Welcoming All Neighbors Ministry
Our mission:
To embrace refugees and immigrants in friendship and love.
Matthew 25:35 “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me.”
Refugee Family Updates
Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church has partnered with Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services (LIRS) to help two refugee families in the last two years. LIRS identifies the families most in need and provides a liaison and interpreter. We provide funds for short term rent support and other concrete help as we identify needs. Below are updates on our two refugee families. In the future we want to continue to help refugee families by raising $5000 to enable us to offer short term support for one LIRS refugee family each year. We need your help to do this. Your financial donations can be made to Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church, designated to “refugee ministry” or “Welcoming All Neighbors” ministry. We can show our love for God and neighbors by welcoming refugees; they are people he deeply cares about!
St Cloud Somali family
Hassan, Muhammad, and Hassan arrived in Minnesota in 2017 after spending 27 difficult years in a huge refugee camp in Kenya. They are continuing to build lives for themselves in St. Cloud with employment, needed health care, and learning English. In October 2018 this family joined us at Our Saviour’s for a potluck dinner. We learned that they needed winter clothing. Our Saviour’s congregation responded by donating $450 of gift cards for a winter clothing shopping trip with LIRS staff! The guys sent a message of “huge thanks” to our church. It’s good to know they have been able to keep warm on the coldest days of this long winter!
Introducing our St. Paul Burmese family
Thazin (Mom), Tin Nuyut (Grandma), Aung Aung (15-year- old son). We started sponsoring this family in December 2018 with several months of rent support while they are getting established, taking classes to learn English, and gain job skills. They fled Burma in 2007 because of ethnic persecution and lived in Malaysia until they came to Minnesota as refugees in September 2018. Thazin is taking English classes and hopes to switch to GED classes soon. Her long-term goal is to be a police officer. Grandma Tin Nuyut enrolled in an English school that provides transportation – she is making friends and enjoying it. Aung Aung likes school, is getting great grades, plays a lot of video games, and is hating the snow! We look forward to meeting this family on April 1st.
Be sure to watch for future giving and service opportunities to help refugee and immigrant neighbors. If you want to find out more about our ministry, contact Glenndy Ose or 763-434-6117 ext. 113.