For the second Friday in a row we worked on yoyo quilt pieces with our refugee friends.  Our group was quite a bit larger this week, so we had four ladies who were experienced with yoyos, joined by 6 others who were trying it for the first time.  All the African ladies in our class seem to have good skills with a needle.  They caught on quickly to the project and produced quite a few little round yoyos.  Vivian had a great idea to bring some supplies that could be turned into ponytail holders or headbands.  The ladies enjoyed sewing some of their yoyos onto these bands for their little girls.  They made really cute little hair accessories, even adding a button to look like a flower.  They were anxious to take some fabric pieces home to cut out more yoyos too.  All of our friends are creative and talented, and are anxious to sew, knit and crochet.  They just lack supplies to make their needlework ideas a reality.  Thanks to my mother for sharing lots of cotton quilt fabrics with us for yoyo quilt making.

We use our sewing time as an opportunity to learn new vocabulary related to the project. While making yoyos, we practiced “scissors, needle, thread, pattern, circle, fabric”, taking turns asking for those supplies as we needed them.  We did a pretty good job of keeping the conversation in English, but occasionally a conversation would break out in Somali.  Our friends are so interested in visiting with the volunteers and their other friends, so there is always lively conversation.  I had visions of little bands of women all over the world who through the ages have met to sew together.  Our African friends said they did that a lot in Africa, just like my grandmothers did with their friends.  Yet there is something even more special about our little band of African refugee women and American volunteers, working and laughing together, just loving each other.  Maybe someday we can even piece a quilt and have an old-fashioned quilting bee.  Just a thought…

 

 

Sometimes I wonder if I’m in the right place.  There are so many challenges with helping my refugee friends.  If it isn’t one struggle it’s another.  Seemingly simple tasks end up taking hours or days and often drag out into additional tasks. It can feel like I am stuck inside of that book, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff.

The idea behind this favorite children’s book of mine goes something like this:  If you give a mouse a cookie, he will want some milk to go with it.  If you give him milk with his cookie, then he will want you to put in a movie.  If you put in a movie then he will want popcorn.  The story goes on and on as the needs of this mouse grow and grow and begin to take up all of your time and energy.

I had to learn the hard way that helping refugee friends to meet their needs is never-ending.  Every time I would attempt to do something and check it off the list, it would lead to something else that needed to be done.  And each day there were new refugee needs that would require the cycle to begin.  While I would never want to refer to my sweet friends as mice, the nature of what seems to be happening is similar to the book I’m describing. If I make a doctor appointment for a friend, then they will need a ride to the doctor.  If I give them a ride, then I’ll need to stick around to help translate with the doctor.  If I stay at the doctor, then I will be given a prescription to fill.  If I drop of the prescription, then I will need wait on it and be ready to work with the insurance company and drug store to be sure that the prescription can be paid for.  If we are waiting at the drug store, then there will be groceries that we will need.  If we begin grocery shopping we will have to check our food stamp balance.  If we need to check our food stamp balance we will have to dig in our purse to find a phone and pin number.

I’m not complaining as it may sound.  I guess I’m just stating some facts.  It is important for Asha’s Refuge volunteers to learn very quickly that the crisis type situations that our friends may be in are not our crisis situations so we can remain calm as we navigate through each days task.  It will need to be Christ in us to help us accomplish calm in the storms.  I believe that if we can maintain our sanity, patience, joy and a smile then it will be a blessing to our friends and really show the light of Christ within us.  Crisis, chaotic and difficult situations will always occur while working with our friends.  That seems to be inevitable.

Oh, Lord, please help us to never carry ourselves in a manner that we would seem put out and overwhelmed to our friends.  Of course I’m in the right place!  Thank You for showing me Isaiah 42:1-9.  As we serve, please continue to give us strength, time, patience, love, peace, wisdom and joy to overflowing.  May Your glory (and not me) be seen by all people of all kinds of nations through me whom You have made for such a time as this.

We learned a new Somali word during our last English Conversation and Sewing Class.  The sewing project we were learning was called, YoYo Quilting.  It’s where one repeatedly takes circular pieces of fabric (about the size of a saucer), stitches all the way around the edges, then when all the way around, pulls the thread so that the fabric will gather into the shape of a small flower.  Once several of these YoYo’s are made a person can stitch them together to make a large blanket or stitch them onto other pieces of fabric making things like decorative pillows, unique clothing or decorative handbags.

This was a fun, simple sewing project and was perfect for our first lesson.  (I was the only one who kept getting thread into knots; our refugee friends have experience in sewing and picked up this project really fast.)  I am thankful to my friend Deborah who is creative and crafty for teaching us this new skill.

After showing our friends what a yo-yo toy is we learned what a YoYo was in another language. The word YoYo in the Somali language refers to those individuals who walk around with their pants hanging low, baggy tops and lots of “bling” around their necks.  When we told our friends  we were going to be learning to make YoYo’s their responses were interesting.  Once we learned what they were thinking, it was funny for us all.

The YoYo Quilting was the first of our English Conversation and Craft classes with our ladies.   Our conversation went well.  We each went around to tell what our name meant and what some of our hobbies were.  One of the students was fluent in English so that helped us all out a bit.  I think though that it may be best if we didn’t translate during these classes and we all attempted to struggle for a couple of hours pushing through it for our English practice.  I look forward to our classes in the future so that we can learn more about our friends.

While we were sewing, there were two Asha’s Refuge volunteers working in another apartment with preschoolers. The preschoolers seemed to enjoy their learning day as well.  They sang songs and baked a cake together to share for snack.  It was neat to see their mothers all come to pick them up after our English Conversation and Sewing Class to see that their children all helped bake a cake.  The mothers were all enjoying tasting the cake.  It was a good day.

My friend, Nala (name changed), had her baby! She’s the one we had the baby shower for. Our baby boy was born last Friday at 4:40AM. He is 6.5 lbs. and 20″ long. I visited Nala and her baby boy at the hospital for a little while. The baby is beautiful. He’s got a perfect little head full of soft black hair. His little feet and hands are so tiny and sweet. I just love him! He nursed once while I was there (which was good because it was the first time mom could get him to eat) and then he just slept.

I would love to tell you his name but I cannot for two reasons. One, I need to keep names out of my post for confidentiality purposes. Two, mom doesn’t know the babies name. Not just that she hasn’t decided yet, but she doesn’t know it. The babies father will name the baby. Nala had me call her friend who she thought could tell me what the father had said he would name the baby because the name was hard for her to pronounce. We did that and Nala was sure that was it but later during my visit the father came in and he said that wasn’t the name at all. Nala and her husband seemed to be still deciding. I had already sent out birth info on the baby boy including the name we were initially talking about to a few friends. That will teach me! Well, if you received his name, just know it may change.

The names of children are important to most of my Muslim friends. They tend to name their children after people they believe were prophets. It seems most are usually after Mohammad and his family. It’s interesting to me how I never hear of a Muslim baby named Jesus. My friends all say they believe Jesus was a wonderful prophet. I suppose he doesn’t rank as high as the other prophets in their opinions. Or, perhaps it would cause too much controversy for them if they named their children after Jesus.

Mom, baby, dad and siblings are all doing very well. They are happy. They seem to have all the baby supplies they need and more. It was neat to see Nala using the gifts that our friends had helped to her to obtain at the baby shower. She was already using the orange and gray baby bag, the baby carrier from the combo carrier/car seat/stroller gift and a soft, fuzzy, brown, monkey blanket. Her baby bag was filled with little baby items and clothes. I was so happy that she had everything she needed for her baby.

Nala again sends her thanks to all that helped with the baby shower. She also sends thank you’s to all your responses of congratulations after the baby was born. As she stutters with watery eyes and says, “I don’t know what to say. I cannot think of the words that I could say to tell you all thank you enough. This baby is going to be very special. It wasn’t like this with my other kids. Thank you.”

Today my two coworkers and I spent a few hours with Fatah (we will say her name is) working to help her complete immigration forms. We also tried to teach another refugee friend how to fill out the forms so that she could possibly help future refugees. After our work we took our two friends to lunch at an Ethiopian restaurant they requested. We enjoyed our lunch time with our friends and learned a lot about the foods they enjoy. It was fun getting to enjoy girl time together and just being friends.

After our lunch, we took our friends home. When we took Fatah home we were greeted outside her apartment by many refugee children, teens and mothers who were gathering after school. They were all so warm and inviting to us with smiles, conversation and sweet hugs.

We visited Fatah’s family in her home for a little while. Her young adult daughters had just finished cooking and sent us all home with food, drinks and even napkins. We tried to refuse the food but they insisted. It is always humbling how giving our friends are to us. Even if it were the only food they have in their home, they would try and offer it to us (it wasn’t, this time).

I so love my friends from other countries. They teach me so much. They help me to see things from
another perspective. They are so genuine. It was just a fun day today. I look forward to our craft and preschool class time with them Friday. Thank you Jesus for friends from all over the world.

This Friday, September 23, Asha’s Refuge will begin English Conversation Classes with refugee women in their homes.  While we meet with the women, we will also be meeting with their children in another home to continue teaching them skills for Kindergarten readiness.  We are excited about these classes as it will give our refugee friends a great way to practice their English conversation.  Conversational speech has been difficult for them to accomplish.  We hope that we can offer some help as well as offer some fun and practical ways of learning the English language.  We will teach and work on crafts together, cooking, sewing projects, personal health and hygiene, job skills, cultural understanding and so much more.

Asha’s Refuge will need rotating volunteers who are willing to share and lead our refugee friends with a craft project or other lesson.  We will also need rotating volunteers to work with our staff and the children in a separate refugee home.  We are currently trying to do these classes on Fridays.  Many of our supporters have already shared some creative craft and helpful teaching ideas.  We are excited about bringing others gifts into the picture all the while helping our refugee friends achieve successful resettlement. If you have some time on Fridays from 9:30-12:30 we would love to have your help.  In the next few weeks, we will be working on a schedule that will detail the dates and classes we plan to offer.  If your interesting in helping with leading a craft, we will need to know so we can add you to our schedule.  You will need to provide lesson or craft supplies for approximately 8-10 refugee women for your class.  Please contact us for more details.

Wednesdays will be our day of visiting and preparation for Fridays.  Asha’s Refuge’s available staff and volunteers will begin meeting at a designated meeting spot for prayer and then will go two by two or in three’s to encourage, visit and help our refugee friends in their homes.  These visits will be in addition to the other weekday visits that Asha’s Refuge staff makes and will seek to offer additional support, encouragement, followup and friendship from the community to our friends.  We will remind our friends about their upcoming Friday English Conversational Class/Kindergarten Readiness Class at this time.

Asha’s Refuge is currently prayerfully looking for larger space to hold our classes in.  We are excited about this time with our friends in their homes and look forward to what is in store for us.

Tomorrow we will hopefully begin teaching some of our refugee friends how to complete immigration papers.  If we can teach some of them how to fill out forms, then it will hopefully begin to empower them and help them to then help their friends and family in the future.  Completing immigration paperwork is not really difficult, it’s just time consuming.  The family we will be helping tomorrow is a single mother of I believe ten.  Filling out the documents will be repetitive and should allow much practice for the refugees we are trying to teach.

There is a concept of “teaching our friends how to fish” that I hear many church people talk about.  This concept is used in the mission field a lot.  I am not sure I like it totally as it relates to my refugee friends but I get the idea.  If we can teach them to help themselves then in the long run it will empower and help them a lot more in their future.  We don’t want them to continue coming to us and depending on us for their every need.  Honestly, I don’t think they want to be set up to depend on us either.

Perhaps when helping others far away we must help them set things up in their own countries where they can go back to it without help and maintain it themselves.  I can understand how this concept would be wise, but with my refugee friends, I am not so certain sticking to this concept is the best idea.  This kind of help only seems to drag out the length of time they will hurt.

While working with my refugee friends, I believe the Lord has been showing me something.  Some of my refugee friends are in desperate need, they are scared and in need of help now.  The longer they stay in the situations they are in the more stuck it seems that they get.  For example, I have a new refugee friend who is a single mother of three.  She is well educated and speaks perfect English.  She is terrified of the area of Memphis that she and her children have been dropped off at and now expected to live.  She can understand the English of the Memphis gang members and street men as they frequently try and pick her up at the coin laundry across the street.  She understands what they are saying to her and it scares her.  She doesn’t feel safe and is scared for her children.  She recognizes that she is living in the “slums” of Memphis (as she calls it) and wants out.

Now, am I supposed to work within the small means that is allotted for her through our government and the resettlement agency to keep her where she is or am I supposed to help empower her to get out of the situation she is in?  If I encourage her to get a job outside of the area she is in then she will not have as easy of access to the bus system or to the resettlement agency which she currently leans on for help in obtaining the initial paperwork she will need such as her social security card, apartment rent payment, health care assistance, child care assistance benefits, employment id etc.  If I encourage her to stay where she is then she is bound by the limits that are set in place for her and will have to stay for a while in the area of Memphis that scares her.  The longer she stays, the more stuck she could become.  She is required to put one of her sons in school (the other two are preschoolers) and once she does that it will be difficult to move them around during the school year.  She will be required to find work and will need a job that is close to the resettlement agency and her children’s school.  I’m not sure if I’m making sense, but there is something here that I am having a difficult time expressing.  My friend can become more stuck the longer she begins to resettle in this not so good area of Memphis.

Why is it that churches and helping people have gotten so focused on “teaching the poor to fish for themselves” that we have put aside comforting or feeding them when they come to us and are hungry, afraid, poor, sick or lonely.  If someone comes to us in need are we supposed to judge their request?  If they are hungry are we supposed to rationalize whether or not they can not afford a meal is because they may have used up all their money on drugs or are we supposed to just feed them?  I wonder, could a large church or large group of people adopt an entire refugee family into their community and literally remove the struggling family from the situation they were in thus allowing them to have a real fresh start?  Could that bold of an action in love cause a family to find and maintain real hope?

I’ve sort of felt like I and others I see are giving my refugee friends crumbs to chase after.  We often give them a little help or information and then sit back and watch them struggle to see if they can go from that point on their own and when they cannot (because it’s practically impossible with how things are poorly set up for them) we may offer a little more help.  The  “game” continually drags out for my friends and it often causes them much unnecessary heartache.  It seems cruel to me.

I am not saying I have all the answers to the complicated problems of refugee resettlement.  I’m thinking (writing) out loud so to speak and maybe I shouldn’t.  But the Lord’s been working on me with this thought.

Now I know that there are ways that churches and organizations can find homes that can be built or given to a needy family.  I am certain that there are employers that would be willing to help train and educate a mom or dad in order to help them have a job and give back to the community.  I am positive that there are people in churches and neighborhoods that would be able to offer time, teaching, love and care to invite children into their homes and schools.  There is no doubt that there are enough clothes and stuff that could be offered to a family from the suburbs of Memphis. Could we really help to change the world by “adopting” not just one child but an entire family?   What if whole communities with neighborhoods, schools, churches and businesses really came together to express love in an active way to an entire needy family?  What if we did it all in the name of Jesus?  I believe we would begin to change many hearts for Christ (both hearts of poverty or hearts of the rich)…one family at a time.  But, are we really willing?  Do we really want to help them?

(Forgive me if my thoughts are outlandish.  Forgive me if I do not understand.  Forgive me if I have offended.)

Patsy Clairmont spoke before a women’s group several years ago with a simple message that she felt the Lord gave her. When she was initially given the message after desperately searching for an uplifting word to share with her friend who was diagnosed with Cancer, she felt unsure about it. It was too simple and didn’t seem to sound like a revelational hope-filled word. In fact, after she was given this message, she searched in her bible, particularly through the red lettering words of Jesus and parables, for something she felt was better. But, the Lord kept repeating the same simple words, “Let there be light”! (The first words our creator God ever spoke over our universe as He created it. Gen. 1:3)

Patsy tells of her story and how she went ahead in meekness to obediently inform her friend of the “revelational” message of Christ that was given to tell her friend to somehow help her find hope. Her friend chuckled and was a little confused by the message as well.

Patsy’s friend went through surgery. Afterwards, she called her with joy and excitement. She had figured out what the hope message of “let there be light” was all about. When in surgery, her friend told Patsy that she heard the doctor speaking to the nurses and other doctors who were helping, “Shine the light here. Everywhere there is light it is evidence that there are antibodies already attacking the cancer cells”.

Patsy’s friend lived some time afterward and then went on to see the light of Jesus in heaven.

When I think of this story and Asha’s Refuge, it reminds me to “let there be light” among all people and all nations. Light is truth. Light is good. Light is powerful. Light is healing. Light is transforming. Light is love. Light is Christ.

I pray that Jesus’s light will shine in us before all nations bearing witness to Him who has risen from the dead. May His light shine in our hearts removing all that is not good then revealing to others a way to Him, literally saving them from darkness and fire. May we not be afraid to boldly speak of Jesus but always do it His way, in His time, with His words, through Him and in the light of His love. Let there be light!

Summer is almost over and the fall season is on it’s way! With every season there are changes which often bring with it a few challenges then some new and great things! Asha’s Refuge is going through a little change.

Asha’s Refuge is no longer using the D2 Woodcrest apartment for ESL classes. We want to express our appreciation to Nations Church for providing that space to us for a season as we launched this ministry and ask God’s continued blessings on them. The staff of Asha’s Refuge continues to build relationships with refugees, meeting with them in their homes, and serving them as needs are presented to us. We seek God’s leadership in this ministry and will provide more information as His plans are revealed. We appreciate your prayers, love and support as we share the gift of God’s love with our refugee friends.

We are requesting prayer from our friends and supporters as we seek the Lords counsel during this time of change. If you are interested in volunteering, supporting or helping us, we still need you. Please contact us (through our contact page) so we can pray about how that might look. We are gearing up for a new season with our friends from other countries and will continue to be expectant and trust the Lord to carry us through this change. Thank you for your continued support and prayer.