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World Relief Honors Grace Covenant for Refugees Work

By Craig Pinley

CHICAGO, IL (November 4, 2002) - Grace Covenant Church received the annual World Relief Chicago Church of the Year Award last evening during a dinner at North Park University.

The selection of Grace Covenant as the award recipient was made by refugees and World Relief staff and volunteers in the World Relief Chicago region. The church has been ministering to a large number of Sudanese refugees that are more popularly known as the "Lost Boys," a group of more than 10,000 children and young adults who were uprooted during Sudan's civil war of 1987. Recently, the church has ministered to three Vietnamese refugees as well. Those in the accompanying award photo are (from left) Mrs. Ruth Calver, ministry associate for World Relief and the wife of World Relief President Clive Calver; Mrs. Dori Dinsmore, executive director of World Relief Chicago; and Rev. Debra Gustafson, pastor of Grace Evangelical Covenant Church.

Grace Covenant began its ministry to refugees in November 2000, according to pastor Deb Gustafson. Grace member Pam Hubbard serves as refugee coordinator at Grace Covenant and has organized a team of leaders for ministry to the refugees, providing them with many types of assistance in coping with the many details during their stay in the United States. The church's first contacts were with a mother and daughter who fled Khartoum, Sudan's capital city, and sought refuge in an Egyptian refugee camp.

During the spring of 2001, Gustafson received a call from friends at Mundelein Vineyard Christian Fellowship, asking for help for five Sudanese males who were being relocated to Chicago from Mundelein. Grace Covenant helped the five during the transition process while the Mundelein congregation took care of housing costs.

A month later, six others arrived in Chicago and Grace Covenant decided to sponsor the group after contacting World Relief. There are now 20 refugees being helped by Grace Covenant, thanks to financial assistance from Hope Covenant Church in Indianapolis, Indiana, and Trinity Covenant Church in Oak Lawn, Illinois.

Some volunteers have assisted in finding housing, clothing and transportation for the refugees as well as teaching them how to cook and shop. Others have helped the Sudanese refugees through tutoring as they furthered their education in the United States. Many no longer depend on the public assistance they received when they arrived, having found jobs in the Chicago area.

Grace Covenant's advocacy for the Sudanese refugees has gone far beyond providing for basic necessities. On May 26, gang members attacked a group of Sudanese refugees who were playing basketball and some were stabbed and required hospitalization. Many from Grace Covenant attended a rally at the park weeks later to protest the attack.

For more information about Grace Covenant's award and the criteria for the honor, contact Dori Dinsmore, affiliate director of the Chicago World Relief office at 773-583-9191 or email the office at Chicago@wr.org. To learn more about what Grace Covenant is doing to assist the refugees, call Hubbard at 773-267-9238 or email her at pjoanhub@yahoo.com.

(Editor's note: A feature article about Grace Covenant's ministry with the Lost Boys appeared in the January 2002 issue of The Covenant Companion. A copy of that article may be found online at the Covenant website by visiting L ost Boys

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