Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 84Plough Quarterly • Summer   C        P     W ith over sixty million people worldwide displaced by violence, how to treat refugees has become one of the great moral issues of our time. Yes, the Bible calls us to welcome the stranger. But what can even the best-inten- tioned person do in the face of unprecedented mass migration? Jubilee Partners, a commu- nity dedicated for decades to welcoming suffering people who have been displaced by war and other disasters, demonstrates that a Christian community can give support in ways an individual citizen never could. Jubilee Partners grew out of Koinonia Farm, the Georgia community founded by Clarence Jordan and others in 1942 with a commitment to racial reconciliation and sustainable agriculture. In 1979, three years after helping to launch the house-building organization Habitat for Humanity, Koi- nonia’s members set out to establish a new community. They chose 260 beautiful but undeveloped acres in northeast Georgia. During their first months there, Jubilee Partners’ six founding members listened to news reports about thousands of Vietnamese boat people seeking refuge in America. Living in tents themselves, with no hot showers, they resonated with the boat people’s plight, and decided to respond. On a recent visit to Plough’s editorial offices, Don Mosley, one of those founding members, reflected on how much has changed–and how much hasn’t–in the thirty-seven years since. “In the beginning, people were scared of us. The local newspaper did a headline story–an exposé, the editor called it–on this commune moving into the area. The reporter who came out and did the story went back and said, ‘There’s nothing there to expose. These are really nice people who want to help people!’” Today local relations couldn’t be better, Mosley says. A Melting Pot Even before the first Vietnamese arrived, a refugee agency asked Jubilee Partners to take in migrants from Cuba. Since then, the community has hosted about four thousand refugees from more than three dozen coun- tries, teaching English and basic skills for life in the United States, and helping with paperwork. The refugees live a short distance from the community center, offering them the space they need. Sipping coffee on his porch, American Hospitality In rural Georgia, Jubilee Partners offers refugees and other immigrants a home and a community. S A M HIN E Photographs courtesy of Jubilee Partners