Refugee Circle of Welcome Updates

October 25, Update

(As advised by Lutheran Social Services, we continue to be cautious about sharing our friends’ names and faces in order to protect their security)

As the maxim says, “Patience is a virtue.” A lot of patience has been necessary as our Circle of Welcome team members have accompanied our six Afghan friends through many different tasks as they continue to adjust to their lives in Minnesota. While at times progress has seemed excruciatingly slow, we want to report many accomplishments over the past two months that we are excited to share with you. We have also identified some new ways you can help our friends.

Computers

Think about how our lives are all impacted by technology on a daily basis. As we began exploring how to assist our friends with possibly taking online ESL classes, paying bills online, etc. it became clear that we wanted to find a way to help them each get a laptop computer. One of our team members researched options and came across the nonprofit Repowered, an industry leader in electronics recycling. Repowered also offers a program of selling data-cleaned, refurbished laptops a fraction of the cost of a new computer. Thanks to a generous donation of an Immanuel member, we were able to provide all our Afghan friends with a laptop. The laptops have all been delivered and now we are working with each of our friends on how to use them. There is a range of experience with technology, but our goal is to help them learn how to use the computer for a range of tasks including learning English, paying bills, searching for new jobs, etc.

Photo on right: Immanuel member, Randy Stengel, working with one of our friends and a translator on the new laptop.

ESL Classes

Each time we meet for a home visit with our friends and an interpreter, the interpreter stresses that the most important task for our friends is to learn English! The interpreters have all come from Afghanistan and see that English is key to ultimately getting better jobs and succeeding in their new lives in Minnesota. So, over the last two months, a lot of our efforts have been around nudging our friends towards finding a way to engage with ESL classes. Taking ESL classes in-person is a big commitment – the classes are Monday – Thursday, generally from 9 am – 12:30 pm. As our friends work nights, the in-person classes have seemed overwhelming particularly as there are also the logistics of actually getting to where the classes are taught. We have helped most of them take the initial placement test and three of our friends are starting in-person ESL classes on October 24! As transportation to the classes is a barrier with the fall weather arriving, we are working on ways to support our friends to get to their classes, too. See ways you can help.

Family Assisters

In partnership with the State of Minnesota’s Refugee Program Office, Resettlement Network Services are offered for five years to help immigrants fully integrate into American society. One of the services is for Family Assisters, network service managers who work with immigrants to resolve immediate needs and connect them to community resources. While we became aware of this service last spring, it has taken a long time to finally get each of our friends connected with their Family Assister, a task requiring lots of patience and persistence. This delay was largely due to the huge backlog that was created by a large number of Afghans arriving in the Twin Cities last winter. Now we are excited to see how these Family Assisters might help our friends move forward on specific needs that they have.

VEAP Food Shelf Visits

Thanks to volunteers from Immanuel, the men in each apartment are making a trip to VEAP two times a month to get items from the food shelf. We continue to look for volunteer drivers for this task. See ways that you can help.

Transportation

We have made multiple trips to the DMV to help our friends take drivers’ permit tests and/or get a MN ID. Some progress has been made (there have been failed tests as well) – in fact, one of our friends did pass his driving test, purchased a used car, and now has added a part-time job with Door Dash to his other jobs. We also worked to help two of our friends sign up for the Transit Assistance Program (TAP) which provides reduced-fare bus rides. While all of our friends have been using the bicycles extensively this summer to get to jobs, we are aware of the need to look at other transportation options as the winter approaches. Our friend who purchased the used car would like help getting some new tires for the car. We also are continuing to look for ways to support our friends to get to the ESL classes as the weather changes. See ways you can help.

Photo on right: A second one of our friends just passed his permit test, too. 

Friendships and Connections

While we have been busy with so many tasks, our team has never stopped talking about our desire to do some social outings with our friends as well. Over the past seven months, we learned a lot more about each others’ families and have had fun sharing photos of our respective children. But we had not yet planned a purely social event before this past weekend. Several team members invited two of our friends to Holy Land restaurant, picked them up, and then dropped them and their bikes off at their workplaces for their evening shift. We hope this is just the beginning of a new stage of our relationships where we can just enjoy being together as well as show them some Twin Cities sites.

So, while the past seven months has been an exercise in patience at so many points, each of us would say that we have experienced God’s hand in all of our activities. Just when we might individually “run out of patience” with the slow process, steps backwards, etc. another team member has stepped forward to pick up the baton. We have been able to get connected to nonprofits that have helped us solve problems (i.e., acquiring bikes, laptops, etc.) And we have been blessed by the generosity of the members of Immanuel Lutheran Church as you stepped forward with financial donations for bike accessories, smart TVs, and the refurbished laptops. Most importantly, your financial donations have gone towards hiring interpreters which has been the best thing we’ve done. Not only have we been able to learn more about the real needs of our friends, but we’ve been inspired by the interpreters’ stories and how they are using their experiences to help these newest arrivals. Thanks again for you continued prayers and support.

Photo on right: Gena Gerard, Kelly & Paul Kautz, Randy Stengel, and two of our friends at Holy Land restaurant.

Ways you can help

1. Volunteer to be a driver to VEAP food shelf – this involves picking up our friends at their apartment in Bloomington, driving them to VEAP, and then taking them and their food back home. Approximately 1 hour every other week. Please contact Savannah if you are interested.


2. Contribute $ towards a “transportation fund.” Our team would use this fund to help support our friends’ transportation needs. For example, we could help purchase new tires for our friend’s used car. He has purchased the car, gotten insurance, etc. but is worried about the condition of the tires. We agree about the importance of good tires in a Minnesota winter. We are looking for a financial contribution for new tires as well as any contacts you might have on the best place to purchase the tires. In addition, we could use the “transportation funds” to help pay for Uber rides/gas cards for ESL classes if we are unable to find volunteers or the weather is inclement. Donations will be received either by check (with "Circle of Welcome" in the memo line), or online using the "Circle of Welcome" link.


3. Warm winter clothes – we are creating a list of specific needs for warm winter clothes plus boots for our friends. While each of them have a few winter items, this will be their first full winter in Minnesota and we want to make sure we help them prepare. To allow the men to choose their own clothing we ask that you make a donation through our Circle of Welcome giving tool, or drop a check off with "Circle of Welcome" in the memo line.

Circle of Welcome Update!

October 15, 2022

A few weeks ago, our Circle of Welcome group sat down and shared with us about their experiences over the past 5 months supporting a group of 6 men from Afghanistan and what they have learned from accompanying these men as they navigate a new home, language, and culture far from their community and loved ones. If you’d like to hear more about their updates, you can watch the meeting here. We highly recommend checking it out!

Circle of Welcome Volunteers needed!

Circle of Welcome is looking for a few more volunteers to help drive our friends to their food shelf appointments every couple weeks. Each apartment has appointments scheduled twice a month, typically on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings, at the VEAP food shelf in Bloomington. These drives offer a great chance to get to know our new friends and hear a bit of their story. If you are interested in volunteering, please email savannah@immanuel.us for more information.

Afghan Adjustment Act

As mentioned in the video above, a great way to support refugees from Afghanistan is by contacting your representative on the Afghan Adjustment Act. This act would provide our newly arrived Afghan neighbors with opportunities to become permanent residents, providing them a safe home for themselves and hopefully a better chance of reuniting with their families. You can learn more and support the Afghan Adjustment Act (it only takes a couple minutes!).

Circle of Welcome Team Update

August 2022

As we approach the one-year anniversary of the United States’ withdrawal from Afghanistan, we have continued to learn about the uncertain status of our Afghan friends. In order to bring over 76,000 Afghans to safety as quickly as possible, the U.S. allowed them to enter the country under a process called “humanitarian parole.” That means they have temporary permission to stay in the U.S., not a path to legal permanent residence and eventual citizenship. All of the Afghans that came into our country last fall must now pursue a more permanent status – either asylum or a Special Immigrant Visas (SIV). Currently, there is a huge backlog of cases and the rules around who actually is eligible are very narrowly defined. Congress can change this by passing the Afghan Adjustment Act a bipartisan bill recently introduced in Congress that would provide a pathway to lawful permanent residence for Afghans rebuilding their lives in the U.S.

The psychological weight of this uncertainty has been a constant backdrop for our friends as they have tried to adjust to life in the United States. While their immigration status is not technically “our job,” as our trusted relationships with our friends have grown over the last four months, we have often been the sounding board about immigration worries and concerns as we have met regularly with our friends and an interpreter. While our original Circle of Welcome commitment with Lutheran Social Services was for only three months, at the end of June  our team members decided there were a few more really important ways we wanted to assist our Afghan friends.

We have had to work hard at keeping our focus on the places where we can help them, and in the process, we have learned so much about the difficulties of bureaucracy as well as experienced the kindness of others who have helped us support our friends. We have to remind ourselves constantly that though there are multiple issues that come up with each visit, we have made small successful steps to assist them. Two recent examples are the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) and assisting them to pay rent starting August 1st.

The Affordable Connectivity Program is a federal program to help connect low-income persons to the Internet. As we discovered, the logistics of signing up for this program was challenging and involved lots of being “on hold” on the phone, a fairly lengthy application process, receiving a “national identifier,” then finally registering the individual (with the national identifier) with the broadband company. When we finally successfully got our friends connected to ACP, we cheered! Once again, it is difficult to imagine how our friends could have ever gotten signed up without the doggedness that several members of our team displayed.

Another area that we have worked on extensively the past six weeks was helping our friends develop a plan for paying their rent starting August 1st. Lutheran Social Services paid their rent through the end of July. I think we all began to understand how “privileged” we are in that we just mostly pay our bills online with our computers. But our friends don’t have computers and aren’t used to using banks. So we began researching other ways that immigrants often pay rent and came up with money orders. Once again, something that seemed so simple proved to be problematic as it turns out that to actually purchase a money order, you need to have the right kind of ID. In one of our two apartments, the men were successful in getting a money order and paid their August rent. In the other apartment, the men did not have the proper IDs, so for this first month of paying rent, we had to content ourselves with driving our friends to the property management office in Edina so they could pay their rent in cash. Out of this learning, it is pretty clear that it would really benefit our friends to have a MN ID. Yet, even as we’ve researched that, we have learned there is an online application (they would need help); call for an appointment (they would need help with that); certain required documents (not sure at all they would have the right documents); and finally an appointment at the DMV (they would need a ride).

One thing that we have all experienced is that just when we feel like we have run out of options to assist them, a way is provided! We have definitely seen God’s provision in helping provide an appointment at a busy clinic for a pressing medical need; a mattress when a new friend arrived to join one of the apartments; some repairs on the bikes that have become their primary mode of transportation, and finally successfully making some appointments at the DMV for drivers’ permit tests.

Our team is now hoping to begin bringing in some other Immanuel members to help with some specific tasks such as bi-monthly visits to the VEAP food shelf. If you are interested in getting involved, watch for some more specific information soon. In the meantime, one of the things we can ALL DO is advocate to our legislators on behalf of our friends and all the Afghans who are here in our country. We can encourage our legislators to pass the Afghan Adjustment Act as well as help provide support to secure permanent legal immigration status for the Afghan refugees. Take action to contact your representative on the Afghan Adjustment Act here.

Thank you for your prayers for our Afghan friends. They always express their appreciation each time we are with them.

Photo: VEAP Food Shelf visit – our friends’ faces are blurred to protect their identities.

Another Big Thank You!

July 1, 2022
Our Circle of Welcome Team wanted to report that we have secured a twin bed and bicycle for our newest Afghan friend who moved here recently. He, like our other friends, has a wife and seven children (ages 10-23) that were left behind in Afghanistan. He is so appreciative of the efforts that many have taken to help him acquire some essentials.

We also wanted to highlight again our relationship with the non-profit, A Better Society, which is located in Chanhassen. One of their programs, Project Life-Cycle, takes donated bikes and refurbishes them before distributing them to individuals who could use a bike for basic transportation. They have a whole team of volunteer bike mechanics that work on the bikes on Tuesdays in their bike warehouse. If you have older bikes that you want to put to a good cause, please consider donating to A Better Society so they can continue to help those in the community who can really use a bike. You can contact Heather Tran at heather@abettersociety.org to make an appointment to drop off your used bikes.

And thanks again for all the ways you have continued to support our team and our Afghan friends.

Circle of Welcome Team: Gena Gerard, Randy Stengel, Jen Johnson, Caroline Nelson, Kelly Kautz, Mike Schommer, Monte Johnson, Betsy Hedding

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:

1. Two microwaves (one for each apartment). These can be used as long as they are in good working order.
2. 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.
3. Two tool kits with basic tools – one for each apartment.
4. Five reflective safety vests for night time bike riding.
5. 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.
6. Five men’s rain jackets for biking – 4 size men’s large and 1 size men’s small.
7. Two backpacks – three of the men already have backpacks.
8. 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.

Tuesday, April 19^th 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 Olaphson (Coordinator of Service & Justice Ministries)
• If you would like to stay informed please submit the form below.

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