Our monthly ladies tea time allows opportunities for us to have conversational English practice, cultural learning and a safe place for sharing our feelings and emotions regarding our personal life stories.
For November and December’s tea time, each lady guest was encouraged to choose a photo from a table full of random photos (Story Card conversation starters) that reminded them of themselves. Three of our newcomer ladies shared their photos and, without sharing their names, were willing to allow us to post their explanation of why they chose those particular photos to help educate others. We felt their explanations were important to voice:
Guest #1: Crowd of Blurry People Going About Life, Arrived to Memphis 3 Weeks Ago
“I chose this photo because this is how I feel right now with my life having to start all over in a new country that I am very unfamiliar with. I see things happening but life feels like it’s just a blur. I am unsure how my life will really be here. I miss home and am unsure if I will ever see my home country again. My future feels scary and uncertain.”
Guest #2: Escalator, Arrived to Memphis, 3 Years Ago
“My life has felt like a set of moving scary steps. As soon as I accomplish one hard step and deal with a very difficult thing, here’s comes another harder step. I am exhausted. I am tired of climbing the moving steps and feel like they will never stop coming at me. I sometimes feel like giving up.”
Guest #3: Girl with Sunshine On Face, Arrived to Memphis About 3 Weeks Ago
“I am finally here. America. I am dreaming of all the things I want to accomplish. I am thankful and hopeful. I am taking a deep breath, resting and enjoying simple things like the sun on my face. I am thankful to know I am in a safer place.” .
We need your help! With the influx of refugees, we are working hard to raise awareness and funds about our cause. There are currently over 500,000 displaced Afghans and we need to be praying for not only them but so many around the world that are displaced from their homes due to war and terror. It could happen to anyone.
To date we’ve raised almost $3,000 of our $25,000 goal. Here’s your chance to stand and speak up with us for them by participating in this $5 for the 500,000 activity. By donating just $5 then sharing on social media with at least 5 of your friends the link below, you are helping us to reach our $25,000 goal of support for the many we will help in Memphis, TN through our Asha’s Refuge wrap-around services. We welcome newcomers and assist them as they acclimate into our city. We partner with agencies and volunteers to provide language, job, computer and basic life skills, a path to high school diploma and drivers licensure, housing help, mentoring, family and immigration services. We pray for opportunities to share the love and hope of Jesus. Here’s the link to donate your $5 (or more today):
Here is an older article from 2017 that the Commercial Appeal’s David Waters wrote. He did a fantastic job at helping me to explain about Asha’s Refuge and how we started. At that time, I had been working with refugees in Memphis for 8 years. It has now been 13 years and I must say that everyday I learn more about the various cultures and the strong people that have “beat all odds” escaping serious persecution and violence. Church, it is way past time to be involved with helping people who flee to our city and are forced to start their lives over. Most would much prefer to stay in their home country if it were safe for them. The Afghanistan current situation has again given attention to the millions of displaced people around the world in need of real help. There are currently over 82 million people in crisis who are displaced, homeless and/or afraid for their life. While no one can solve world peace until Jesus returns, it is our duty as believers to speak up and take actions that show the love and hope message of Jesus. Once people are here, they are here. They are standing right in front of us. Instead of arguing about why they are here, take the opportunity with me to love them well and help to open up conversations that promote healing.
Photo Credit to Mark Weber/The Commercial Appeal April 8, 2017
In light of the current situation in Afghanistan, we are working hard on the ground along side of the local resettlement agency to plan for new arrivals. We recently sent out a report with how our organization plans to help newcomers. In partnership with World Relief, Refugee Memphis, Bethany Christian Services, Community Legal Center, Hope Works, UTHSC, Highpoint Church and many other agencies, churches and volunteers, Asha’s Refuge is eager to offer our services to refugees and other lawfully present persecuted individuals such as the people from Afghanistan.
We are currently looking for host homes, funding and volunteers. Please check out this report for more information and contact us at serve@ashasrefuge.org for more info on how you can volunteer.
Greater Big “C” Church, we have a need for shelter to help with the influx of incoming displaced clients. With the ongoing in Afghanistan, Haiti and around the world, we are already seeing newcomers and the housing situation for them here in Memphis is not great either. If you have property for rent or a small group that will support you and are willing to serve by hosting and welcoming an individual or family who has recently escaped persecution, please message us as soon as possible. With investors buying up properties and the apartments being revamped, it’s been even more complicated to secure housing. Asha’s Refuge also has not done many fundraising projects due to the health concerns of today. We very much need our supporters to step out and give through our website at http://www.ashasrefuge.org. We are assisting many local individuals with critical needs and our organization pleads for your support. Please don’t put it off, pray, serve and give today.
Cardinal Health: Warehouse Operations Associate, Interview During Our Walk-In Job Fair on Saturday, July 10th from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Location: 8640 Nail Road, Suite 115, Olive Branch, MS 38654
Work Schedules: First Shift and Second Shift Available – Monday to Friday
Experience Based Pay: $15.40/hour to $17.71/hour
Sign-on Bonus: $500 paid out after 90 days of employment
What Warehouse Operations contributes to Cardinal Health
Warehouse Operations is responsible for performing a combination of manual or automated tasks necessary for the receipt, storage, and shipment of product. This may include receiving product, fulfilling, packaging, and shipping orders within established team goals to ensure on time order delivery.
On this Father’s Day, we are praying to Father God for all persecuted displaced peoples around the world! As many of us spend time with our family and celebrate our earthly fathers together, there are millions of children that have either lost their father or have been separated from them due to war and various tragedy. Lots of families around the world are struggling to find food, feel safe and survive. We are reminded that we all have Father God and are brothers and sisters of whom He greatly loves and wants us to work together to help one another. Let’s share one another’s burdens today and remember to pray for the more than 76 million displaced people around the world.
Thank you Mr. David, Jenny and all who helped us out with locating the picnic tables, seeds and other garden needs for the Binghamton Community Garden area for our refugee clients. The grass grew a lot and mowing and tilling will be a big job. The clients are, however, not afraid of the task! They are eager to get things planted and have a great harvest of healthy foods. Seeds are always still a need and something they like to hold on to.
We did a toy drive through this past November and December and hoped to be able to get the toys to grandparents, single parents and families with parents who may be dealing with an illness and unable to work but had children at home getting bored. We worked to help some elderly ladies pick out toys for the littles in their life which we knew they were nurturing and loving on as well (even if they were not their own children). We wanted to help the older people in the community have these toys to be able to give out to whom they wanted. Jesus kept our hearts tender and we partnered with the elderly in secret to help them get the toys to children they love.
We collected toys from the community and first surprised the adults with an appointment to enter into our room full of all kinds of toys for all ages. With so many kids staying at home more because of virtual classes and holiday closures, we felt it was important to help their parents by helping them to keep their littles active and entertained with some great toys. Most of the toys were educational but there were also sports balls to help keep them happy and active as well as dolls and other comforting toys. Because of increased concerns regarding the virus we had to unfortunately wait to invite our grandparents and parents in to pick out the toys they wanted for their littles until after the new year.
This week we’ve been working hard to connect to families and surprise them with the toys. I know so many of the children will be very excited when their Grammy, mom, dad or elder neighbor friend brings them a wrapped Christmas present in January. We were able to pray with many of the parents and believe the families will know God thought of them and loves them all. We wish we could be even more active with our clients through group classes and activities, but we are working hard to keep things small and by appointment only for the health concerns of many. It’s been a great week for us to get to see more clients face to face even if it’s behind a mask and spread apart. We are trusting God during this season and thankful to have been a part of the project to bring some smiles to the faces of some of the children. We won’t get to see their faces with the toys as much and that’s okay. We wanted the parents to be lifted up and for the children to see their parents and Grammies bringing them items they’ve picked out so it is they who gets the accolades and not Asha’s. Even more, we wanted Jesus to be glorified through it all.
Thank you to everyone who helped with this project. We could not have done it without your participation. It was a success and a humbling experience that we pray one day can involve even more families in need.
Asha's Refuge 