"Proclaim Peace" Season 2, Episode 15 // Building Peace Through Welcoming the Stranger, With Elizabeth Davis Edwards

https://youtu.be/QTFzzDt8kAA

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Elizabeth Davis Edwards joins Jen and Patrick to share inspiring stories of community-led refugee support and explore how welcoming strangers aligns with faith, history, and peacebuilding. This episode emphasizes that peace is cultivated through everyday acts of hospitality, community effort, and faith-based compassion. It encourages listeners to look around their neighborhoods for opportunities to serve, love, and welcome "one more."

Chapters

[00:00] Introduction to peace and the deeper meaning of shalom

[04:15] Afghan families in Greece and their transformative impact

[08:15] The biblical call to remember and welcome the stranger

[10:45] Abraham’s hospitality as a model for modern welcome

[13:01] Reframing division through recognizing sacredness in others

[16:46] How communities can surmount "othering" and embrace shared humanity

[23:29] Gregory Boyle’s quote on human hospitality

[28:56] Opportunities for faith communities to actively participate in peacebuilding

[33:31] Personal peace amidst chaos and the importance of small, everyday acts of goodness

[38:13] Addressing misconceptions about refugee support and community capacity

[44:24] The faith perspective on resilience, hope, and trusting divine guidance

[48:21] Recognizing that true peace comes from charity, hope, and divine power

Transcript

Jennifer Thomas (00:00)

Hi friends. Welcome to the "Proclaim Peace" podcast, where we read the scripture through the lens of peacemaking. This year we are working our way through the Old Testament and exploring ways that it can teach us about how we can be better peacemakers in our societies, homes, families, and wards. I am joined today by my co-host Patrick Mason. Patrick, how are you doing?

Patrick Mason (00:19)

I'm doing all right. How are you, Jen? How's your summer going?

Jennifer Thomas (00:21)

I am fine. I am enjoying a heat wave here in Boston. 

Patrick Mason (00:25)

Same here, so I think everywhere.

Jennifer Thomas (00:27)

Yeah, a little bit miserable. I'm a little bit tired of the heat. We were warned about this and it's here, but it doesn't make it pleasant. So today we are really excited to have a conversation with a good friend of mine, Elizabeth Davis Edwards. Elizabeth has a lot to tell us about one of the very core messages of the Old Testament, which is that we are to welcome the stranger. It's a message that comes through early in scripture, but particularly is highlighted by the Lord over and over in as he speaks to his people through his prophets after Exodus out of Egypt. And he reminds them constantly that they were strangers in the land and that they have an obligation to, I think, honor the Lord for his his deliverance of them through ensuring that they make sure that the people amongst them do not also feel the tensions and pains that they felt in Egypt.

Patrick Mason (01:17)

Yeah. So as we were approaching this episode, so I recently went and saw the new movie "The Odyssey" with my kids. I don't know if you've had a chance to see it yet.

Jennifer Thomas (01:27)

I have not.

Patrick Mason (01:28)

There is lots of violence in it, but actually I think it it's it's there's a great message in terms of the futility of violence. and and one of the themes in the movie, they call it the law of Zeus, we would call it the golden rule.

But basically the that this is central to the movie, the idea of hospitality, the idea of of the the importance of welcoming in anybody who comes to your door, even the beggar, and then showing them hospit hospitality and then they in turn being good guests. and really that's kind of one of the the themes that the whole you know, kind of the the thematic hinge that that the whole movie goes on. 

What I like is that this so this is not just a Jewish virtue or a Christian virtue. we we we can find this this kind of idea in lots of different traditions all around the world, but it is central to to the Judeo-Christian tradition. It's central to the biblical tradition. 

I think about a scripture here in First Kings. We could find lots of other passages that are that are like this throughout the

The Old Testament, but in 1 Kings chapter 8, it says, Likewise, when foreigners, who are not of your people Israel, come from a distant land because of your name, for they shall hear of your great name, your mighty hand, your outstretched arm. When foreigners come and pray toward this house, then hear in heaven your dwelling place and do whatever the foreigners ask of you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your people Israel. So they may know that your name has been invoked on this house that I have built. 

Here's talking about the temple, right? But all these people, they've they've heard about it. They they want to come. and and it it just specifically says, people who are not of your people, who have who have heard, like this is the opportunity to show hospitality when they come, because they've heard good things about the God of Israel, about the people of Israel. How is it that you're gonna receive them when they come?

Jennifer Thomas (03:18)

One of the things I love about that scripture is that they might know they may know that this house, which I have built, I've got the King James version version. I think you have a different one, is called by thy name. I think one of the things that is so interesting to me about that scripture is it is reminding them that you can have the temple, you can be attending the temple, participating in temple worship, but it is the way you treat the stranger in your midst that will indicate to them that this house is holy and that you have actually built it in my name and that it is reflective of of God. So I I think sometimes we forget that. And I'm I really love the way you've kind of framed this in terms of ancient civilizations because I think that one of the signs that we are straying from kind of these core religious values is often how we treat treat the stranger, how individualistic we have become, how legalistic we've become in terms of whether we determine that someone is worthy of our attention, time and care. And our guest today has done a beautiful job through her life and through the work that she professionally does to remind us all and of our duty to the stranger and reintegrate those people into our lives in seamless ways that allows us to build communities where that line between I don't even know what the opposite of the stranger is, but the person who was there first and the stranger that has come in their midst starts to really blur and they become all part of one family.

Patrick Mason (04:43)

I have to say, I mean, to me, this has been a theme that we've heard repeatedly from church leaders in recent years, as there's been just a global wave of refugees. I I specifically remember this in the mid-2010s, I think it was around 2015. Elder Patrick Kearon he wasn't yet a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, he was, I think, area president in Europe that was receiving waves of refugees from the Middle East, from Syria and from other places. And he gave this incredible talk about the experience of church members in Europe re receiving these people. But but then he said, and this is a line that I'll always remember, he says that their story, the refugee story, is our story as Latter-day Saints, right? That is our history. That's who we were. we're recording this episode really close to Pioneer Day.

You know, this part of our story of people being driven from their homes, being driven out from the places that they attended, the the homes that they had built, the the the fields that they had plowed, leaving things behind and going to new places because of persecution, because of violence. And then what does it look like? And we have stories from our past where people welcomed welcomed us in with open arms, like in Quincy.

Jennifer Thomas (05:50)

Mm-hmm. Yep.

Patrick Mason (05:51)

We have other stories from our past where people did not. We have stories from our past where we welcome welcomed in other people. And sometimes where we weren't always good hosts or good guests.

Jennifer Thomas (05:58)

Stories where we did not. Yeah.

Patrick Mason (06:01)

and so this is part of our story. It's part of our hair. So it's a scriptural story, but it but it's it's part of our story as Latter day Saints too.

Jennifer Thomas (06:08)

Yeah, and I think I'd like to just add to that. I one of the gifts of prophets, they are not they're not fortune tellers, but they are help to help there to help us see the arc sort of of our sins sometimes. Like they

Patrick Mason (06:20)

Yes.

Jennifer Thomas (06:21)

help us see where we're going wrong before we're even registering that we're going wrong. I think these early tal these talks by not just Patrick Kearon, but other church leaders in the early part of this century were indicators that a real issue was coming down the pike and that we as Latter-day Saints needed to have our hearts and minds prepared to respond to what was going to be an increasing refugee crisis across the globe. And the question I hope that our guest will help each of us reflect on is are our hearts in the place that they need to be to do this work? Are we responding to the call that the Lord issued in the Old Testament and then Christ reiterated in the New Testament? And then if we are, what are we prepared to do about that? How are we prepared, as was, you know, explained in Kings to show that we are believers not only through our observance of the temple at the temple, but also through our observance in terms of how we care for the people that are in our midst? So we're really excited to bring to you today a remarkable guest. In her 20 years of experience in strategy, marketing, storytelling, and nonprofit leadership.

Elizabeth Davis Edwards has helped Fortune 500 companies and mission-driven organizations alike drive impact. In response to the evacuation of 80,000 refugees from Afghanistan, Elizabeth, a longtime advocate for refugees, quit her job as a marketing executive and formed Welcome NST to engage communities to help resettle refugee families. Elizabeth holds an MBA from Boston University and a BS in sociology from Brigham Young University.

I hope you will see what a remarkable person she is and how much her her deep discipleship drives her work with refugees and we are so grateful to have her with us.

Jennifer Thomas (08:00)

Liz, welcome to the Proclaim Peace Podcast. We're so excited to have you with us.

Elizabeth Davis Edwards (08:04)

Thanks for having me. I'm excited too.

Jennifer Thomas (08:07)

be a lot of fun. I always have fun when I'm with you. we're gonna launch with a question that we ask all of our listeners, which is simple but also has some weight to it. how do you personally define peace?

Elizabeth Davis Edwards (08:19)

I actually really like the concept of shalom, because it's obviously refers to, you know, something much deeper than just the absence of conflict. And I know you you Weg, you know, you guys talk about that a lot, so that's not a new new idea here. but I like it they like to think of it as a way of being. So that's that's how I look at it.

Patrick Mason (08:36)

Nice. so I know that you and Jen know each other and and have worked together, but I'm just getting to know you. and many of our listeners will be just getting to know you. And so before we dive into the meat of the conversation, I wonder if you can introduce yourself a little bit to us. Tell us about who you are, what brought you into this space, tell us a little bit about Welcome NST.

You know what it is, how it all happened. just just give us a little bit of background so we can appreciate the the great work that you do.

Elizabeth Davis Edwards (09:05)

Sure. so my background is actually in marketing, so I'm not a I'm not your typical person in the refugee resettlement space.

I worked actually with Afghan refugees for yet several years, off and on, with my family. We did these things that we called adventures, like Edwards Adventure, because you know, marketing I have to I have to brand everything. We've got we've got merch, you know, so so we would find a f something in the world where we wanted to make an impact. and when I say in early days when I say we it was mostly me because my kids were little. You know, that changed over time. But we would find it's an organization that was doing something about that thing. We'd reach out to them and then we would find out what they needed. We'd raise money at home and then we'd travel to that place to help implement whatever it was. So we did that for many years when my my youngest daughter was like three when we first started this and now she's 19.

Patrick Mason (09:57)

Mm.

Elizabeth Davis Edwards (09:57)

So so in that context we worked with Afghan refugees in a refugee camp in Greece that camp was full of 650 Afghans. And so we bec we came to know those families. We've we we went back there and helped them with you know raise money for different projects like a a computer lab and things like that. and it was amazing. those friends that we made during that that time frame as a family completely changed us. I don't know that we changed them as much as they changed changed us, but knowing them, hearing their stories, walking alongside them for some short period of time was absolutely transformative for me and for my family. we still have pictures of them all over our house. the the the heartbreaking piece was that we would always leave, right? If we would have we have our US passports and we just kind of jump on a plane and we would leave you know a warehouse of things or whatever, you know, a computer lab behind and and then we would go home to our super cushy life and they would be stuck in that camp with no still the same place, nowhere to go, no where no no where way to work, no way to move their lives forward. And it was wildly unfair. And we would tell stories of those families to the people who donated money to the project and I just wish so badly they the the people would say, you guys are amazing. And I I'd never had the words to explain how it sounds so trite. we got so much more out of it, just sounds like a, you know, a silly thing to say. there was no way to really communicate that adequately. I just wished that they could have that experience. And then and then for I fast forward several years later was the when the Afghan evacuation happened in 2021, you know, is like the rest of the country, I was watching these Afghans that looked a lot like our friends clinging to the outside of planes as they were taken off into the sky, so so desperate to get to freedom somewhere else. and it was just a moral imperative, you know, to to f find something I could do. I mean there's there was no no option for me. So I had a network of people who engaged in at a national level.

I reached out to a couple folks. One of them was Larry Tobin from the Shapiro Foundation and I said what what's happening and what do we need? And this is just as the kabul was falling. And and he said they're deciding how many people to put on those planes in part based on how much community support we're gonna have when when they get here. Because we know we don't have the infrastructure within the resettlement system to absorb, you know, 80,000 people in a fairly short period of time. 

So I was just about to leave to drive my middle daughter across the country to go to BYU. And he said, no. So I just started reaching out and you know getting the word out and saying we're gonna we're gonna do this thing. It's probably the world's shortest branding exercise. It took about three and a half minutes. And I said, We're gonna we're gonna start farming these things called neighborhood support teams or NSTs, and every NST is going to raise money.

And f we didn't know how much. Find housing and welcome one family into their neighborhood. And and that's what we did. And in the very short period of time we had fifteen hundred people step up to and they welcomed four hundred Afghans into their neighborhoods. so for me, while th there's a lot of commentary and all understandable around the the the you know, the realities that ha around that evacuation and the process and the mess of it all, for me it was like the of the Red Sea of Immigration. Just the very idea that that many Afghans in a short time could suddenly get out of Afghanistan and get to the US and have a chance to have to exercise agency over their own lives and their families was just a miracle. To me, it was a miracle. So and the of course, the other thing that we we saw and we'd seen many times before in our other projects were it was how much people just were waiting.

They just wanted to be part of it. They wanted to do something and they just didn't know what to do. We didn't have to twist people's arms. You know, they were looking for something to do and they just jumped in. So that was our that's our start and we since then have grown and we went we started welcoming Ukrainians at in the context of the war in Ukraine. then we pivoted to Guatemalans and Haitians and really everywhere where there was a a priv a a pathway, a legal pathway open for private citizens to welcome refugees into this country, which is new for the US. so we were really at the cutting edge of of a lot of that effort and it's been a wild ride all all along and now since to up today we've welcomed I think today we're almost to fifteen hundred refugees and we've engaged f over five thousand people across thirty eight states.

Patrick Mason (14:45)

Amazing.

Jennifer Thomas (14:46)

So Liz, part of the reason we wanted to talk to you today was we're obviously reading the Old Testament through a lens of peacemaking. And the one of the most critical origin stories, once you kind of get through once the children of Israel get into bondage, the most critical origin story of this people is this the way God brings them out of bondage, that the way he brings them out of slavery. But they are strangers in a strange land for decades. And and I think one of the things that has struck me as I'm rereading the Old Testament is this constant reminder, Jehovah, like reminding his people, I brought you out of of you know, you were a stranger. I brought you out of Egypt. You need to now welcome the stranger. He absolutely never lets them off the hook. And and so I'm wondering if you could talk to us a little bit about that today. About why do you think God asks Israel to remember that? Why does he ask them to remember not just what happened to them, but what it actually felt like to be a stranger? And then ask them to transcend sort of the horrible origin story and the violence of their origin through actually welcoming people who themselves have been subject to violence and displacement.

Elizabeth Davis Edwards (16:02)

I love that. I love that that question.

I think I think maybe first it's probably good to just define the stranger. Obviously there are lots of ways we can slice that. To me it's a person who's outside of their community and therefore is vulnerable, right? So when you think of these people that came, where the the the Afghans that I was talking about that where we all started and where World Cup and a C started, is you know, all they left their people. Like they're they don't they they left all their people.

That's always the hardest part, right? It's not the it's not the cars or the houses or the whatever the you know the stuff in your house, it's the people. You leave your people and then you then you're literally in a place that you don't have people, right? And we even when those of us who haven't had to leave things our people behind have a hard time really understanding what that would feel like. I know I do. so if you think about that, like I one of the you know, striking commonalities across really actually across Judaism, Christianity and Islam, right? Is this tradition of welcoming the stranger? And it's all kind of rooted in Abraham. You know, this the story of Abraham in Genesis 18, you know, where he where he he shows up and he it's actually this it's the chapter right after he's received the Abrahamic covenant where he and Sariah are promised that while they're old and childless that they're going to become you know mother and father of nations, which certainly felt impossible, right? Like, how would you

Jennifer Thomas (17:24)

Impossible, yeah.

Elizabeth Davis Edwards (17:26)

possibly explain that, right? So, so in the very next chapter, Abraham has these three men show up at the door, and they he doesn't know who they are, but he runs to them and he welcomes them and he feeds them and he washes their feet, and Sarah makes them cakes, and they welcome them with great honor. And ultimately he finds out that they're holy.

Joseph Smith translation calls them angels, right? So this is the story that whether across these three main major religions all reflect back on that story. And I mean to your point, Jan, like obviously one of the reasons that we're asked to welcome the stranger is it's a call to humility, right, and gratitude to remember that we were ourselves were once strangers, right? We are the we're we're the debtors, right? So so it's certainly that.

And that's that's a hu really important part of it. It's also a call to compassion for your fellow travelers, right? Just to remember to be kind and to re and to recognize people's suffering and to care. but I think maybe, maybe even more than anything else, and this is also echoed of course in Matthew in the New Testament, it's a reminder that the holy sometimes comes in disguise, right? That the people that show up at our doorstep that might look like beggars, that might look like less than actually might be something really really important that we have we really need and I love where Sharon Eubank says that we are all rich and we are all poor in some way and my experience and getting to know families abroad and also those who have made it here they are experiences of holiness, getting to know people who have the kinds of experiences that I can only imagine and have come through with their faith in better in a in a better day, a faith in God intact, we have a lot to learn from those people.

Jennifer Thomas (19:19)

So I love that, Liz. And I'm I think that particularly in our society right now, we are watching our peace be fractured because we have voices in our society that are claiming that the other are the opposite of holy, that they are vermin or they are, you know, less than. And to me, that fractures peace, right? It it it breaks this covenant that we have with our fellow travelers. And I love the way you're inviting us to flip that right on its head and to say, no, not only are these people not vermin or are they not less than us, they actually are holy. They are actually have the potential to be transformative for us in terms of our relations with them and and our experiences with them can be sacred. So I I just that, I just wanted to put a pin in that. I think it's a a really gorgeous way to reframe how we approach the stranger. Not just that they're of worth and of value, but that they actually can be something incredibly sacred that invites us into holy spaces.

Patrick Mason (20:26)

Yeah.

Elizabeth Davis Edwards (20:26)

I agree, Jen. I think that I think that a lot of the times compassion is just the doorway, right? We have compassion for someone, we see their suffering and we show up because we feel something, but then what happens next is where the magic really is, right? It's this it's this I mean for lack of a better word, it's love, right? it's a it's a a a kindred, you know, spirit, you know, where we we find that common ground and we see ourselves and them and them and us. I mean, Mother Teresa said that if we have no peace, it's because we have forgotten that we belong to each other. And I love that. And I think that's we find that today. And I think when we s when we hear the rhetoric and we see the you know the the conflict and the divisiveness, we have to ask ourselves who profits from that? Because it's none of us. None of us profit from that. Some maybe somebody, but it's certainly not us. So I think it's it's it's our as Christians, it's our responsibility, ability to to rise above that and to to to take a higher higher look and a broader look at what what's really happening here. I think that's what God is inviting us to do in the Old Testament.

Patrick Mason (21:30)

I love the way that you've grounded this, both in in you know, the the the experience, I mean, tracing it all the way back to the beginnings of the Abrahamic covenant, right? This is at the very heart of what it means to be a covenant people with God, all the way up through Jesus' teachings, right, in Matthew twenty-five. I suspect that that a lot of people sort of feel this way. That you know, they've read those scriptures, they they they've that they've heard this, but there's also this you know, quiet or sometimes not so quiet voice that says, but like how much is too much? Right? are are there limits to welcoming the stranger? God may have infinite resources, but I don't. you know, debates about nations borders and and and all these kinds of things. I'm sure you've wrestled with this. how do you think about this in in terms of where does compassion, where does the obligation that that we have towards others run up against some kind of just natural li limits? Obviously there's political limits, right? I mean the nations create laws about who can come in and out, but but it's about resources, it's about all all those kinds of things. What how have you wrestled with with that?

Elizabeth Davis Edwards (22:42)

Yeah, that's a really good question. there are really important conversations to be had around immigration, right? I th I think I don't think you'll talk to anyone in this I know you won't talk to anybody in this space who would disagree with that.

Everybody knows the immigration system needs needs to be changed, right? It's old, it's outdated, right? That there's that's not news and that's not that's not divisive actually. Right? The It's we I I we I think we really do.

Patrick Mason (23:04)

Right. Right.

Jennifer Thomas (23:06)

It's the one thing we all agree on.

Patrick Mason (23:07)

Yeah.

Elizabeth Davis Edwards (23:09)

Yeah, like there we've got some common ground.

Patrick Mason (23:11)

Ha ha.

Elizabeth Davis Edwards (23:12)

And I I think so that that aside, I think the question to me is for policymakers, the question is what's what is the right way to do that, right? Right. So

So for for people and and also for voters, right, to think about what is the right way to re to remake our our immigration system in a way that's reflective, that reflects our current needs and our current economy, that's that's that's modern and speaks to today's realities, right? So that's a very, very valid conversation and I I don't I think everyone everyone I've ever talked to is eager to have that it is having that conversation actively, right?

Right. So but the divisiveness is i is doesn't usually come about like actually actual poly you know policy conversations. comes focused to your point on othering. You know that's maybe that's not the right word, but just taking a group of people and making them not valid, not valuable, right? it's not necessary to see them as humans and as Christians we should all take issue with that because literally opposite of what we are what we're called to do as Christians. we are called the the two main commandments. That's pretty simple, right? Our call is to love God and love each other.

So policy decisions are are absolutely valid, but how we act on a day-to-day basis and how we see other people is to me fairly clear-cut. And I think the Bible does a great job outlining what we're expected to do and and how we're expected to act as Christians who are seeking to live our lives more like Jesus Christ.

Jennifer Thomas (24:46)

So Liz, I think the way Patrick framed this question is sort of endemic of the way that we think about immigration and refugee resettlement. That this is something that is, you know, sits at the purview of policymakers in Washington, that the resources should come from there, the processes should come from there, all the gateways should be dependent on them. And one of the things that I'm so interested in having our readers understand is the way you sort of flip that model on its head.

And that you refuse to say, well, the limits will be imposed on us by the nation state. Obviously obviously you'll observe the laws. You you only bring people who are cleared as refugees and come in legally. But but you've set up a whole different way of of caring for those people that seems to me to indicate that the only limits to the number of people that we can bring in are the limits that we as individuals are willing to come together to care for them and and kind of support and sustain them. So I'd love to have you share a little bit about the superpower that you found in communities, this this superpower that you found that people were willing to welcome the stranger. And tell us a little bit more about what you think it teaches us about the role that ordinary people can play, separate from policy, separate from government funding to create peaceful communities and peaceful s societies where the stranger is not just welcome but becomes part of actual the fabric of the community.

Elizabeth Davis Edwards (26:16)

Yeah, that's great question, Jen. So, I mean I think it's it's actually a fairly easy concept. The idea the idea of a neighborhood support team is based on a couple really just two basic principles. You know, one is that communities are actually made and meant to do this work. if you think about the value of your community in your life, if something go we can all think of times when something's gone wrong, right? We we there are things have devastatingly gone wrong in in I think everybody's life.

At some point, right? And multiple points. And your community shows up. Like it doesn't necessarily mean that they fix everything. And in the worst cases, there's just there's nothing to fix, right? It's just it's not fixable,

Jennifer Thomas (26:53)

It's not fixable, right? Yeah.

Elizabeth Davis Edwards (26:55)

Right? But but they but we all, I mean, I I think every one of us, if we spoke about a time when people showed up at a time when we were at our lowest of lows, we would have a hard time articulating it because it was so important and so meaningful, so transformative test, even though at at face value it changed nothing. Right? It didn't solve anything. We weren't no all of a sudden we're not grieving. You know, that's not the way it works. 

Jennifer Thomas (27:18)

Yeah. Didn't bring back the dead, right? Didn't make cancer go away. Yeah.

Elizabeth Davis Edwards (27:23)

Like does it work like that? But having somebody care and listen and cry with you and and hug you and and and walk with you in those hardest of moments is everything. That is what communities are made to do. And when we think about you know the superpower of community it's it's really the concept is welcoming someone who's on the outside right so where their their struggle is is is their struggle right though people they don't have their community there right so there's no one to show up and and walk with them and help them think through what could happen next who can we call like who do we know right all the things that we do for each other and you bring them into the inside where their struggle becomes our struggle and that is what communities do.

All the time. It's not a new idea. We do it all the time. If you think about your church community, your neighborhood, you know, your school community, wherever you're really engaged, your the whoever you play pickleball with, I don't know, you know, like whoever are your people, your family too, right? so it's really based on that concept and the belief, as I said before, that everyone is rich and everyone is poor in some way. So it's not a one-sided street, right? It's a it's a two-way street where you end better than you were when you started. The whole community is is is is benefited, you know, from that broader from broadening the stakes, you know, from broadening the tent and making room for one more, right? that's that is what soup that is what the superpower of community is, and it's what communities do all the time. So that at the core of the neighborhood support team, I really like this quote from Gregory Boyle, who I love, he said, our common human hospitality longs to find room for those who are left out. I think it's who we are meant to be. And I think that that's where the whole concept of welcoming the stranger in the Old Testament, it's just building on something that was already built in to begin with. And so we're neighborhood support team, we're just piggybacking on a very fundamental principle.

Jennifer Thomas (29:22)

So I just I I'm sure Patrick will have a thoughtful question to follow up with this, but I I just want to say that I had the opportunity to be a very small part of one of these neighborhood support groups. And watching a group of people welcome a fragile family, right? And at a point of significant crisis in their lives where they this particular family had suffered a pretty significant economic fall by needing to leave Afghanistan. It wasn't that they were coming to America and their life was going to be economically better. In fact, it was quite the opposite for them. and and having this community gather around and work with them and become friends with them. I think that was the most important thing. They weren't serving them, they were just, to your point, just being family friends and and sort of repairing that torn fabric in their lives. It has been such a privilege to watch this family thrive.

They they're thriving economically, they're thriving socially, they're they have now since moved to be nearer to other Afghan families that they know. And and I just I guess I just want to leave with our listeners the idea that this actually works, right? That that this this way of welcoming this stranger into communities just in the same way that you would do that work with your ward or with your family or with someone you knew actually bears extraordinary fruit.

Elizabeth Davis Edwards (30:47)

Yeah. I totally that's I'm so glad you shared that, Jen. it reminded me of another story. we had a a family move into a town nearby and the woman, the mom, was pregnant and sh and due in like a few weeks after she got here and and she went to the hospital when she was in labor and the team lead went with her and she f had her baby and she was on FaceTime with her mom and her sisters. If you know anything about the Afghan community, it's very tight. The women, I mean, it's they live typically live very close together. They're they're together all the time. There's a lot of you know inter-connection. We're kind of like, we we we're adulting, you moved across the country. That's how it works, and typically in Afghanistan. so you know, she was talking to her mom and face, just had her baby, this like pivotal moment in her life, and her mom's in tears because her daughter is alone. And she said, I'm just so sad because you're all alone.

Kathy's here. Kathy's my family. And Kathy was the team lead. it it's true. It was really true. And it was a beautiful example to me of what exactly what you're saying, Jen, which is this transformative. It's it's not it starts with service, like it starts with compassion, it starts with feeling somebody's pain and saying, I can do something about this, I can make room in my life, you know. But but it but it it then becomes something altogether different and holy. That we get to be a part of.

Patrick Mason (32:11)

That's so incredible. and I'm sure you could multiply that by by well by fifteen hundred, right? In terms of those kinds of stories. it it reminds me I I immediately think of of of the idea of sealing in in in our faith that obviously we have an ordinance around that and and it's focused now on on marriages and on families. But but when Joseph Smith first thought about it and talked about it, there was this sense that like the human family was originally one family, right? We were all sons and daughters of God. We're all descendants of Adam and Eve. but we've broken apart in lots of different ways. And the and the Bible's full of those stories. The scriptures are Tower of Babel you know, the Nephites and Lamanites, right? 

The the scriptures are are full of these stories of fracture and and the ways that we've broken apart. But but with primarily with Christ's atonement, but also this idea of sealing, right? That the this this is a big part of what our faith is all about, is like bringing the family back together. And now again, we ritualize it in certain ways, but it seems like what you're talking about, it's kind of a different kind of of of sealing. You're not doing ordinances, you know, with people. I I know that.

But but when Kathy is there with that woman, right, that is sort of like resealing God's family back together. right. And so how do you think and we all have a role to to to play in this, secular, religious, government, non-governmental, but but as as as you've worked, what what unique role do you think faith communities and and faith actors have to play in this work?

Elizabeth Davis Edwards (33:48)

Yeah. Ninety percent of the people who start neighborhood support teams are people of faith. And I I define faith or you know, at Welcome and ST, we define faith as a belief and something hoped for but not seen. so that could take a lot of forms, right? But these are people who believe in something they can't see that they hoped will hope will be true, and they're willing to put their shoulder into it. so we have people from every major religion all the time who lean into this work. And it's because of exactly this shared fundamental belief that we're talking about here. Not only is a responsibility, but it's a privilege. and I will I also want to add to your point, I love Patrick, your point about the this kind of thought connection to the ceiling idea. There's this really beautiful quote from Gerald Causse who said the gathering of God's elect from the four corners of the earth is taking place, not only by sending missionaries to faraway countries, but also with the arrival of people from other areas into our own cities and neighborhoods. Many without knowing it are being led by the Lord to places where they can learn of him and his gospel. So I think, you know, like kind of looking at that really, really, really big picture, you know, we're talking about the gathering, you know, and we're talking about what is our part as people of faith and and particularly as as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. What is our part in this huge, huge plan that we can barely get our we can't get our heads around, right? I think our part is welcoming the stranger. It doesn't mean you have to welcome a family who just arrived. It just means you have to make room in your heart and in your life for more people, right? And you have to look for those people who are who are strangers, who are on the outside without their without a community to wrap around them. And they and that is you don't have to look very far.

Patrick Mason (35:34)

I had a stake president once who I I swear, every stake conference, no matter what he was speaking about, somehow he always came back to this this line where he says, There's always room for one more, right?

Elizabeth Davis Edwards (35:45)

Ha ha ha.

Patrick Mason (35:47)

And whether it's a dinner table, what what whatever it is, right? There's always room for one more. And it sounds like that's all you're asking is like, can you make room in your heart and your life for one more? you don't have to do it all. Can you can you can you do it for one?

Elizabeth Davis Edwards (36:01)

Yeah, exactly.

Jennifer Thomas (36:03)

Well, and I I I think what we're gathering people to, whether we openly acknowledge it or not, isn't just a covenant relationship with God, but it's Zion, right? It's a Zion community.

Elizabeth Davis Edwards (36:12)

Right.

Jennifer Thomas (36:13)

And one of the things that strikes me is the populations that you're working with, I mean, I appreciate that you have invited us all to to do this wherever we are, kind of to lift where we stand and to welcome people however we do that.

But your work is with people who are specifically fleeing the antithesis of Zion, right? They are fleeing violence, they are fleeing persecution, they are fleeing war. their lives are not just not optimal, they are they have imploded with disruption and pain. And and I'm wondering if you could share with our listeners how that has sharpened your desire to build Zion and how it has helped you personally move past and through some of the human fears about welcoming strangers. Like how I think one of the biggest impediments to Zion really is fear. We're afraid of people who are different than us and we don't know how to accommodate them. And and you touched a little bit this on the beginning, but how has your work help you move past that fear? How do you think you what can you share with those of us that haven't moved past that fear but would like to and and

And how have hearing the stories of these people that have lived in places of great conflict reinforced your determination to be what I think is a peace builder, Liz? I think you are a peacemaker. That's what your work is. It is creating peace, right, in communities.

Elizabeth Davis Edwards (37:37)

Gosh, I hope so. That'd be nice. That'd be great. I you know, Jen, I think that the answer is strikingly simple. And I think it's getting to know the humans behind you know, really it's getting to know the people, right? I mean, it's it's all rhetoric and and you know, this and you know, perspective and opinion. Yeah,

Jennifer Thomas (37:55)

Scary in the abstract, yeah.

Elizabeth Davis Edwards (37:57)

all it's in and when you're you know, you Jen, you I've heard you talk about, you know, being proximate in the past.

And I I mean that's really what this what this opportunity it looks like. When when I was in that refugee camp that was early our first trip, the first person that we met and was named Tamir. he he welcomed us. We were walking around and not sure. We're like all the I remember getting there and my kids were by three girls and yeah, I hadn't really thought this part through. You know, we done we like had, you know, we raised the money and did the thing, you know. And I got there and I was like, maybe they don't like us. Like I don't know.

Jennifer Thomas (38:29)

Man I'm gonna set my preteen girls loose.

Elizabeth Davis Edwards (38:33)

I like my girl little girls are running around like, no.

Jennifer Thomas (38:37)

With with a community that might not be so fond of us. Yeah.

Elizabeth Davis Edwards (38:39)

I know maybe this, was this really a good idea, you know. So we looked and the people were kind of looking at us and it seemed like they were kind of staring and and scowling and we were I was like, dear, I didn't think they might hate us. Like it didn't even cross my mind. So so in that in those early moments when I w and this didn't that didn't last for like fift twenty minutes, you know, but but I remember that th that short time very clearly because I really wondered if I'd made a huge mistake and and Yeah, exactly.

Jennifer Thomas (39:04)

It was it was fear, right? You felt fear. Yeah.

Elizabeth Davis Edwards (39:07)

Right. I was like, these people might really hate us and we're gonna be what am I gonna do about the girls? Like we're running around. Anyway, so so Tamir came out and welcomed us and he he was so welcoming and loving and made us feel comfortable and introduced us around and and you know, kind of gave us a tour and you know the one the woman who ran the camp was in a meeting, so she wasn't there right when we got there and so he just kinda took us under his wing and and and just made us he he invited us in.

Like we became one of that community while we were there because they we were invited in by somebody who was already inside. And you know, I we have we later found out, much later, he invited us to come to his tent for dinner, which as you can imagine is feels wrong, right? You're like we're gonna, you're gonna use your small amount of food that you're gonna make in your tent and give it to my family who has more snacks in our car than you know, doing we cannot that we know what to do with, right? Like honestly,

Jennifer Thomas (40:04)

We brought granola bars. Yeah.

Elizabeth Davis Edwards (40:06)

yeah, we're I'm like so you really just want to be like, we're good, we're good. But that's not how it works because they the Afghan culture is I don't think there's another c culture that's better than the Afghans at welcoming the stranger. Like they you show up and you can't just show up and drop something after. Jen you can appreciate this, right?

Elizabeth Davis Edwards (40:21)

You show up and it's food and tea

Jennifer Thomas (40:23)

You're in.

Elizabeth Davis Edwards (40:24)

sitting down and like and we're like, I only have ten minutes, you know like that's like they're ready for a three hour engagement you know and and that's how it was at the camp and everywhere we went people were feeding us which which initially my knee jerk was like no no no we're good you know and then I realized that's part that's how it works like if you want to be part of the community and you want to them to be part of you you have to show up and you have to let them welcome you right you have to receive and so that's that was our job a lot of the time and anyway so Tamir I later founded we went to his house or his his tent for dinner and they made us a I you know extravagant meal which house somehow and and we found out that it back in Afghanistan his son had been his his had been brutally murdered by the Taliban in retribution for it was he was three years old in retribution for a brother who was an honest policeman who refused to kidnap tourists for money and work with working in in

in coordination with the Taliban so Jen to your point, you know, thinking about how do we get beyond that fear and how do we get kind of get f find ourselves in a in a higher on a higher plane just get to know the people. It speaks for themselves. It speaks it it it it gets you there. It's it's if your heart is is listening and your and your mind is open, you will know what to do because it's just how we're it's actually how we're built.

Patrick Mason (41:50)

So I assume there are people listening right now, including myself, who would say, Okay, I don't know any refugees in my neighborhood right now. so the question is where do I start?

Elizabeth Davis Edwards (42:01)

Yeah. I would say that well you could always we're we do have a program in Salt Lake right now where we're identifying refugee families, we're matching them with NSTs. we're working with the state of Utah to identify those families. we figure out kind of work with the state and with the families to identify specific goals and things where they need some help, kind of getting from barely surviving to thriving. So that's one one way.

Go to welcomenst.org and fill out an interest form and someone will call you and talk to you about what we're doing in Salt Lake and how you can get engaged. another way we are one of our partners in Utah is called Utah Refugee Connection. they're also in Salt Lake. They're awesome, they do great work and they have more discrete projects. Ours our the NST is more a little bit of a longer-term commitment, so it's it's a, you say it's like a few months where you're committing to work with this family and just getting to know them, inviting them into your life, like we're talking about, you're inviting invited into theirs and kind of walk with them on their path for some for a few months. and but Utah Refugee Connection does a you know they have a whole you know pack backpacks kind of a day, right? So you can go and do like a one day discrete project with your family. and then I also would say that just find a family that's newly arrived in your area and invite them over. Find a way to get to know them, right? Maybe it's it's somebody you see passing you in the, you know, in in the on this on the street. Maybe it's it's it's somebody that shows up at the at your ward building. You know, just get to know them. Ask them how they're doing in the context of all the policy shifts today and let them know that you care and you're concerned. And and and again I think when you start to have those conversations your your your heart will take over and you'll know what's to do next.

Patrick Mason (43:46)

Perfect.

Jennifer Thomas (43:46)

So before we ask one final question, I'm gonna ask a next to last question.

Immigration is such a flashpoint right now. It is a discussion, even refugee resettlement is fracturing our peace. And so there are going to be people whose response is the best way to stop this peace, this fracturing of our peace societally and nationally is to stop immigration and stop refugee resettlement, right? It's not instead of looking inward and saying, is this an US problem? They're gonna say, no, we just need to not bring people in because that's what's sort of breaking the system. can you encourage people to get beyond that? How how do you think of your work as actually being productive of peace and reducing conflict rather than in in response to the people that say, you're just introducing into our society. By bringing in different people, by bringing in people who don't think like we do, you're introducing conflict. You're the problem. How how do you respond to that? And how do you like take a stand for saying, no, that the work I'm doing is actually peace building?

Elizabeth Davis Edwards (44:52)

Yeah, that's a great question too. so there's a lot of, there's a lot of argument about around the economic benefit of having immigrants in the country and how, you know, our our country has been built on the backs of immigrants. But I I think that's not going to get us there. 'cause that there are there you know, y we can all choose our facts and there, you know, there are facts on either side of that argument. I guess I would have to, you know, where I'm coming from, so I I a couple of week weeks ago I had the chance to sit down with a a Haitian faith community and and I spoke with them in their pastor and heard their questions and their concerns around the policies that were impacting them today. And they were heartbreaking. You know, what these these are people that are here legally and they

Jennifer Thomas (45:40)

Have nothing to go back to.

Elizabeth Davis Edwards (45:42)

they have nothing to go back to. It's it's it's absolutely heartbreaking and the question I got more often than not was if I get detained or deported, who's gonna help my kids? Can you help me with that? Who's gonna take care of my kids? And I think to me the answer it's it's and again, there's there's there are two parts of this conversation. One is immigration policy, which should be a a conversation about immigration policy, not about the value of human beings, right?

If you're talking about the value of human beings, you've got to get to know the human beings. I have never met I mean, I I'm a faithful member of the I like well, I like to think of myself as a faithful member of the Church of Jesus Christ, the Latter-day Saints.

I have never met a more faithful people than I have when I've sat with the Haitian faith community. They these are people that have looked the impossible in the eye and time and time again have believed that God will make a way out of no way. And you could look at that and think that's pretty naive 'cause look at look at all the things that have happened to you. Or you can look at that and say, you know what? They know something that I don't know.

Jennifer Thomas (46:47)

These are exactly the people we need, right?

Patrick Mason (46:49)

Mm.

Elizabeth Davis Edwards (46:50)

And to me that's the only way to have that conversation. It's gotta be you there's a policy conversation and then there's a human conversation. And everything else is manufactured to divide us.

Patrick Mason (47:00)

Yeah, and sometimes we put those two conversations in the wrong order.

Well, Liz, this is incredible. I'm so inspired by by your work, so grateful for what you're doing. but I've I've got to imagine it's gotta be hard a lot of times. it's gotta feel crazy sometimes and you're pulled in lots of different directions and probably sometimes heartbreaking. so in the midst of all of that, how and where do you find peace?

Elizabeth Davis Edwards (47:22)

That is a that's a really good question these days. And I think w I know we all struggle with that. It's it's just it's it's so it's such a challenge. there's so much noise. 

For me, I mean, yes, it is really hard. I think and that's just not that's not just me, that's just that's everybody today. I think it's it's hard to r to shut down the noise and find the peace. It's it's it's at times absolutely deafening. And and there are heartbreaking stories everywhere you turn. so for me it's it's you know, finding peace is a is a daily practice.

I I think you guys have have interviewed Zeke Hernandez before. I actually ran into him the other cut last week and we were talking about how there's there's a there's this high you know kind of you know you know divine space where God lives, right? That we try to kind of zoom out and remember and this is what I do and I'm sure others as well, try to remember who's really in charge. You know, remember where the power really lies. And there's a so to me there's so much peace in remembering that and remembering that what we're seeing right now is just a just a moment it's just a snapshot and a moment in time and the power is gods and then there's the other there's the other side of that right there's the other there's the the grassroots like down at the like the day to day level and it's it's thinking two I guess two pieces of that one is what what what can I do about it? What can I do today? what's in my on my plate that I can lean into and where I can focus my energy in a positive way. And what not even what do I what what's on my plate but also what do I get to do? Like what do I have the privilege of doing today? Like what am I lucky enough to be able to do? And then I think the other side of that is watching what other people do. And one thing that I haven't said yet, which I I should have, and Jen you asked about you know what the role is that people of faith are playing. People are doing this everywhere, all the time. And I think sometimes we look at the news and it's easy to the news is in the middle, it's the noise, you know. but sometimes we we look at that and we think that's the whole story, and it's all so divided and ugly. I would invite everyone to look around your you and and let that let what's happening right around you in your neighborhood, in your ward community, let that be your first source of news. Not necessarily your only source of news, but your first source. Look around you and see the good things that are happening. That is real. And to me, it's so beautiful. I mean the we I we have this incredible privilege to be able to see these good people of faith all over the country doing good things just because they want to, because they are driven to do something for someone else.

Jennifer Thomas (49:57)

Yeah. Nothing's making them. Yeah.

Elizabeth Davis Edwards (50:01)

Yeah, there it's not I mean if from the forefront, it looks like there's nothing in it for you. Now it turns out there is. But but that's not the reason people are doing it, right? People are doing it because they have empathy and because they have compassion and because they they have charity and it's happening everywhere, all the time, and certainly not just the Welcome N S T. Welcome N S T is a one sliver of that reality. And I think it's so crucial to look around you and and just count the good things that are happening when you go to the grocery store and somebody's nice to you and overholds the door or

You see somebody being nice to a mom who's overwhelmed with a lot of kids and juggling things, and it happens always, you know. So I think to me it's that the peace is in zooming out, remembering where the real power really lies, and then focusing on your own and the power of others that's being exercised to help God accomplish in a very, very tiny way this great big plan that He's got going on.

Patrick Mason (50:54)

Incredible. Thank you, Liz.

Jennifer Thomas (50:56)

Thank you, Liz.

Patrick Mason (50:56)

That's fantastic.

Jennifer Thomas (50:58)

It's absolutely beautiful.

Elizabeth Davis Edwards (50:58)

Thank you guys.

Jennifer Thomas (51:06)

Thanks for listening to this episode of "Proclaim Peace." To hear more, you can subscribe on a podcast app of your choice or on YouTube. You can always find full show notes or transcriptions at proclaimpeace.org.

Patrick Mason (51:19)

"Proclaim Peace" is a partnership between MWEG and Waymakers. You can learn more about Waymakers at waymakers.us. Thanks again for listening and we’ll see you next time.