Genesis 18:3-5

The world today has more lost people than ever before. They face the challenge of surviving in an environment that rarely recognizes them as existing. The journey from their homeland is extremely perilous, yet the refugees embark upon it with hope for a better life, and it is only this hope that allows them to persevere. Without a country, without identification papers, and with few if any resources, opportunities to create a meaningful life are not readily available. Life is humiliating drudgery, and they truly survive on the borderline of existence.

The Joel Nafuma Refugee Center, located in the crypt of St. Paul's Within the Walls, is the only day center in Rome available to refugees. The JNRC represents an oasis, a haven where refugees can come to get advice and aid, spend time with people who speak their own languages, watch news bulletins from around the world, learn English, Italian, computer skills, and basic skills to help them adjust to living in Europe.

More than twenty years ago, the then Rector of St. Paul's, the Rev. Wilbur Woodhams, invited a young Ugandan priest, himself a refugee, to open a ministry to the many Africans who in that era found themselves in Rome, victims of upheaval, persecution and revolution at home. The Joel Nafuma Refugee Center was blessed and rededicated in June 1995 to an expanded and recommitted ministry in the presence of Bishop Rowthorn, the Rev. Joel Nafuma, and representatives from the Rome ecumenical and international communities.

The Center today is run entirely by volunteers, who come from all walks of life and from many different ecumenical backgrounds, under the direction of the Rev. Michael Vono, Rector of St. Paul's Within the Walls, Akbatan 'Tuana' Abdulla, Coordinator of Refugee Services, Sister Emy, a Roman Catholic nun from the Sisters of Sion, and Fr. Peter (the Rev. Peter J. Bones, sss, Padri Sacramentini), who supervises the ministry to young people from Eastern Europe. On occasion, groups of young people come from abroad to offer their services to the Center, teaching, or simply talking to the refugees.

Other regular services offered by the Center to the approximately hundred and fifty daily visitors include clothing distribution, morning tea and cookies, a library, satellite television and daily videos, chess and table-tennis, referral help for legal and medical assistance, and pastoral and resettlement counseling. There is also a professional barber who offers haircuts.

One of the refugees, Victor Al-Harmazi, a professional artist, created a mural in the entrance to the Center representative of refugees and their search for liberty. A second mural has recently been completed by Goran Hemen Mohamed.

In recent years, donations have been made to the JNRC by the United Thank Offering and Episcopal Relief and Development (the former Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief). These contributions have enabled the work with the refugee center to continue, while also subsidizing a new kitchen and modern bathroom facilities.

When arriving at the Center in the morning, it is apparent how much the refugees need the presence and kindness of others. They are hungry for attention, and for the love that God has brought to our eyes, says Jeff Lorch, one of the volunteers. Relatively small gestures of kindness fill a large void in their hearts. Interacting with the refugees each day is a new and unique experience with God, and every day you come closer to an understanding of God's love. You must constantly be ready to help them satisfy their own needs, for without the knowledge of the language and of the surroundings, they lack the information and tools to continue their struggle... What is most important, again, is the way you bring your heart and your soul to their lives. In the world today, the most beautiful act is that in which we give all of ourselves to those human beings who need us most.