The 2013/2014 school year has come to a close but at Asha’s Refuge we are already preparing for the start of the next school year. Over the summer we will be collecting near 100 backpacks filled with school supplies for all ages. We will also be collecting all sizes of school uniforms: khaki and navy pants or skirts (long skirts preferred) and white shirts. Gently used uniforms are fine. If you’d like to help us collect, sort and deliver these items please do! Your donations can be placed in the lobby at our Asha’s Refuge Ministry table in the plastic bins or you may contact us via our contact page on this website to arrange a place for us to pick up your donations. Tax deduction receipts are available for any donations you make. We look forward to this time of year and refugee children and their parents are very appreciative of your generosity. It’s amazing to see just how excited children who once never had an opportunity to be educated are to get to finally go to school! Every year our refugee friends are so eager to start the new school year, meet new people and learn new things. They understand what a blessing they have been given to have an American education.

You can grab a school supply list at our office location at 1035 Winchester Blvd. inside The Church at Schilling Farms in the lobby or other than the uniforms already mentioned here are some examples of what we need:

Backpacks
Spiral Notebooks (wide ruled)
Crayons
Pocket folders
#2 pencils with erasers
Small Pencil sharpeners (refugee students need these at home)
Highlighters
Scissors
Glue (bottle)/glue sticks
Ruler
Washable markers/colored pencils
Primary Tablet
Wide Ruled Loose Leaf Notebook Paper
Kleenex/hand sanitizer
Index Cards
Quart/gallon sized zip lock bags
Red/black/blue ball point pens
1-1/2″ binders
Protractor/compass

*Important – Please return your supplies with the following info attached to your bag of items so we can thank you, send you your tax donation receipt and also calculate the donated items for our record keeping purposes: your name, address, phone #, email address and approximate dollar amount of items donated!

Thank you so much for your help and support!!

With school ending yesterday, we are taking a little summer break from American Life and Language class. This gives our students and volunteers time to participate in end of school activities, take vacations, and settle into summer routines. We’ll be back to class Thursday June 12, and can use your help. So let us know if you’d like to volunteer for a few weeks this summer.

We are pretty excited that many refugee kids are going to Opportunity Camp this week. It’s a great time for kids to enjoy a fun camp experience and we encourage all the kids to participate. Thanks to the Opportunity Camp team for their good work to make camp possible for some wonderful kids.

It took me by surprise Sunday morning when I found out that one of our volunteers had been bold enough to ask one of our refugee mothers and her girls to come experience
Easter Sunday with her at our church,
The Church at Schilling Farms. For a refugee, especially a Muslim refugee, it can be very scary to put your guard down and do life with Christians much less walk into a Christian church. Almost always, Muslim men and women are ostracized by their community and families when they are caught crossing the imaginary line between Christians and Muslims.

It has been exciting to work with Asha’s Refuge and help break down the barriers between Muslims and Christians and the various cultures. It seems more times than none we can see the enemy at work causing confusion and fear on both sides therefore creating a feeling that there needs to be distance and separation from the people groups. When we are able to calmly chat about our differing beliefs and life experiences all to often we discover a lot of similarities in our hearts. Of course there are huge differences in who we follow biblically but it has been good to discuss these kinds of things and not be afraid of the differences.

We have discovered more and more that when we pray, love and give openly it allows Jesus to work through us and speak for us. Conversations are not usually difficult but happen naturally. I am thankful that God hasn’t given up on Asha’s Refuge and continues to draw others to himself through this organization, both the foreigner and the volunteer. God keeps showing is that He will provide and that He will complete what He started and for that…I am encouraged to press on.

We are going to be speaking to
the MOPs (Mothers of Preschoolers) group at Collierville United Methodist Church, 454 Poplar, this morning around 10am. We want to thank these ladies and Collierville United Methodist for allowing us this time to connect and share what We believe Jesus is doing at Asha’s Refuge. We are excited to partner with this group of ladies in prayer and to help pull in items to stock our Preschool Pantry, get some preschool craft ideas, and gather a few welcome baby diaper bags and perhaps some other needed items.

Asha’s Refuge serves about 50 families but an approximate rotating 30 moms often with preschoolers consistently attend our weekly American Life and Language Classes at 675 National in our shared space at Highland Heights Baptist Church. The needs these mothers with preschoolers have are very similar to the needs our American moms of preschoolers have except a refugees needs may be a bit more challenging to meet. Often refugee preschoolers hang by the sides of their mothers who are frantically trying to accomplish understanding and surviving their new life in America. Their mothers often have little to know time to play with or truly work with their preschoolers to ensure that they will have the self esteem and tools they need to thrive well in their new American environment.

Asha’s Refuge aims to give our refugee preschoolers a head start into American Kindergarten classes teaching them important skills they will need to be successful and hopefully not fall behind before they even begin. We teach a lot of vocabulary and language that the average American child already knows when they first enter elementary school such as their colors, letters, counting to ten and common words we would use to communicate in a classroom. Refugee children are not familiar with our American culture either. We have to teach the children and the mothers what kinds of things to expect from our school system and society. Teaching our disciplinary and cultural social system is very important. Refugee children and their moms are not used to things like time out, sharing, using kind words, respecting others, throwing trash in the trash can, staying seated in a chair, standing in a line, taking turns, pulling a clip, reward systems, chore charts, expressing feelings, washing hands, using Kleenex, having a good healthy hygiene, not talking when someone else is talking, etc. Asha’s Refuge wants to help our families with preschoolers have a smoother and more successful transition into the American School System and we do this by encouraging moms to bring their age 3-5 yr. old preschoolers to our weekly preschool classes. It’s been truly wonderful to see some of our students be successful and happy once they have started school. We are sure that our help also helps out their Kindergarten teachers!

We are so thankful for Mrs. Sheila, Chloe, Mrs. Bridgett and the other volunteers who are committed to working with the preschool kids each week. Teaching a child the kinds of skills and lessons they teach when the child speaks little to no English, is new to America and has little to no behavioral skills can be so challenging yet extremely rewarding. It is the example of love that shines through the teachers and volunteers that probably teaches the mothers and children the best. And, it’s the love and kindness that we believe will show them Jesus.