A quick ministry update

Lots has happened to our family in the last few months and I just wanted to take a quick minute to update everyone and ask for some help.

I’m feeling a little like the scene in The Princess Bride movie where they are on the wall and they need to “sum up.”

1: Beginning around the first of August, I began partnering with The Spero Project three days a week. Spero builds relationships with resettled refugees as well as helping them with tangible needs. This has been an amazing opportunity! Currently, I am tutoring ESL to two young mommas from Myanmar. I also help with communication needs at appointments. I have spent time with people from Pakistan, Russia, Myanmar, Congo and Afghanistan. I also help with a Culture and History class. 

2: Lily and I were in a car wreck. It wasn’t bad but the Honda Civic we bought last year was totaled and our insurance doesn’t cover it at all. Now, this is really bad timing as I am now driving a lot taking resettled friends to appointments. Ugh. This was so discouraging. I have been praying and waiting on God for a different opportunity for about a year. Things were starting to fall into place and then the car is totaled. 

Goal now: Replace the Civic!

We did a lot of research and we still feel a car that can seat five comfortably and can get over 30 miles to the gallon is what our family needs; another Civic! Getting a car with these specs without tons of miles on it is going to be in the $8,000 – $9,000 range. We were able to sell the Civic to a rebuilder and we reached out to our regular supporters. As of today, we have already raised $5,450, for which we are incredibly grateful.

We need to raise $3,550 in order to replace the Civic. We still have our little truck and a friend gave us a 1996 Corolla to keep me in ministry while we fundraise. Neither of these vehicles is totally reliable and I have a Christian Community Development conference I want to attend October 9-12 in Dallas. I would love to have the new car by then.

Mission accomplished, click here to read the whole story!

Fruitfulness

I’ve been thinking a lot about abiding in The Vine and I keep coming back to fruitfulness. I mean, that’s what we want from our lives, right? Something to show for all our heartache, hard work and expended energy. But as branches grafted into The Vine, what is our real work but to receive? To receive Living Water drawn up from deep roots in nourishing soil, pulled into our being, opening our outstretched leaves to receive the Sonlight streaming from above. That is the work of the branch.

The branch does not do the work of the roots, the rain, the sun, the vine and certainly not that of the gardener, but in our work of receiving, we will see fruit in its time. And it will come as a gift.

Refugee Experience Walk

We went through The Refugee Experience Walk this afternoon from The Spero Project. The thing that stood out to me most was the 24-year timeline that a refugee family typically experiences.

To put myself in their shoes would mean that just two years into my marriage, I would have had to flee the unthinkable violence in my country, leaving my family, my university studies, and any future I had ever conceived for myself.

After possibly a couple years of wandering, we’d enter a refugee camp. And stay. As in, not allowed to leave. You know, sort of like a prison camp. A couple years later, Noah would be born. And we would wait. And survive.

Four more years and Lily would be born. And we would wait. And survive. Six years later, our last son, Jude would be born in the camp to a family with no country, no career, and very few connections.

Ten more years of waiting and an incredibly long vetting process, my family would be one of the luckiest families in the world, one of only 1% of refugees who gets the chance for resttlement.

We would also be given the privilege of paying back the travel cost to move my family of five overseas to a country we’ve never seen to begin a life for ourselves after never having the chance to actually live one of our own yet.

Remember, I was just a college student when this all started. As a family, we have never known a life of freedom, career, transportation, doctor visits, school enrollment, tax returns, grocery shopping, little league, barbecues at the lake…

And now we are your neighbors. We know little of the language of our new home. Our kids are in school and we don’t really even know what they’re being taught. I find whatever job I can to try and keep on top of paying bills that I don’t fully understand.

I really need a friend.

A rattletrap’s hidden beauty

With our car accident a month ago, we’ve been in a real pinch. It’s not unusual for three or four of us to need to be in three or four places at once! And not only are we down a car but our other car is a compact pickup that comfortably fits only two adults 😛

Enter, the 1996 Corolla:

This little car may not be much to look at or even a really great driving experience, but it means a whole lot to us right now. It was a gift from some good friends of ours who no longer needed it and it has really alleviated that pinch on our mobility.

It’ll get us by while we fundraise for our next vehicle, then once we’re able to buy that, we’ll sell my old truck for whatever cash we can get. I’m not sure how long this Carolla will last, but for now, it’s a great and tangible reminder of how much we’re loved and what great friends and support we have.

To us, that little rattletrap car is a thing of great beauty.

Feel-good food on a tight budget

On our income, we have to be pretty careful with our food bill, so we mostly try to get cheap food that’s at least somewhat nutritious (definitely an oxymoron).

But we also make sure and buy some really good meals to punctuate the cheap food we eat on a regular basis. It does wonders to meal morale when you can have a filling, aromatic, delicious, healthy meal or two every week.

A few days ago, I made red beans and rice and corn bread. Easy, out-of-the-ordinary, and super cheap.

Yesterday was Thai curry. Easy, incredibly tasty and fragrant, and not too expensive to make. Plus, any dish that requires a trip to the local Asian market where you have to ask the clerk for help finding things, is a total bonus.

This morning, I prepared some boef bourguignon for the slow cooker. The house smells amazing and I can’t wait for dinner. Hoping it tastes as good as it smells!

By next week, the food will be dwindling while we await our next paycheck so the meals will be simpler, but we’ll have some pretty sweet leftovers in the fridge 😋

I do a lot of lazy meals so that I can do the occasional creative meal. It works out pretty well, I think.

(Not-pictured: sandwiches, frozen pizzas, 75¢ pot pies, chicken nuggets, huevos y chorizo, more sandwiches, etc.)