AFGHAN REFUGEES- A MINISTRY FRONTIER!

Sometimes we make plans for the ministry we will share at Christian Temple. Other times, well...as it turns out an 80" discarded couch can offer a new opportunity to serve.

Over the Christmas holidays, for reasons that are much too complicated to go into, an 80" couch wound up in our Gathering Space that had to go. Since the couch was too big for a standard pickup truck we began looking at other ways we could "repurpose" it. After a few phone calls, we found a really good one.

Turns out an Afghan family of six is in need of some furniture. The Akbari family has been living in a row home in Irvington for a few weeks, Prior to that they were in a hotel over by BWI. Prior to that, they were being housed at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in Pemberton NJ. Prior to that they were among the Afghans who were airlifted out of the country in the final days before the Taliban takeover. And, prior to that, for more than twelve years, they had been living in rural Afghanistan providing valuable assistance to US and allied military troops..

On Monday, thanks to some more emails and phone calls, we delivered that big old couch along with a LOT of other important household items to the Akbari's. And what we found there, was not only a family in need of some assistance from a few grateful Americans, but also an exciting frontier for ministry.

Turns out this family needs not only some furniture, but also a few other things: some help getting their kids enrolled in school, some assistance with grocery shopping, maybe a tablet or two to help the kids in the meantime. In short, we have more ways we can serve them than the important things we have already done. AND, we have only recently discovered that the new offices for Lutheran Social Services, a group that has worked very hard to resettle Afghan refugees, are now located in Arbutus.

So, here's the deal, anyone who would like to be part of a ministry team tasked with helping resettle Afghan families into our community is invited to let me know. We will have a virtual orientation meeting with a few people who are already providing this assistance, and then get started.

Oh, and in the meantime, anyone who is available to attend a training session on Monday February 7th is invited to call the office.

Good stuff!

Shalom,  ~Rick