Friends of Refugees

A U.S. Refugee Resettlement Program Watchdog Group

Archive for the ‘converting refugees’ Category

Segue Refugee Partners Ministries Hopes To Convert Bhutanese In Dallas

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: , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Domestic Missionaries Set Their Sights On “The Younger Set” Refugees

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: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Refugees’ time of vulnerability seen as “a perfect storm” of opportunity to those bent on their conversion

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: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Is Christian service for Hindu Nepalis not proselytization?

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: , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments »

Guiding refugees into our culture – not alienating them away

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: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

“Translation of faith”: converting Bhutanese refugees via English Bible lessons

Posted by Christopher Coen on January 21, 2011

This story just amazes me – an evangelical church in Abilene, Texas is converting Bhutanese refugees to Christianity by teaching them English using the Bible. Refugees who have been Hindu or Buddhist all their lives suddenly abandoning their faiths and converting to Christianity after a few of these “English lessons”. Of course, proselytization is supposedly forbidden in the refugee program, so why does the International Rescue Committee allow this? The Abilene Reporter News gives more details:

For more than 30 years, Pat Cranfill has lived, worked and worshipped in Abilene.

She is known by people closest to her as someone who loves to help and serve, but it wasn’t until about five years ago that she had an opportunity to put that servant attitude to work on an international mission field right here in Abilene.

Cranfill, a member of the congregation at Southern Hills Church of Christ, answered the call to her new “mission” field by initially helping some young ladies — refugees from Bhutan — find their way around Abilene.

That offer of help has grown into her participation in a program at Southern Hills that teaches English to refugees through Bible stories…

…According to Phil Ware, Minister of The Word at Southern Hills, when the International Rescue Committee began bringing refugees here a few years ago, it was clear that his church could step up and model Jesus to them…

…Using tools and programs like Let’s Start Talking, FriendSpeak, and the World English Institute, more than 50 Southern Hills members are engaged in teaching English to these new Abilenians.

“All the English is taught by reading passages of Scripture from the easy-to-read version of the Bible, which has been used internationally,” said Ware. “The lessons are simple, less colloquial, and designed best for someone with a very limited English vocabulary.”…

…”It is that the Bible is the message, and you are the example. You are not there as a teacher; you are there as a friend”

DeLynda Gray, LST/FriendSpeak coordinator for Southern Hills, said she has seen some very rewarding things come out of using the Bible to help the refugees learn English.

“When you have a different world view than we do the journey through the Bible’s parables and lessons can seem figurative,” she said. “What continues to amaze me is their devotion and excitement to learn. They are so thirsty for the Bible; they really want to go more deeply.”

Gray said several of the refugees have made professions of faith and been baptized into the Christian faith.

“That is pretty amazing in a culture that claims thousands of gods,” she said. “For them to claim the one, true God, and follow Jesus is wonderful.”

Such was the case for 31-year-old Moti Lamagdey and his 27-year-old wife, Tila, both Bhutanese refugees.

“I made a decision to follow the Christian faith and was baptized with Tila on December 12, 2010,” said Lamagedy. “I’m very proud of the decision, and God has blessed us both. I learned so much from the Bible classes at Southern Hills, and the more I learned, the more I wanted to be a follower of Jesus.”

Cranfill said for many of the refugees, once they’re shown enough concrete facts revealed in the Bible, it doesn’t take them very long to get it.

“When they get it, you can see a light go on in their eyes it’s really amazing,” she added.

Gray added that she has seen these English classes as a powerful vehicle for Southern Hills members — who have been tentative about evangelism — to feel confident about evangelism.

“We are God’s ‘community front porch’ this is where the real worship is done,” said Ware. “Lives are changed person to person the same way Jesus did it. Christian life is about touching people walking alongside each other, helping each other become who we say we worship.”

“It takes very little to share the Gospel with them,” Cranfill said. “If more people were willing, we would have Bible studies going day and night wouldn’t that be great to know we were using God’s mission field for that purpose?” Read more here

Posted in Abilene, converting refugees, evangelical, IRC, Nepali Bhutanese | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments »

Attempts to convert non-Christian refugees

Posted by Christopher Coen on January 10, 2011

The Contra Costa Times details the issue of attempts to convert non-Christian refugees.

OAKLAND — As thousands of refugees from the Himalayan nation of Bhutan migrate to the United States, an array of faith-based groups have volunteered to help them get adjusted to a new land. Some are also inviting the refugees to church services and converting them to Christianity.

Church groups say the refugees have explored Christianity, and, in some cases, Mormonism, of their own free will. Some refugee advocates counter that missionaries are taking advantage of an impressionable population and eroding cherished cultural traditions in the process.

“They need to learn about life in America, learn to speak English, learn to drive, learn to shop, learn to file taxes, and all of a sudden they are faced with people seeking to change them through a slow but concerted coercive strategy,” argued Mihir Meghani, a Fremont physician who cofounded the Hindu American Foundation, a national advocacy group.

In the East Bay, several Bhutanese refugee families who were previously Hindu or Buddhist have joined local Protestant and Mormon churches that offered them help and invited them to religious services.

Meghani sees the church activities as troublesome, a form of “predatory proselytism” that divides refugee families and causes them to feel they should abandon ancient traditions and beliefs they are led to believe are inferior.

“If I had a neighbor moving in, I would like to welcome them for who they are,” Meghani said. “Most of us would like to be accepted for who we are, not who we could be or what we could believe.”… Read more here

In my own recent experiences I have found that the Jehovah’s Witnesses Church has been transporting underage refugee teenagers to another city to attend church meetings. When the teenagers return they have Ipods which they say that the church gave to them.

Posted in Christian, churches, converting refugees, faith-based, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, Nepali Bhutanese, Protestant, teenagers | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

 
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