06/20/2026
Today is World Refugee Day. Refugees and the displaced don't always look like what you'd expect. Some crossed borders. Some never left their country. All were forced to flee.
Lydia fled Boko Haram with her children from Nigeria to Cameroon. She boiled water on a fire just to pretend she was cooking, so her kids wouldn't know there was no food. She lost two daughters in a single day. Today she is back in Nigeria and runs a small business, and her children attend school.
Pastor Paul is an internally displaced person in Nigeria. He lost his home, his church, everything he had built, driven out by extremist violence. Today he leads his congregation in a displacement camp with nothing but faith and gratitude.
Liatu was eight years old when Boko Haram stormed her village. She fled with her Sunday school classmates and spent four years alone in a refugee camp in Cameroon, hungry, exploited, scarred. She blamed God. Then she was reunited with her parents. Then her faith was renewed. Today at 20 she helps other survivors heal.
These are our brothers and sisters. They don't look like statistics. They deserve to be known and prayed for. They deserve to know the global Church hasn't forgotten them.
Pray for them today. π