Dear Friends and Family,
It has been just over a month since our last newsletter, but a lot has happened. We are excited to share with you what we are learning about refugees and a bit more about our plans for the next few months.
During our time in the States and now in Holland, we have had many conversations with various people about the refugee situation.
One thing that has struck us is the wide variety of views and opinions held among Christians -- even among those who serve and worship together. Because the topic of refugees has become more political both in Europe and the United States over the past few years, opinions about public policy often enter the conversation about the Christian response.
All this makes our conversations about our ministry more interesting -- and more complicated.
In the last year we have had the chance to learn about the refugee situation from various resources in the Chicago area, including World Relief, one of the 9 organizations authorized to work with and resettle refugees in the US.
We would like to share some of these resources with you, and bring you along with us as we learn more about the world refugee crisis ourselves.
Learn With Us
We are reading the book
Seeking Refuge: On the Shores of the Global Refugee Crisis.
You can learn more about the book and sign up to receive a free chapter here.
You can also download a free Small Group discussion guide!
If you'd like to borrow the book
let us know! We'll ship it to you!
More Resources about Refugees in the United States
The following resources are provided by World Relief.
We see World Relief as a great source for verifiable information from a Christian worldview.
We’ve found that they do a great job of taking seriously people’s fears and apprehensions about refugees coming to the United States and, at the same time, help us find a better and more loving response than that of distanciation and polarization: that of seeking relationships and sharing Christ with foreigners around us.
Click the links for: Frequently Asked Questions
Including questions like:
- How might the Bible inform our thinking about this situation?
- What's the difference between a refugee and an undocumented (or "illegal") immigrant?
- How can we be sure that these "refugees"are not actually terrorists seeking to infiltrate our country?
- Can our church sponsor a refugee family?
Praises and Prayer Requests:
In July we had the opportunity to share with some friends and speak at Poplar Creek Church and were encouraged by the interest people have shown.
In August and September we have two presentations: at Henk's parents' church and at our church in Amsterdam.
We are praying for wisdom and provision as we work out the details of the plans for this Fall.
We are thankful that so many of the family members could come together in Germany for Ryan and Franzi's wedding. And that Marc, Amy and Eli will be welcoming a baby girl into the family in a few months!
Our next steps...
When we last emailed you, we had just finished orientation training at ITeams -- a step on our path to working at the Athens Refugee Center in Greece. Only a few weeks later, we were on our way to Germany, where we celebrated Allie’s brother Ryan's wedding. Now we are in Holland to continue our fundraising and preparations for the months ahead.
As many of you know, Allie had previously studied at a small art school in Greece, where she felt very encouraged and empowered to learn and create art. She then completed her degree in Intercultural Leadership, and has continued to work on integrating those two areas in preparation for ministry. For her Intercultural Leadership capstone Senior project, Allie created a plan for using art for community development in refugee communities.
Here’s the amazing thing: going back to the art school in Greece had been a dream of ours. This semester will be a valuable opportunity for Allie to gain further expertise and inspiration in using her art with refugees. We look forward to sharing more of this dream with you in future newsletters. Living in Greece will also be an excellent opportunity for us both to get started on our Greek language learning.
OUR plan had been to try to do that in Spring 2017. As so often happens, our plans have yielded to a higher plan. The door to go in the Spring slammed shut, followed by an invitation from the school to come in the Fall… which means that we start early September!
This unexpected change in schedule re-arranges OUR plan for fundraising presentations in Holland, but at the same time, reduces our overall travel expenses for the next few months and we will still be able to visit the Refugee Center this Fall.
Please pray that we’ll clearly and quickly see the opportunities that God’s change in our plans lead us into.
We’ve been saving up for this, but we are waiting to see what scholarships will come through. These will have an influence on the logistics and whether or not Henk can be present during the whole semester. Please pray for provision and wisdom as the details are worked out.
We are really excited about our prayer team that is coming together. Right now it is a group that receives e-mails about more urgent prayer requests. Our vision is that it will become an active part of the ministry in Athens.
Thank you to everyone who has joined our prayer team, we could not do this without you standing with us.
How and when will we get to the Athens Refugee Center?
We will go to Athens when we have reached 100% of our funding. Our goal is to be fully funded by June 2017 so that we can attend pre-field Access training in July and move to Athens after our final training.
Our goal is to be 40% funded by the New Year.
We are currently below 5%.
Thanks to those of you who have said you will support us.
We are very encouraged.
The next step is for you to fill out our the pledge cards you may have picked up or go to https://give.iteams.us/30US3021 to fill out and submit the form.
This allows us to track our fundraising progress so that we know where we are and can plan ahead.
In December we plan to return to the United States, and we hope to have more opportunities to share in Churches and Small Groups and individually.
Don't forget to check out all the ways you can join our team.
Learn More About International Teams
We want to share with you more about who we are as part of ITeams.
Below is a video from Scott Olson, our friend and the President of ITeams, speaking briefly on John 4:1-4 and why it is one of our foundational scriptures.
Only Jesus can transform lives and communities, but he invites us to join with him in his work. We will not separate mission and compassion, because Jesus doesn’t. Transformed lives lead to transformed communities, and transformed communities lead to transformed lives.