Archive for the ‘Baptist’ Category
Posted by Christopher Coen on February 23, 2012
A Baptist organization is hoping to lead Nepali-Bhutanese refugees in Dallas away from their Hindu cultural roots. Segue Refugee Partners Ministries will help out the refugees as a prelude to their agenda.
Will they be honest and upfront with the refugees and tell them what the plan is?
…Matthew Johnston and Elizabeth Hall lead Segue Refugee Partners Ministries, the nonprofit organization… They have been connecting with Bhutanese refugees for more than a year…Segue’s vision is to build partnerships and relationships between these Bhutanese refugees and American Christians who are willing to relate and help out in whatever way they can. The refugees have a variety of needs, from help them deal with insurance-related issues regarding health care to finding jobs in the city. The hope is also to lead the refugees from a Hindu background into a relationship with Jesus Christ… Read more here
Posted in Baptist, converting refugees, Dallas/Fort Worth, faith-based, Hindu, Nepali Bhutanese | Tagged: bhutanese, dallas, nepalese, Nepali, refugees, religious conversion, resettlement, Segue Refugee Partners Ministries | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on August 23, 2011
An article in The Roanoke Times tells the case of a retired Southern
Baptist couple and the Nepali refugees they have assisted. It seems as if the couple have good hearts, and they have obviously been enormously helpful to the Nepali community. While claiming that they don’t proselytize (the act of attempting to convert people to another opinion and, particularly, another religion) the couple have begun Christian services for the Hindu Nepalis.
…By the time Diana and Jim Martin heard about the July 29 fire at Westover Manor apartments, the building was about to be condemned.
The morning after the fire, the Botetourt County couple stood in the Westover parking lot next to their matching minivans. They were surrounded, as they usually are, by a couple dozen Nepali refugees who live in the southwest Roanoke complex — including one family of four that was displaced by the fire…
…Before the Nepalis became their calling, the lifelong Southern Baptists knew nothing about ritual cremations or eating goat stew, the kind you chew carefully before spitting out the bones.
A retired social worker, Diana had never owned a passport or traveled outside the country — unless you count the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. She concedes that she still struggles to adapt to some of the customs, including Hindu funerals and ritual cremations: “They put chrysanthemums in the body’s mouth!”
But the couple sealed their commitment when they traded in their cars for minivans so they could haul refugees around to appointments and classes, to doctor visits and radiation treatments, and — in several cases, with four more soon to deliver — to the birth of a child. Their gas bill is $500 a month…
…They met the Nepalis three years before the fire, in the same Westover complex. New volunteers for Commonwealth Catholic Charities’ Refugee and Immigration Services, the Martins were assigned as mentors to an Iraqi woman and her two sons…
…On a recent afternoon, Diana’s list is several items long and growing by the minute: drop off eye medication for a man with allergies, buy $97 worth of groceries for a woman whose food stamp card had been deactivated, deliver her standard birthday gift of four helium balloons to a girl…
“Dinah, you come to my home! Come to my home!” exclaims 4-year-old Salina Kadariya, on the stoop of a Mountain Avenue apartment building where several Nepali families have gathered to greet Dinah Mom. Salina wants a princess backpack for school; all the girls do…
…”Servant evangelism” is her term for what they do, an experience she doesn’t believe is easily replicated in modern America — or even on exotic foreign mission trips. “We’re showing our love by serving them, doing what Jesus did,” she says, adding that they don’t proselytize.
They do pick up more than 75 adults and children every Sunday for the Nepali-led Christian service they began in their Jefferson Center space.
Most of the Roanoke Nepalis are Hindu, including many of those attending the church. As Lutjen put it, “For many of them, they’ve got so many gods, they’ve just added Jesus to the list.”
Indeed, most are religiously inclusive, according to translator Laxman Bhandari, a Nepali refugee who arrived in 2009 and lives in southwest Roanoke’s Terrace Apartments with his wife, Lalita.
Though he admires the social work the Martins do, he doesn’t attend their service, preferring the Indian-founded Hindu temple in Roanoke County. “We lost everything — our country, our land. The only wealth we came here with is our culture and religion,” Bhandari said.
“We will celebrate with other religions, as long as there is mutual respect.”… Read more here
Posted in apartment house fires, Baptist, converting refugees, faith-based, Hindu, Iraqi, Nepali Bhutanese, Roanoke, volunteers | Tagged: Commonwealth Catholic Charities' Refugee and Immigration Services, evangelism, Hindu, Nepali, proselytization, refugees, resettlement, Roanoke, Southern Baptist, Westover complex | 3 Comments »
Posted by Christopher Coen on April 6, 2011
In an Op-ed in The Buffalo News the local refugee resettlement agencies in Buffalo, NY get the numbers wrong on the US House’ proposed public funding cuts.
…The proposed cuts would impact humanitarian assistance programs in three funding areas. Up to 45 percent of funding to the Office of Refugee Resettlement, Migration and Refugee Assistance and International Disaster Assistance would be gone… Read more here
Yet, of the 4-5 refugee-related US government accounts that US House Republicans have voted to reduce:
- Migration and Refugee Assistance Account (MRA) 45% cut (global food relief – 41% cut)
- Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) 10% cut
- International Disaster Assistance (IDA) 67% cut
- Citizen and Integation Assistance Program, within the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCRI) ( _ )% cut
…the 45% proposed cut only applies to the MRA account, while the ORR account would only get a 10% cut (see our analysis), and the IDA account would get a 67% cut. The domestic refugee resettlement program derives only from the MRA and ORR accounts. Even if the MRA was cut by 45% that does not necessarily mean that the domestic resettlement program would also be cut by 45%, as resettlement countries such as the US take less than 1% of the world’s refugees each year (close to half of 1%). Our domestic resettlement program is considered the cherry on the cake of our efforts to help the world’s refugees. If the cake were cut by 45% the cherry could also be cut by 45% or it could be left intact. That would be US government agencies’ decision to make.
Strangely however, all of this is fairly much a moot point as the US Senate has just voted not to make any cuts in these four accounts, according to the USCRI. In other words, the cuts aren’t going anywhere without the Senate’s approval, contrary to Catholic Charities in Chicago’s statements.
If there were a US government shutdown, and when it came to an end (during which, refugees would suffer from lack of assistance) any decision by the House and Senate on how they will compromise or not compromise on these funding matters would still have to be made in a conference committee. Therefore, we’re right back to the horse-trading again. But no, it’s not some simple 45% cut. That is a proposal by US House Republicans, and it only applies to the MRA account. The devil is always in the details.
Posted in Baptist, Bridge Refugee and Sponsorship Services, Bridge Refugee and Sponsorship Services, Buffalo, Catholic, Catholic Charities of Buffalo, Christian, Citizenship & Integration Program, funding, International Disaster Assistance (IDA), International Institute of Buffalo, Jewish, Migration & Refugee Assistance Account (MRA), ORR account | Tagged: Buffalo, Catholic Charities of Buffalo, Catholic Charities of Chicago, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago, Citizenship and Integration Program within the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, conference committee, Dennis C. Walczyk, Dennis Walczyk, IDA, International Disaster Assistance, International Institute of Buffalo, Jewish Family Service of Buffalo, Journey’s End, Marlene A. Schillinger, Marlene Schillinger, Migration and Refugee Assistance account, MRA, Office of Refugee Resettlement, ORR, refugee, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, refugee resettlement program, US government shutdown | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on March 10, 2011
Greg Wangerin, Executive Director of RefugeeONE (fka IRIM)
The Gapers Block -- a Chicago-centric web publication – has an article reporting about refugee clients of the refugee resettlement agency RefugeeONE (formerly known as Interfaith Refugee and
Immigration Ministries, and InterChurch Refugee and Immigration Ministries), an affiliate of CWS, EMM and LIRS. An audio interview details the abuses the couple suffered in Sierra Leone. When the US government resettled them to Chicago the woman shoveled snow into garbage bags and put them into the dumpster because she didn’t know what else to do with it. An elderly Somali man arrived and told her, “just push it to the side.”
But what about this resettlement agency? It turns out that they recently rebranded themselves as RefugeeONE, after long being known as Interfaith Refugee and Immigration Ministries (IRIM). Why the name change? Sometimes I worry that these agencies think they can rid themselves of past errors and weaknesses (wrongdoings?) by essentially becoming a completely different agency, in the public’s mind at least, via a name change.
So what is in the agency’s past? It turns out we have an old State Department monitoring report of IRIM, when the agency was under the directorship of someone named May Campbell. This is the most recent available inspection report (which tells me that they are just about ready for another once-in-ten-years inspection, or the Admissions Office has been illegally holding back reports from our FOIA’s. It’s either one or the other.)
Let’s see — 1) Placed a refugee in an apartment with a leaking bathroom ceiling and a broken door lock, and another in an apartment with a “water problem” (normal for Chicago low-income apartments after all), 2) left a refugee family, including an elderly woman, to sleep on the floor of their apartment for almost five months (until the day before the pre-announced monitoring visit – funny how that works). It turned out that the eleventh-hour delivery of beds (two single beds for four people) was the only home visit the case worker did (supposed to be done within 30 days, not at 4.5 months), 3) apparently didn’t bother to give another refugee family any chairs or couch, lamp, or a bed for their one-year-old child — just a dresser, three tables, and a double-bed (???), 4) no table or lamp for another family. [Check out so-called "minimum-requirements" in Operational Guidance to see why this is cheating the refugees and the taxpayers], 5) staff were not meeting with refugee families to make sure that they were giving them basic services and meeting their essential needs.
The refugee family that was sleeping on the floor of their apartment also reported that their employer was taking advantage of them by requiring them to make up bathroom break times at the end of the day. Apparently IRIM (now RefugeeONE) did nothing to help these refugees with this blatantly unfair treatment. No doubt the excuse would be that the agency ”didn’t know about it” (yet aren’t these contractors paid to know what’s happening to their refugee clients? If the only people watching over these refugees in their first several months don’t know what’s going on then who would? No one.) Apparently the refugee clients also reported that the agency had not told them what to do — via required community/cultural orientation – in the event that they experienced unfair, exploitive or illegal labor practices. By the way when I made a trip back to Chicago in 2001 some Lost Boys of Sudan” refugee clients of the Heartland Alliance agency told me that coworkers at an O’hare airport baggage handling company where they worked where screaming at them and physically threatening them. They said they told their Heartland Alliance case workers but nothing happened. Things just seem to keep happening when government monitors are away — for 10 years at a time.
On a last note, in 2009 journalists at the Chicago Tribune quote RefugeeONE’s current director, Greg Wangerin, saying,”I’m ashamed. I feel like I’m selling a lie”, in reference to all the problems in refugee resettlement during the recession. Here’s my question: Do these private refugee resettlement agencies ever look to themselves when pointing the finger of responsibility?
Posted in Baptist, beds, Chicago, Christian, community/cultural orientation, CWS, employment abuses, Episcopal, faith-based, furnishings, lack of, home visits, housing, housing, substandard, Lutheran, Operational Guidance, RefugeeONE (formerly, Interfaith Refugee & Immigration Ministries), RefugeeONE (formerly, Interfaith Refugee & Immigration Ministries), RefugeeONE (formerly, Interfaith Refugee & Immigration Ministries), Sierra Leonean, State Department | Tagged: Chicago, Church World Service, Church World Services, CWS, EMM, Episcopal Migration Ministries, Greg Wangerin, heartland alliance, human rights, Interfaith Refugee and Immigration Ministries, IRSA, LIRS, Lutheran immigration and refugee services, Lutheran Immigration and Refugees Service, May Campbell, refugee neglect, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, refugee resettlement program, RefugeeOne, refugees, resettlement, U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, USCRI | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on November 14, 2010
A new nonprofit has emerged in Minneapolis – aptly named Emerge – that is funneling refugees to meatpacking plants, while simultaneously helping to fill Baptist church pews in Willmar, Minnesota. A West Central Tribune article gives more details:
Housing and transportation appear to be among the largest obstacles for settling in Willmar for two dozen Burmese refugees who moved here in recent months.
The refugees came to Willmar to work for Jennie-O Turkey Store.
Nine of the refugees met with community representatives in Willmar this week to talk about challenges they face and the community services that might be available to them.
Emerge, a non-profit community development organization based in Minneapolis, is working with Jennie-O through Emerge’s Refugee Employment Services program.
Emerge has worked with a number of meat-packing plants in recent years, said Director Paul Schulz at the meeting…
…Most of the refugees in Willmar are Karen (kah-RIN), an oppressed minority in Burma, and they are predominantly Baptist…
…Forty-five people first moved to Willmar, but half already left, Schulz said. Some didn’t like the work, and others missed their families.
In addition to help provided by Jennie-O, Emerge contracted with Goodwill Industries in Willmar to assist the refugees. Emerge also sent Burmese workforce coach Htet Lin to Willmar. Htet is also an ordained Baptist minister…
…First Baptist [Church] pastors the Rev. Phil Lutz and the Rev. Gary Esbolt welcomed the refugees and offered to do what they could to help. After the meeting, Lutz spoke with Htet to invite the refugees to come to church services… Read more here
Personally I’ve always dissuaded refugees from taking meatpacking jobs due to the industry’s abysmal injury rates.
Posted in Baptist, Burma/Myanmar, employment/jobs for refugees, Karen, meatpacking industry, Minnesota | Tagged: Baptist, Burmese refugees, Emerge, Jennie-O, Karen refugees, meatpacking, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, refugee resettlement program, refugees, Willmar | 3 Comments »
Posted by Christopher Coen on August 16, 2010
Karenni refugee children are attending Baptist vacation Bible school as part of their resettlement services in Winston-Salem, NC. The US State Department has allowed a former Baptist missionary couple to bring the Karenni refugees to the area – described as the “the promised land” – in conjunction with World Relief.
“North Carolina has become the promised land,” said Tim Cross, who co-founded Open Arms Refugee Ministry with his wife, Jody Cross, in 2009.
The Crosses worked with World Relief’s High Point office and Calvary Baptist Church, where they have been members since 1996, to bring the Karenni here last year. The Karenni are political refugees from Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.
There are now 45 Karenni families living in the area, with a total of about 100 children, the Crosses said.
The ministry also works with Iraqi and Bhutan families. The couple spent eight years living overseas and working for the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention before getting involved in resettlement efforts with the Karenni.
Last week the Karenni children participated in vacation Bible school at Calvary Baptist Church. They did arts and crafts, played soccer and learned to read music and play musical instruments. here
Something tells me there is a bit more going on at this Bible school than just arts and crafts, soccer and music.
What the article doesn’t mention is that the Karenni had their own traditional Kay Tyoboe religion before Baptist missionaries began arriving in their lands in the 1860′s following Britain’s colonial conquest of Burma. Many Karenni have never converted to Christianity and are still attempting to practice their indigenous religion.
Posted in Baptist, Burma/Myanmar, faith-based, Karenni, North Carolina, religion, State Department, Winston-Salem, World Relief | Tagged: Baptist, Baptist missionaries, Bible school, Burmese refugees, karenni, Kay Tyoboe, refugee resettlement, refugees, resettlement, Southern Baptist Convention, State Department, Winston-Salem | 2 Comments »
Christopher Coen
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A Baptist organization is hoping to lead Nepali-Bhutanese refugees in Dallas away from their Hindu cultural roots. Segue Refugee Partners Ministries will help out the refugees as a prelude to their agenda. 
