Ride for Refuge 2025
Rally Your Church. Welcome the Stranger.
The Church Has Always Had a Spirit of Welcome
When Jesus said, “I was a stranger and you welcomed me” (Matthew 25:35), He wasn’t speaking metaphorically; He was calling us into a way of life rooted in hospitality, dignity, and radical love. Today, refugees are arriving at our doorsteps, seeking safety from war, violence, and persecution. Many come with nothing. Some sleep in airports or shelters. They are strangers, and they need to be welcomed.
Followers of Jesus founded Journey Home Community to answer that call. For 20 years, we’ve walked alongside refugee claimant families—providing transitional housing, support, and community as they rebuild their lives in Canada. We’re asking the Church to walk with us again—this time, literally.
Create a Team for Ride for Refuge
The Ride for Refuge is a national bike and walk fundraiser that supports organisations helping those seeking safety. It’s one of Journey Home’s biggest events of the year, and it’s the perfect chance for your church community to participate in joyful, visible, collective action rooted in Jesus’ call to love our neighbours.
Whether you’re a congregation of 30 or 300, whether you walk or ride, your church can make Canada the welcoming home it’s meant to be.
Will you partner with us to welcome and love the stranger, feed the hungry, and provide a place of refuge for those in need?
Why This Matters
Scripture teaches three responses to newcomers (Leviticus 19:33-34):
Do not mistreat them – We refuse to cause harm.
Treat them as native-born – We extend the same dignity and care as to our own neighbours.
Love them as yourself – This is our highest calling: to treat refugee families as we would our own sisters, brothers, and parents.
At Journey Home, we try to live this out every day—and we invite the Church to join us in that same spirit.
Creating a Ride for Refuge team is one way your church can express hospitality in action.
Here’s How It Works
Form a Team – Invite your congregation, youth group, small group, or ministry circle to walk or ride together.
Fundraise Together – Set a shared goal and ask friends, coworkers, and family to donate. We’ll provide tools, ideas, and support to help you along the way.
Show Up on Ride Day – Join us for a joyful, family-friendly event where your team’s presence says: “Refugee families are not alone—we’re walking with you.”
What You Make Possible
Because of fundraising teams like yours:
Families fleeing danger receive safe transitional housing.
Newcomers find community and care, not isolation.
Churches step into their biblical role as places of welcome and restoration.
“You didn’t just help us with housing—you helped us feel like we were home.”
— Journey Home Community participant
Your involvement creates real, physical spaces of welcome for those who have lost everything.
What’s at Stake
Without action, refugee claimants arriving in Metro Vancouver will continue facing homelessness, trauma, and isolation. Some will sleep on the streets; others will suffer the same indignity when shelters turn them away. Many will feel unseen in their moment of greatest need, fearful and alone in a country they came to seeking hope and belonging.
But the Church can offer a different story. When we ride, we proclaim that no one should be a stranger in our land—and that love moves us to act.
“You didn’t just help us with housing—you helped us feel like we were home.”
— A Journey Home participant
Join the Movement of Welcome
This October, let’s gather churches across the Lower Mainland to walk and ride in Jesus’ name. Let’s raise funds to make sure every refugee claimant family has somewhere to rest, heal, and belong.
We need 20 churches to answer the call with teams this year. Will yours be one of them?
Let’s walk the Way of Jesus—with water bottles and with love.
Together, we can welcome the stranger and transform lives.