First family of refugees land in Prince George

At about 1:30am Friday morning, Prince George’s first family of Syrian refugees walked off a plane and into the Prince George Airport.

A small crowd of community members waited with signs and welcomed them with a wave of hugs and handshakes.

“We are overwhelmed with your love, Prince George you are awesome, Westwood Church you are awesome.” Rose, mother of the family said through tears “Thank you so much for helping us come here. You can’t imagine what we are feeling now it’s a kind of dream.”

“We were in the plane, and all of us were saying; ‘is this a dream?’ And then we got into Canada and we said; ‘is this Canada or a dream?’. You have made us feel at home, like this is our home.” she continued

The family of 5 has three adult children aged 18-23. They are from a town near the coast of the Mediterranean in Syria but have been in a Lebanese refugee camp since 2013.

The Westwood Church privately sponsored the family. The church began exploring sponsorship in Oct 2014 and were connected with this family in the Spring of 2015.

Lead pastor Mark Wessner says they travelled from Lebanon, through Paris, into Toronto, Vancouver, Penticton and finally Prince George.

“So excited, it’s great to see them actually in the flesh. We see pictures and we anticipate but to have them here and see their reactions when they came in; a very powerful moment.” he said.

This is the first of three families Westwood is bringing to PG. The second may arrived any time now, while the third will come later in the year. Westwood is fundraising $50k for each family to cover a year’s worth of expenses.

Mayor Lyn Hall was among the crowd to welcome the family on behalf of the city and presented them with a basket of household goods.

“This family that’s come to us, they’ve gone through a lot of hardship. I think it was important for not just me on behalf of council to be here but for everybody else that’s here. It sends a message that we are welcoming them here to their new home.”