Refugees

“I was a stranger and you invited me in.” - Matthew 25:35

GPC has a long and storied history of fulfilling our Christian obligation of love to those who have been displaced from their homes. We are reminded that the people of Israel were themselves strangers and sojourners, and Scripture reminds us to be hospitable to the stranger as we were once strangers ourselves (Leviticus 19:34). Over the last half century plus, GPC has welcomed and assisted refugee families from Hungary, Vietnam, Cambodia, Bosnia, Afghanistan and other places where conflict and violence have displaced people. In the past decade, the global refugee population has more than doubled. According to the UN Refugee Agency, more than 120 million people around the world have been forced to flee their homes. Among them are over 43.4 million refugees, the highest population on record. Some have resettled in the DMV area, some still suffer around the world.

We will be welcoming additional refugee families to the area in the near future and setting up furnished apartments for them. Please visit this page often for more information.

Furnish a Refugee Apartment

The GPC family has furnished five apartments for recently-arrived families that resettled in Virginia from Afghanistan. The congregation donated new bedding, computers, home supplies, toys, and furniture to make these families feel welcome and help their children settle in and begin to learn English. We continue to support these families, helping with job searches, securing social services, and helping them to navigate our new country.

Background

We, the members of Georgetown Presbyterian Church (GPC), consider resettling refugees in the United States to be an expression of our faith in God. It is our responsibility as Christ’s faithful, and as Americans, to welcome and assist refugees in building a stable and safe future in the United States. 

Many refugees that are resettled in the DC area receive Special Immigrant Visas for having served alongside the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan as translators and interpreters. These families arrive in the U.S. with little more than their clothes and some family treasures and need support to set up their new apartment and live here.