Our Journey

I (Tom) met a handful of refugees back in 1979 while on a 10 week short-term ministry trip to the Canary Islands (Spain). It's been quite a journey from then until now. Tom presently serves as founder and president of the International Association for Refugees (IAFR).

Indeed, God has faithfully lead us on our journey with him. Let the journey begin...

1979 | Beginnings

It was the summer of 1979 when I first met a refugee. I was in the Canary Islands serving as a short-term worker with Slavic Gospel Association.

The refugees were from Bulgaria and Romania (see photo). They told of harsh prison sentences, forced labor and torture. They showed us their scars.

To escape, they secretly stowed away on ships that were docked in Black Sea ports. They waited to disembark until they were certain that they were no longer in Communist waters.

The Spanish Red Cross was providing them with food and shelter. We spent most weekends listening to their stories and learning about the challenges they faced.  We often spoke of God, read the Bible and prayed together.

I spent that summer with SGA missionary, Alex Deikun. I'll never forget his intentional investment in my life and faith. Alex shared a lot from his life. He got my attention with his stories of fist fights as a young man and soldier;  His embrace of Jesus that changed him forever; His survival after being hit by a train in Poland.

1980 | Calling

Upon graduating from Taylor University with a degree in Social Work, I signed up for a 6 month term of service with Slavic Gospel Association (SGA)  to serve churches in East Europe.

Between our travels, we discovered that there were refugee camps in Austria. We decided to see if we could serve them in some way.

The leadership regularly sent me to visit refugees in a refugee camp on the outskirts of the small village of Bad Kreuzen. After clarifying early misunderstandings with the camp director, we were given permission to visit refugees whenever we liked.

The refugees were exceptionally welcoming and hospitable. The camp provided them with spartan rooms that included a sink, bunk beds and a free standing waredrobe. Meals were provided in the camp kitchen.

I simply knocked on a door and soon found myself seated at a table with a cup of steaming hot coffee or tea, surrounded by refugees. They were eager to talk about their lives in the East and to hear about my life in the West. Having come out of atheist states, many were interested in conversation about truth, purpose, life, death and God.

That winter, just a couple of weeks after returning to the US, an unparalleled sense of conviction took hold of my heart. Although it made no sense to me, I knew it was from God. I was to return to Bad Kreuzen to serve full-time among the refugees.

Two problems quickly came to mind. First, I did not know of any organisation serving refugees full-time that would send me to start a work in Bad Kreuzen. And secondly, I didn't think anyone would support me for long-term ministry.

But God didn't waste any time before he opened the necessary doors and vaporized my concerns...

1981-1989 | Bad Kreuzen

Within a month of my return to the US, I received a call from Slavic Gospel Association, asking me to consider pioneering a ministry among the refugees in Bad Kreuzen (photo). Six months after that, I had completed my pre-field training, raised my needed support and was studying German in Bavaria.

After six months of language study in the picturesque Bavarian village of Murnau, I moved into the village of Klam in the rural province of Upper Austria, just north of the Danube river.The magnificent green rolling hills of this area would be my home for the next 15 years.

Together with a Canadian teammate (Judy Dickinson), we begin pioneering a ministry among refugees. We had little to go on when it came to envisioning what full-time ministry among refugees looks like. There were no other full-time ministries among refugees in Austria from which we could learn.

The heart of the ministry was relationships, established through visitation and hospitality. Over time, the ministry grew to include multiple levels of English and German language classes, advocacy and consulting work with the refugees as they navigated the complexities of the refugee system, a "Bible Club" for refugee children, multi-lingual worship services, concerts, art exhibits, special events and celebrations, etc.

We led a lot of short-term teams during these years. Some came to work with us in Bad Kreuzen. Others came to provide assistance and encouragement to Christians in Eastern Europe. We made a lot of wonderful friends through these teams that were part of Slavic Gospel Association's Summer Youth Training in Europe (SYTE) program as well as InterVarsity Christian Fellowship's (IVCF) Overseas Training Camp (OTC) program. We also led teams of Europeans sent to us from Youth With A Mission (YWAM) and Operation Mobilisaton (OM).

The team grew over the years, enabling us to know more refugees and serve them better. Donna and I met in Europe in 1982 and finally got married in 1985 after which she made the bold move of leaving home to join me in Bad Kreuzen. Sarah was born in a Viennese hospital in 1988.

Spiritual interest was high among refugees. The interfaith chapel in the basement of one of the camp buildings was often filled to capacity twice a week as we gathered to sing songs of worship, pray and teach from the Bible. Meetings had multiple translations - with 2 languages from the front and small groups of other languages gathered around translators throughout the chapel. Small discussion groups met during the week to explore biblical truths and pray together. Bad Kreuzen became a spiritual birthplace for many people as they discovered and embraced Jesus Christ.

I never got used to the generosity that was common among the refugees in the camp. They were quick to share their hearts and lives with us. They were always quick to reach into their closet and pull out the best coffee, tea and snacks they could offer. They were always welcoming.

Wonderful friendships were made with the refugees we served. Several served alongside of us while living in the camp.

In 1989 the Cold War came to an abrupt end with the fall of Communist governments throughout East Europe and ultimately in the U.S.S.R. We thought the camp would close as there would be no more refugees.

In reality, a new chapter of ministry was beginning...

1990 -1995 | Bad Kreuzen (continued)

A surge of refugees followed the end of the Cold War. Refugee camps in Austria were overcrowded as the world held its breath, wondering if this would prove to be another Czech Spring or if it would indeed be the end of Communism.

Refugees were surprised to discover that they were no longer welcome in the West as they no longer had their Cold War political value. The West quickly decided that they could safely return to their homelands.

No longer were the majority of the refugees being resettled to the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. More and more were trying to gain refugee status in Austria. The declining need for ESL classes and resettlement classes caused our ministry to shift increasingly to GSL (German as a Second Language) and advocacy work to help refugees find a way to settle in Austria.

A few months after Operation Desert Storm began in 1990, Iraqi refugees begin showing up in Bad Kreuzen. A flow of refugees from Iran, Pakistan, Vietnam, Turkey, Ghana and Ethiopia began arriving in the camp as well. The ministry continued as we adapted to these new people groups and cultures.

Aside from the refugees coming from Yugoslavia, few were of Slavic origin. Our ministry was increasingly a poor fit within an organisation called Slavic Gospel Association. We were given a year to try and find a different organisation to support our ministry. It wasn't easy as there were few mission organisations with a focus on serving refugees.

We transferred the team and ministry from SGA to International Teams (IT) in 1992. IT was a great fit for our ministry and had a specific ministry focus serving refugees in Europe (at that time IT was working among refugees in Austria, France, Greece, Germany and the UK). Tom's IT supervisor was John Swale, who became a founding board member of IAFR 17 years later.

IT soon asked Tom to provide supervision to it's teams serving refugees in German-speaking Europe. It was a stretch, but we realized by taking on this role, we were able to make a difference in the lives of more refugees.

In 1995, IT went through an internal reorganisation that included the structuring of all ministries along geographic regions. There would no longer be a field organised by a ministry specialty like refugees. Tom was asked to lead the IT region of German-speaking Europe (Germany, Austria, northern Italy).

After 15 great years of life and service in the village of Bad Kreuzen, we moved our family to Baden, a town located on the southern edge of metro Vienna - and next door to the site of Austria's largest refugee camp (Traiskirchen).

A highlight for our family came at the front-end of this period of our lives. Donna made a second 100 mile trip from Upper Austria to Vienna to give birth. Drew was born in 1990.

1995-1997 | German-speaking Europe

Most, but not all, of the teams serving with International Teams (IT) in German-speaking Europe were working among refugees. There was a missionary developing a youth ministry in a local church in the former East Germany city of Thalheim (near Chemnitz), and a couple doing similar work from a local church in the northern Italian city of Meran. We also had a team assisting with the development of a local church plant in Innsbruck (Austria). The other ministries in Austria (Vienna, Traiskirchen, Neuhaus, Bad Kreuzen) and in Straubing, Germany were all working among refugees.

As it was now a common language, rather than a common ministry, that brought these teams together, leadership development became my primary focus. Wes Roberts, from  Life Enrichment (now Leadership Design Group), became a personal mentor during these years. Wes and his network generously poured a lot of creative and life transforming energy into us and the leaders we served.

These were important years of leadership development for us all. God gifted me with an outstanding team. Paul Voltmer, Karen Koch (Hansen) and Oliver Kinder all had a passion for strengthening churches in German-speaking Europe. Life-long friendships were formed.

But something was missing. I was clearly aware that I was far more effective consulting with teams serving refugees than I was the teams doing church-planting and youth ministry. I wanted them to have better support - without losing strong support for teams serving refugees.

In 1997, I approached my leadership to see if we could relaunch a ministry focused on refugees within the IT structure. With strong support from my friend Stephen Freed (then CEO of IT USA, now Sr. Partner of Dignity Business Partners), IT agreed to establish "Refugee Ministries" and allowed me to invite teams working among refugees to join if they wanted. We began with 11 teams based in the UK, Germany, Austria, Greece and Australia joined Refugee Ministries (aka RefMin).

1997-2009 | RefMin

It felt good and right to be focused on ministry among refugees again. God knew I couldn't do it alone and graciously raised up Jill Grage and Nancy Neterval to work alongside of me, supporting the teams, developing leaders and pioneering new sites.

I have long been convicted of the reality that the source of any worthwhile vision is from God himself. In early 1998, I realized that I had not yet asked God what his vision for RefMin was. I set aside a week to do so. In my previous experience, I had never gotten the impression that God was quick to speak. He always impressed me as the strong and silent type. But this encounter would be different...

I started my time simply telling God that I wanted to hear from him and invited him to speak. God was eager to take me at my word. Images of forcibly displaced people flooded into my mind's eye. Thousands and thousands of people making a trek to safety. I remembered the words of an Iraqi friend from my years in Bad Keuzen. "Why isn't there a team of missionaries like you in Istanbul? My wife's mother and sister are stranded there and there is no one like you guys there to help them." His words replayed in my mind a few times. Ticker-tape cycled under the images of displaced people. It read: "...Ancient Highways..." My heart filled with what I knew to be God's overwhelming compassion. I felt weak. I couldn't stand it for long. I had no idea what to do with something like this. I asked God to stop it. He did. I caught my breath. I had no idea what to do with it all.

I decided to tell my supervisor, then Chris Jones, the Welsh CEO of IT UK. I hoped he wouldn't think I was crazy. He listened. He sensed God was speaking. At IT's next international leadership gathering (1998), Chris asked me to share this with the other leaders. I still didn't know what it meant. It felt so half baked. I shared what had happened and what I saw and heard and felt. It was not easy.The images returned. God squeezed my heart as I shared. When I finished, Chris said that I'd seen something like a "refugee highway".

IT embraced the vision. We began to research and pioneer ministries outside of Europe. Refugees joined IT as missionaries to serve with and lead teams. We grew to nearly 100 missionaries from over 20 different countries of origin serving refugees on 5 continents. During these years, I supported teams serving refugees in Australia, Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Iraq, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, Malawi, New Zealand, Scotland, Sudan, Turkey, the UK and the US.

In 1999, Geoff Tunnicliffe (former CEO of IT Canada, now International Director of the World Evangelical Alliance), approached my leadership team asking us to work together with the WEA to host a global consultation on the refugee highway. It was easy to acknowledge that the vision was bigger than any one organisation's capacity to engage. But we questioned whether God could really use us to call such a gathering together. Geoff was persistent. Feeling in way over our heads, we finally agreed. The first global consultation of the Refugee Highway was scheduled for October, 2001.

Through Geoff's international connections, we called a planning meeting in Vienna in early 2000 that included Stephen Mugabi (Uganda), Godfrey Yogarajah (Sri Lanka), Mark Orr (Canada) and others. We were encouraged to find significant international interest in the event.

Then, less than a month before the consultation was scheduled, the events of 911 shook the planet. Many participants cancelled their registration. Nevertheless, just over 200 participants from all over the world gathered together in Izmir, Turkey, for the first Global Consultation on the Refugee Highway. The gathering birthed the Refugee Highway Partnership (RHP) that continues today in the form of both a global and regional networks. IAFR continues to participate in and support the RHP in several strategic capacities today.

Amsterdam 2000, an event organized by The Billy Graham Association, played an important role as an international meeting place from which to get the word out concerning the consultation. I was invited to give a workshop on ministry among refugees. It was there that Eric Simiyu, a Kenyan brother, met me and invited me to speak at a gathering of refugee and church leaders in Kenya later that year. Not only did this ultimately result in the participation of key eaders from Kenya participating in the consultation, it also led to the establishment of International Team's first refugee ministry team in Africa. They continue to serve refugees in Nairobi today.

After 23 years of living in and serving from Austria, Donna and I resettled our family from Austria to the USA in the summer of 2003. I continued to serve as International Teams' Director of Refugee Ministries from Minneapolis, Minnesota. God gifted me with a wonderful leadership team that moved with us to Minneapolis (Simon and Sue Meyer, Jill Elefritz (Grage) and Sarah Miller).

In 2009 an increasing sense that God was leading me beyond International Teams began to take hold.

2009 - Present | IAFR

Tom registered the International Association for Refugees (IAFR) with the state of Minnesota on June 30, 2009. The IRS granted IAFR 501(c)3 status on April 1, 2010. Founding board members included Dan Thompson (Minneapolis) and John Swale (Atlanta).

Paul and Reinhild Sydnor joined IAFR in early 2010 to serve as our Regional Leader in the European Union (EU). Stephen Freed (Dignity Business Partners) began serving as a ministry consultant to IAFR in 2010 as well.

IAFR assists forcibly displaced people together with the refugee church.

The initial scope of our ministries included Minnesota, France, Malta, Malawi (Dzaleka refugee camp) and Kenya (Kakuma refugee camp).

IAFR is a leader in developing resources to train and inform others concerning global refugee realities and the divine mandate of the church to love the alien as we love ourselves.

In 2011, IAFR developed our online training program to prepare people to serve effectively among refugees.

See www.iafr.org for more!