Meet Logan Thompson of Project 658, a non-profit with a desire to serve immigrants and refugees in Charlotte, North Carolina. Logan lives in an apartment complex called Sailboat Bay among many of the families he works with and recently started the Sailboat Bay Yacht Club as a way to raise support and awareness. What started as a way of getting a community of people involved in the ministry is proof that sometimes the call to love thy neighbor can be as simple as purchasing a one man inflatable raft from Amazon.
While in college, you studied cross-cultural ministry. What people or events in your led you to this choice?
Choosing what I would study in college was both a last-minute decision and the culmination of my entire life up to that point. I knew I loved people from other cultures and countries, and I had a few key mentors and role models in my life that were involved in different ministries in the U.S. and abroad. It was a cross section of what I loved and was interested in and some gifts I felt I had in the field of ministry.
You spend your days with people from a wide variety of backgrounds and cultures. What is one thing you believe to be universal among people regardless of race, age, gender, education, or financial status?
There are a ton of things that connect people regardless of where they are from or how much money they make. For example, we all have to eat, so I love eating with other people, whether it’s my food or theirs. Sports have been another universal connector for me, specifically soccer. I have been to ton of different countries, and I always find that I can speak the language of soccer very easily. Another one is joy. I love making people smile, and that is something I am always trying to do in the neighborhood I live in. Starting a Yacht Club has helped make people smile.
You literally live where you work, taking ‘love thy neighbor’ to the next level. What has this taught you in terms of loving and serving others well?
Obviously it has taught me a lot of things, but two of them are that it’s really easy and it’s really hard. It’s really easy in the sense that anyone can love your neighbor. Just go meet them, find out what their name is, have them over to eat, etc. You don’t have to live in an apartment complex of refugees to fulfill the Great Commission; you just have to go meet your neighbor.
The other thing is that it’s really hard. It takes a lot of time to really make a difference in someone life. For the international community I serve, sometimes that means years of teaching them English before they can even understand what you are saying. Basically, it becomes just living together, growing together, and helping out with whatever happens along the way.
If you could tell the world one thing you’ve learned through your experience working with refugees and immigrants, what would you say?
The biggest thing I have learned is that you don’t have to go to the nations to serve the nations. The U.S. church spends millions and millions of dollars a year to go on week long missions trips, but how much do we spend on missions the other fifty-one weeks of the year?
What advice would you give for someone who would like to serve those at risk in their communities but isn’t sure where to start or how to find a way to help?
It shouldn’t be hard to find something in your city, no matter where you live. Just search the Internet for refugee support or services and find a way to get involved.
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