PURCHASE YOUR TICKETS TODAY (THROUGH THE LINK BELOW) WHICH WILL ALSO HELP US PREPARE YOUR TABLE AND PLAN FOR YOUR FOOD. We are excited and hope you will attend.

https://ashasrefuge.yapsody.com/event/index/195381?

Here are some great ways you can support Asha’s Refuge in February:

Shop with us –

Feb 24th, 7am-2pm at 5645 Spring Lake Road, Memphis TN 38135

You might just find yourself a treasure while doing good. Your purchases will help fund the programs of Asha’s Refuge, enabling us to provide educational and family services to assist refugees in our community in becoming successfully resettled.

Donate your items –

We really need your donated items for our thrift sale, so this is a great time to clean out your attic and closets to benefit services to refugees. If you would like to donate items in good condition, please contact Jenny McFarland at jenny@ashasrefuge.org or 901-500-9200. We need all items dropped off no later than Feb 22.

Share this post –

Please share this post on your FaceBook wall to help us spread the word about our sale and need for donated items.

Thanks for all your help. We hope to see you on Feb 24.

2018 will be a year where Asha’s Refuge works even harder to show appreciation to all of the wonderful supporters and volunteers that help us compassionately serve others and love them well. We have been working with our new volunteer scheduling system, When to Help (sorry for all the initial system emails as we try to figure it out if you received them). We are also going to be working with Volunteer Odyssey, various church groups and community organizations to fill several volunteer positions we have a need to fill. If you are interested in volunteering with us, complete the online Volunteer Interest Form under the “Get Involved” tabs from the main menu of our website. You can send us an email at serve@ashasrefuge.org if you have any questions. We currently need Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday helpers in the office, in classes, driving, donations help, shoppers, photo and videography, marketing, special events and projects and more.

We pulled together a brief video clip of many of our volunteers in action. We regret not having a photo of all of our volunteers readily available to include in the clip but are working on getting more photos so stay tuned! Without the help of others, Asha’s Refuge would not be where it is today and would not have been able to love so freely to so many. We thank our clients for allowing us to grow and learn from them too. We are blessed beyond explanation and God continues to provide and lead us. Thank you for the self sacrifices you have made and for being an invaluable part of our Asha’s Refuge Family.

https://quik.gopro.com/v/BnxexEykmc/

(Click the link above for video.)

Due to winter weather, this event is cancelled. If you were planning to attend, please let us know so we can set up a meeting with you. We will also announce future orientation events soon.

Please join us on Saturday Jan 13 at 9:30am for New Volunteer Orientation. This is your opportunity to learn more about the vision and mission of Asha’s Refuge and all the ways you can serve with us.

We have interesting and important things to share with you, and would love to meet you and get you plugged in to a wonderfully rewarding ministry. Please drop a comment here to let us know you are coming. And please share this to invite your friends.

Directions to the meeting room at Highpoint East, 6000 Briarcrest Ave., Memphis: Enter through the door marked The Hub. Walk through the coffee shop toward the back to the glassed conference room. That’s where you will find us. Oh, and feel free to grab a special coffee at the Hub as you pass that way. I highly recommend the chai tea. Yummy.

We only have a few more days until Christmas. In these days, the American culture in us often scurries around the town making final purchases at various stores hoping to take advantage of holiday sales to find the perfect gift. The perfect gift is harder and harder to find as the years progress since so many of us already have everything we need and have most likely already purchased items we really want. As I experience life with local refugees, perhaps get older and build upon my relationship with Jesus, my typical “want” list seems trivial and has drastically decreased.

In these last days, our homes are being flipped into more hospitable places for entertaining, our refrigerators and pantries are being filled with our favorite holiday foods and we are eagerly anticipating a chance to finally get down time to enjoy with our family. Many of us literally count the days until Christmas as we frantically prepare for the day to arrive. I wonder how much emphasis is taken off of Jesus as our minds and bodies become busy in the hustle and bustle of pulling things together so that Christmas day will be as perfect as our imagination and desires think that it should be. The week and days before Christmas are special (just as every day is) and perhaps we should take some time to slow down and wholeheartedly think about what was about to happen in the days just before the birth of Jesus over 2000 years ago.

God promised to send a Savior to us many years before Jesus was born:

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)

What were the people who lived during time of Jesus doing just before his arrival? They were praying, they were spending time with their family, they were working and going on with their normal life it seems. They knew their Savior was coming because they were forewarned:

In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.” “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. For nothing is impossible with God.” “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it be to me as you have said.” Then the angel left her. (Luke 1:26-38)

If we knew that Jesus Christ was coming this December 25, 2017, what would be we doing? Think about that. If we really knew that at 6am, December 25, 2017, our Savior would make His arrival, what would we be doing today in response to this awareness? Interesting…believers ARE expecting our Savior to return and to take us home with Him, we just do not know when. He could come at any moment. Are we ready? Are we living today the way we might be living if we knew His return date was say like in three to four days?

Jesus said that people would know who were His followers “if we have love for one another” (John 13:35). The amplified bible says “if we have love and unselfish concern for one another“. Our concerns should be for one another. If we knew that Jesus was coming in four days, we would likely be out loving one another with such compassion that we would surely encourage others by telling them that Jesus is real; He is alive; He absolutely loves them and He wants them to let go of their sinful ways, forgive others and be ready for the day of His coming. This is my heart’s cry.

We must go and boldly tell ALL the nations the good news of Jesus with actions of love! What is the good news? The Kingdom is now. If we repent and choose to believe then we should unashamedly be baptized and joyfully accept the power and gifts of the Holy Spirit enthusiastically receiving the Kingdom to actually reside within us (Acts 2:38)! To make a choice for Jesus is more than buying into a group insurance policy. It is forever sweet and special and a genuine moment by moment relationship with the most high king.

When Jesus comes…we must be ready. As we approach Christmas morning, perhaps our thoughts and actions should always be anticipating that each day could be the day of our Savior’s return. Of course we do not know the exact day that Jesus will return but believers should know by reading His word and watching the signs that are outlined in His word that the time is very near for His return. With all of our mind, heart, and soul, we should be loving Jesus. That means loving Him and loving others. If we love others we are also loving Him. If we do not love one another then we do not really love Him (1 John 4:20). It seems that if we truly had a heart to love others and tell them about our coming Jesus, then we be driven to spend time with Him and with others. We would not divide people into categories and groups by culture, race, ethnicity, political choice, social stance, educational level, neighborhood, financial ability or even by religious belief. We would not waste precious moments but take every opportunity to live and love all people just like Jesus. That perfect gift is the gift of love. Love is God and love never, ever fails (1 John 4:8 and 1 Corinthians 13:8).

Prepare ye the way of the Lord. –A voice of one calling: “In the desert prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God. (Isaiah 40:3)

First, put on Love. –And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. (Colossians 3:14)

In His love…Merry Christmas.

We Have Grown

Asha’s Refuge will continue the normal areas of refugee services that we offer and also expand our areas of service as we have been blessed to share building space with Hope Apostolic Church at 5645 Spring Lake Road in Memphis, TN  38135.  Since our move, we have added the additional Tuesday of class, Wednesday and Friday day for family services in our resource center and also periodic Saturday computer, life or job skills classes.  We are closer to several Syrian refugee apartments and have had several recent visits from new clients that are asking for our help.

We are seeing more clients who face a variety of challenging life situations and have had a need to move into the low income apartments where we offer transportation to and from American Life and Language Classes.  Our Wednesday and Friday Resource Center Day is a day where most all of our Family Services are provided.  We need office volunteers to help us with a variety of jobs on these days.  We need additional family advocates willing to work in and out of homes and/or traveling with clients to help us provide family services.

Some of Our Partners/Supporters and Community Connections

We are working with Catholic Charities Immigration Services and a Medical Civil Surgeon as a team to help refugees collect the necessary information that will allow their immigration documentation to be processed with hopefully less confusion and less cost.  We are also working with Catholic Charities to encourage clients to stay on a path to obtain their naturalized citizenship which involves Citizenship Classes.

The Memphis Library 211-Linc has Asha’s Refuge listed as a resource for Memphis area refugees to obtain assistance.

Asha’s Refuge is working in collaboration with The Morning Center to assist several new mothers with receiving the prenatal care that they need.  The number of families we serve always increases the number of newborn babies that we will also serve.  Asha’s Refuge is continuing conversations with Porter-Leath to offer birth to three year old in home learning and support to mothers in collaboration with our volunteers.

Various departments at The University of Memphis are working in collaboration with Asha’s Refuge to offer training, research, support and internship programs.  Asha’s Refuge will continue working with other local college internship programs such as Bethel University, Rhodes College and Union University as the opportunity arises.

Bellevue Memphis tag teamed with Clemson University students to connect to Asha’s Refuge eager to serve.  Bellevue will continue their small group connections and projects with us to host picnic style fun days at the various apartment locations we have clients at.  Clemson University will work with us in March to add additional playground equipment to our playground and prepare the ground so that it is a little more playground friendly for our preschoolers.  World Day of Prayer approved us for a grant to assist with the cost to improve our playground.

Speaking of preschoolers, the Asha’s Refuge Kindergarten Readiness program is growing.  We max out at about 12 preschoolers keeping our drop-in center a program that we feel like we can teach and manage well.  Additional preschoolers will come as new families enroll for services at Asha’s Refuge.  Asha’s Refuge also now provides childcare for a small number of infants/toddlers (8 weeks to under 3 years old).  We will need childcare workers to volunteer to rock and care for these sweet babies while their mother (grandparent or aunt/uncle) is attending adult language classes.

Asha’s Refuge now has a new donations coordinator, Jenny McFarland.  She has jumped right in to help us connect to our community to find and fill the donation needs we have.  We are currently seeking organizations to partner with to help handle furniture, household and clothing donations.  The partnership will involve Asha’s Refuge volunteers to help Jenny in the donation department.  Our storage room rotates with the various items we would typically need for the clients we serve.  The consistent rotating donations will require a team of dedicated people to help Jenny to serve our clients.

The three High Point Church locations are eager to get more involved with local refugees.  Their Crew Youth Program has committed to serve with us regularly in the upcoming 2018 year.  Asha’s Refuge Next Generation has tripled in size since it began offering additional services to teens and college age students such as peer to peer tutoring, ACT prep, mentoring, group volunteer programs and activities that help raise cultural awareness and build healthy cross cultural relationships.  First Baptist Church Collierville Youth Group and Collierville High School Asha’s Next Generation Club has been strongly serving with us to help build our Asha’s Next Generation program.

Urbin Ministries, Methodist Churches, have agreed to continue to support Asha’s Refuge.  Pastor Smith will be a good person for us to learn from and we are looking forward to what is to come with this newer relationship.

Hope Apostolic Church has agreed to hold on to various thrift sale items for Asha’s Refuge to have a sale in February/March of 2018.  Asha’s Refuge has a need for volunteers to help bring in items to sale so that this fundraising even is successful.  We also have a need for volunteers to help coordinate this sale and move out the items that are not sold or able to be used by our clients.

United Methodist Church in Bartlett provided us with a lot of volunteer assistance and a platform to raise awareness through hosting the Night of Hope Events in 2017.  The church and its leadership team is eager to build upon our relationship in order to continue serving and assisting local refugee clients.  They have a team of vocalist and musicians who also plan to continue serving with Asha’s Refuge in 2018.  They will help us kick off the new year participating in The Just Love Dinner and Auction which will be Friday, March 2, 2018 at 5:30 pm.  High Point Church Collierville agreed to host this event and has a large team of dedicated individuals who are eager to volunteer.  We will need even more volunteers and auction items to make this event a success.

Cornerstone Transportation’s Mr. Rick Rodell, Mr. David and Jan Lewis and Seeds Ministries provided Asha’s Refuge with office computers, WiFi internet connections and a ten person computer lab. Asha’s Refuge has plans to increase the number of basic computer training classes we offer.  We also plan to hold drivers education classes, teen/college more advanced computer classes, and job coaching skills classes utilizing the computer lab room even more.

Asha’s Refuge is in connection with Crosslink Memphis and is hopeful to begin working on a plan alongside of volunteer doctors and nurses where we can offer some basic free non-emergency medical care to our clients.

WiseHeart Foundation has been working with Asha’s Refuge for some time now offering mentorship to our directors and some financial support.  They have recently agreed to help provide additional vans to help transport clients to and from the various services we offer.  Asha’s Refuge will continue working with dedicated volunteer drivers.

Asha’s Refuge is partnering with various individuals in the community to help better provide translation services.  Our clients speak a variety of languages which will require our organization to find like-minded translators willing to volunteer their time to help.  In addition, we are researching new translation technology in hopes that it will help keep down the cost of phone translation services which many of our partner organizations have to pay for in order to help serve our clients with us.

Hope for Memphis recently approved a grant partially for Asha’s Refuge to help us with training and building an even better volunteer program.  This grant approval could not have come to us at a better time, as Asha’s Refuge is growing quickly and we need volunteers willing and trained to serve whole heartedly in various roles.  Volunteer Odyssey has been meeting with our volunteer coordinator and staff inquiring on ways that they too can work with us to help fulfill our upcoming volunteer needs.

As Asha’s Refuge continues to grow, building good community, volunteer and donor relationships will be important to the life and success of the organization. More and more we are being asked to speak at various elementary schools, colleges, businesses, churches and community organizations.  Our involvement with the CFC also allows us to have more speaking opportunities.  We are excited about having our part in educating and helping to raise awareness about local refugees, cultural sensitivity and diversity.

What’s The Plan for Volunteers?

Asha’s Refuge anticipates an increase in the number of clients we serve in the upcoming year.  With the additional services being offered and number of days we are open for services, we will need a large group of dedicated and motivated individuals to help.  Volunteer training will be something that will offer our volunteers even more confidence as they compassionately seek to assist local refugees.  The recent and future growth of the organization is exciting.  We are working on a system that will give volunteers opportunities to serve in various departments within the organization.  Another words, if you come each Tuesday and help us by sweeping floors, perhaps you are tired of  that and want to occasionally try something different.  Once you are trained in the other departments of which you choose to be trained in, you will be given the opportunity to choose from a calendar that shows the open jobs which we have a need to fill.  If you are trained in that area of need and you have heart to love like Jesus, then you are qualified and needed!  All you would have to do is select that particular date and assignment and show up to serve with us. The system will also allow volunteers to pick up extra days to serve when they have time or trade them with a trained friend who volunteers at Asha’s Refuge if they are going to be unavailable. Imagine, a volunteer could potentially come in one week to assist a teacher and the next week to help organize a fundraising event and then the next week to take someone to the doctor.  Another volunteer might choose to come in two times in one week and both days doing something completely different.  If you are the type volunteer that wants to do the same thing every time you work with us, that is okay too!

What Departments Can I Volunteer In Once I am Trained?

Family Advocate Services (could be trained in one or more of the following areas):

• Helps with things like completing benefits applications for food or health insurance
• Helps with housing assistance – completes applications, looks for rental homes
• Helps with Immigration Paperwork and Processing
• Helps Client at the doctor – takes them to and from the doctor
• takes client to the pharmacy
• helps with basic medical insurance understanding at the doctor/pharmacy
• Schedules appointments with Client (doctor, dentist, social worker or other appointments as needed)
• Helps clients sort out and organize their mail and understand letters/bills
• helps client re-apply for soon to expire or lost identification cards

Prenatal Care / Newborn Baby and New Mom Helpers (could be trained in one or more of the following areas):

• Helps to coordinate prenatal doctor care for mom to be
• helps to coordinate newborn baby care – immunization appointments, WIC, etc.
• teaches/coaches and mentors mothers about American Life Skills focusing on well baby and mom care
• prepares expectant mom with what to expect at the hospital – baby delivery (works with local hospitals)
• takes expectant mother to regular doctor appointments

Office Helpers

• Assist directors or directors assistant as needed
• helps coordinate upcoming events
• takes attendance
• client intake and enrollment
• makes copies of various documents for teachers and staff
• inputs data into spreadsheets
• types correspondence (for clients or director as needed)
• makes flyers
• runs local errands
• helps to welcome and show appreciation to volunteers
• answers the telephone
• scans documents/sends email/faxes
• assist clients with making appointments for family services
• works with translator as needed
• updates organizational calendars
• needs to be proficient with Microsoft Office Suite
• help with newsletters and marketing
• send thank you letters / help with donor relations

Immigration Client Services – Nurse or Medical Office Experience Helpful / Availability Wednesday and Fridays

• assist medical civil surgeon
• enters immunizations into adobe file (must be proficient with Adobe and Microsoft Office Suite)
• uses copier to copy various files
• may make phone calls to Health Department or Family Doctors as Requested
• works with clients to organize required documentation
• works with various translators as needed
• completes immigration applications (we will train)
• continues to build working relationship with Catholic Charities Immigration Services

Donations Department

• Does family assessment for a family in need
• Organizes and Searches for various items within the community that are needed
• documents in-kind donations
• thanks donors; builds donor relationships
• uses social media to raise awareness about various needs
• helps to disperse donated items
• trains new volunteers about our donations practices

Job Coaching and Job Skills Department

• Teaches clients a job skill (perhaps you have a job skill you could teach that would benefit our clients)
• Coaches Clients with applying for jobs (writing a resume, filling out applications, learning how to dress for the job, communicating well with employers, showing up on time, understanding pay need vs their qualifications and pay rate, speaking clearly, understanding employee insurance benefits, etc.)
• Works with employers/staffing agencies / builds employer relationships
• Searches for jobs for clients and works with employers/clients through the application process
• helps clients to set up email for job needs
• helps clients with applying for jobs when applications are online
• develops training workshops for men (automobile maintenance, basic home repair, construction, landscape, agriculture, etc.)
• develops training workshops for women (partners with Piece of Thread/sewing, gardening, cleaning, cooking, etc.)
• prepare/set up drivers education training workshops

American Life Skills Coaches (often life skills teachers)

• May help client understand basic math skills and assist with understanding paychecks, medical bills, phone bills, utility bills, rent, etc.
• May assist client with understanding mail and how to mail a letter/payment
• helps client to understand the calendar and how to be one time for important appointments
• helps clients to understand good apartment living habits
• teaches clients about healthy habits (brushing teeth, showering daily, wearing deodorant, etc.)
• assist clients with typical life problems (lost apartment key, moving and needs to tell current apartment leasing agency, needs to call maintenance at apartment, needs to talk to school for child, etc.)

Grocery Shoppers

• takes client to the grocery store and teaches clients about Kroger card, coupons, expiration dates and self check out area
• may grocery shop for elderly or sick client in need
• may assist donation department or directors with getting groceries for a family in need
• develops relationship with community grocery stores

IT/Basic Computer Skills Department

• Works with IT Department as Needed
• Helps teach Basic Computer Skills to Clients (email, internet research, applying for jobs online, etc.)
• Cleans donated computers to make ready for client use
• Trains volunteer staff and problem solves with them

Kindergarten Readiness Assistant Teachers (Tuesday and Thursday Mornings)

• Works with Lead Teachers to provide quality care and teaching to refugee preschoolers

Infant/Toddler Childcare (Tuesday and Thursday Mornings)

• Helps to provide quality care and teaching to refugee infants and toddlers

American Life and Language Class Teachers & Assistants (Tuesday and Thursday Mornings)

• May lead or assist with teaching American Life Skills and English Language Classes following our Tennessee Handbook for ESOL Teaching Guidelines or Current Methods of ESL Training which will be provided by Asha’s Refuge
• Helps to develop the curriculum for clients as needed; teaches lessons that are practical for adult learning
• Attends ESL/ESOL training classes and meetings
• Develops client trust and caring relationships
• Assist clients with connecting to Asha’s Refuge office in order to make various appointments for family service needs

Class Day and Resource Center Managers

• Manages all departments, volunteers and client happenings on class days and/or Resource Center Days
• Handles visitor relations and visitor tours
• Works with directors and director assistants
• Problem solves with volunteers and clients
• Works with translator as needed
• Ensures class and resource days are staffed with volunteers
• Ensures drivers are coordinated for pick up
• Makes phone callas to or Writes email correspondence to partner organizations
• Works with office staff
• Helps coordinate volunteers to help maintain and clean building

Drivers – Transportation Coordinators

• Helps to coordinate transportation for clients
• Drives clients to and from classes
• May drive clients to and from the doctor or to other places as needed
• May run errands or drive for directors as requested
• helps to keep organization vehicles cleaned, maintained and mechanically sound
• may take vehicle in to auto shop for service
• helps to teach clients to ensure that all children are in booster/car safety seat
• helps to teach clients to ride safe seated with their seatbelts fastened
• must pass a background check, be dependable, have auto insurance, a current TN license and have a good driving record

Marketing / Social Media / Newsletters /Website /Videography

• Initiates and plans regular and good marketing tactics
• Helps to update social media outlets with directors
• Works with various departments to obtain updated organizational information necessary for successful marketing
• May work with college interns
• Regularly Updates brochures and website information with 517 Designs
• Works with IT Department
• Updates, designs and regularly sends out various e-newsletters and e-flyers
• Works with videographers to develop a collection of up to date organizational videos
• Updates social media outlets keeping it current and on the cutting edge
• works with Constant Contact and various other media outlets
• Writes content
• Proof reads and Edits content

Creative Writer, Scrapbooker and Photographer

• Writes various creative content including client stories, volunteer stories and organizational news
• Proofreads and edits written content
• Develops unique scrapbooks
• Takes photos of organizational events, volunteer staff and client interactions
• Develops creative ways to thank donors and volunteers
• Keeps up to date client media/photo release forms
• Creates small photo-book for client gift to celebrate life happenings with them (newborn babies, graduations, etc.)
• May attends various client and organizational events in order to write and photo them
• assists marketing team and provides written content for them

Asha’s Next Generation Volunteer Team

• Mentors and Works with suburban and refugee teens/college age students
• Assists with American Life and Language Skills, various school subject tutoring, Hi-Set Testing, college preparedness and job skills
• Works with Next Gen Team to coordinate and plan events and fundraisers
• Helps coordinate volunteers for Next Gen
• Helps with drivers education
• May help High school graduates apply for colleges and school financial aid
• Helps young adults in need of further education and job skills enroll into Job Corps program
• Helps coordinate and provide transportation for Next Gen

Event Coordinators

• Help to develop fundraisers and events
• Help to create marketing material/flyers for event
• Raise awareness about event
• pull together volunteers for event assignments
• connect to community, organizations and businesses regarding the event
• develop donor relations
• organize event
• make phone calls/send emails about the event
• work with finance team regarding ticketing/pricing and fundraising goals
• work with directors and staff regarding the event
• run event errands
• help to clean up after event (arrange for help)
• work with donations department to solicit donations
• plans/hosts event preparation and follow-up meetings with event volunteers
• sends thank you’ s after event
• Keeps up to date event spreadsheets
• uses creativity to keep event exciting to outsiders
• uses social media to advertise for the event

Bring Your Lunch / Volunteer Training Workshop Day

Mark your calendar for our upcoming volunteer training day so that we can tell you more.  Bare with us as we set up our new volunteer system, calendar and provide training.  Your prayers are always appreciated.  We are working hard to ensure that our clients are well taken care of and we know that we have been blessed with a wonderful group of volunteers to help make it all happen successfully.  We will meet at our 5645 Spring Lake address at 9:30 am to 1:30 pm, Thursday, January 4th, 2018.  Be sure to bring your lunch!  Please contact deborah@ashasrefuge.org if you have any questions.  We are pleading with all of our volunteers to please kindly make arrangements to attend this Training Day.

Sometimes the translating process with refugee clients can be a complete miracle.  Yesterday was a busy and adventurous day for us. Thank you CFC for allowing us to speak at the IRS and connect more people to the heart of our organization. Thank you University of Memphis for the Cultural Training Class we were blessed to share our experiences and story with some very attentive, interested students. Thank you to the donors who gave in order to allow us to purchase a minivan yesterday to help with transporting our clients. Thank you to our volunteers like Cornelia who has been lovingly shuffling mothers-to-be back and forth to The Morning Center for prenatal care. Thank you to The Morning Center for being as kind and flexible as you are as well as understanding to us as we work hard to get our clients in for their routine checkups. And this is where our translating miracle story from yesterday begins…

Writing this out may be complicated for me to rightly express what I am trying to relay. Regardless, I am going to try. We have had a pregnant mother who we have been working hoping to ensure that she and her baby get the prenatal care they need. She has other small children and an elderly father. We recently assisted them with their move into an apartment of their own which was a big deal and a good accomplishment for us all. We have all been awaiting this new baby boy but nothing ever prepares you for “The Big Day”.

As I mentioned before, Asha’s Refuge works with a team of volunteers to get moms to The Morning Center for their prenatal care.  The working relationship we have with The Morning Center has been extremely helpful to our clients.  The nurses, doctors and staff at The Morning Center are always patient with our clients and whole heartedly eager for them to have the medical care and attention that they need despite the various challenges that we face when working with refugee clients.   The Morning Centers team works with telephone translators, local hospitals, insurance companies, our Asha’s Refuge executive team and our team of volunteer advocates to ensure that the client understands everything from medical recommendations to setting appointment dates.  The entire program is really unique and such a blessing to see in action.

One of our brave volunteer advocates, Cornelia, set out to take our Mom-to-Be, Chekwe, to her regular appointment. Some days are frustrating when our volunteers go to a refugee home to pick them up for their appointment and the client is nowhere to be found. No matter how much we reiterate the importance of these prenatal doctor appointments, sometimes our refugee ladies are just not quite as punctual and serious about their appointments as we American ladies can be. There is a lot of cultural training involved regarding the clock and being on time.  Then again, we have successfully taught some of our clients to be on time and when we are stuck in traffic trying to get to them, they remind us how we were not on time.  Cornelia has been recently taking two clients to their routine prenatal visits which makes it twice as challenging to get the ladies both on time together.  Yesterday, Chekwe went to her doctor and was told that it was time for her to go ahead and go to the hospital to deliver the baby.  Chekwe was not too interested in rushing to the doctor because she had several things to do at home first.  Cornelia understood the importance of getting her to the doctor because of the various signs during the evaluation that indicated that the time was NOW.  Cornelia was the only transportation that Chekwe would have to the hospital and at that time, the only person who was up to date that could translate to the doctors at the hospital her current situation.  Chekwe was taking her time and even said she was not feeling the need to go to the hospital.  Cornelia insisted she pack a bag and get in her car so that she could take her to the hospital per The Morning Center doctors request.

I received a phone call from Cornelia updating me on Chekwe’s situation.  I encouraged Cornelia to please take Chekwe to the hospital reminding her that our friend would be in good hands at the hospital.  As an Asha’s Refuge volunteer advocate who is willing to help transport clients to and from the doctor, flexibility and patience is important.  So often our volunteers prepare themselves to take someone to the doctor and the visit ends up taking longer because of follow-up transportation needs or other complicated problems that arise such has a need stop by the pharmacy to pick up a medication just prescribed, calling an insurance company or even making a second trip to the hospital.  Sometimes it is hard for our volunteer advocates and staff to manage things for even one client let alone several clients at one time.  It is crucial for Asha’s Refuge to have a team of individuals willing to tag team and help our clients in the various areas they have need.  Thankful for all Cornelia had done that day, I switched off with her and spent some time with my friend Chekwe at the hospital realizing that it could be a long night since we anticipated a newborn baby soon.

When I got to the hospital, Chekwe had just been moved into the Labor and Delivery area of the hospital.  The nurses were happy to see me but were on the phone with translators talking to Chekwe.  The telephone translation service is wonderful but I must admit it is not perfect.  There are many reasons why it does not always work and there are many reasons why I think having an Asha’s Refuge advocate alongside of Chekwe (or any refugee client) is wise and extremely helpful.  Once I arrived, many of the questions were questions that I could answer for Chekwe which took less time and made both Chekwe and the nurses more confident.  I have known Chekwe now as a client for about 7-8 months.  Like a toddler, Chekwe and I had developed a small vocabulary list together and I knew what words she was familiar with and what words she was not familiar with.  I could, therefore, be very careful with what words I spoke to Chekwe in order to get her to respond confidently.  I laugh and use humor a lot with the refugee clients.  It is funny sometimes when we play charades and use our body language to communicate, but it works.  The refugee clients are familiar with the various facial expressions I make and many can very much “communicate” at some level with me.  Not speaking the same language as another person does not threaten or scare me.  I love the clients we serve and I give all I have in order to try to communicate with them and to help make them more comfortable trying to communicate things with me.

It was necessary to induce labor for Chekwe.  Once the labor pains began, I could see that the pain was getting worse.  I began feeling a little helpless in the situation.  Chekwe could not express what level of pain she was in but I understood.  I could watch the contraction charts rise and lower as her body language expressed pain ever so quietly. As the pain intensified and the minutes went into hours, I found myself praying for Chekwe.  I got a cold towel for her forehead earlier and placed it on her forehead again for her.  I held the oxygen mask over her face so that it did not keep poking her in the eyes and smashing her nose.  I could not say the things I wanted to say to her in order to comfort her because I knew she would not understand.  When I was in labor with my children, I just wanted quiet.  I remembered when my best friend was in labor, she wanted things to be quiet.  I assumed the same for Chekwe.  I kept quiet.  But then, I started to whisper prayers over her.  The contractions calmed for several minutes.  I prayed to Jesus and tears rolled down my cheeks as I looked at my friend laying there somewhat suddenly peaceful looking.  She was laying on her side facing me.  Her face was in the side of the metal hospital bed.  She was holding on to the metal bars.  I held on to the outside of her hand and with my other hand, I rubbed her forehead.  I occasionally rubbed her back.  I was not sure if this was culturally acceptable or not, but it was my heart and it was the love of Jesus that was also like a mom or dad compelling me to nurture my friend.  There was absolutley no cultural divide in my way; just the love I had in my heart for her to be okay.

I began to think about Chekwe and all that she had recently experienced being new to America with several new little ones and now this new little baby on the way.  She made it safely to America and now her life was starting over here.  Her English was severely lacking.  She had no job skills either.  Chekwe was trying to raise her family here and just provide a better life for her kids.   What kinds of persecutions, war or terror had she and her children escaped from I wondered.  Asha’s Refuge had just recently worked with Refugee Empowerment (another super great program) to assist in getting all of her children into school for the first time.  I know Chekwe was happy for them.  Suddenly I began wondering where Chekwe’s mother was.  I wondered if her mother was alive.  I looked down at Chekwe and saw her like I would see my own daughter.  This girl was someone’s baby girl who was now a grown woman in need of compassion and care.  I am sure Chekwe’s mother would have wanted to be able to be with her daughter.  In her mother’s place, there I was.  I began to tear up and I prayed for her even more.  Jesus, please let the pain subside.  Please give Chekwe the rest she needs.  Please take care of her and help her medical situation stabilize and help this baby go ahead and make his healthy presence.  As I prayed, Chekwe was still quiet and calm and looked as though she had several minutes with little to no pain.

It was not too long after my prayers for Chekwe that the doctors and nurses gathered in her room to prepare for the delivery.  The nurses and doctors called the translator on the blue phones.  They had masks on that muffled their voices in such a way that the translator on the other end of the speaker phone could not hear what they were saying.  There were so many noises in the room that the speaker phone was picking up all the noises and the translator complained that he could not hear what he was supposed to be translating.  Several nurses and doctors were talking which made it easy for the translator to get confused.  I realized the translation problem and wanted Chekwe to have a good understanding of what the medical staff needed her to know and what was happening to her.  I walked up towards Chekwe’s head and positioned myself for what would be my very important assignment throughout the remainder of the delivery of our little baby boy.  I was to repeat anything important a nurse or doctor would say loudly and clearly into the speaker of the blue translating phone of which I was holding up close to Chekwe’s ears so that she could hear the translator.  The doctors and nurses were mesmerized at the translation process that would have to happen for this particular patient and were so thankful to have Asha’s Refuge there to help.  Chekwe was also extremely thankful for our help.

I wish I could give everyone a clear picture of this translating miracle.  The doctors were saying things like, “Push, and then hold for ten seconds.  Relax.  Now with the next contraction…push again.”  Slowly, clearly… I would repeat what the professionals would say to the translator.  The translator would then tell Chekwe to push.  There were of course other important things that needed to be translated to Chekwe and from Chekwe to the medical team.  There were times when the translator himself did not understand what we were telling him to tell Chekwe.  I would have to reword in a more simple form what the doctors were saying to the translator so that he could understand it better to explain it to Chekwe.  I wondered how many times these type phone translators had experienced helping a patient through the delivery of a baby.  The translator was a gentleman which made me also wonder how comfortable he was translating the kinds of things we were asking him to translate.  I could tell that he was just a translator and not any kind of medical translator.  He seemed emotional on the other end of the telephone when we finally pushed out our healthy crying baby!  The entire room was emotional.  Even now… I cry as I type this.  It was a lot for me to experience and a lot for me to consider how many ways we as an organization can make this process even better for our client, our partner organizations, the doctor and nurse delivery staff, our Asha’s Refuge volunteer advocates and the everyday translators on the other end of these blue phones.

I have some big ideas for the future of Asha’s Refuge in this area.  There are definitely ways that our well mom and baby program can improve.  It may start with specific language training focused on vocabulary commonly used with pregnancy, labor and delivery.  We have a healthy smiling baby boy and a safe and healthy mom.  Thank you to the team of volunteers, workers and supporters who have helped us with a successful pregnancy term and baby delivery.  It was certainly a translation miracle.

(Asha’s Refuge has new moms and babies all the time.  We are praying for volunteers who have some well-baby care, nursing, and strong advocacy skills to help us with our future client needs.  If you are interested in being a part of our volunteer team to help with prenatal care and post pregnancy/newborn baby and mom care, please let us know.)

The video below is of Chekwe’s littler daughter Dorika and her elderly father.  We went to visit her family to be sure they knew that the baby was here and that mom and baby were doing well.  “The baby is here!  Yay!”

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HELP US MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN THE LIVES OF LOCAL REFUGEES BY DONATING TODAY!

CLICK HERE TO DONATE THROUGH PAYPAL

Or mail checks to:

Asha’s Refuge

1035 Winchester Blvd., Suite A216

Collierville, TN. 38017

It’s our 6th annual Cookie’s for a Cause Fundraiser!  This fundraiser is like a giant cookie exchange and provides an opportunity for our community to get involved and give back to help us meet our annual budget.  Our goal is $5,000 this year which we believe we can make happen especially with your help.

Saturday, December 9 – Asha’s Refuge needs donations of homemade cookies and goodies, including bar cookies, brownies and candies like buckeyes, bonbons, fudge, etc. The cookies will be packed as an assortment (about 14 items) in an attractive gift box along with information about Asha’s Refuge and sold as part of our yearly fundraising event for a $12 donation.

Willing to Bake Cookies?  On Saturday, December 9, all homemade baked cookies should be dropped off between 9-11am at Highpoint Church at 1035 Winchester Road, Collierville, TN. We ask that everything be brought in disposable containers and already cut if they are bar cookies. We will literally need around 4,500 homemade cookies to fill 300 boxes and bags!

Not a good baker?  We also need people willing to sort and pack the cookies. Packing begins at 9am and ends around 1pm (including cleanup). Can’t stay all day…give what time you can.  (Meet us December 9th at 9:00 am at Highpoint Church in Collierville at 1035 Winchester Blvd. to help.)

Prefer Breads over Cookies?  This year we are adding baked breads to our offerings. So if you like baking bread of any kind, won’t you please share some loaves with us? Baked and already decoratively wrapped breads can be turned in to us December 8^th if you contact deborah@ashasrefuge.org or jamie@ashasrefuge.org ahead of time or just drop them off December 9th to Highpoint Church in Collierville along with cookies from 9:30 to 11am.

Want to Pre-Order?  Our cookies are always a mystery to us as to what kind they will be.  We kinda like the mystery of it all and are always grateful, surprised and very blessed with some great bakers to help us with this annual event.  You can pre-order your box of “mystery cookies” by contacting us at claire@ashasrefuge.org.  For preordering the breads, we know we will have: Pumpkin Bread, Banana Nut Bread, Banana Chocolate Chip Bread, Banana Bread (no nuts), Lemon Loafs, Blueberry Loaf and Cranberry/Orange Bread.  They will come in two sizes: standard loaf pan size (6-8 slices) or a small one for about 3-4 people.  Suggested donations for standard size is $10 and for smaller size is $6.  Please pre-order breads by contacting claire@ashasrefuge.org.

Want to Purchase a Box of Cookies for a Refuge Family?  Help us give a refugee family a sweet treat this year!  A lot of the families (especially the children) we serve love American cookies. (We’ve even spent some time teaching some of the ladies how to make them.)  If you would like to help us provide a refugee family with holiday cookies and give us another opportunity to visit them and share the love and hope message of Jesus with them, you can easily add this to gift to your purchase.

Want to Donate but are not interested in making a purchase?  We understand that sweets are not for everyone.  If you have a heart to give to support our cause there is still a way to do so.  Click on the link below to simply donate.

Need a fundraiser flyer to print for your church or group to help spread the word and get others involved?  You can help us fundraise!  Here are some flyers that you can print or share that may help you:

Cookies for a Cause Flyer2017

Cookie Exchange Info for Sellers 2017[4157]

Bread flyer