What do you do when your heart is ready to welcome, your hands are prepared, your community is in position…and the door closes?
For one group of believers, this is not a theoretical question. It’s the exact road they’ve walked for months, as refugee resettlement to the U.S. was paused, redirecting their plans and reshaping their understanding of what it means to wait well and welcome faithfully.
The Call to Welcome
“The refugee and immigrant space has been my passion and joy for almost 20 years, sometimes in a work context, most often in a volunteer context, and eventually as lifelong friends with new Americans,” shares Jane, a member of the Women of Welcome community. “God has changed my life through this work—sometimes hard, sometimes uncomfortable, sometimes unpredictable, but always rich and rewarding in the best possible ways.”
When Welcome Corps launched, the opportunity to welcome a family as a private sponsor felt like a divine invitation. “If I were a refugee, waiting with my family for a safe permanent home, wouldn’t I want someone, like me, to step up to make it happen?” she wondered. “The parable of the Good Samaritan comes to mind… will I turn away or will I engage to help? I recognized my privilege and the resources my community could offer and was very excited at the prospect of welcoming a family to America, supporting them, learning from them, creating a bond.”
“When the current administration was elected in November 2024, I knew the refugee program was likely going to diminish significantly in 2025,” Jane recalls. “I was overcome with regret that I hadn’t followed God’s prompting to bring a family to safety. Then, a few days before Thanksgiving 2024, I learned that many refugee families, who’d been vetted and were ready to travel to the U.S., needed private sponsor groups in order for them to come, and also that there was financial support for groups to support the family for 90 days. I could still step in, although the time was short. I was elated and energized.”
And so, despite earlier hesitations, this time, she pulled together a group of nine people, they jumped in. They quickly completed the application process, were certified, and matched with a Syrian family of four. They toured apartments, gathered household items, found furniture, and circled the family’s February 4th arrival on their calendars. They knew the family’s names, their ages. “As I watched God provide at every juncture, I was humbled and grateful,” Jane says.
“We waited for the day we’d meet them face-to-face with great anticipation,” she said. “Each of us had this day and time highlighted in our calendars and etched on our hearts.”
Then came January 21st and the news arrived: the family’s travel was canceled.
“I was devastated, although I’m sure far less so than our Syrian family,” she says. “I questioned everything. Didn’t God call me to this? Had I misunderstood? Had I pulled my friends into a dead end after they’d invested their time and hearts?”
“Isaiah 55:8-9 reminds me that God’s ways are higher than my ways. Reminding myself of God’s faithfulness, I stayed plugged in with refugee agencies, organizations monitoring resettlement changes, and any webinar that provided updates. Our group prayed for the path God surely had planned for us.”
The Long Pause
For sponsor groups across the country, the early months of 2025 brought a gut-punch. Refugee resettlement programs were paused. Approved families were grounded. Plans were frozen. Hearts were left aching.
“It was surreal,” she remembers. “I was in denial for the first 24 hours, checking with Welcome Corps, our nonprofit partner, my congressman’s office. I sat in webinars and cried out to God.”
But the group didn’t disband. They didn’t give up. They stored the furniture. They kept the account open. And most of all, they stayed ready. They gave donors who’d helped them raise the money to support the family for the first 90 days the opportunity to pull out and none did.
“Knowing Afghan SIV families were the only group being allowed to immigrate at that time, I continued to seek opportunities to bring a family to safety,” Jane continues. “In February, we were matched again with an Afghan SIV family of six who was vetted and ready to travel, only to find out a week later that they were resettling with family elsewhere.”
When Waiting Finds Purpose
Through the organization No One Left Behind, which helps Afghan allies evacuate and resettle, the group learned about Afghan SIV (Special Immigrant Visa) families stuck in Pakistan. These are families who worked alongside the U.S. mission, now displaced and in danger, many living in fear of the Taliban. The group knew: if not us, who?
“One week later, we met the Zaki family at the airport and a new adventure began.”
The waiting had not been wasted. And yet, the emotions were complex. “It felt a bit like we were abandoning [our original family] as we welcomed a different family,” she shares honestly. “But we continue to pray that at some point we can welcome them here or that they reach a safe permanent home elsewhere.”
Growing in the Tension
Jane reflects on how deeply the waiting has shaped her own faith.
“My waiting actually pales in comparison to the waiting refugee families endure,” she says. “God has and continues to teach me about living in the current moment, trusting him with outcomes, and remembering his ways are higher than my ways.”
This journey has given her a burden for the refugee families who are still enduring the waiting. “Hundreds are processed and just waiting for someone here in America to help them resettle. Hearing our family talk about living in fear of the Taliban and the oppression they experienced as Afghans, but especially as American allies, makes me realize the danger facing those who remain there. I am praying about this notion of saying ‘yes’ to another waiting family.”
It hasn’t been easy. There were fears about leadership, about letting people down, about curveballs. “But God was working on me. I learned that relying on God doesn’t mean there won’t be hardships—it means trusting that He will carry us through them.”
“I’ve been blown away by the grace, dedication, and perseverance of my friends who joined me in this sponsorship journey. The teamwork and mutual encouragement have exceeded my expectations and been an indescribable blessing.”
Biblical Hospitality in Action
Now that the Zaki family is here, the group is walking with them through all the unknowns: housing, jobs, schools, medical appointments. The work is daily—and so is the joy.
“We don’t see them as ‘needy’ but as people who will be valuable contributors to our community,” she says. “They are starting over in a new country with a new language, but we want to honor their dignity as human beings, made by God.”
She adds, “We are impressed with them—their motivation, their resilience, their hospitality. They inspire us.”
An Invitation to Us All
To others considering sponsorship but feeling unsure, she offers this: “Yes, it can be scary and uncomfortable to enter an unknown process that requires your time, your energy, your heart, and your financial resources. But, if we look back at our life experiences, the richest, most rewarding ones have also been the most challenging.”
And to her sisters in faith, she offers a charge: “More and more, my experiences of welcome and relationship with refugees and immigrants have shown me that we are all inter-connected. And God doesn’t leave me hanging when I step in to offer welcome as His Word teaches. I experience God in meaningful ways when I am stepping into these places that can be hard and messy… but there is always joy as well.”
What Now?
Refugee resettlement may be paused for many—but welcome doesn’t have to be.
Here’s how you can help:
- Pray for families still stuck in limbo, including Afghans in danger and other refugee families whose travel was abruptly canceled.
- Sponsor a family through any pathways still available and support refugees already in the U.S. through World Relief and other local partners.
- Advocate for the Afghan Adjustment Act and refugee protections.
This resource answers the most common questions Christians have about immigration and equips you to engage conversations with biblical clarity, truth, and grace.