Archive for the ‘churches’ Category
Posted by Christopher Coen on February 28, 2012
A 14-passenger 2002 Chevrolet Express van overloaded with 17 people, many of them not wearing seat belts, rolled over on I-96 in Michigan near Grand Rapids. An 18-year-old Burundian refugee named Ombeni Erasto died, and his sister reportedly lost part of her leg. Several other people in the van were injured. State police said the van’s rear tire blew, causing the 22-year-old driver to lose control. An article at the Lansing State Journal gives some details:
LOWELL TWP. — The Lansing teenager who died Sunday in an accident near Grand Rapids was on his way home from a church choir performance that he had been looking forward to for a while, said his younger brother.
Omberi Erasto, 18…was one of 17 people ranging in age from infant to adult in a 14-passenger 2002 Chevrolet Express van, which was traveling east on Interstate 96 in Lowell Township. State police said the van’s rear tire blew, causing the 22-year-old Lansing driver to lose control. The van struck another vehicle and slid sideways off the roadway.
The accident killed Erasto, a senior at Lansing Eastern High School. Several relatives, including three of his sisters, also were injured in the accident, said Erasto’s younger brother, Shukurani Nyabenda, 16. Nyabenda said other family members were also in the van…
…His family came to Michigan from Tanzania as refugees about five years ago, Nyabenda said. Erasto was born in Burundi… Read more here
…and this from WOOD-TV 8:
LANSING, Mich. (WOOD) – The 15-passenger van that overturned along I-96 Sunday carried 17 members of Lansing’s Burundi Choir who were returning home after a concert in Grand Rapids.
Ombeni Erasto died in the crash , and his sister reportedly lost part of her leg. Several other people were injured, and many were not wearing seat belts.
The group includes many Burundi refugees who fled their country during the civil war and ended up in Tanzanian refugee camps… Read more here
A report from the WILX media outlet says that out of the 17 on board, over half were under the age of 18, including three infants.
These vans are not safe when used for their intended purpose of carrying the maximum allowable number of passengers. The vans should never be overloaded, and must be underloaded. In addition, fuel tanks should be kept full to help lower the center of gravity, all passengers must wear seat belts, tires must be regularly inspected, and only people experienced with driving passenger vans should be at the wheel.
In December three refugees died in a passenger van rollover in Amarillo, Texas. Another van rolled in November near Rushmore, Minnesota. In early 2011 there were van rollover accidents involving refugees in central Georgia (and here) and northern Georgia. A passenger van rollover in Arizona in 2009 killed six refugees.
Posted in Burundian, churches, Michigan, teenagers, passenger van roll-over, Lansing | Tagged: refugees, resettlement, Burundi, Burundian, rollover, roll-over, Lansing, passenger van, Chevrolet Express, Grand Rapids, Ombeni Erasto | 5 Comments »
Posted by Christopher Coen on January 22, 2012
Oh gosh. World Relief, in my opinion one of the public’s most intransigent and problem-plagued refugee resettlement contractors, continues to spread itself out (problems including refusing to hire an interpreter because he was Muslim, partner church staff and members moving into apartment complexes with refugees to “foster deeper relationships”, alienating other partner churches and having refugee clients work without pay, and placing new refugees in other refugee clients’ homes without agreements.) The group will soon open a new office in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and may begin resettling its first group of refugees in February. A reader-submitted announcement about the office opening is found at The Oshkosh Northwestern:
International humanitarian agency World Relief will open an office in Oshkosh this month. With approval and funding from the U.S. Department of State, World Relief has selected the Fox Cities as a Wisconsin base for a nationwide program of refugee resettlement and support.
Longtime Oshkosh resident Norm Leatherwood will direct this office and UW Oshkosh Human Services graduate Sarah Kurer will serve as a case-worker and Resettlement and Placement Program coordinator…
…As an agency partner with the U.S. Department of State for the past 30 years, World Relief has assisted more than 200,000 victims of persecution resettle as legal immigrants in the United States…
…While details are still being finalized, the first group of refugees could move to Oshkosh by the middle of February… Read more here
Posted in churches, evangelical, faith-based, Oshkosh, World Relief | Tagged: Oshkosh, refugees, resettlement, World Relief | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on December 29, 2011
According to the Global Frontiers Missions website, they are a Christian missionary group targeting those whom they call “THUMB people” – so-called “Tribal” people, Hindus, nonreligious people (the so-called ”Unreligious”), Muslims, and Buddhists (apparently they see little value in other people’s cultures, although I suspect they enjoy foreign foods). The organization seeks to “multiply”, that is, to evangelize and “discipline” refugees and immigrants to the point that they can “go back” and “spread” — among their own people – the group’s brand of faith. The organization recently branched out to target refugees, immigrants and international students in Houston and Clarkston, GA, but also operates in Jacksonville, Los Angeles, New York City, and the Twin Cities. They find that young people’s minds are apparently more pliable for religious conversion, and that they can use children to get at the parents. OneNewsNow has the story:
A missionary organization is focusing on spreading the gospel in two communities in the United States that are very diverse.
Houston, Texas has drawn immigrants from many countries, and according to Grant Haynes of Global Frontiers Missions(GFM), Clarkston, Georgia has done likewise…
…“We help teach English. We help run an Internet café where people can learn typing skills and take the job skills that they have in their countries to come up with a resume that helps make sense in this country and [helps] them with job placement,” Haynes details. “We help their kids with after-school programs.”
He adds that GFM has found that the younger set especially is becoming bilingual, and many are open to the gospel… Read more here
and
Nathan Harper has moved to the Atlanta area to join Global Frontier Missions in ministering to a large concentration of immigrants and refugees…
…The ministry will also be reaching out to children, which Harper says is a good avenue to reach the parents. Global Frontier Missions has a similar project in Houston and is hoping to utilize the same approach to present the gospel to immigrants elsewhere in the United States… Read more here
Posted in Atlanta, Buddhist, children, Christian, churches, converting refugees, faith-based, Hindu, Houston, Islamic | Tagged: Clarkston, cultural imperialism, Global Frontiers Missions, missionaries, Nathan Harper, neocolonial, refugees, religious conversion, resettlement, Sugar Land | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on November 13, 2011
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), the largest refugee resettlement contractor in the U.S., has adopted a more combative style after failing to get their way on various government social services contracts. After refusing to recognize a new civil union law in Illinois, state government officials stopped working with Catholic Charities on adoptions and foster-care placements. Then, when the USCCB continued to refuse to simply refer human traffic victims – who are often raped and forced into prostitution by their captors – to the full legal range of permissible gynecological and obstetric care, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services decided not to renew the group’s human trafficking grant. The Bishops have decided to ignore critical social justice issues, such as the increasing poverty rate during these hard economic times, while pursuing a so-called religious liberty under attack agenda. They still don’t seem to get the fact that most non-Catholics – and no doubt many Catholics as well – no longer trust them after years of bruising revelations that many dioceses moved clergy involved in sexual abuse of children among parishes without alerting parents or police. An Associated Press article has more:
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops meets Monday in Baltimore for its national meeting feeling under siege…
Many Catholic academics, activists and parishioners say the bishops are overreacting. John Gehring of Faith in Public Life, an advocacy network for more liberal religious voters, has argued that in a pluralistic society, government officials can choose policies that
differ from church teaching without prejudice being a factor.
“Some perspective is needed here,” Gehring, a Catholic, wrote on his organization’s blog…
…The Health and Human Services Department [HHS] recently decided not to renew a contract held since 2006 by the bishops’ refugee services office to help victims of human trafficking…the women are often raped and forced into prostitution by their captors.
Sister Mary Ann Walsh, spokeswoman for the bishops, has called the decision discriminatory and a case of “ABC,” meaning anyone but Catholics. [HHS agency] officials vehemently deny any bias and say the sole criteria for evaluating potential grantees was which group could best serve the victims. Administration officials note that the vast network of Catholic social service nonprofits, including the bishops’ conference, receives hundreds of millions of dollars in government funding in amounts that have increased in the last couple of years…
…Scott Appleby, a prominent religious historian at the University of Notre Dame, says many church leaders have recently adopted “a more pugnacious style, much more of a kind of culture-wars attitude.” At the same time, the bishops’ have been stung by their loss of public influence from the sex abuse crisis and the years of bruising revelations that many dioceses moved guilty clergy among parishes without alerting parents or police.
“The church no longer receives deference or the hands-off attitude that it once had for many years. That’s gone,” Appleby said…
Critics of the bishops view the closer focus on religious liberty as another sign that church leaders are turning inward and away from promoting the church’s teaching on social justice.
Steven Krueger, national director of Catholic Democrats, pointed to the agenda released ahead of this week’s meeting, which included no public discussion of poverty despite the state of the economy. In the 1980s, the bishops issued an influential pastoral letter on Catholic principles and the economy, which church leaders reaffirmed in statements and education programs over the next decade.
“I think this certainly will represent to a vast majority of Catholics a tone-deafness on the part of many, many bishops,” Krueger said… Read more here
Posted in Catholic, churches, faith-based, health, HHS, human trafficking, Illinois, sexual abuse, USCCB | Tagged: Catholic Bishops, catholic church, Catholic social service, government contractor, Health and Human Services, HHS, Human trafficking, Scott Appleby, sexual abuse, USCCB | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on September 8, 2011
A suburban Chicago church, the Wheaton Bible Church, partnering with the World Relief refugee resettlement contractor has found a “window” in their efforts to convert Muslims to Christianity. They term this conversion strategy “immigration engagement theology” and are implementing it via their MOVE Initiative. So committed are they to converting the refugees, several staff and church members have moved into the Wheaton apartment complex where World Relief placed 15 Iraqi families, claiming they want to foster deeper relationships with the refugees. The story is found in the September 2011 issue of Christianity Today:
Shortly after our son Paul graduated from high school this spring, we put him on a plane with seven other students for a two-week trip to France and Italy. Their trek, led by four adults, was a small piece of Wheaton Bible Church’s (WBC) MOVE Initiative, a relatively nascent project defined by its mission and ministry to Muslims both in suburban Chicago and abroad…
…Locally, the MOVE Initiative reaches out to about 15 Iraqi families in a nearby apartment complex through a partnership with World Relief. Several staff and church members have moved into the complex to foster deeper relationships, which typically begin with relatively simple tasks when the refugees arrive: picking them up at the airport, stocking their fridges, running errands, and meeting other practical needs involved in resettlement.
“We’re just meeting needs and building relationships,” says local-impact pastor Chris McElwee. “They’re not strangers to us. They know us and trust us, and they’re interested in spiritual things.” At least a couple of the Iraqi men have been visiting WBC in recent months, attending worship services (with their Arabic/English Bibles in hand) and taking part in a discussion group.
Our new MOVE missionaries, who recently arrived in France, will take essentially the same approach: helping refugees resettle, meeting needs, and building relationships. The hope is that as the friendships grow, so will opportunities to share the gospel…
…Greater Europe Mission president Henry Deneen says the relatively recent influx of Muslims to Europe has affected his ministry’s overall strategy. It still reaches out to native Europeans, but “there’s a window of time here, especially with all the uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East, that immigrants are flooding into Europe.
“Several European governments—particularly France, Germany, and the UK—are saying that the experiment of multiculturalism … has failed,” he says. “So you have a perfect storm—immigrants flooding in, and governments saying it’s not working. We’re saying, what a great place for the Lord Jesus to be.”
Thus, Wheaton Bible’s efforts to reach out to Muslims in France. Says Bugh, “It’s all part of a larger immigration engagement theology that’s worked for us.” Read more here
Posted in Chicago, churches, converting refugees, evangelical, faith-based, Iraqi, Islamic, World Relief | Tagged: Chicago, Chris McElwee, conversion, Emily Gray, Henry Deneen, immigration engagement theology, missionaries, MOVE Initiative, multiculturalism, proselytization, refugees, resettlement, WBC, Wheaton, Wheaton Bible Church, World Relief | 2 Comments »
Posted by Melissa Sogard on September 2, 2011
An 18-year-old Chin refugee from Myanmar, and resettled to Washington state just two weeks ago, is the latest refugee to die from accidental drowning. An article about the tragic drowning is in the Whidbey News-Times:
An 18-year-old refugee from Burma drowned while swimming at a Deception Pass State Park lake Saturday afternoon, according to the Island County Coroner’s Office.
Sang Cung Hnin was at Cranberry Lake with a group of friends from a Kent church group when the tragedy occurred. Hnin and his family escaped from Burma, which is officially known as the military-dominated Republic of the Union of Myanmar, and had been living in Malaysia prior to moving to Kent just two weeks ago.
Island County Coroner Robert Bishop said he could find no explanation for the drowning. An autopsy revealed that Hnin was a completely healthy young man and his family members confirmed that he was a strong swimmer.
Bishop said he could only speculate that perhaps Hnin may have cramped while he was in the water… Read more here
Posted in World Relief, churches, Chin, teenagers, drowning, Kent | Tagged: refugee, World Relief, resettlement, Burma, Myanmar, Kent, drowning, Cin, Washinton, Cranberry Lake, Sang Cung Hnin, Deception Pass | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on August 1, 2011
It seems that the best way to help immigrants with acculturation – the process of assimilating new ideas into an existing cognitive
structure – is to meet them part way between our culture and theirs. Nooga.com has an article about Boy Scout leaders in Chattanooga who show adept skill at guiding Burundian refugee youth into American culture by tailoring Boy Scout values and traditions to the young people’s experiences and understandings. That’s at the heart of any good teaching no doubt, whether one is teaching adults or children, or Americans or the foreign-born. You have to know your students — not treat them like numbers.
Before a recent hiking outing in the Pocket Wilderness, a member of East Ridge Scout Troop 127 asked Scoutmaster Ben Powell if he’d be bringing along a rifle.
“Why?” Powell replied.
“In case we see a lion,” the scout answered.
Considering the scout’s background, the question wasn’t unreasonable. Of Troop 127′s nine members, six are refugees from Burundi, a small, landlocked country in Eastern Africa with a long history of conflict…
…Powell described the development of the troop as one of continual adaptation, as leaders and scouts have grown in their understanding of one another. Troop leaders now rarely ever wear the Boy Scout uniform, due to a negative association with uniforms wrought from years of civil war in their native country.
To work towards forming stronger relationships, Powell’s approach has been unconventional, but with purpose. In the basement room where the troop meets, a whiteboard shows the tenants of the Scout Law, with the hand-written corresponding words in Kirundi, the indigenous language of Burundi…
…”To be effective working among the Burundians, you have to unpin a lot of your ideas from normality, and that can be disruptive to a lot of people personally,” Powell said. “For example, we discovered that for our Burundians, the forest is not only a place with dangerous animals, but also where military units took people to murder them. So, they are pretty hesitant about places other Scouts would typically enjoy.”
J.R. Caines, pastor of East Ridge Presbyterian, refers to the Burundians as family. He described the church’s mission with the troop as one of not “reaching out, but reaching in.”
“They’re thinking about the future, about having to one day get a job and find their way in America,” Caines said. “So it’s not as much about learning the typical Boy Scout outdoor skills, but also the cultural skills, the way that American culture works.”… Read more here
The only part of the story I’m wary about is the emphasis on Christian values. Those are a significant part of American culture, but not all Christian values – or all of each sect’s values – necessarily represent our common values. Refugee resettlement is a public program serving our whole society. I hope that the Boy Scouts in Chattanooga stick to that part of Christianity that represents the universal human values from which we created our culture, including trustworthiness, loyalty, helpfulness.
Posted in Bridge Refugee and Sponsorship Services, Bridge Refugee and Sponsorship Services, Burundian, Chattanooga, Christian, churches, converting refugees, cultural adjustment, faith-based, teenagers | Tagged: acculturation, American values, Boy Scouts, Burundian, Chattanooga, East Ridge, East Ridge Presbyterian, kirundi, refugees, resettlement | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on June 14, 2011
I submitted a question for George Rupp, president and CEO of the IRC, for his interview today by the PRM’s Assistant Secretary Eric Schwartz.
“Why does the IRC partner with local churches in their attempts to convert Bhutanese refugees to Christianity, for example, IRC’s partnership with The Word at Southern Hills church in Abilene, Texas?”
Unfortunately this comment seems to have magically disappeared from the list of submitted questions (funny how that works). Yet, I base the question on a news article from Abilene that I linked to in January. Personally I think that these refugees’ Hindu and Buddhist beliefs are serving them just fine and I don’t understand why our government and its contractors, therefore we as a society, are partnering to give these new Americans a new religion, which they haven’t requested.
So then I submitted another question, which this time they actually posted:
“A 2007 State Department PRM monitoring report for the IRC office in Baltimore indicates that the IRC and another resettlement contractor frequently placed refugees into an East Baltimore apartment complex that had evidence of questionable maintenance and security standards (housing that is safe, sanitary, and in good repair is supposedly a State Department refugee contract requirement). Monitors also noted that the IRC had failed to give a three-member Meskhetian Turk refugee family a crib and other supplies for their infant son. I note, again, that these items are listed as “minimum” required items in the State Department contracts. Why does the IRC fail to meet so-called “minimum requirements” of their obligations to refugees in the public/private partnership?”
The State Department did not select this question for use in the interview — of course — yet this question was also based on a document – one of the State Department’s own monitoring reports – so it’s not like I just make this stuff up. Again the State Department doesn’t want to discuss the issue.
I think there’s an obvious problem here when our government feels free to filter out substantive questions that it may not feel comfortable with, or which may not convey the message it wishes to control, but isn’t the supposed intent of our constitutional democracy to allow public input? I think we need to be concerned when a part of our US Department of State feels free to disregard that fundamental principle.
Posted in State Department, PRM, Nepali Bhutanese, Meskhetian Turks (Ahiska
Turk), Christian, Eric P. Schwartz (former Asst Sec.), Assistant Secretary of the PRM, churches, neglect, housing, substandard, household items, missing or broken, public/private partnership, furnishings, lack of, openess and transparency in government, children, Abilene, Buddhist, Hindu, Baltimore | Tagged: Abilene, Assistant Secretary of Population Refugees and Migration, Baltimore, Buddhist, censorship, Christian, constitution democracy, Conversations with America, conversion, Eric Schwartz, George Rupp, Hindu, International Rescue Committee, IRC, Meskhetian Turk, monitoring report, Population Refugees and Migration, PRM, public/private partnership, refugee, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, refugee resettlement program, resettlement, State Department, The Word at Southern Hills | 4 Comments »
Posted by Christopher Coen on April 13, 2011
The Australian Newcastle Herald newspaper reported that refugee advocates have found a human rights lawyer to assist refugee clients of the refugee resettlement contractor Navitas consortium. The Australian federal government recently renewed the contractor’s 3-year contract even though it has been placing refugee clients in run-down housing with broken plumbing and appliances, and with exorbitant rental rates. A Josephite nun, Diana Santleben, warned the federal government about the problems in February before the contract was renewed.
HUMAN rights lawyer George Newhouse is considering a possible class action against Navitas and the federal government on behalf of refugee families living in Newcastle.
Local refugee advocates engaged the high-profile legal identity to help them pursue claims that refugees were living in squalor with few support services under the government’s resettlement program.
Navitas subsidiary, the Australian College of Languages, recently had its contract to run the program in Newcastle renewed.
Mr Newhouse said he was disturbed by the reports coming from Newcastle.
‘‘From the evidence I’ve seen there is clearly evidence of an ongoing problem in Newcastle,’’ Mr Newhouse..said.
‘‘I am going to assist refugees and refugee advocates in obtaining action they can take against either or both Navitas or the department [of Immigration and Citizenship].
‘‘I would not rule out a class action on their behalf.’’
Refugee advocates rallied outside refugee properties in Sandgate and Shortland yesterday in support of improved living conditions and lower rent for refugees settled in the government program.
‘‘This is not something against landlords, consumerism or private enterprise,’’ Penola House volunteer Sister Diana Santleben said… Read more here
Posted in Australian refugee resettlement prgm, Catholic, churches, Congolese, household items, missing or broken, housing, housing, substandard, neglect, public/private partnership, Sudanese | Tagged: Australia, Australian College of Languages, Diana Santleben, George Newhouse, human rights, Immigration and Citizenship, Navitas consortium, New South Whales, Newcastle, refugee, refugee advocates, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, refugee resettlement program, Sandgate, Shortland, slum lord, slumlord | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on March 16, 2011
It looks as if the Catholic Diocese of Arlington switched from one type of disorganization to another from 2008 to 2010. A new State Department inspection report from 2008 indicates that the agency was placing refugee clients in Fredericksburg in housing with roach infestations, leaking windows and ceilings, and even demanded that a refugee sign an apartment lease without explaining it to her. She refused to sign it. A Burundian refugee father said that he appealed to the agency for six months to help him find a job but only worked about three days cleaning up shops.
Yet, two years later in 2010 local churches and volunteers were observing some very different forms of refugee neglect. Now, the agency was placing refugees in apartments without food or furniture and not giving refugees help with transportation. What is the rhyme and reason to these fluctuations?
If we assume that the State Department inspections — usually as rare as once in ten years — are at all effective, then what does it mean if noting one set of problems, and hopefully addressing them, simply leads to a sprouting of different problems?
One thing I know is that the State Department has no penalties for resettlement agencies’ failure to abide by even the minimum requirements of the government contracts. Could it be that the resettlement agency personnel sulk and pout over any criticism, and then temporarily fix the problems and then slack off on other minimum requirements? The reigning philosophy at many resettlement agencies seems to be that all problems are caused by 1) insufficient government funding (don’t raise the issue of the private funding they are supposed to raise to augment the public funding), 2) they don’t like having to do documentation of the services they claim to give refugees (who does like doing intensive paperwork?), 3) refugees are just so needy, and 4) hey, we just set up a new satellite office, so things won’t run well for a few years (what? refugees won’t even get food and a few used furnishings? why not?).
Whatever is happening, this case shows the limited effectiveness of current oversight in which 1) there are no penalties for failure to abide by contract obligations, 2) inspections are pre-announced, and 3) inspections are so rare that new problems can emerge in as a little as a few months or a year or two and the government inspectors won’t know until they come back ten years later.
It looks like we’re sorely overdue for a revamping of these inspections.
Posted in State Department, Burundian, faith-based, volunteers, employment services, Catholic, fredericksburg, Catholic Diocese of Arlington, churches, food, beds, transportation, community/cultural orientation, housing, substandard, fractious relationships with volunteers, furnishings, lack of, language interpretation/translation, lack of, Iranian, cultural/community orientation, post arrival, rats and roaches | Tagged: Burundian refugees, Catholic Diocese of Arlington, fredericksburg, inspection, Iranian refugees, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, refugee resettlement program, refugees, resettlement, State Department, U.S. Conference on Catholic Bishops, USCCB | Leave a Comment »
Christopher Coen
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