A Safe Place to Land

As disciples of Christ, we must show empathy and compassion for those driven from their homes—because Christ taught us to relieve human suffering.

As a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I taught the gospel to Cambodian Americans in Tacoma, Washington. They were the most welcoming people I’d ever met—more than willing to feed me kuy teav (a Cambodian noodle dish) and tell me about their children or their favorite Thai dramas. Most of them were refugees, each with devastating stories of fleeing Cambodia during the genocide in the 1970s.

Sadly, stories like theirs are a common occurrence in our world today. War, conflict, and poverty have driven millions of people from their homelands to search for safety and better lives. In Elder Patrick Kearon’s address titled “Refuge from the Storm,” he asks us to remember that regardless of policy or our own political beliefs, these people are people, and it’s our calling as disciples of Christ to love them.

“The Savior knows what it is to be a refugee—He was one,” Elder Kearon points out, reminding us that the way we treat others is the way we treat the Savior. “Let us come out from our safe places and share with [refugees], from our abundance, hope for a brighter future, faith in God and in our fellowman, and love that sees beyond cultural and ideological differences to the glorious truth that we are all children of our Heavenly Father.”

Throughout his mortal ministry, Christ sought to relieve human suffering. How often did he extend empathy and compassion to those who were cast out, shunned, or considered unclean? As disciples of Christ who seek to live by the two great commandments—to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves—we are called to follow Christ’s example in alleviating the pain of others.

The Cambodian Americans in my mission received warmth, love, and support from Church members when they arrived. Thanks to that support, they were able to navigate starting their lives over in a place that was safe, stable, and welcoming—a gift that none of them has forgotten. As we show the same kind of empathy and compassion for displaced children of God, we can live up to our name as disciples of Christ and give them safe places to rebuild.

Learn more about how we can make differences in the lives of refugees by reading Elder Patrick Kearon’s talk “Refuge from the Storm.”

Source: General Conference

—Kira Christensen, Latter-day Saint Insights

FEATURE IMAGE BY SALAH DARWISH

Find more insights

Read more about the Christlike quality of empathy in Sierra Smart’s Latter-day Saint Insights article “Reaching in the Savior’s Way.”

Check out Ashlyn Tilby’s Latter-day Saint Insights article “Compassion: A Meaningful Way to Love and Serve” to find out more about how we can always offer compassion to others, even when we don’t have much to give.