By Clare VanderWeele
“A stranger is always a stranger until someone calls them a friend.” — author unknown
On a November evening, Rez’s Good Neighbor Teams gathered over tea and dessert to reflect on what it has meant to walk alongside refugee and immigrant families who are rebuilding their lives in Chicagoland. The stories they shared were varied—some light, some heavy, all of them real. Together, they painted a picture of what quiet faithfulness looks like in the middle of complex global realities.
Rev. Keith Draper, Regional Director of Church Relations for World Relief Chicagoland, offered brief reflections at the gathering. He spoke frankly about the current moment: fewer refugees legally allowed to enter the U.S., shrinking public funding for resettlement support, yet rising needs among families already here.
“We’ve helped people arrive,” he said, “but now they need help belonging.”
For Keith, this isn’t abstract. He sees firsthand how much fear many immigrants live with—fear of being misunderstood, detained, or separated.
“There’s a lot of isolation,” he said. “People are asking God to protect them.”
He connected this work to the long arc of Scripture, noting how Ezekiel 22 critiques God’s people for neglecting the poor, the widowed, and the foreigner. The passage calls for people who will “stand in the gap”—a phrase we see acted on throughout Scripture. Moses did it, Christ did it, and Keith believes the Church is called to do it now. Not through dramatic gestures, but through consistent presence.
At Rez, Good Neighbor Teams were established last spring, with 35-40 people involved. They have served families from Venezuela, Afghanistan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. These families often need help in making and getting appointments, registering children for school, and navigating grocery stores and DMVs. But more than anything, they need to feel a sense of belonging. One consistent theme from Good Neighbor Team members was how difficult the first months in the U.S. can be—not just logistically, but emotionally.
A volunteer serving a family from the Democratic Republic of the Congo described the intense pressure the mother felt. Back home, she had been highly capable and multilingual, with a strong professional identity. Here, everything from transportation to basic technology was new.
“She felt inferior in ways she wasn’t used to,” the volunteer shared. “The biggest thing she needed was someone who didn’t see her as helpless, but as a whole person.”
Gerard, another Good Neighbor Team member, echoed this. His experience with an extended family opened his eyes to the complexity of decisions refugee families must make. For the sake of schooling stability, some children stayed in one suburb while parents pursued work opportunities elsewhere. “It wasn’t about running errands for them,” he said. “It was about being present while they made decisions most of us never have to think about.”
Other stories highlighted the small but meaningful moments of joy that broke through seasons of strain. Faith, who served an Afghan family, spoke about the family’s two-year-old daughter. Because the child stayed home with her mother and wasn’t in school yet, she had limited exposure to English or other children. When Faith invited the family to a Middle Eastern block party, the little girl lit up—dancing to familiar music and surrounded by food and faces that reminded her of home. “Given everything the family was dealing with,” Faith said, “seeing them enjoy themselves felt like a blessing.”
Valerie, on a team supporting an Afghan family, described a similar experience. A balloon and a small birthday gift for the family’s little girl turned into an unexpectedly intimate moment. As they celebrated, the mother opened up about their flight from Afghanistan and the losses they carried. Valerie said, “It’s not that we solved anything. It was that she felt safe enough to talk.”
Tim Davis has served on multiple Good Neighbor Teams and has hosted families in his home for weeks or months at a time. He spoke about the lack of margin many families face—multiple jobs, no car, little flexibility—which makes even helpful meetings difficult to schedule.
But he also shared moments that felt like glimpses of something deeper. One devout Christian family, as they prepared to move into housing of their own, prayed over Tim’s family for an hour—offering blessings and prophetic encouragement. Another memory stayed with him: an Easter meal where the Good Neighbor Team family shared stories of separation and trauma. “It was heartbreaking,” he said. “But sitting around the table together—people from different places, speaking different languages—it felt like a glimpse of Heaven. We cried together.”
Toward the end of the evening, Keith Draper pointed to two global trends shaping this moment: the growing number of displaced people worldwide, which had doubled over the past decade, and the rapid urbanization of global cities, where minorities often make up the majority. These trends, he believes, are not just historical forces but opportunities God is using.
Many immigrants bring vibrant Christian faith, strengthening churches and communities in bold ways. Others arrive with no exposure to Christianity at all—and encounter it for the first time through ordinary acts of hospitality. “God is redeeming things we might otherwise fear,” Keith said. “He’s inviting us to participate.”
That invitation is what Rez’s Good Neighbor Teams have been responding to—quietly, consistently, without fanfare. Their stories suggest that while the needs are large, the work often begins simply: calling a stranger a friend and choosing to walk with them from there.
To learn more about getting involved in a Good Neighbor Team, contact Fr. Brett Crull at BrettCrull@churchrez.org.
Clare VanderWeele is a member of Resurrection and lives in Wheaton. A writer at heart and a lover of words and books, she works as birth doula in addition to homeschooling her three children.