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Come fellowship with us as we remember displaced people and refugees around the world and in our city. Enjoy tastes of the nations, music, choir and cultural dance entertainment and pray with us. World Refugee Day is Tuesday, June 20th but we will gather together on Saturday, June 17! Please see flyer below. Message us if you plan to attend.

I am going back through a lot of my old blogs and located this one.  It was dated September 2008.  I thought I had not gotten involved with refugees until 2009, but maybe it was earlier.  (I am terrible with dates.)  This blog shared a cultural happening that is rather comical to me still today.  I felt a re-post here on our Asha’s Refuge blog  would be good.

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I just ate some Chex cereal. I like Chex cereal. I visited with some refugees a couple of weeks back and took them to our local grocery store. They were mesmerized by the cereal aisle. One complete aisle, both sides, totally dedicated to cereal. The refugees I was with were from Bhutan – somewhere outside of Nepal I think. They had never heard of pouring milk into a bowl of wheat crisp. Breakfast, a bowl full of milk and wheat! They sort of giggled at the idea. I didn’t think it was odd and never had in the past, but I suddenly felt strange trying to express to my new friends that cereal was the way of the American life. The cereal aisle began to overwhelm me. As I peered over at some of my family’s favorites: Fruit Loops, Frosted Flakes and Honey Nut Cheerios.  It was then that I noticed all the silly cartoon characters and funny logos. The multitude of brightly colored cereal boxes suddenly looked senseless and strange to me too. What have I been eating all these days? Have I allowed the American breakfast culture to suck me in?

I hesitated to commercialize the various boxes of my favorite sugary sweet cereals to them. But I did it anyways. Kellogg’s would have been proud of my ploy to advertise Frosted Flakes to this group of non-American, non-English speaking people, “They’re Great!”

I thought about confessing to the refugees that sometimes my family could be found indulging in a gigantic bowl of this stuff for dinner too. I decided not to tell them. I figured I had already shocked them enough for one day. Instead, I just shrugged my shoulders, placed a crooked smile on my face, and earnestly said, “Just try it, it’s good.” They couldn’t speak English so I don’t think they caught on to my suggestions. They giggled again and walked off with their arms still full of the instant corn muffin boxes I had sold them on prior to our adventure in the cereal aisle.

Just when we think we are “normal” we are awakened by the “normal”. Who is to say what “normal” is. Certainly to God we are each running around captured by our different cultures and look awfully silly sometimes. But He loves us each just the same. After all, we were created for Him and by Him.

Take a look at today’s article by David Waters about Asha’s Refuge. He spent some time this week interviewing Jamie, who shared her experiences, passion and love for refugees, and he captured it so well. 
http://www.commercialappeal.com/story/news/columnists/david-waters/2017/04/08/david-waters-disabled-refugee-inspires-local-mom/100120214/

Yesterday I learned that many of the African Refugee Clients we serve who escaped Congo or Rwandan terror went to the Gihembe Refugee Camp for safety. Several of the children we serve today were born in this camp and have known nothing other than life in the camp. Many have grown up to be teens and young adults and now they are here in the inner city of Memphis, TN.  The young adult and teen girls yesterday invited me to check out their camp, the home they all actually miss, on You Tube videos.  

We watched video after video of their camp which showed several hills of dilapidated refugee housing with larger buildings they which they would point out as their classroom.  They were so excited to share this piece of their life story with me and I was so excited to learn about it with them.  

They showed me video pictures of their classrooms, mud walls, a chalk board, little light from the sun since there is no electricity in the camp, often no desks for writing and little space.  Food was scarce.   They pointed out their actual homes in the rows of thousands of identical small white buildings with plastic sheets over them.  Rain was always a problem.  It was hard to sleep in the homes with leaky rooftops.  They pointed out the one hour path they would routinely take to get the dirty water and how the rain storms had made a trench down the hill that was daily growing and caused them danger.  The erosion from the water had created such deep crevices in the earth that children would often fall down in them and be buried alive.  How horrific!  

Despite the heart wrenching stories I heard, there was an overall happiness and joy that filled the small apartment I was in yesterday. About 15 of the refugees from the Gihembe Refugee Camp were now all together in the apartment with me in America!  And little did I know, they were all part of the Gihembe Choir!!  The group went to various videos of the choir group they had left behind after they came to America, laughing and pointing out some of their friends but sadly missing them. They still connect with some of their friends via Facebook, which is the cheapest way.  Phone calls are very very expensive.   

The girls explained to me they were required to cut their hair short and would cry when the time would come for their hair to be cut short.  It was not a religious thing, only part of the uniform procedures of the schools. 

As they played the You Tube videos of the school choirs they had been a part of, many of them danced and sang along.   It was not long until I too was singing and dancing with them.  Many of the videos of the songs they sang had the English lyrics displayed.  The songs were often about the hope of Jesus. 

As I continued to listen to the choir sing around me and the sweet refugee friends I have asked to tell their stories, I wanted to cry.  God was about to do something amazing for them and for anyone who might benefit from knowing them.  I learned that a family I had been working a lot with over the past year were apparently leaders in the Gihembe Refugee camp.  I had been busy helping one mom, Ruth, before and after the delivery of her twins.  I  am also helping her young adult brothers, Mupenzi and Eugene, with things like learning to drive, obtaining a drivers permit and then license, understanding insurance, understanding staffing agencies, and helping with their mail.  I had no idea that Mupenzi wrote several of the songs their choirs sang and was a choir leader.  He never told me this about himself.   I immediately contacted him and told him my dream and vision.  We would start an Asha’s Refuge Choir!  And would he help make it happen? He was so excited and said he would work today on translating some of the words to his songs in English so we would understand what they are singing.  

So Deborah, Mary Lou, Erica and other volunteers who know my previous desires on getting a choir going for the refugees who also share this passion, I believe it will soon happen!  We are excited and cannot wait to see how God uses the choir to help educate others about refugees and even more share the hope and love message of Jesus.  We are also hoping to find ways to truly help the choir and displaced people still living in harsh conditions at the Gihembe Refugee Camp.  I am so blessed to see the joy in the hearts of the clients I serve today and better understand the joy that many of the refugee parents were still able to instill in their children who we Americans might consider unfortunate to have to grown up in the camp not knowing or understanding life in a different way.  I admire the adults and parents in the Gihembe and (probably other refugee camps) who worked hard to keep life moving forward for their children by offering education, music and dance, karate classes, arts and crafts and a church group with hearts to share about the goodness and love of Jesus.  Though their life circumstances living in the camp certainly had its challenges and hardships, it seems LOVE was not scarce.  It is quite possibly LOVE that motivates them and gets them through each day.  Remember, Love IS God.  (1 John 4:16)

The Camp and Information about the importance of Facebook for Refugees – https://youtu.be/9Xtm68eFep4

Gihembe Choirs https://youtu.be/R9xhRfH19XI

Our recent dinner and auction fundraiser went well.  We raised nearly $5,000 and that will help us towards our overall annual budget goals of about 100,000.  About 110 of the anticipated 160 people showed up to support our cause.  We are new to hosting dinners and auctions and we learned a lot with this one.  

The auction team we developed was important and it was a good thing we divided up reaponsibilities and had leaders over each. We were quite pleased at how smoothly our entertainment went from pianist Tom Tran and Kingsbury High Schools orchestra ensemble led by Sheryl Lane.  This was a real treat for our guests.  We were so thankful for all of the donors who gave auction items which represented several local businesses and displayed a lot of individual talent. A few small groups from Highpoint Church pulled together and provided our delicious Commissary grilled chicken and barbecue dinner. We had a large group of ladies who came together to bake a variety of desserts for us to offer.  Our Asha’s Next Generation teens came together to speak, serve and help out throughout the night.  Volunteers for the auction consisted of several church’s and community supporters coming together to serve.  It was so good to have so many people willing to help us set up and breakdown tables and chairs then clean up afterwards.  Seeing things come together and people work together for the good of many as they did was precious to me.  
517Designs’ Keith Stubblefield worked hard on completing our video.  The video was a highlight of our evening.  It was truly wonderful to finally have this media to be able to better share our story and what we are about.  Thank you Keith for having a heart that falls inline with ours and giving of your time to help us put this video together. 

We are also so thankful and blessed that some of our refugee friends came to serve at the auction, speak and support the organization.  Asha was there!  She came in from Nashville just to show her support and love.  We truly were happy to have her with us that night and it was sweet to see her enthusiasm over how far the organization has come.

After the auction our auction team got together to talk about the evening and how we felt it went.  Overall we felt the evening went really well and are happy with the success of it.  We did learn a few things for our future auction:     

     -We needed to find ways to make more time for our leadership to mingle and chat with you more.

    -We probably need an energetic MC for keeping the auction part of the event excitement going.

     -We want to be sure the future vision of Asha’s Refuge is fully shared.

     -We want you to know about our successes.  

     -Checkout could go smoother.  We apologize for the lines to check out and leave towards the end of the auction.  We will work on a better way to close it up next year.  

Overall, the evening was a sweet success.  We very much appreciated your attendance, your patience and love for us and have loved your feedback. 

Yes, fundraisers are a lot of work but we love that it gives us a chance to raise awareness about serving refugees locally and allows others to be involved.  Did you know that Asha’s Refuge does not apply for or take government funding?  We believe it is the responsibility of Gods people to step up and help the least of the least of these in our city.  We do not wish to have our hands tide nor be slowed down by the beauracracy and circling paperwork that often comes with government funds.  We also do not want to play into the stereotypes that refugees use all of our tax dollars to survive when we know first hand that our clients desire to learn and to work to support themselves without the use of government aide which often oppresses them. Committed monthly support to organizations like Asha’s Refuge and other nonprofits is what actually moves the nonprofit forward.   

Thank you once more  for your volunteer time, your  auction item donations and your financial contributions.  His love wins!

Here’s your opportunity to learn more about Asha’s Refuge and how you can serve refugees with us. Please join us at Highpoint Church Collierville at 1035 Winchester, Collierville from 10 am to noon. Please drop us a comment so we know you are coming. We’d love to see you there. 

There is a High School senior that comes from a once badly persecuted Christian family who has faith like none other. She graduates this year and sadly, will not be able to attend college immediately. Her family came to Memphis/America when she was in elementary school.  She was put in the 3rd grade.  With no English speaking skills she would seriously struggle to keep up with her classmates but she worked very hard to do so.  In High School, she has actually mastered educational skills to a level that has allowed her to participate in advanced honors classes.  My friend took the ACT twice and has struggled to do very well with this type of testing. Since the college she wants to go to requires higher ACT scores for admittance, she felt like she would not  be able to go to college right away.  We are so thsnkful for the TN Scholarships thar 

My dear friend, of whom I have known and known her family now for seven years, will need a good job.  She has expressed to me that she wants to do what I do, “help people”.  I explained to her that she already does help so many in her community and even outside of her community.  Her heart is strong for Jesus.  She has walked and her family and refugee friends through a lot of difficult life challenges.  This young lady has even helped me to competely organize a pretty large funeral for someone she loved.  

I run into clients like her at times and I know that I know that they would be a good fit to actually work for Asha’s Refuge.  I wish so badly that I could hire her to work with us and train her up to continue to lead and help others in the community she so loves and knows.  Asha’s Refuge would also learn so much from her.  She would certainly keep us focused on our hearts mission to first just love others as Jesus would do.  We need this young lady on staff at Asha’s Refuge and it is one of my goals.

My friend (not letting her name out but you may know her by her picture) already volunteers at Asha’s Refuge to lead a teen program with another super wonderful teen volunteer. She is an artist.  She sings beautifully.  She will graduate soon with honors I am sure of it.  Donating monthly to Asha’s Refuge helps us to move forward the organization. Hiring staff is important to the future of the organization and that takes good funding. If you or someone you know might consider a way of financially helping us specifically with bringing on this young lady right out of High School please email me at jamie@ashasrefuge.org.  I am being upfront and bold with my asking for help with a small salary for this young lady to train and work with us. (We do not receive because we do not ask). You will be making a difference in her entire families life and also the refugee community itself.  Committed monthly donations from individuals helps us to make things like this happen. 😊

Asha’s Refuge is hosting a dinner and auction February 25th at 5:30pm at Highpoint Collierville Church, 1035 Winchester Blvd.  Email me to purchase a $20 ticket or click here to purchase tickets online and we will add your name on our guest list.  You can learn more about Asha’s Refuge by coming to this event.  We will also be hosting our next orientation meeting for interested new volunteers Feb. 18th at the same address as above. Please “like” our Facebook page to get the most recent updates.

My High School friend, that I would love to be able to have work with us, will occassionally send me encouraging texts. She knows I am working with a girl she connected me to that she met who has certainly challenged me and causes me a little anxiety but pushes me to want to show love to her more and better.  My friend, sent me this encouraging daily devotional from a book I believe I gave her!  We encourage one another and that warms my heart.  I am so thankful to Jesus for her and her families friendship in my life.  I wish I could spend even more time with them.

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