Refugee Circle of Welcome
Refugee Circle of Welcome
Circle of Welcome In-Person Update!
September 18, 10:30 - 11:30 a.m., Fellowship Hall
In-person and Zoom option:
Immanuel Zoom One is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87510166528?pwd=WHVWZFhZR01ON0QxWjRHbnAraFU1QT09
Meeting ID: 875 1016 6528, Passcode: 332987
We invite you to join us to hear more from our Circle of Welcome group about their experiences over the past 5 months, what they've learned about the challenges many Afghanistan refugees in the US are facing, and how you too can get involved and offer support for this group and for other refugee communities in our area.
Last April a group of Immanuel members joined LSS's "Circle of Welcome" program to help welcome and support five young refugee men from Afghanistan. Over the past 5 months this group has gotten to know these men and accompany them as they navigate not only a new home, language and culture, but also a complex, lengthy and difficult path to citizenship.
Please join us and you can learn more and read updates from the the Circle of Welcome group below.
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:
- 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