Christian World Service is inviting people to sign up for this year’s Operation Refugee. In a new twist, participants will have 12 hours to do one of three challenges: Food for Life, a Winter Walk or a Shelter Challenge. Participants choose their challenge, and then encourage friends and family to sponsor them or donate to refugees.

Christian World Service is inviting people to sign up for this year’s Operation Refugee. In a new twist, participants will have 12 hours to do one of three challenges: Food for Life, a Winter Walk or a Shelter Challenge. Participants choose their challenge, and then encourage friends and family to sponsor them or donate to refugees.

“This year’s Operation Refugee is an opportunity for people living in Aotearoa to come together and stand with people who have fled their homes and countries in fear for their lives. By focusing together, we want to create more support for refugees who are finding it much harder to survive in the current environment,” says Murray Overton, National Director.

Participants are encouraged to do their 12-hour challenge on June 20, World Refugee Day, though it can be completed at another time that suits.

CWS aims to raise $73,000 to provide food, education, and medical care to people from Afghanistan, Palestine, Syria and Ukraine.

By the middle of last year, the United Nations Refugee Agency calculated that 103 million people have been forcibly displaced around the globe. Over 70 percent of the refugees live in neighbouring countries. New Zealand Immigration reported that 989 people were resettled in the year ending 28 February 2023.

Refugees are people who have fled war, conflict and persecution and crossed an international border in search of safety. Displaced people have stayed within their home country.

“Refugee Sunday is an important time to pray for refugees and think further about how we as individuals and faith communities can share a warm welcome to the stranger as Jesus taught. It is work that our partners in the Middle East, Pakistan, Poland and Nicaragua do every day,” Murray adds.

Worship resources for Refugee Sunday - 25 June in the Methodist and Presbyterian calendar and 2 July for Anglicans - will be available later this month.

Sign up or find more information on: operationrefugee.nz or call 0800 74 73 72.