refugees and immigrants. And with the help of local churches they are posed to welcome and help many more refugees acclimate to their new life in America.
With this anticipated increase in refugee arrivals from many countries - World Relief is calling on churches to commit to partnership. A partnership that will include:
- Prayer – for Christian love and gospel impact while welcoming new neighbors.
- Donations – Welcome Kit items (refer to R2-D2 above) and other good condition household furniture.
- Volunteers – help setting up apartments, transportation, Good Neighbor Team, tutoring youth, ESL tutor.
- Advocate – use your voice to influence decision makers to save lives and seek justice for the vulnerable
- Give – your generous financial gift to WR brings hope, healing and restoration to those in the most vulnerable moments and makes lasting impact.
For more information about helping in any of these areas - worldrelief.org/chicagoland