moving Abi

The refugees are on financial government assistance for about 8 months. They also receive community development assistance from local government funded organizations for a number of services including preparing their new homes with furniture and all the necessities to live.

Unfortunately, when the refugees want to move to another state to live close to their family then they are on their own to find furniture for their new home.

Abi and his family moved here from Kentucky to be close to their families.  They lived in an appartment with no furniture for a couple of weeks.  My friend Ram told me about the problem and I sent out an email to about 20 people.  Within a couple of days I had more than enough furniture, pots and pans, rugs, lamps…etc. to fill 2 or 3 apartments.

My friend Glen had a huge box truck that we filled to the top full of all this stuff and headed towards KCK.  While we helped a handful of the Bhutanese carry the furniture in, Anna got to spend time with Krishna.

It was a lot of fun giving other people’s stuff away and honestly I was just so blown away by the generosity of my friends and how quickly they all stepped up to donate their stuff.  Abi, of course, was also blown away.  He was so happy he gave me a “ring of honor” and said some sort of blessing over me.  I couldn’t understand it because it was in Nepali, but I’m pretty sure it was the most beautiful thing ever by the look on his face.

I will never forget that look on his face…and I’m sure he will never forget your generosity.

david

a mission field in our own backyard

Mission Adelante, an urban mission to Hispanic Immigrants in KCK, has extended their outreach through a pilot ministry to a new immigrant population: the Bhutanese refugees.

Read about Mission Adelante’s mission: http://www.missionadelante.org/mission.html

Read about this new ministry to the Bhutanese refugees: adelante express

the story of a forgotten people

The Bhutanese refugees number over 100,000 and have lived in bamboo tents in seven refugee camps along the southeast border of Nepal for over 17 years.  Their ancestors immigrated from Nepal to Bhutan over two hundred years ago, but were forced to leave what had become their home due to government pressure.

Without the possibility of local integration into Nepal or re-entering their homes in Bhutan, resettlement to a third country, such as the United States, has emerged as the only option.

The United States generously agreed to accept over 60,000 Bhutanese refugees and began resettling them in cities across the United States a little over a year ago. Currently approximately 150 Bhutanese refugees have been relocated to Kansas City, Kansas (KCK) with about 100 more expected to resettle each year for the new 4 years.

a kairos moment…

Never in our wildest dreams did we think we would move to the heart of KCK and give our lives to serving the Bhutanese.  In fact, we hadn’t even heard of Bhutan until about a year ago…and now we serve these wonderful people, build community with them, live amongst them and call them our friends.

Early on in our marriage we prayerful pursued committing our lives to long term missions.  We didn’t know what that actually meant or what it would look like, but we knew that we wanted to give our lives to this. We also knew that if we couldn’t do this here in our own city then we probably wouldn’t be very good at it in another country. So we began to orient our lives towards a missional lifestyle in our own neighborhood – sharing Jesus generously and always with our neighbors through both word and deed. It was an exciting time.  We learned so much about hospitality, how to serve people well and  how to build community while pointing people to Christ.

During this season we really began to ask the Lord where he wanted us.  We were looking and we were willing and ready to say yes to whatever he might call us to. Shortly after this, we attended a meeting and heard this story about a group of people known as the Bhutanese refugees.  Immediately, we felt compassion for them and the story of their lives and wanted to hear more.  We quickly jumped to the first opportunity to be a part of serving them.

Over the span of several months our lives became very connected to this community.  We learned about their culture, their story and the substantial barriers they face in the resettlement process. Imagine entire families, young and old, facing the challenge of a new life in a new country that is extremely different from where they came from. The change from the refugee camps to a North American city in the Midwest could not be more dramatic.

We learned very quickly that even the most minor tasks (such as driving, setting up bank accounts, paying hospital bills, mowing the lawn…etc.) were very difficult for them in this new contrasting culture.  So we began to serve them and show them the love of Christ through word and deed in the best way that we knew how.

Today, these wonderful people are our friends.   In serving them and helping them become successful in this strange new culture we have been filled with compassion and feel the deepest honor to be a part of their lives.  They have taught us so much about hospitality, community and friendship.  Our lives will never be the same and our hope and prayer is that, through the mighty hand of God, we might have as much impact on their lives as they have had on ours.