Since 1978, World Relief, the international assistance arm of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), has worked with evangelical churches throughout the United States to resettle refugees who have come to our shores from all over the world. During this year of 1993, World Relief expects to resettle its 100,000th refugee.

We give thanks to God for what has been accomplished by our member denominations and churches and the many evangelical Christian! who opened their homes and families to the needs of hurting and desperate people.

We commend the staff of World Relief, the evangelical churches who opened their doors to these refugees and the thousands of individual sponsors who have served so faithfully and effectively.

We acknowledge the impact of this program on the lives of the refugees as well as the churches.

We affirm again the biblical mandate to care for strangers and aliens among us and the need to provide compassionate refuge to those fleeing persecution.

We agree that the best solution for most refugees is the freedom to return to their homes or to resettle In communities near the countries from which they came. However, we recognize that these alternatives are not always available. Therefore, we affirm the need to continue to provide a place of refuge in those countries which have a tradition of caring for those fleeing either religious or political persecution.

We thank God that many refugees who have experienced the love of Christ through the care and concern of our churches have become active In churches related to the NAE. We rejoice in the continued reports of blessing from those churches who are participating in refugee concerns.

We pledge ourselves to care not only for the refugees arriving in our country, but also those who are forced to live In camps In other countries. We also pledge ourselves to work for peace and to do whatever we can to eliminate the war and prejudice that force people to flee from their homes.