The issue of asylum seekers remains a hot topic in Australia. In all the emotion of the debate, we can forget that this is about people’s lives. Whatever our opinions are on the best way to deal with people coming to Australia to seek asylum, as Christians it is incumbent on us to love our neighbours as ourselves. It is part of loving God.

Our model for doing this is of course Jesus, who was an asylum seeker himself. The Son of God was taken by his parents to a foreign land to seek safe shelter because it was too dangerous to return home (Matt 2).

While the Australian Government implements its policies on asylum seekers, there are many people across this country determined to play their own part by welcoming these people who are literally fleeing for their lives. And it gladdens my heart that this movement is being led by Christians.

Welcome to My Place is a campaign run by World Vision, giving Christians throughout Australia the opportunity to show hospitality to asylum seekers and refugees during Refugee Week this week (15-21 June).

Isaiah 58:7 reminds us to take the homeless poor into our homes. This is what this campaign does. It is a wonderful chance to meet and get to know people whose lives are unimaginably different to most of ours.

Building relationships like this is not just good cross-cultural ministry; it is good for the future of our society. It tears down barriers of fear and misunderstanding and it gives us an inside view of the horrors faced by millions of people the world over.

Here is what one asylum seeker in Melbourne said about what it means to have to flee your country:  “When you lose your money and your job, you have lost something essential. When you lose your house, your family and your country, you have lost everything. But when you lose your language and culture, your soul is broken. It is like a spiritual dislocation.”

Please join a growing band of Christians across Australia who are living out the words of the prophets and of Jesus.  And as our Lord himself says in Matthew 25, “whenever you did it to the least of these, you did it to me.”

If you or your church is interested in hosting a Welcome to My Place dinner, you can visit www.welcometomyplace.org.au