March 17, 2023
I love walking people through our new building for the first time. I love getting to share the unique stories, the incredible opportunities, the ways our staff, volunteers, and interns are meeting needs on a daily basis. I love getting to show the ways our new building has built our capacity. Now we can respond more readily to the growing needs as new families and individuals walk through our doors.
There’s usually a feeling of awe or wonder from guests who are less familiar with refugee care… “I had no idea…”. I know, right? Me neither. I’m sometimes embarrassed by the ignorance I possessed not long ago. I honestly had no idea what it can mean to be a refugee… but I’m learning more about it every single day, and it rattles me to the core.
Beyond the new artisan programs, or the English classes, or the community gatherings, or the care coordinating, or the shopping that our new building can now provide (simultaneously, at that)… I think the story is really more about the space it has given. Space to show up. Space to create room for relationships, friendships, to begin, grow, and flourish. Friendships between staff and refugees. Between refugees and volunteers. Between refugees and refugees. Between volunteers and interns. Between a community that lives in the same city, fused together by circumstances, passion, and a willingness to show up.
I’d love to walk you through our new building sometime. It’s providing space for our paths to intersect and, at these intersections, for each of us to leave changed as a result of the time spent together. It’s providing space for relationships… relationships we want you to be part of.
I’d love for our paths to intersect. I’d love to learn about your circumstances and passions, to share about the needs we see and how we’re working hard to help meet them. I’d love to learn what you can bring to the table to serve our refugee neighbors.
Come and learn what role you can play. On April 14th at noon, come to 10 N. Garth Ave. We’ll have tea and cookies. An official City of Refuge Tea & Tour. And if you can’t come then, come on May 12th. And if you can’t come then, come on June 9th. And, if you can’t make any of those times, shoot me an email. We’ll make sure it gets on the calendar when it works for your schedule.
Because we love to walk people through the building. We love it when our worlds get bigger, because our hearts seem to quickly follow suit.
You have a role to play. Let’s figure out what that can be together.
Debbie Beal
Executive Director
