The Spirit of Ms. Pat

As many of you may know, Friends of Refugees was started by a wonderful lady named Ms. Pat. As the Clarkston community changed with incoming refugees in the early 90's, Ms. Pat saw an add in her church's newsletter about needing volunteers to help with newly resettled Bosnians in the area.  She answered the call and soon after Friend of Refugees was founded. Ms. Pat is still a full-time volunteer and board member for FOR. She has a passion and love for the people of Clarkston like no one I have ever met. We sometimes refer to her as "the Mother Teresa of Clarkston" because of the ways she is always willing to give everything she has for those around her.

The "original" FOR programs were food and clothing distribution and youth programs. Summer camp has changed a lot over the years, but it all started because Ms. Pat saw a need and did something about it. I have been lucky to talk to some people over the past couple of months who were some of the original staff for summer camp over the years who helped transform it into what it is today. They all said the same thing, it's the spirit of Ms. Pat that makes things go. he has a way of doing things before having everything exactly ready and it always seems to work for her. There's a level of faith that you do what you can, but it's really up to the Lord to make sure it happen. If He's not going to bless it, we probably shouldn't be doing it anyway.

In YP in particular, Ms. Pat has left a legacy of love and faith. We are always striving to keep that legacy in our DNA as a program. It's hard for us because sometimes that means executing plans before you have everything exactly right and ready. We can be so focused on completing step two after we finish step one that we can forget why we are here. We're here to love people. And we don't need anything to do that.

So please pray for us as we gear up for summer camp and a new year of after-school. We are excited to see what God has in store for us and for the youth through the rest of this year.

And praise the Lord because He is so good. We have all the teams we need for summer camp lined up. Interns are coming. Food is falling into place. And the youth we work with just keep getting cooler and cooler.

You can play a part in the YP team by helping us with some basics. Sponsorships are coming up. There will be an opportunity to sponsor a camper or an after-school student. This is a really fun way to get involved. You will be assigned a student, get their picture, and some basic information about them. We had a blast with this last year. You can also buy a shirt now through April 6th. All proceeds will go toward gas for the vans. Just click this link to order your shirt.

Thanks, guys!