Mission Outreach Opportunities

August 5, 2008

To the Philipo Family Refugee Resettlement Team;

We have now passed the “new refugee entry craziness.”  Philipo and Judy’s family have been covered up with your love, affection and radical hospitality. They are beginning a pathway into our church family. Many of you have purchased groceries, clothes and household items from your personal budgets. We have covenanted to be in ongoing relationship with the family but now it is time to sit back, take a big breath, let it all out since this initial “intensive phase” has passed.

Here is what Tina and I think we have in front of us:

Set up a structure for regular contact. We would like at least one person to stop by and check in on Philipo and Judy’s family each week. The most important advantage for us, as well as the family, is that these "check ins" will be the basis for establishing long term relationships with church folk. We could then have ONE, and only one e-mail summary from the individual(s) who visited that week. It would be sent to the e-mail addresses on your “Philipo and Judy’s Sponsors List.” Of course, we encourage all the team to visit whenever possible, and from time to time, to help them practice how to use the on-site laundry, occasionally taking them to get groceries, practicing English, sharing meals with them or just being a friend. We will have another team meeting in October to talk about November-December needs and plans for the family, and how to change this relationship in early 2009, if the team is ready to do so.

Set up a short term Van Transportation schedule to and from church on Sundays. We are in good shape for this coming Sunday, but we need volunteer van drivers for August 17, 24, 31 and September 7. You can use the church van for transportation. We are in hopes that Van Transportation will be a short term activity. If you are interested, please send an e-mail to Tina regarding the date. Philipo’s family wants to attend ESL (English as Second Language) classes at 10 a.m. during Sunday school and then the 11:00 a.m. services.

Long term transportation to the grocery store. The family will have monthly bus passes provided by Lutheran Social Services (LSS). The LSS case manager (Jeanne Kankuyo) is supposed to teach someone in the family to ride the bus for groceries once they get their food card from DES.

English as Second Language (ESL) class. Tamara did a great job in ESL class with the family this past Sunday. It is fascinating to see an ESL teacher work her magic through object lessons and facial expressions. Tamara does not need to know their native language to be an effective teach of English to our new friends. Our understanding is that she will continue to work with family members for the short term future and we will see how it goes after that.

Public School: School begins next week and it will be sink or swim for the kids. LSS is the faith-based organization that will handle school, jobs, medical needs and other basics. Tina and I realize their participation in this partnership has revealed some gaps, but we believe LSS will do an adequate job with the family in these areas. Laurent and Elisia will go to Cordova; Leocadia and Lea will go to Alhambra. Clement is too old to go to high school according to LSS.

Employment: LSS will expect both Philipo and Clement to go to job interviews arranged by their case manager. They will be expected to take jobs offered them and begin to pay for rent and food. LSS told Tina these will probably be entry level jobs such as cleaning rooms in a hotel. They do not get a telephone until they get a job. We are not sure if Judy will be required to work or not since she is on medication for hypertension. If you know of any business that might hire Philipo or Clement, please let Tina know and she will forward this information to LSS.

Our Ministry to Refugees: Our task as Disciples of Jesus will be building a connection between God and family members through First UMC Phoenix. So many hands have participated in making this happen and there may be others that will join in to help.

We need to remember the following things to make this a great experience for our church and you who are traveling this path with our new friends from Burundi. The greatest gift we can give the family is the gift of dignity and respect. In all things we must give over power of choice to our new friends. “Charity” has taken on a bad meaning. We don’t do charity work. We seek to “equalize power” at every turn in our relationship. That means, people choosing their own clothes, their own food, what they will do with their free time, and some times leaving the family to struggle through their own life issues without “rescuing” them. Our relationships need always be adult to adult in nature. We cannot “take care of” our new friends, but we can be a resource for them in adjusting and succeeding in their new life in our country which is strange to them. We will learn their culture and they in return will learn ours.

 Another gift we can give ourselves is practicing self awareness and limits as individuals and as a church. We can do these things above with a buy -in of 12-15 persons inside this ministry for this family. We cannot do any more than that. We have seen desperate need around the apartment complex where Philip, Judy, Clement, and the rest of the family live. We cannot be mentors to those other families like we covenant to mentor our Burundi family. It is a matter of scope. If 12-15 more persons appear from the church, persons who share passion, excitement, and recognized gifts for this ministry, THEN we can expand our efforts and mentor one more family. Until then we will mentor our Burundi family and no others.

There may be a time where we can take some household items like a television or boom box to Simon’s family from the Sudan, or microwave, etc. but that will be the exception rather than the norm. Seeing the overwhelming need tugs at our heartstrings, but we must be strong and focus on a more realistic measure of what we can possibly do. Remember, “we do what we can, with what we have, where we find ourselves.”  Our impulse is to fix all the problems of every family in that complex; if we do this it will require us to decline invitations to help in other places when asked. The community in the Serrano Village complex has seen what we are doing and they want us to do the same for a large number of households. When the Burundi family is stabilized, and able to assist others, we will change our relationship with them and be freed up to mentor a different family. Until then, we need to stay inside our boundaries. It is our goal to have team members, on a rotating basis, put in as much as 5 hours per week in this mission, NO MORE.

Also, let’s focus on nutritional foods that are culturally accepted and introduce new foods slowly. Try to have an adequate amount of food on the Burundi food list as a back up when ever introducing new foods to the family. Additionally, only Philipo and Clement know how to swim so do not offer to supervise the four younger kids swimming, unless you know how to save someone from potentially drowning.

It is OK to put out the word, “When I checked in, it was clear to me that the family needed……” But understand, it is possible that no one will be willing or able to provide what is asked for and we must be OK about that. We are a team and we must work together and continue to encourage each other. This is hard work but Godly work. We are a church. Our goal is to build relationships between people and God. We are not social workers and we do not operate on a social service delivery model.

We hope this information is helpful guidance. Please call or e-mail either one of us, if you have questions. Again, thank you for your participation in this special ministry for refugees.

Peace,  John Flowers and Tina Olson