Local Mission Stepping Up To Help Middle Eastern Refugees

Secretary of State John Kerry wants the U.S. to help more refugees. He met with members of Congress Wednesday in a closed-door meeting.

Kerry said the U.S. is prepared to increase the number of refugees it helps resettle. The U.S. currently has a worldwide quota of helping 70,000 people, but the Obama administration wants to help about 5,000 more refugees next year - Kerry said many of those would be from Syria.

A local Mission organization has made the Middle Eastern refugee crisis a priority and sends in aid once a month; the president of the mission said the situation is one of the worst he’s seen.

World Compassion has been sending support to refugees for years and said, as the situation drags out, it makes things even direr for the people displaced from their homes.

Jason Law is the President of World Compassion - a Tulsa-based mission group that helps people in countries hostile towards Christians – and he’s been helping people since before he can remember.

“It's my family's ministry, so I've kind of grown up my whole life going to these," he said. “But I've been full time on staff with the organization for the last 12 years."

His most recent trip was a week in Iraq, helping with Syrian and Iraqi refugees.

It's a crisis at the forefront of the world stage, with more than 250,000 refugees in northern Iraq, and thousands flooding into Western Europe looking for asylum.

World Compassion provides food, medical aid and relief once a month to at least 4,000 refugees.

They've been helping for two-and-a-half years in response to ISIS moving into Iraq and the Syrian civil war.

Law said, "A lot of these people were doctors, lawyers, teachers, business owners, just like we were here in Tulsa. And their lives have been taken from them by militant groups and they have a burning desire to rebuild their families and educate their kids just like we do."

Out of the thousands the mission helps, every refugee has a story.

"So, like, she has never been educated. If she's Syrian, she's been there for three years…She's never been educated and her parents aren't thinking about putting her in school," Law said.

He said this is one of the worst humanitarian crises of our time, and one of the most lengthy and violent he has seen.

Law hopes, as the stories of the refugees continue to make international headlines, that more and more people are touched by the tragedy.

“I think we need to look inside of ourselves and say, ‘OK, what would be required of me to reach them and help them?’ Because if I was in that situation, what would I want people to do to me,” he asked.

To learn more about World Compassion and their mission, you can visit their website.