Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family of Mariam Manirakazi who went home to be with the Lord early morning Tuesday, November 15, 2016. Mariam’s husband, Albert, and their five young children (all under the age of five) request for your prayers during this difficult time:  Deborah (girl, age 4); Rusi (girl, age 3); Michael (boy, age 2); Constance (girl, age 1); newborn baby Queen (girl, 6 days old).  This family has quickly grabbed the hearts of the community.  Mariam had just returned home a few days with her new baby girl with a good report from the hospital.  The loss of Mariam has been a shock to the Burundi and Congo community and has been a real challenge for them to walk through the difficult processes of planning for the funeral and burial service here in America.

Asha’s Refuge, Peace of Thread, Highland Heights Baptist Church, St. Luke Lutheran Church in Cordova, TN, Bible Study Fellowship, World Relief and others in the Memphis community have come together to help this family.  Anyone wishing to donate can contact one of these organizations or simply give through Asha’s Refuge in these three ways:

• Send a check to our administrative office at 1035 Winchester Blvd., Suite A216, Collierville, TN  38017
• Click the “donate” button on our Facebook Page
• Click the “donate” button on the bottom of our website page (the red heart)

Clicking on the “donate” button will allow us to process donations through PayPal.  Donors should note on their contributions that the funds are intended for Mariam’s family emergency expenses.  Please email Deborah@ashasrefuge.org or Jamie@ashasrefuge.org if you have questions or need help.

Please see the information below regarding the funeral:

Visitation:  Saturday, November 26th, 2016 at 9am to 10am

Funeral Service:  Saturday, November 26th, 2016 at 10am to 11am

The visitation and funeral will take place at Highland Heights Baptist Church at 675 National Street, Memphis, TN  38122.

Graveside Service:  Saturday, November 26th, 2016 immediately after funeral service

Those wishing to attend the Graveside Service will follow the family to Pleasant Rest Memorial Gardens at 6235 Raleigh Millington Road, Millington, TN  38053.

At this time, the organizations and the community have already collected a lot of children’s clothing, diapers and food for the family and community cooking for family and friends.  So, we are not in need of clothing for the children at this time.  Four of the five children are in diapers so diapers will continue to be a big help.

The immediate need we have is to collect the remaining balance for the funeral costs, infant formula to assist Albert with feeding his newborn baby girl and your prayers.  As you can imagine, Albert will need to take some time away from work to take care of his children.

It has been a long hard few days helping this sweet family walk through the funeral processes here in America for their beloved, Mariam. I must commend one young lady, Nadine, who this family has requested to help with the translation processes and the entire planning of the funeral. Nadine says she wants to have a job after she graduates helping people… doing exactly what she has done today and in the past for others.  Albert and the Congo and Burundi community very much respects and appreciates Nadine.  He trusts her as she, her sister Esther and their family steps up to hold their hand through this difficult time.

One of Albert’s desires is to have a “cross” clearly visible at the funeral service and aside Mariam’s grave.  He says he wants all to know that they are “Christian” and the cross would be a reminder of their family and Mariam’s love for Jesus. One local donor is making something very special for him.  Albert and his family want you to know how very thankful he is to have your love and support.

—

The pictures shown here are:

Mariam’s daughter Constance nearby a jar with $1 in it where the family is struggling to get a few cash donations into the jar from their direct community (so many refugees struggle themselves) to assist Albert with his family’s immediate needs.

Newborn baby “Queen” with a warm fuzzy hat someone in the community wanted her to have.

Mariam and her newborn baby girl, “Queen”.

Albert with his one year old, Constance.

A family picture with some of the children unavailable for the pic.

 

Today Jake and I drove down to meet our friend Mupenzi who we are so proud of.  He saved up the money he earned over the past 1/2 year and paid cash for his new car. He studied hard beforehand to obtain his drivers permit and today, Mupenzi was eager for my husband and me to visit with him to go out and practice driving and then learn some basic maintenance lessons about his new car.  We want to express how impressed we are with Mupenzi and his determination to save for his car to buy it outright and not on credit!  We are so proud of his efforts to study with the TN handbook, get help from other drivers and to now make his dream of driving come true for himself and his family.

Today, Jake worked with Mupenzi with parking, particularly how to parallel park.  He mastered it quickly! Mupenzi’s confidence behind the wheel took us by surprise.  We double checked with him to see if he had in fact driven in his country before but he said he had not.  He had, however, been driving a forklift at his job the past several months here in America!  What a wonderful help to him that has been.  

Asha’s Refuge is happy to be a part of Mupenzi’s experience learning to drive and hopes to continue encouraging him and others as they drive safely and take care of maintaining their vehicles.  There are many newcomers who need assistance with learning to drive. Are there other men who could volunteer to help us in this area? We would love to somehow partner with a driving school.  For now, we appreciate the sweet times we get to encourage and help our clients with their driving journey.  

Way to go Mupenzi!  We are happy for you and your family.  Please always buckle up and drive safely.

Cookies for a Cause – what is this all about you ask?  Here is the scoop:  Asha’s Refuge host’s an annual giant cookie exchange fundraiser where we beg of you make and donate your most delicious and favorite holiday cookies, candies and brownies. We gladly accept your cookie donations and package them ourselves so that we can then sell them for a suggested donation of $12 per box.  This fundraiser has literally helped raise funds for our organization to function 1/4 to 1/2 of the year!  So we need your help!

Want to help us bake cookies? Embrace your holiday baking talents and bake as many as you want, we need over 6,000 cookies! Bring your baked goodies between 9:00am and 10:30am Saturday, December 10th to High Point Church in Collierville, TN at 1035 Winchester Blvd.  All cookies will be sorted and packaged in our own packaging so please be sure to simply bring your cookies in a container we can throw away.  Aluminum pans or box top lids lined with aluminum foil works well.  (Tip:  Please remember to cool your cookies on a cookie rack before stacking them so that when we are trying to package them they do not stick together and break.)

We encourage small groups to get involved in this project!  It is a fun way to fellowship together and serve at the same time.

Want to help package the cookies?!  Come to the above address starting at 9am on December 10th.  If you cannot start at 9:00 no worries! We will be working from 9 until we finish packaging all cookies which is usually until about 2pm.  Any 30 minutes to a couple of hours you can serve between this time frame will be extremely helpful. Supervised children ages 8 and up (teens) are more than welcome to help sort and package cookies.   

Want to Eat Some Cookies or Purchase a Box for a Gift?  Our assortment of homemade mystery cookies are always packaged (about 14-15 cookies) beautifuly with lots of love.  We encourage you to purchase a few boxes and give them as gifts.  Inside the boxes of cookies will be our Asha’s Refuge brochure which will tell our story and will help raise awareness about the persecuted people (refugees) we serve.  We pray each box of cookies makes it into the hands and heart of someone who will pray for us as we serve and love the nations as unto Jesus.  This gift often helps to put a spark the hearts of believers who might be interested in being a part of Asha’s Refuge. More than that, the box of cookies expresses our heart of love to ALL people as many have come together to take the time to bake and give with love.  You can preorder your box of cookies today to help us get a count on how many we will want to bake.  

Order Your Box of Cookies Today! Click Link:

https://docs.google.com/a/ashasrefuge.org/forms/d/1kHbP41rk8m3xRWOLVqY7voPKqXO6KDNfE3ONYguVxJc/viewform?edit_requested=true

(Copy and paste the link below into your browser if clicking on it does not work!)

Have additional questions?  Email Erica at erica@ashasrefuge.org.  

Just a few more days to order your Tshirt and support our cause!  (Click the link below or paste in your browser to order.) https://www.facebook.com/ashasrefuge/photos/a.261207947260457.57120.231762873538298/1110127839035126/?type=3

I recently took a college classmate, John,  with me to visit some of our new Syrian families. His senior research paper asks them “What expectations and problems have you had or faced once arriving into the United States trying to start your life anew?”   John was so excited to meet local Syrian refugees and has a heart to serve refugees as a life long job.  This young man is quite impressive as he has taken the Arabic language classes at University of Memphis and he is not afraid to try and speak it!  John is well traveled and has an amazing outlook on loving and helping struggling refugee families as he believes Jesus would want him to do. 

It is common culture for most all of the families we serve to display extreme hospitality when they have guest.  John, Mr. Jaffar and I were the guest last week of a new Syrian family and we were extremley blessed with hot tea and cookies as we discussed life in America and the goals and immediate needs this family has.  The father in this family took a great liking to John!  He put his arm around him proclaiming that young John was one that he was now devoted to and would befriend like a father.  He made sure that John had his belly full while we were visiting even offering him a bowl of Cocoa Puffs cereal (followed by another bowl of Chex cereal).  John happily enjoyed his Cocoa Puffs while I walked around the apartment explaining how to use some of the kitchen appliances to the mother.  I could not help but giggle at John sitting at their kitchen table loving life with his new Syrian friends and a bowl of Cocoa Puffs!  God is good!

Asha’s Refuge has been working to connect teens:  newcomers and suburban  Americans.  We are excited about the opportunity that exist for teens to work together thereby learning about one anothers culture, language and offering friendship and encouragement to one another.  The connections also have begun to help teens have a better sense of geography.  

We believe true success at Asha’s Refuge will require us to invite the next generation to teach us more about their generation which in turn will allow us sweet opportunities to pour into and mentor them as unto Jesus.  We are excited to get young people of so many different backgrounds, experiences and cultures to come together to begin building bridges through open discussions and strong friendly relationships.   It is they that will lead us in our future.  We want to invest in these bright teens and look forward to what God has in store for us all.

This started out after I made too many visits to refugee homes and noticed a lot of teenagers sitting around their house on the weekends bored, antsy and sometimes sad.  After talking with a new and excited teen volunteer (Madison) trying to find a way for her to help me get more teens involved with serving local refugees, we came up with an idea to try to start a more modern PenPal program.  We would call it TextPal and connect newcomer teens with suburban teens who were interested in making a new friend, learning about other cultures and just having an overall desire to encourage a teen.  The refugee teens were excited, willing and ready to have a TextPal with an American suburban friend. But many of the American suburban teens we tried to get on board were a little confused and  unsure about what we were trying to accomplish.  

Madison and a couple of teens began chatting via text. It was going very well.  We decided to ask a teenager from Burundi Africa who has been such a leader and example in her community help us lead this initiative.  Her name is Nadine.  So, we now have two teenagers who are working together to headship and plan activities for teens. Last night, Asha’s Refuge took about 15 kids to meeet one another for the first time to the bowling alley.  Madison, Nadine and I were hopeful that this meeting would encourage and plant some of the new friendships between the teens a little better.  Also, we are praying that it will begin to help parents understand our heart to reach teens by encouraging them to learn about, serve and care for one another.  Asha’s Refuge wants to say thank you to the teenagers that participated last night and who are leading the way.  Thank you to Madison and Nadine who are taking ownership of our next generation initiatives and are eager to build upon what we have started.  We also thank those parents who are key in teaching their children to first show love to ALL people just as we believe Jesus would do.  

Madison has taken lead in starting our Instagram page – @ashas.refuge which is certainly a popular form of social media for teenagers these days. Please check it out!

Monday, Oct. 24th at 6pm we will have orientation.  Any person interested in volunteering or learning more about Asha’s Refuge is welcome to come.  1035 Winchester Blvd., inside High Point Church in Collierville, TN. 



Numb. That is the only word I am able to come up with to describe how I am feeling lately. Even “numb” does not accurately describe it. What is wrong with me? Asha’s Refuge is a local nonprofit that seeks to serve disadvantaged refugees by first just loving them just as we believe Jesus would do.  I fell into this. I did not “ask” for it, it “asked for me”. How can we accomplish the big goals that we have to reach the nations by loving them unto Christ while they are in such a crisis situation? Our time is spent bandaiding their needs when my prayer has been that we can move beyond the bandaids and really help local refugees help themselves which will intern help our community.

The more and more refugees that come into our city makes it even more difficult to spend quality time building lasting relationships.  The newest clients we are seeing have been in our country from 1 week to 3 months and are confused about the system that they are trying to start their lives anew under.  The resettlement agency does not seem to have enough people and resources to manage the influx of people they are receiving.  Since I started Asha’s Refuge in 2010, my questions have always been, “Why do we bring more refugees into our city when we have not been able to adequately assist those we have already brought in” and “Why is there no real plan for helping these families beyond about 90 days”?  

Despite what so many think, one cannot live on the governments welfare system.  It is my understanding that a person can only have cash assistance for no more than five years of their life.  Assistance with food is in another department and is available it seems forever if the financial need is proven with records updated routinely.  Housing assistance is sometimes available to the poor, but the waiting list can take several months to a year to get in to and is usually found in high crime areas that most of us would rather not have to raise our children if given a choice.  Toiletries, cleaning supplies and paper products are not covered under any program that we can find.  The system is complicated for our American poor, much less the poor non English speaking and non educated refugees that we serve.

This past several days and weekends, I have spent a lot of time visiting refugee families from Syria and also Sudan.  Asha’s Refuge wants very much to be able to assist clients first by just loving them which might mean help feed an cloth them.  We requested children’s clothing for these new families and were blessed with a van load to take to them.  As the people were going through the clothes, they would also pull myself and our other volunteers aside to request that we help them in with additional needs they had such as: 

1. needing transportation to the grocery store
2. needing a job
3. needing help with disabled children
4. needing English tutoring help
5. needing someone to take them to the doctor
6. needing someone to help them see why they did not receive some of their important American documentation
7.  needing someone to help them study for and take them to get their drivers license 
8. needing their children to be registered in school
9. need for a friend to sit and have a meal with them
10. need for help with understanding bills and getting them paid
11. need for school supplies and uniforms
12. need for toys for their children

This list goes on.  Asha’s Refuge has made a huge impact over the years at helping disadvantaged refugees to meet the immediate needs that they have.  We have also been able to spend countless hours with newcomers letting them know the hope and love message of Jesus trusting Him for their every need.  We are unable to accomplish the great task of satisfying all of the needs that our clients have.   It is so good that we have had church supporters connect to our organization to serve and help us to provide us with “stuff” that will help our clients know that we are thinking about them.  We seek to be the hands and feet of Jesus but not just to hand them things and go on our way to the next person that has need.  We want to be able to slow down and sit with newcomers making friendships and crossing cultural and religious barriers as unto Jesus.  How can we accomplish our greater goal of sharing the gospel boldly if the chaos of refugee immediate needs overwhelm us as we serve? Is this call in my life to serve refugees and be an example of Jesus to them too much for me?  It might be, but I don’t believe it is too much for God.  In my impossibles, God makes possibles!

And how can I as a a leader at Asha’s Refuge make more of an impact for Christ to those we serve if there is no Operational and Organizational financial support?  We want the number of people of love and follow Jesus to outnumber those refugees entering in to our city.  The Spiritual warfare we face is real and it is right here in Memphis, TN.  We need more men involved to help shepherd and mentor other men.  We want family advocates that are true friends of our clients not having to worry with the series of complications that arise as they visit but to be able to freely help as they can but to lean on our organization when things get to be too much.  Our American nature is to go in to help a family and try to solve all their problems.  We have learned that one problem leads to another and the problems work to pull people apart from one another rather than helping to build a strong relationship.  Asha’s Refuge is dependent upon God and His believers to sustain itself.  God has shown us time and time again that He can provide a lot of “stuff” through his people, but will He also show us that He can provide the funding the organization needs to function?  

Our organization currently needs $5,000 per month to function.  As we grow and offer more classes and serve more clients we will need more funding.  We need those who are gifted at fundraising, marketing and event planning to come on board and volunteer their time.  We need monthly contributions to go into unrestricted funds to help us meet our monthly budget.  Liability insurance, insurance for driving our van and gas for transportation services is an important and bigger expense we have.  We will one day need to have building space of our own to pull our office and classes together allowing us to have an obvious fingerprint in the refugee community where they can come to us as their needs arise.  We need to have paid staff to help us move forward.  Will you consider a donation today?  Giving Tuesday… will you give $50, $100, $200 towards our monthly operation and organizational needs of $5000 per month?  

Press the home page of this website.  Go to the bottom and click on the heart do donate today!  Your donations matter.

Quaker Oatmeal.  To think that someone had never made let alone eaten oats!  Sad, sad to me!  Oatmeal is one of my favorites and something I enjoy several times a weeek and have for years.  We just cannot have someone who knows me and does not know oatmeal!  I must share the good secret of Quaker oatmeal for breakfast with my new friends. 

Sweet Rachel and her daughter Ruth (who recently had twins, one cute little boy and one beautiful tiny girl) were home one morning visiting with a caseworker and I working on some premi-newborn things. It was morning and the ladies were just waking up.  After a bit of time answering a lot of questions the caseworker had, I remembered that the oatmeal Asha’s Refuge brought to this family in some bags of groceries was an item that seemed to confuse Rachel.  “It is morning…breakfast time…time for oatmeal,” I thought to myself.  My insides grinned and I got tickeled inside knowing what goodness was about to take place.  Today… Rachel and Ruth will learn all about oatmeal.  First I showed them pictures of the oats growing in a field trying to explain what it is… it got a little tricky even for me!  What is an oat?! Where did it come from?  Is it wheat?! No. Rice?! No.  It is just an oat. (Laughing to myself.)

Taking Rachel by the hand, I went into the kitchen, began opening cabinets in search of a little pot to teach her how to cook oatmeal. Rachel, Ruth and the nice caseworker laughed at me as I danced around in the kitchen for oatmeal!  I began to boil the oats warning Rachel about that foamy stuff that always tries to boil over and make a gooey mess.  Rachel stirred the oats and water as I cut up a little apple to add into the oats.  We must have a little honey, sugar and cinnamon.  Frantically looking in the cabinet for cinnamon and sugar, I suddenly realized this family has no spices!  Ack!  We must have cinnamon and a tiny bit of something to sweeten these bland oats.  If we don’t, they may sadly hate them and never try them again.  Ugh!!  

Father help me to find something to make these oats perfect for this sweet family… I whispered to myself.  And then I saw it!  Crystalized tiny little bags of instant sweet honey/orange/ginger tea!  Apparently and luckily big brother Eugene loves hot spice tea and has somehow found himself some. I opened one of the little pouches of tea and added just enough to sweeten and add a little flavor to the apples and oatmeal.  

Once the oatmeal cooled off, I added a bit of milk, stirred and poured it into bowls.  Rachel and Ruth enjoyed their healthy breakfast and say they will be cooking oats again!  One of my favorite things to do with newcomers is share my little American favorites…like oatmeal.  One day, I will have to take them for Chai Tea!  (So happy the babies will grow up knowing all about oats!) Rachel says, “Shhh!  Don’t tell Eugene we borrowed his favorite tea.” 😉

Thank you for your recent Tshirt purchase which is a fundraiser to support operations at Asha’s Refuge with a heart to serve local refugees first by just loving them. The Tshirt design may be updated to say “Love the Stranger Among Us” a little more clearly. I just wanted to give you a heads up! I trust you will still love it. Money back guaranteed if you do not love your purchase! Thanks for your support!  (Click the link below to be taken to the Tshirt ordering site.)

Tshirt orders end October 28th. Please let your friends know so they do not miss out on this opportunity to give back for a great cause.  
Blessings,

Jamie Jones

Asha’s Refuge

http://www.booster.com/love-the-stranger-tshirt-fundraiser?ref=copy-link_social_mobile-campaign-page-share&utm_campaign=mobile-campaign-page-share&utm_content=love-the-stranger-tshirt-fundraiser&utm_medium=social&utm_source=copy-link&type=1&side=front

There actually are success stories with our line of work with local refugees!  Here is one for you:

Thank you Jesus for providing a home for JeneRose and her large family the last couple of years. Housing for large families is hard to find in Memphis. Lewis and his brothers are able to practice soccer in their own backyard, the family can have a garden and enjoy the outdoors together on their porch! JeneRose is still selling her handmade purses and her husband still works at a local restaurant. The older teens come and go working, going to school and driving their own cars they pay for. Two are even in college! Success story! ❤️

​

​​​