SFTS grad’s 20 years of mission work focuses on assisting refugees in Fresno 

The Rev. Sharon Stanley, center, with Fresno Interdenominational Refugee Ministries' staff and members of the Lao fellowship at University Presbyterian Church in Fresno, Calif.  Photo courtesy of Fresno Interdenominational Refugee Ministries

In 1989 the Rev. Sharon Stanley graduated from San Francisco Theological Seminary and took what was supposed to be a three-month assignment serving refugees through Presbyterian Refugee Ministries in Fresno, Calif.

Twenty years later she’s still engaged in mission work in the same place God first called her to, serving thousands of the area’s diverse refugees with the same commitment and zeal.

When you’re in one of the poorest cities in the United States but realize that it is possible to offer change and that Christ can transform the lives of refugees, “then who would want to leave that quickly?,” Stanley said.

Creating a ministry that is sustaining and building trust and credibility takes a long time, she said. “And, it’s just flat-out so fascinating.”

Stanley is the founder and executive director of Fresno Interdenominational Refugee Ministries (FIRM), of which Presbyterian Refugee Ministries is a part.

The nonprofit agency provides a range of services to more than 6,500 Southeast Asian, Slavic and African refugees.  The services include family mentoring and support, employment projects, community gardens and programs for older adults.

FIRM operates under its mission “Sharing Christ’s love to build communities of hope with new Americans” and functions in partnership with individuals, American and refugee community churches, and various local and national entities.

Stanley said her agency’s work is particularly relevant in Fresno, where immigrants make up at least 50 percent of the population and which has one of the largest concentrations of poverty in the United States. There is “an amazing array” of challenges, she said.

Yet Stanley’s preparation at San Francisco Seminary enabled her to face the challenges before her.

She already had “a deep and growing curiosity” for mission when she entered seminary, having spent time prior to that in Seoul, South Korea, engaged in ministry. SFTS was “an ideal place for that curiosity,” Stanley said.

The seminary also was perfect in its example of working in partnership as a part of the Graduate Theological Union (GTU) in Berkeley, Calif. The GTU is a theological consortium of seminaries that individually train students in their respective faiths, but also join together to give common masters’ and doctoral degrees in theological studies.

An “amazing sense of accountability and sharpening of education” happens in the context of the GTU, said Stanley, who later earned a Doctor of Ministry degree from Columbia Theological Seminary.

On the whole, Stanley said, what she gleaned from San Francisco Seminary was “an incredible acknowledgment of the importance of honing theological reflection as it relates to working with the poor.”

And though most of the refugees she serves today via FIRM are not from Christian backgrounds, “all are receiving” and experiencing the “witness of Christ through action,” she said.