World Relief Minnesota

World Relief Minnesota is excited to introduce our new Executive Director, Bob Oehrig, beginning October 1.

Bob is a well known missions pastor in the Twin Cities and currently serves as the Pastor of Missions and Outreach at Grace Church Roseville, where he has ministered for the past 10 years. During that time he has been actively involved in local refugee ministry through World Relief, leading his church’s engagement in the Refugee Life Ministry program in which congregations adopt a refugee family and surround them with help and support during their first year in America.

Prior to serving as a missions pastor, Bob and his wife Donna worked for Daystar University in Nairobi, Kenya for 25 years. Initially they served as missionaries on the teaching faculty of Daystar, a theological training school for African church leaders, and for ten years directed Daystar US which supported Daystar University through recruiting visiting faculty and raising financial support.

World Relief Minnesota is excited that Bob brings a long history of involvement and familiarity with the ministry. He has been a member of the board of directors of World Relief Minnesota and one of his daughters previously worked for World Relief in Mozambique for two years. He also serves on the board of directors of Pioneers, a missions agency planting churches among unreached people groups.

Bob Oehrig succeeds Darrell Cox who had been the Executive Director previously and resigned from the position in June 2011. Please join us in welcoming Bob Oehrig to the leadership of this ministry. He begins this new role in October.

We cannot believe that the time has already come to prepare our new refugee friends for this winter.   Because our families come from very hot climates, they seem to feel the chill of cooling weather earlier in the fall – a time when we think the weather is the nicest!  We want to make sure all of our families’ winter weather clothing needs are taken care of before this point in time, so our Warm Welcome collection will take place over the months of August and September, with a collection deadline of Friday, September 16. 

World Relief’s Warm Welcome drive is a great opportunity for families, groups of friends, and congregations to join together to minister in a simple way to those God has brought to us from around the world.  The local church and community join together to provide the means for our newest neighbors to survive the tough Minnesota winter ahead. 

 For those of you wondering what items are needed for this effort, we are looking for the type of winter outerwear items a Minnesotan would wear while waiting for the bus in the middle of January.  Our collection will therefore be limited to the following items: Warm Coats, Hats, Mittens, Gloves, Scarves, Warm Socks, Snow Pants, and Snow Boots.  To ensure the quality of donated items reflects the dignity of those we serve, we can only accept clean, gently used or new outerwear items. 

 What is also exciting about this year’s event is that the families will be able to “shop” for their own outerwear items at the World Relief office.  They will experience the dignity of being able to pick out their own styles and colors.  Shopping hours will be held on:

Monday, September 19 and Wednesday, September 21 from 5:30 – 8:00 pm (hours can be extended if necessary)

Tuesday, September 20 and Thursday September 22 during regular office hours, 8:30 am – 5:00 pm

For those of you who would like direct interaction with families, we invite you to transport a family and help them shop for their items at the WRM office during one of these times. 

 If you would like to participate, please send an email to mnvolunteers@wr.org  with the following information:

Name

Group members (if applicable)

Best way to reach you: Email or Phone (please list contact information)

Will you be collecting winter outerwear items for this event?

                If yes, what do you plan to collect and approximately how much do you plan to collect?

For a large scale drive (through a church, school, community center, etc.), would you like to arrange for WR to pick up your donations?

Would you like to transport a family to the WR office to shop for their items?

                If yes:

                How many people can you transport?

                Do you have a car seat you would be willing to use to transport a child? If so, how many

car seats and for what ages?

Which date/time frame would you be available to transport a family?

N.B.: Transportation/shopping volunteers will need to submit a background check consent form if WRM does not have one on file from the past 3 years. 

Please contact Linnea Stevens at 612-243-2965 or lstevens@wr.org if you have any questions or would like copies of our Warm Welcome flyer to help spread the word.

Many of us involved in the lives of newly arrived refugees often approach the topic from our own vantage point: social worker, volunteer, friend, community member, church body, refugee.  We have questions as to why refugees do what they do or feel what they feel, or how they are impacted by their new communities.  We wonder why certain decisions are made on behalf of our new friends, and how they fit in to the multiple complex systems Minnesotans need to navigate on a regular basis.  And what is our role in all of this? The list of questions is almost endless and can differ depending on who is asking; and almost every question can be answered differently depending on who is responding.

This is why WRM is excited to announce the launch of our blog, Starting Over: Refugees in Minnesota.  We hope this blog will be able to give a holistic view of refugee resettlement by including the stories and refugees, staff workers, volunteers, community members, etc. from the perspective of various staff members at our organization.  The purpose is to shed light on the challenges and triumphs of refugee resettlement, and how those we serve are affected by people, policies, and systems here in Minnesota.

We encourage you to visit our blog at http://refugeeresettlementmn.wordpress.com/ and subscribe.  We’d also love your feed back or suggestions for future stories, which can be directed to mnvolunteers@wr.org.

Our event will run from 5-8pm on Friday, June 10. Ten Thousand Villages will donate 20% of their sales during those hours to World Relief Minnesota. Many of the items available at Ten Thousand Villages are made by people living in countries from which refugees have called home. Visit their website to see some of the beautiful hand-made crafts they sell.

We’ll have a couple of WRM staff people at the event to talk about refugees and their resettlement process in the United States.

Ten Thousand Villages, 867 Grand Ave # 6, Saint Paul, MN 55105

World Relief Minnesota (WRM) will host our first annual community-wide Hygiene Supplies Drive this May. The drive will be a simple yet significant opportunity for the local church and local community to extend welcome to some of the world’s most vulnerable people who have become our newest neighbors. Many new refugee families struggle to afford basic necessities such as hygiene supplies, but more established members of our Richfield community may have extra hygiene supplies unopened in our homes or can easily pick up an extra item at the store. By going door-to-door to collect these necessities, we hope to raise awareness among our closest neighbors about the refugee families we serve and present a simple way to respond.

The hygiene supplies drive will take place in Richfield, Minnesota (the neighborhood surrounding the WRM office) on Saturday, May 7. Participating in this drive as a volunteer will be a great opportunity to advocate for the cause of the refugee among us while enjoying a beautiful day outdoors with your family or group of friends. Please consider joining our efforts as Gatherer!

We are looking for volunteers for Saturday, May 7:
Gatherer Description: On Saturday, May 7 there will be two Gatherer shifts: 9:00-11:00 am and 11:00am-1:00 pm. Gatherers will go door-to-door to the houses canvassed on Tuesday to collect supplies. Volunteers will be divided into groups and given specific streets to cover based on a map of the community. Volunteers will meet at the WRM office 15 minutes prior to the start of their shift, which will begin with a brief volunteer orientation.

You can learn more about World Relief Minnesota by visiting our website, www.worldreliefmn.org. For general questions about the drive or for more information about volunteering, please contact Katie Day at 612-746-5634 or mnvolunteers@wr.org. To register as a volunteer, please visit the online application

Seven years in development, the newly revised Somali-English ABC Book is now available. This book is designed for Somali adults who may have never gone to school, who are learning the alphabet, and reading for the first time in their lives. Somali parents are also using the book to teach their children Somali language and culture. In turn, Somali children can help their parents with English.

Each lesson starts in Somali (with translations for the English-speaking tutor’s benefit), then bridges to English. This approach works because Somali and English share essentially the same alphabet. Each page has pictures to aid comprehension. Each lesson has a verse from the Bible, in both English and Somali, highlighting the key word and truth on which Muslims and Christians agree.

SALT’s ESL workbook can be purchased through World Relief Minnesota

$20 each for 1 or 2 copies
$15 each for 3+ copies

Contact salt@wr.org to request a copy

Enjoy a night with Bob Stromberg of Triple Espresso fame
in support of Refugee Life Ministries

April 2, 2011 at 7 p.m.

Roseville Covenant Church

The entertainment includes coffee and dessert.  Tickets are $10 and can be purchased or reserved online (click on this link to be taken to a secure registration website for this event).

Use this link to learn more about Refugee Life Ministries

Few Say Religion Shapes Immigration, Environment Views

from The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life | Sept 17, 2010

Many Americans continue to say their religious beliefs have been highly influential in shaping their views about social issues, …

Despite the fact that many religious leaders have been outspoken advocates for immigration reform, just 7% of adults who take a position on immigration say that religion is the most important influence on their views on this issue. About one-in-four churchgoers (24%) say the clergy at their places of worship have spoken out about immigration, nearly the same as in 2006. About half of those who hear about immigration in church say their clergy are favorable to immigrants and immigration.

The source of this news comes from The Pew Forum for Religion & Public Life.  Public life.  One would think that public life should be deeply impacted by what we believe.  However “should” isn’t the correct verb … public life IS impacted by what we believe.

Why do so few Christians say that their religious beliefs influence their stand on immigration? Perhaps that’s an accuracte self-assessment – our words and deeds aren’t always consistent with the words and deeds of Jesus and the apostles. Often the way we live is influenced more by economic considerations and ethnic/racial biases than by loving our neighbor as ourself.

U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member Dick Lugar recently released a report urging the Administration to better match federal resources with refugee admissions so that the costs associated with operating the U.S. resettlement program do not unfairly burden local communities.

 The report, “Abandoned Upon Arrival: Implications for refugees and local communities burdened by a resettlement system that is not working,” highlights the significant challenges local communities in Indiana and across the country are confronting as a result of a U.S. resettlement program that is under-funded and over-stretched. While offering safe-haven to refugees who face persecution should remain a humanitarian imperative for our nation, we must acknowledge the significant costs associated with this activity and find an appropriate policy remedy at the federal level,” Lugar said. “I urge the Administrations to reform the U.S. resettlement program so that it continues to be perceived as a benefit to local communities, not a burden.”

This press release suggests that refugees can be perceived asa burden on the resources of local communities.  Is this perception accurate?

How can we change the perception to one that says “refugees are a benefit to the local community?”  I think part of the answer is related to how we view the role of the public domain (local and state governments) in the care of vulnerable populations.  Is it the sole responsibility of government to provide services?  From a biblical perspective, the Church has a role in caring for downtrodden and the poor. Members of faith communities can reflect the grace and compassion of God to these persecuted peoples from around the world. Beyond that, through relationships, we can bridge the gap between social service programs and self-sufficiency and integration. Talk with refugees that have been befriended and mentored by Americans and you’ll hear stories of gratitude, gradual assimilation, and the realization that refugees themselves have a place in our culture.

World Relief has seen local churches come along side refugee families in communities throughout the United States. Often long-term relationships are formed that benefit both the refugee family and the church.

Refugee News
from International Association for Refugees

Number of Refugees Grows to 43.3 million
Highest number of refugees in the world since the mid-1990s
The Refugee Highway – 16 June 2010
According to the latest statistics published by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the number of forcibly displaced people in the world has increased by more than 1 million in the past year.

Here are some FAQ concerning the Refugee Highway today…

Q. How many forcibly displaced people (FDP) are in the world?
A. 43.3 million. The number includes internally displaced people (IDP), refugees, asylum-seekers and Palestinian refugees receiving support from the UN’s UNRWA program.

Q. How many of the world’s FDP are internally displaced (IDP)?
A. 27.1 million. “Internally displaced persons are people or groups of individuals who have been forced to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of, or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights, or natural- or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an international border.” -UNHCR

Q. How many refugees are in the world?
A. 15.2 million. Who is a refugee?

• Refugees have to be outside their country of origin;
• The reason for their flight has to be a fear of persecution;
• The fear of persecution has to be well-founded
• The persecution has to result from one or more of the 5 grounds listed in the definition, that is race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion;
• They have to be unwilling or unable to seek the protection of their country.

Source: UNHCR

Q. How many Palestinian refugees are in the world?
A. 4.8 million. This is the number of Palestinian refugees receiving care from UNRWA.

Q. How many asylum-seekers are in the world?
A. 983,000. “Asylum-seekers are individuals who have sought international protection and whose claims for refugee status have not yet been determined.” -UNHCR

Q. How many stateless people are in the world?
A. Between 6.6 million and 12 million. “Stateless persons are individuals not considered as citizens of any State under national laws.” -UNHCR

Q. What can you tell me about the average refugee in the world today?

• 49% of the world’s refugees are women.
• 45% of the world’s FDP are under 18 years old.
• 41% of the world’s FDP

Q. What country is producing the greatest number of refugees?
A. 25% of the world’s refugees come from Afghanistan (2.9 million).

Q. What are other leading refugee-producing countries in the world?

1. 2.9 million refugees from Afghanistan
2. 1.8 million refugees from Iraq
3. 678,300 refugees from Somalia
4. 455,900 refugees from D.R. Congo
5. 406,700 refugees from Myanmar
6. 389,800 refugees from Colombia
7. 368,200 refugees from Sudan
8. 209,200 refugees from Eritrea
9. 195,600 refugees from Serbia

Q. What part of the world hosts the most refugees?
A. 37% of the world’s refugees are hosted in the Asia/Pacific region of the world. 80% of the world’s refugees are hosted by developing nations. Over half are living in urban areas.

Q. What countries host the largest number of refugees?
A. Pakistan (1.7 million), Iran (1 million) and Syria (1 million) host the largest number of refugees in the world. Taken together, these countries plus Germany and Jordan host 47% of the world’s refugees.

Q. What country received the most claims for asylum in 2009?
A. South Africa received 222,000 claims for asylum in 2009.

Q. What country received the most resettled refugees in 2009?
A. 80,000 refugees were resettled to the United States in 2009. Canada resettled 12,500 refugees in 2009. There are only 19 countries in the world that receive resettled refugees.

Q. What does the Bible have to say about refugees and forcibly displaced people (FDP)?
A. Click here to watch a 3 minute online video to begin exploring the answer. Click on the “Orphan, Widow, Alien” video option in the list.

Source: UNHCR, 2009 Global Trends, published 15 June 2010.

Refugee News is a free service from International Association for Refugees (IAFR).

Learn more at www.iafr.org.