Let our faith speak
June 16, 2026
By Dr Sureka Goringe, National Director, UnitingWorld
I recently spent two days at the Christian Conference of Asia, sitting with church leaders who between them carry the hopes of 50 million Christians across this region.
I asked them what keeps them awake. One challenge they spoke about most often was forced migration and statelessness: desperate people crossing borders in search of safety and a livelihood because of climate change, poverty and conflict. Young people leaving because there is no work. Families abandoning traditional land as harvests fail. The same forces, again and again, falling hardest on those least able to absorb them.
And yet, what I heard again and again were stories of people of faith stepping into the breach to love their neighbours, no matter where they came from.
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In Indonesia, where so many women and young people leave home for work and either never return or, tragically, return in coffins, our church partners in East Nusa Tenggara have built a ‘House of Hope’ for survivors of trafficking. In the Philippines, churches of every denomination shelter and defend migrant workers far from home. And our own Rev Charissa Suli, President of the Uniting Church in Australia, spoke of communities losing their ancestral land to rising seas, reminding us that we cannot separate people's suffering from the forces driving it: climate change, inequality and conflict.
In each case, the answer is the same: standing with church partners to address the causes of forced migration, so people can live, work and sustain their families in the place they call home. It's exactly the work our partners in Sumba are doing right now, helping families hold their ground before hardship forces them to leave (your tax-deductible gift helps this work grow).
It reaffirmed my belief that the only way to overcome what we face is together, through the unity, faith and determination of those of us who follow Jesus.
Our world is desperately in need of people who can love recklessly, speak truth courageously, and labour tirelessly for others. People lit from inside by a fire from out of this world, who share their hope and their bread with all they meet.
We who follow Christ are called to roll up our sleeves and step into a suffering world with good news for the poor, healing for the sick and freedom for the oppressed.
We are called for such a time as this.
Are we ready?
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