The second avenue The Austin Stone has taken with refugee ministry is the Village Community Center. The Village Apartments on Lamar have a relatively large population of refugees as it is one of several complexes where refugees are resettled by Refugee Service of Texas (RST) in Austin.
In contrast to refugee family adoption, the Community Center enables us to impact the lives of many refugee families as opposed to one.The Austin Stone, along with Westover Hills Church of Christ and Hope in the City, have rented out an apartment in the Villages, known as the Village Community Center.
The front room has been transformed into a multi-purpose room of sorts with whiteboards, sewing machines and computer access. From here, refugee children get help with their homework, ESL classes are taught, and Burmese women learn to use sewing machines.
The back room has become a children’s area, furnished with a blackboard and chalk, TV/VCR and videos, various toys and games, and lots of books. Here children can play after they are finished with homework or while their parents are learning in the front room. There are approximately 10 refugee children who regularly take advantage of this opportunity and receive help with their homework.
The Village Community Center, maybe most importantly, serves as a safe and loving place for refugees, a place where they are met with friendly faces and loving conversation.
Through partnerships with other churches, [KEEP READING]
The story below one Austin Stone mom, Christie Neville, exemplifies how anybody can be involved in serving the nations right here in Austin! For more information on how to serve refugees in Austin, see our blog series and then let us know you are interested in serving!
I had to share this story with you about our missional community group and families living on mission. It is really sweet.
Today, our group hosted a mother's day celebration for the mothers/women at one of the refugee complexes here in Austin. We wanted to bless and honor them - especially given that these women are not well regarded in their own countries.
We brought over cakes and drinks and roses for each of the women and put together 26 beautiful food baskets. Our missional community group donated all the food (fresh fruits/vegetables/beans /rice) and supplies. On Saturday, we had the kids put the baskets together at the park, it was a huge family affair. On Sunday, we had the kids and families deliver the baskets as well as host the mother's day celebration. They not only served the refugees cake and drinks but really connected with them. It is Amazing how much can be communicated with few words!! (the refugees spoke little
English)
We also hosted some of the Nepalese women at our weekly prayer time and luncheon. We had 3 Hindu and 3 Christian refugees join us on Friday in Westlake! We had the privilege of praying for them (and then taking them to the mall of which they had never seen [KEEP READING]
Refugee Services of Texas, Inc. (RST) is accepting interns for the Summer and Fall of 2010. The Austin Stone has partnered with RST for the past few years as we have learned how to best serve refugees. RST is a great organization committed to the success and self-sufficiency of refugees in Austin. This is an excellent opportunity to be ‘For the City' as well as gain tangible cross-cultural experience. Internships are unpaid, and start and end dates are flexible.
Why should you intern with RST?
• Gain an understanding of the policies and procedures involved in implementation of the US Refugee Resettlement Program.
• Gain in depth knowledge of Texas' social service system
• Have a deeper understanding of diverse populations and cultures from around the world
• Improve conflict resolution skills.
RST is a non-profit agency which serves newly arrived refugees and asylees, and provides education and training around issues of human trafficking. Incoming refugees tend to come primarily from Burma, Iraq, Bhutan, Iran, Somali, and Cuba. RST works with the US Department of State to provide clients with case management, job training, cultural orientation, and mental health counseling, as needed, and links them to resources for other basic needs. RST's mission is to provide refugees with resources, referrals, education and guidance to ensure successful and self-sufficient lives in Texas.
Internship Duties:
• 20-40 hours per week for 10 weeks
• One on one client [KEEP READING]
The Austin Stone loves serving refugees in our city. A number of our missional communities have "adopted" refugee families. If you are interested in serving in the refugee ministry of the Austin Stone, check out our blog series.
There is currently a refugee family from the Middle East now living in Austin with dire, immediate needs. You can serve this family in the following ways:
Take the refugee kids to school and pick up them afterwards
Help run errands (such as to the grocery store, etc.)
Help watch the kids on the weekend.
Spending time with the mother as she stays at home during the days.
Providing meals for the family.
If you would like to help out in any of these ways, please email Matt Kirk. Matt is having a volunteer orientation meeting at his house on Monday, Feb. 15 at 7pm. Email Matt to RSVP.
- French (only for Thursday)
- Burmese (both days)
- Vietnamese (both days)
- Spanish (Wed. only)
There are two major ways in which the Austin Stone serves refugees. The first is Missional Community Refugee Family Adoption. Most refugees arriving here are without sponsorship or people personally investing in their lives.
- Missional Communities can "adopt" refugee families when they arrive to America.
- When a missional community takes in a newly arrived refugee family, they help in the following ways:
- Furnish the newly arriving refugee's apartment
- Buy the first two weeks of groceries
- Prepare meals with them
- Teach them how to go grocery shopping
- Have a picnic at the park with them
- Model how to navigate the city (riding the bus, getting their kids to school, etc.)
- Help them apply for city/state/federal social services (medicareMedicare, food stamps, social security, etc.)
- Teach them to budget and pay bills
- Help search for and apply for jobs
- Help them learn conversational English
- This "adoption" commitment is for 6 months.
- The goal of these six month commitments for missional communities are to invest in one particular refugee family, building meaningful relationships and moving them closer to self-sufficiency.
- Currently, 4 missional communities have refugee families they've adopted and are at various places along the six month timeline. 2 other missional communities are in the process of adopting and are preparing to receive their family.
The city of Austin alone receives 800 to 1000 refugees each year from countries like Afghanistan, Iraq, Cuba, Somalia, Burundi, Burma, and Nepal. A large majority of these refugees have no hope of returning to their homeland. Thus, they see living in Austin as a chance to restart their lives in a country touted as the land of opportunity.
In 2007, leaders from The Austin Stone became aware of the growing population of refugees in Austin. We knew that we had to serve our city by serving refugees in our city. So we decided to act.
The Austin Stone is a church for the city. As a church for the city, we seek the social, economic, political, relational and spiritual welfare of the city and its residents. Refugees are part of the city of Austin. Therefore, being for Austin means that we are for refugees. Our role is not necessarily to give them everything they need, but rather to partner with them in order to help them succeed on their own. We work to come alongside refugees to provide "hand ups" rather than just "hand outs".
Over the next few posts, we will describe the ministry of The Austin Stone towards refugees in Austin.
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If you are interested in easy opportunities to serve refugees in Austin, you can sign up here!
Image: Girls from Burundi at the Village apartments during a 2009 July 4th Party; East Asian children at a 2009 Halloween party.
"When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God." (Leviticus 19:33-34)
"So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God." (Ephesians 2:19)
Many of the main characters in the Bible were foreigners in a new land. Abraham and his family left their homeland in Harran to follow God's call into Canaan. The Israelites were displaced and lived in Egypt until God brought them into the Promise Land. David lived as a refugee for fear of returning home to be killed by Saul. The Israelites were again foreigners when they lived as exiles in Babylon. Mary and Joseph with their newborn Jesus fled to Egypt from the persecution of King Herod. Jesus Himself was a sojourner on earth away from His home in heaven.
God cares for the sojourner and the refugee. God uses us to provide support and advocacy, guidance and direction, and most importantly, friendship and love. We are placed in a unique situation where the nations are actually coming to us. God has brought the nations to our doorstep so that we can serve cross-culturally, reach the unreached, feed the hungry, and look after the orphan, widow and sojourner without even leaving our city.
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If you are interested [KEEP READING]
According to the United Nations, a refugee is any person who because of "a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to, or owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country." Of the 15.2 million refugees worldwide, 10.5 million are receiving protection or assistance from the United Nations.
To put those numbers in perspective, Austin is home to 1.7 million people. That means that around the world there are enough refugees to fill nine cities the size of Austin. As of 2008, there were about 270,000 refugees living in the United States.
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If you are interested in easy opportunities to serve refugees in Austin, you can sign up here!
Image: Wikipedia
