Throwbacks

In the past few weeks, I’ve had some really great opportunities to reflect on the past. Join me as I take a walk down memory lane and celebrate with me how the Lord has been sovereign through it all.

Old Meets New

The first time I came to Clarkston was for a Great Day of Service McKendree UMC put together. I went with some fellow youth and our youth pastor, Joe. We spent a few hours in the garden and met some families and had a really great time. One of the Friends of Refugees staff that was hosting us shared the opportunity to come back and work at summer camp. As a small group of highly involved youth, we signed us up…and told Joe later (I’m not sorry). There was a spark from that first experience that brought me and others coming back for more.  Here I am almost 7 years later now directing the same camp I signed us up for as a youth group without permission. How cool is that?

The Karen New Year Celebration in CIBC's Gym.
It was quite the party!

A couple weeks ago, I had the opportunity to come full circle in a way. I got to host Joe’s new youth group from his new church for a service project. I met with them at the same garden where it all began for me. It was such a blessing to catch up with Joe and have him catch up with and meet so many of the people I get to work with now. Talk about the past and present colliding, it’s a pretty cool thing! It was also incredibly helpful for us to have a group of people willing to help up clean up after the Karen New Year celebration and have them help up deep clean and organize our youth room. It took the group a few hours what would have taken a few of us all day (or more) to do, freeing us up to spend more time with families in the community. What a win!

In the Beginning…

Hanging out with Joe and his youth already had me reminiscing about my first experiences in Clarkston, so when I had the chance to catch up with Scott Kelley it was fitting. See, it’s Mission Impact Celebration week at McKendree UMC. We celebrate the different ministries and missions the church is involved in by inviting all of them to come to the church all at the same time. We will the fellowship hall with tables of information about each of the ministries for the church to see and learn about all we are involved in around the community and around the world. I’ve gone from being one who floats from table to table to gather information about what’s going on in different ministries to hosting the Friends of Refugees table. Scott and his family were hosting their table for their new ministry, The Refuge. Scott wore all kinds of hats while he worked at FOR, but he was always involved with the youth. He was the one who convinced me to intern my first summer and exemplified for me what full-time ministry in a place like Clarkston could look like.  His kids, one of which was my camper one summer, now tower over me. It was such a blessing to be able to connect with them. The example Scott and his family set for me is very much a part of why I do what I do now.

Steady Growth

My roommate Carrie is a pretty incredible person. She loves the Lord, teaching, and Clarkston. Though she doesn’t get to spend as much time doing ministry in Clarkston as she wishes, her encouragement that she gives so well and freely to me and many others works for the benefit of the community as a whole. Recently, she discovered one of her campers from two summers ago that she had an especially close relationship with lives very close to us. They started hanging out every now and then and she was excited about the opportunity to reconnect. One day, she gets a call from the camper’s dad and asks if she would be interested in tutoring his daughter twice a week. Carrie now gets to see her sweet camper twice a week. And teach her. At our house. It’s a beautiful thing! Carrie had the chance to start discipling her that first summer together, and since then the ways the Lord has brought Carrie and her camper together over the years has been really cool. Sometimes the relationship seemed dormant. Sometimes they went months without seeing each other. Sometimes it seemed like there would never be a chance for fruit. But the Lord is sovereign and has been so sweet to provide these two with a chance to reconnect in ways that minister to both of them so well.

Reflections

It blows my mind how God can so intricately weave together the events of our life to make such a big difference. Having a youth pastor who encouraged missions for the youth and having an example set for what living missionally looks like helped me very much get to where I am now. Believing in God to be faithful and entrusting relationships to Him has made two and half years of relationship an opportunity for one leader and one girl to grow closer to Him together. There are so many stories like Carrie’s that could be told about how persistence over time and being faithful has created beautiful things in people’s lives. When we only focus on results right now, we will likely be disappointed. Sometimes fruit comes quickly…or sometimes it takes 5, 10, 20+ years. In those situations where progress seems to only be 3 miles an hour, sometimes it’s hard to tell that there is progress until you realize where it all started months or years ago.

I hope you will pray with me for the sweet relationships like Carrie’s that exit around our community. Pray for opportunities to share about the great God that brought them together and for patience as we sometimes grow irked looking for fruit. Let us also thank God for the situations and people in our past that have helped us get this far. We are so lucky to have God that was and is and will be, a God who is immune to the effects of time and stays the same always. 

PS: Clarkston with a dusting of snow was quite beautiful!

2016!

Happy New Year! I hope that as we are now over a week into the new year you are holding fast to your resolutions and getting back onto your "normal" post-holiday schedule.

Holiday Updates:
We've had some really wonderful Christmas parties around Clarkston. I decorated more trees, made more ornaments, and celebrated the birth of our Savior with more people from more countries than I ever have in my entire life. It was such a blessing. I also had the true honor and pleasure of sharing American Christmas traditions of caroling, lights, gifts, nativities, and hot chocolate with some sweet families in the community who were spending their first Christmas in America with the help of an awesome mother/daughter Bible study group. Those seven seven-year-old girls and their moms brought some serious holiday joy to the families we visited.
After celebrating in the community with other's families, I think I appreciated my time at home with my family that much more.What a blessing to have most of my family living close enough together that we can see everyone over the holidays. For the family that does live farther out (love you Kentucky folks!), it's such a blessing to have the technology that keeps you always on my mind until we can be together in person again. My heart was definitely filled to overflowing this holiday season.

Jolly Ave Community Garden Tree
(decorated by the community)

Girls' Group Christmas Picture

Life Lesson:
I've recently been reading C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters, I'm not finished yet but I highly recommend it. As I was  reading the other day, I came across a quote that I really wanted to share with you. So here it is:

"And all the time the joke is that the word 'Mine' in it fully possessive sense cannot be uttered by a human being about anything." pg 114

As I've said before, living off of support really has changed my perspective on life. I have come to understand more and more every day just how true it is that humans do not (and should not) own anything on their own. All I have is the Lord's. My time is not my own, my resources are not my own, and my relationships don't belong only to me. The more I let go and stop trying to own these things, the more I am blessed by them. By opening up our house for others to use as a place to fellowship, by giving freely and without expectation of something in return, and by valuing relationships with others as a gift and not something that I deserve, I have found more joy. A close friend of mine often reminds me the importance of open hands. The Lord gives and He takes away. The thought of something being taken away is a scary thought to us sometimes. But as soon as you close your hands around something, you are no longer able to accept whatever else might come your way. Since even the lessons the Lord is teaching me are not my own, I wanted to be sure and share with you what's going on in this life I get to live.

Donations for youth programs by others who understand that what they have is not their own

2016:
We are excited for all that the Lord has in store for us this year. 2015 was pretty incredible, but the cool thing about serving an infinite God is that he can always do immeasurably more than we could every imagine. That's amazing. All the wins we had last year: 17 summer camp interns, a $50,000 check for youth programs, a brand new girls' tutoring group, and so much more...it can all be topped this year.

I hope that you will pray with me that 2016 is a year where we watch the Lord outdo himself. A year where He gains more glory and His Kingdom grows bigger than it every has before.

'Tis the Season

I hope advent has been good for you. December can get really busy and it's easy to forget to get excited about why we celebrate Christmas. I thought, for my own good really, it'd be nice to take some time to reflect on that for a minute.

For those of us who follow the teachings of Jesus, advent is a time set aside to help us get excited about what a big deal it is that God (who created the universe and everything in it) put himself in human form to walk in our shoes and show us another way to live. 

Consider, if you will, how much more you respect a boss who is willing to step down from their higher position to meet with you where you are. It's a lot easier to accept constructive criticism and critiques from someone who takes the time to understand your perspective. Especially when you see them put effort into trying to look at things from your view. A manager who does dishes with his dishwasher will gain more respect that the manager who just tells the dishwasher they are too inefficient. 

That's kind of what God did. He already knows everything, about the world and us (job 38). We humans, though, doubt his authority and like to say things like "but, God, you don't know how it feels. You've never been hungry. You've never been to jail. You've never lost a friend. You've never been tempted." God, heard us. Not only that but he knew to get through to us and save us from ourselves he would have to come down here himself and teach us. So he wrapped himself up in flesh and had the most humble beginning any human can have: He was born in the stable with the animals. The Lamb of God was swaddled in a manger where he was appropriately greeted into the world by lowly shepherds. 

He was a baby. He was a refugee. He probably got splinters. He had chores. He had siblings. He was a teenager. He got frustrated with his mom. He had friends. He was tempted. He needed to be alone sometimes. He fasted. He wept. He was betrayed by his friends. He was judged. He wrongly accused. He was doubted. He was lied to. His friend died. He was blamed and punished for things he didn't do. He experienced as much brokenness as a person could experience and even asked for a way out. Then he was killed in maybe the most painful, torturous way humans have ever come up with to kill each other. 

But then he overcame death and made it so we could get right with the Father. Now I know I'm leaking into Easter, but when you hear the opening lines to your favorite movie or book, you can't help but to get excited because you know that it just keeps getting better as the story unfolds. 

We can no longer believe the lie that God doesn't understand. He came down and lived life with us. He struggled with us. He experienced the pain. He felt the brokenness. And he showed us how to live despite it. He showed us how he intended us to be when he first created us. To love each other and to love him. 

Advent is an exciting time. We're anticipating the arrival of a savior, one who came to save us from the world and save us from ourselves. One who loves enough to pay the highest price for us. One who has already done all the work so that all we have to do is accept it. 

*That's an amazing thing, guys. We are so loved. 

Getting to celebrate the greatest present we could ever receive...that's huge! We should all be like kids on Christmas Eve who can't sleep because they know, they just know, that in the morning there will be something that they have been longing for, asking for, waiting for for what feels like forever. There's this hope that it's so close. They can almost feel it. They might not have any idea what it is, but as soon as they run downstairs in the morning they wonder how they ever lived life without this new awesome gift. We should be that excited. And unlike the presents that are often pushed aside or forgotten in the weeks after Christmas, the gift of a savior is one we can be thankful for every single day. It never gets old. You never outgrow it. It literally completes your life. 

So, friends, I feel encouraged. I hope in this week before Christmas, if you haven't been feeling it already, you're starting to fill with the anticipation that soon the waiting will be over and we will celebrate the greatest give we've ever received!

I'm lovin' it

A bridge at SIFAT modeled after what you might find in India.

Guys. I love my job. Outside of summer camp I still get to do so many things that I love and am passionate about. Things like driving over to Alabama with some sweet friends to tour a camp (SIFAT) that's doing awesome things. Or organizing ornament decorating for who knows how many people and a 14-foot tree out at the community garden. Or hanging out with youth just because we can. Or loving on and appreciating faithful volunteers because they are awesome. I even love creating the handbooks and documents we use to help train our volunteer teams and interns well and setting them up for successful ministry. It brings me joy to use the passions and experience that the Lord has gifted me with to help grow His Kingdom by facilitating a platform for relationships between people who know Jesus and people who might not.

In this season of life, I'm learning just how crucial friends are. Friends of Refugees name is no mistake. Sometimes just having someone there to love you and walk through life with you is exactly what you need. Being that person for someone else is a blessing. I've taken to telling people that on some level, my job is to be a professional friend. I'll sit and talk with you. Take you to school. Help you figure out and process the hard stuff that's going on. We will celebrate the good stuff. We'll just live life together and see where God takes us. 

Thank you so much to all of you who pour into me via texts, Facebook likes, phone calls, lunches, through prayer or any other platform. I'm so full that I'm able to be that person for others. I really couldn't do without you and find myself daily praising the Lord for the army of people behind me supporting my life here. Y'all are top notch! 

Prayer Requests:

• I sometimes just stay sick from Thanksgiving until Easter. I'd rather that not be the case. Pray that my immune system would work well and that my asthma and allergies would stay in check. 
• Along the same lines, pray that there becomes a way for us to get rid of the mold that has taken over our youth room where we do all of our after school programming. It's no good for me or the kids.  
• Time: this part of the year is crazy busy. Pray for us all that we'd be able to do what needs to be done while still having time to spend with people we love and remember what this wonderful season is all about. The most wonderful gift that the world has ever received in the form of a baby named Jesus. 

Only in Clarkston do you accidentally buy cabbage
instead of lettuce...oops

"Everybodys habs diner"

Friends.

There's a lot that is going on all the time it seems like. We bounce around from event to event and just when we feel like we are catching up with everything that's happening, five more things pop up. Recently, we've been busy people over here at Friends of Refugees. Let me break it down for you:

CCDA Conference
This past week, I had the great opportunity to join seven other FOR staff members at the Christian Community Development Association's annual conference that was held in Memphis. We packed up the vans and spent lots of quality time setting up a booth, roaming around the city looking for places to eat, connecting with other organizations from around the country, and sharing fondue with new friends.

Having fondue with Friends and having conversations about working with refugees.

The sessions and workshops at the conference were both encouraging and inspiring. It was so much fun to connect with people who have similar missions and goals from different cities and compare notes on how to overcome struggles or celebrate wins. One such friend that we made is Sarah from Ekata where refugee women in Memphis gather to create beautiful jewelry to help supplement their income, very similar to our own Refugee Sewing Society. We also connected with World Relief from many different cities and bonded over similar stories of successes and challenges of working with newly resettled refugees. Josh and I particularly had the unique opportunity to bond with Ms. Cam from the Refugee Empowerment Program in Memphis that is the only after school service available to refugees in the area. In speaking with Ms. Cam, we learned that she is an Atlanta native and fan of FOR. It was extremely humbling to hear how she talked about our organization as something that she admired and looked up. After getting the chance to pray with her and share stories about our own after school program, we all left encouraged.

Our awesome double-wide booth with our lovely staff sharing about what we do.

As great as the networking was and as enriching as the sessions and workshops were, the favorite part of the convention by staff was definitely getting a chance to know one another better as friends and not necessarily co-workers. Having dinner together and spending hours and hour together in vans was just fun. Building and strengthening the Friends of Refugees community was both needed and just a blessing.

Cracker Barrell brings everyone together!

Festivities
Tis the season for fall festivals and Christmas parties. Josh and I had the opportunity to set up a booth at our local Chick-fil-a for their Fall Festival. We recruited some kids to help us run activities and treated them to dinner after. It was really fun to get to hang out with kids and reconnect with some that I haven't seen in a while. They may net be the best workers in the world, but their silly jokes and goofy personalities make them so much fun to be around that it doesn't matter.

Working hard or hardly working? We aren't sure either. :)

There was also a garden party recently where we gathered to celebrate the birthday of someone from CNN who had worked in the Jolly Avenue Community Garden for a day and fell in love with the community. We gathered in the rain, ate good food, and took the opportunity to hang out with some families that live in the surrounding apartments. Though it was cold and wet, the fire was warm, the food was good, and the company couldn't be beat!

Friends and a bonfire make everything better.

Family Progress
Thank you so much for your prayers for the camper family that has been trying to get back on their feet. The middle schooler has been bussed to school for a week now without Josh and I having to take him and mom is continuing to practice her English in and out of class. They still have a ways to go, but they are working hard. Pray for them to continue to build their community and gain opportunities for a job and childcare for the baby. God is good!

The Elephant in the Room
There's a lot of talk about refugees these days. I don't think I can count the articles I've seen posted to Facebook or the response emails I have received from other organizations working with refugees in the community. I have seen news trucks all over Clarkston and know that many of my friends and co-workers have been flooded with questions from friends and family who just want to understand what's going on. Part of me is happy that people are seeking knowledge about refugees and that we have the opportunity to educate a lot of people about what we do. The other part of me is deeply saddened by the half-truths and misinformation that is floating around and skewing the views of people with good intentions. The fears people have about the safety of their country and families are valid and worthy of being addressed. I urge you to read Friends of Refugees response and I invite you to come and visit me at work. I'd love to sit down with you and have a conversation about the refugee resettlement process and show you around our beautiful little city. Fear is emotional and facts often don't ease fear, rather it takes an opportunity to show some courage and experience what could be. So please call me, text me, email me, Facebook me, or come visit me. I would love to share my experiences with you.

Story Time
Let's leave this on a happy note. I've had a great day today, y'all. After a morning in the office, I took the afternoon to visit a Somali family with a few of my friends who are current Missionary Training Students with Global Frontier Missions. I was instantly encouraged as I met with my friends before we left for our visit. I learned how many of the youth they are visiting on their own time that I didn't know about. Praise the Lord that people are in the community helping to care for and love these kids! Being one of just a few full-time youth workers in the area, it's such a blessing to know there's a team of people out there because we can't do it on our own. It's both humbling and encouraging.
Back to the family we went to visit. I've known them for years through summer camp and have always had a soft spot in my heart for them. For years, I have been praying for people to be able to invest in them more frequently than I can on my own and when I heard my GFM friends were at their house weekly to just hang out I almost cried. God is so good. It was so sweet to be welcomed in and to catch up with the youth that I have come to know so well. The oldest daughter made tea for us and pulled up the summer camp video from when she was a camper (my first summer interning) and we reminisced about the good old days. The younger boys tried to sign up for camp on the spot and cheered when I told them I was the Camp Director this year. Those boys can be a handful, but over time I've seen them make better and better choices, "I was really good last summer! I never even got a strike, right Ms. Emily?!" It made my heart full to be able to brag on him in front of his family and friends about what a good kid he is.
I left praising God for how good He is and thanking him for using those kids to remind me why I'm here.

I know this was a long one! Thanks for making all the way through. I appreciate you so much and pray that you would be living the abundant life too. :)

God Wins

It is becoming abundantly clear to me what abundant life can be like. Over the past week or so I have just been overwhelmed with how supportive and loving the people in my life are (and just how many of those people in blessed to have in my life). A trip to Athens to visit with old friends, some FaceTime to visit with far away friends, and quality time with new friends right here in the Atlanta area. Community is such a sweet, sweet thing.

Don't forget my family, though. Their phone calls, texts, care packages, and visits have what helped me get here in the first place. They are amazing, y'all. They keep tabs on my life better than I can and I'm so thankful for their interest and desire to be a part of what I get to do here in Clarkston. I'm well aware of others in similar jobs as mine that don't have the unconditional love and support I've received. Family, you rock. 

Updates!

Everything is holding steady. We've had so much fun with the girls group on Thursdays getting to know each other, laughing, and doing homework. Their a pretty incredible group of ladies. Our volunteers too though. We could not have such a great turnout without their help. These girls can't help but to leave the group knowing that they are loved and cared for by others. While I don't spend as much time with the boys in Tuesday's, I know there's a similar theme there. 

Never get tired of pictures of this room. It's where God comes to meet with the youth. 

I've started to come to the conclusion that the job of all the youth staff in all of Clarkston to prove to these young people that they are always loved wherever they go and whatever they do. It's a beautiful thing really. I saw evidence of this at a bonfire after Friday night youth group. It's pretty awesome when a group of adults gather together to pray about and discuss the best ways to minister to the youth in the area. It was both personally refreshing and enhancing to the Kingdom. 

Who doesn't love a good fire? 

My friends who I get to Drive around town frequently are doing really well right now. Staying in a house with another family has been a blessing for them. The 12-year-old has been granted access to stay at his school (praise the Lord) and soon a bus will take him to school. Trust me, this kid deserves some normalcy in his life. He's been a champ through the whole situation. Mom is also doing well. Staying with another family has given her the opportunity to help around the house and find other ways to serve the family hosting her. It does wonders for your dignity when you can help provide for your family even a little bit. Keep praying for them to move towards getting back on their feet. 

My view for much of the time I'm in the car.

That's about all I have for you. Except one more thing...WE GOT A $50,000 CHECK! Youth Programs applied for a grant through Chick-fil-a's True Inspiration awards and out of all the other youth programs in the nation, we won. Praise God!

I know I am a tiny person. 

Speaking of, tonight I'm going to hang out with a bunch of volunteers who have decided to put in their own pumpkin carving event for some youth. I love their intentionality. 

Praise Reports

There's been a lot of good things going here that have kept me very busy. I sometimes feel like a taxi service taking people to and from all kinds of places. Sometimes car rides are great places to talk and get to know someone more. I have found that I am very thankful for the time spent with people in my car. My job is hard to describe to people, but I just love being a friend to so many.

Camper Family
Remember back when I told you about the camper who had come across some hard times? The family was staying in a shelter and we were working to help get them back on their feet. Well, listen to this. They are now staying in the extra room at a new friend's house. The mom is practicing her English and building her confidence. On Tuesday we went with her to her child's school to discuss some issues about transportation to and from school since their move out of the shelter. She was very timid at first, but with the help of a language line and some friends by her side, you could see her feeling more and more dignified. When I picked her up for English class the next day, she was smiling and started a conversation with me for the first time. She was put together and seems to be doing much better. She asked me to come over and help her with a few things and tried so hard to speak with me when before our ride had been in mostly silence.

This family still has a long way to go, but they are showing so much progress. The middle schooler is experiencing a lot of transition which is causing a lot of stress. Pray for all of them that they would be able to settle soon and go back to being a family without having to worry so much about how they will get by.

Homework Group
Annalisa and I are having a blast with our girls. They really are the best and I wish you could all get to know each one of them. They are unique, beautiful, smart, kind girls who come together on Thursdays with friends to try and do homework knowing that it matters for their future. It's actually hard to get them to stop doing their homework before they are done. I'm blessed by my time with them each and every week.

Community
Recently I have found out hoe thankful I am for the little community I am a part of. From the McKendree 20+ group to the other FOR staff, I am constantly surrounded by great people who encourage me. My roommates and the friends I have made in Clarkston have helped this whole big post-grad life transition much more manageable. I'm so thankful for my family as well who continues to support me and help me in any way that they can. Y'all are the best!!!

Prayer Requests
As always, please continue to pray hat financial support would continue to come in. I have hit a wall recently it seems, and still need about $6,000 more to be fully funded. I hope that you will prayerfully consider becoming a monthly giver if you have not already or share my information with anyone you think might be interested in helping.

Pray for the camper family who is trying so hard to achieve the American Dream. There are many pieces that still need to fall into place and complex systems to making those things happen.

Pray for Friends of Refugees that we continue to always seek God's will first and that we would never do work outside of what he has planned for us.