Tuesday, April 07, 2009

In September of 2008, Trinity received a call from Donna Buckles from Lutheran Social Services challenging us to adopt a refugee family. This fit right in with our community outreach efforts. Mark Giebink challenged the Discovery and Joint Heirs Sunday School classes to take on the project. We received an instruction manual and signed a 3 to 6 month commitment dependant on the needs of the family. At this time we did not know anything about the family or what their needs would be. We committed to a short range goal of setting up an apartment with furniture and food for a week and a longer range focus of mentoring the family in American culture and learning English.



We recognized that we needed resources beyond just the two classes so we distributed a list of furniture and other items to the congregation on Sunday mornings. We also collected some monetary donations and were offered more financial assistance from the Harvest offering. This enabled us to furnish the apartment at Dunlap and 35th Ave. beautifully and do some nice extras.



In early November we learned that the members of our family were refugees from Bhutan who had been living in a refugee camp in Nepal for 17 years. For 17 years all they had was a bamboo hut and free food from the United Nations. They were not allowed to return to Bhutan to their homes. They were not allowed to work or be integrated into Nepal. Their children had no future. In seven refugee camps there were over 100,000 people without a country and with little hope. Before November, no one in our team had any idea about this situation.



We met the Acharya family on November 18. We also noticed that there were other Nepali families who were already here. Then we began to realize how much there was to do. There was so much to show them -- even how to turn lights on and off. Our team spent hours every week helping with trips to the doctor, showing them how to shop at our grocery stores, taking them to the zoo, applying for jobs, or just hanging out.



At Christmas, we again asked for help from the congregation to provide Christmas presents. By this time, we had also been introduced to the Bhattarai family and were able to include them in Christmas. We included the two families in our families’ Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, and social activities here at Trinity. Our team even enabled four teens to go to Winter camp.



We soon discovered that Tika Acharya was a networker. He was telling all his friends that Trinity Bible Church was a place where Americans cared about Nepalese. Since Tika was coming to church, he asked for us to give his friends rides too. The Super Bowl party was a turning point. We had 50 Nepalese attend. We were able to show them a DVD presentation of the gospel in their language and God provided a Christian pastor from Nepal to speak to the group at half time.



Through January, more families started attending Trinity worship services and adult Sunday School. We wondered how much they understood. We also recognized that we needed to do more to help them with their English. On February 9 we held our first ESL/Sunday School class. We put together a transportation plan with cars and drivers. We are picking up families from 35th Ave & Dunlap, 19th Ave & Camelback, 23rd Ave & Glenrosa, and I-17 and Thomas. We increased to about fifteen teens in youth Sunday School, about the same in Children’s, and fifty adults. The Sunday before last the missions MLT helped us hand out Nepali Bibles. We also hand out copies of The Message. Women’s ministry has about twelve women signed up for their next event. We have over 100 on our contact list.



Currently, we are committed to fully adopt the Acharya family. Recently we made a limited commitment to the Bhattarai family. Seven new members of the Bhattarai family arrived two weeks ago. We were able to furnish an apartment for them. We are also distributing sundries collected by the Women’s Ministry. The Singles Ministry have shifted their outreach efforts from the Burundis to the Nepalis. This last Sunday the Singles helped distribute clothing they had collected. The Singles also helped put together a picnic at Cactus park last month. We are planning our next monthly social on April 19 at North Mountain Park.



In addition to the Nepali Bibles, the Missions MLT has also ordered the Jesus Film in Nepali. This week they approved an annual budget of $2000 for interpreters for adult and children’s classes.



What started as a class project has become a church ministry involving every ministry at Trinity. World missions is at our doorstep. We are introducing people to Christ who know almost nothing about Him. They have never heard of Adam & Eve, Moses, The Ten Commandments. They have never heard the Lord’s Prayer. They have never read the Bible in their own language. They had never prayed for the sick. They come from a country where the there is no Christian witness--where until recently missionaries and pastors were jailed or worse. They see some similarities between their Hindu beliefs and Christianity. They are only beginning to grasp the differences and the radical change that Jesus wants for them.



The word is that there will be over 10,000 Nepali refugees in Phoenix by the end of 2010. We have met families that do not have a church sponsor. They have no beds, they have no way to get the doctor; they are confused by our kitchen appliances; they think the bathtub is for doing laundry. We have no illusions that Trinity can handle this on our own. But we do believe that Trinity is being offered an opportunity to demonstrate and communicate Christ’s love to Nepali refugees. We can be a model for other churches. Part of our vision is to challenge other churches to join us.



I am amazed by our small team. We did not know what we were getting into but we have just the right mix of gifts and passions and availability. Some have time to give, others have organizational skills. So far, as we stumble into this, we seem to be doing things right. We are at the right place at the right time to meet a need. More than anything, we are doing the relationship thing right. We love our new friends. We enjoy being around them. I am pretty sure that they see Jesus.



It is hard to see where this is going. Everyone who becomes involved lights up emotionally and spiritually. But we are hearing a little push back. We are disrupting some things. Not everyone in the congregations understands what is at stake. Trinity is at a fragile moment as it makes a very difficult and complex transition. But everything about this experience feels right to me. We have not targeted Nepali refugees for conversion, yet they are being drawn to Christ. Our mission was to help them in tangible ways. It has become much more than that. They are our friends –maybe even our family. We believe many will become our bothers and sisters in Christ. We don’t know how long this opportunity will last.