Refugee Circle of Welcome
Refugee Circle of Welcome
Twin Bed Needed
June 20
Our Circle of Welcome team has a new Afghan man who has moved in with the other guys and he is need of a TWIN BED.
If you have one available please contact Betsy Heading: betsyhedding@gmail.com
Circle of Welcome Update: June 5, 2022
On behalf of our Circle of Welcome team and our five Afghan friends, we want to thank you for your amazing response to the requests we put out. We delivered rain jackets, umbrellas, tool boxes, microwaves, bike panniers (saddlebags), and a smart TV for each apartment. All of the men are so grateful! Thank you so much for your generosity.
Our team has continued to meet weekly with our friends with an interpreter which is so helpful for effective communication. We have worked hard to figure out steps to take with the variety of concerns they discuss. In addition to these weekly meetings, we have gotten all five men signed up for VEAP’s food shelf program. We continue to figure out how to best assist them to take steps to solve problems using some of the resources that Lutheran Social Services has made available to them. And we’ve had to be creative on how to best help them get signed up for other programs such as the Affordable Connectivity Program that helps low-income households afford internet service. Every person on our team has had lots of new learning in this endeavor!
Circle of Welcome Update: May 15, 2022
Watch Betsy Hedding's brief update as we help 5 Afghan men settle into the Twin Cities.
Circle of Welcome Update: May 4, 2022
May 21 Update: At this time all current donation needs have been fulfilled, thank you! Watch for more opportunities to become available.
Our Circle of Welcome team has met several more times with our five Afghan friends to assess how we can best support them as they adjust to their lives in Minnesota. We have gotten creative in how we communicate! One method we are using is to type our message into Google Translate; translate the message into Pashto; and then copy the Pashto translation into the WhatsApp group we have set up for each apartment. We also include pictures that show the day of the week we are coming to visit. Because effective communication is so important, we are very fortunate to have found a translator to accompany us on our visits. Through our translator, we have identified some immediate needs that we are hoping members of our Immanuel Church family can help with.
To make a donation you can:
- At this time all current donation needs have been fulfilled, thank you! Watch for more opportunities to become available.
- Make a donation (and we'll do the shopping): www.immanuel.us/about/giving (click on the "Circle of Welcome" box).
Our friends would be very grateful for:
- Two microwaves (one for each apartment). These can be used as long as they are in good working order.
- One “smart” TV (approximately 40”). Our team has already received a donation of a smart TV for one of the apartments, and we would like to provide the other apartment with a TV. There are a lot of valuable learning opportunities on YouTube such as: Afghanistan news in Pashto, English lessons for Pashto speakers, and driving lessons for beginners in Pashto. This would provide our friends with a great way to make progress on learning English, preparing for eventually driving, and keeping up with what is happening in Afghanistan.
- Two tool kits with basic tools – one for each apartment.
- Five reflective safety vests for night time bike riding.
- Five sets of Bicycle Panniers (saddlebags) for carrying items while biking. You can either:
- purchase one like this online, or
- you can make a $30 donation via Immanuel's "Giving" page: www.immanuel.us/about/giving (click on the "Circle of Welcome" box), or
- drop a donation off in the church office.
- Five men’s rain jackets for biking – 4 size men’s large and 1 size men’s small.
- Two backpacks – three of the men already have backpacks.
- Five travel umbrellas (small umbrellas that can fit in a backpack).
If you have any questions please contact Betsy Hedding at betsyhedding@gmail.com.
We are making weekly visits with our friends and will continue to assess the needs and let you know other ways that you can help us to welcome our friends. Once again, thanks so much for your generosity and support!
Circle of Welcome Team: Gena Gerard (Team Lead), Randy Stengel, Kelly Kautz, Jen Johnson, Caroline Nelson, Betsy Hedding, Mike Schommer, Monte Johnson
Circle of Welcome Update: April 24, 2022
Our Circle of Welcome team has met several times with our five new Afghan friends to begin to assess how we can best support them as they adjust to their lives in Minnesota. We are organizing the needs and will be communicating to our Immanuel Church family shortly some ways that you can help support our friends.
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Tuesday, April 19th was an exciting day where we were able to provide all five of our new friends with refurbished bikes, helmets, bike locks and lights for night riding. We worked with the non-profit, A Better Society, which is located in Chanhassen. One of their programs is Project Life-Cycle with a mission to provide free bicycles to anyone who needs one. Project Life-Cycle donated the bikes and helmets; Freewheel Bike in Eden Prairie donated the bike lights; high school employee of Freewheel Bike and friend to Immanuel, Jonathan Monarski, donated lights for the helmets; and a member of Immanuel donated the bike locks. Several members of the team took our five friends to the bike warehouse and they got a chance to choose their bikes as well as get the bikes fitted with lights and locks. The whole process took about 2 ½ hours with lots of help from the Project Life-Cycle staff!
As we were driving our friends back to their apartments with their new bikes, even without understanding Pashto, their excitement was palpable! After we dropped them off, each of them got on their bikes and were riding circles around the parking lot. We are hoping these new bikes will help expand their transportation options.
Look for more information shortly on other ways you can help provide support. In the meantime, if you have any questions, or have ideas about additional resources for our Afghan friends, please contact Gena Gerard, Team Lead, at gena.gerard@icloud.com.
Circle of Welcome Team: Gena Gerard (Team Lead), Randy Stengel, Kelly Kautz, Jen Johnson, Caroline Nelson, Betsy Hedding, Mike Schommer, Monte Johnson
Circle of Welcome Update
April 2022
Imagine what it would be like to suddenly leave your spouse and children behind, and travel more than 6800 miles to a new country where you don’t speak the language. Since this past October, Lutheran Social Services’ Refugee Resettlement Services (LSS) has resettled approximately 168 Afghans in the Twin Cities, many in the South Metro area including Bloomington. Through LSS, Immanuel Lutheran Church has established a “Circle of Welcome” team to help welcome and support five young Afghan men who are all in their twenties or early thirties.
Recently, several members of Immanuel's Circle of Welcome team had a first chance to meet with our new friends at their two apartments in Bloomington. Each of them is here because their work to support the United States put them in harm’s way when our military withdrew from Afghanistan last August. They have left families, wives, and young children back in Afghanistan, and at this point, it is very unclear when they will be able to be reunited with their loved ones.
While the five men have a caseworker at Lutheran Social Services to establish housing, basic cash assistance, and food stamps while they look for work, the role of the mentor team is to offer friendship and support to help them integrate into our community. While we are just beginning to understand what some of their needs are, we did learn a few specific needs that the congregation can help with right away. All of the five young men expressed what a difference having a bike would mean for them as right now, they are walking long distances to the bus stops to get to work. Through an Immanuel member, we learned about a Chanhassen non-profit called A Better Society which operates Project Life-Cycle. The mission of Project Life-Cycle is to provide free, refurbished bikes to individuals who need bikes for basic transportation. Our team is working with Project Life-Cycle to secure five bikes for our friends over the next few weeks.
We will continue to keep you updated about other needs as they arise. Thank you in advance for opening your hearts and showing your generosity as we work to help our new friends meet basic needs, and to not feel quite so alone.
Betsy Hedding, betsyhedding@gmail.com
Circle of Welcome Team
Pictured on the right are some of our Ciclre of Welcome Team members.
For more information:
- Learn more about the Circle of Welcome
- Connect with Gena Gerard (Team Lead) or Savannah Phelan (Coordinator of Service & Justice Ministries)
- If you would like to stay informed please submit the form below.
A member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America