We are stronger together. Whatever your strength, we hope you'll contribute to the IRC. Several churches and community members mobilized to sponsor refugee families with the IRC in Wichita. We're showcasing their journey as part of our turning hope into action holiday series. 

How did you learn about and get connected to sponsor a refugee family?  

Tom: The short answer is that it came together by accident. Various people who we know saw the same announcement that there was a meeting about doing something for refugees. We went and we learned that a couple of ladies in our town had applied for a grant in order to get the cash together to fund 10 different refugee families resettling in Hutchinson with the IRC in Wichita. They were looking for people to form teams to support the refugees, and, if you were interested, you signed up. So, we signed up. There were four or five of us who happened to go to the same church. We thought we would get assigned to a group but when they read off the teams she said the last team is Tom and friends. I went 'oh'.  So then we had to go and find people to make a team of at least 10, which we did. We got 7 more people from our Catholic church group, another guy from First Presbyterian, and another guy from Ukraine who’s been in the U.S. for 15 years, and the wife of one of our teammates who is a Buddhist, so we had a little diversified group! 

Catherine: I am a member of Grace Bible Church, so I'm part of that team. This is our first time doing sponsorship and we're hoping to do more in the future. We've really been excited about it and really enjoyed this. It's something that we've been involved with in different capacities in the past, but not with the IRC. So this is our first time going through the whole process of resettlement. We just finished six months with a family.  

I had not heard of the work of the IRC in this area before. The last couple of years, I had been going down to Georgia to work with refugees, so I was aware of the IRC office down there and had connected with IRC down there. So I actually knew a whole lot about refugee work down there and kept traveling down there to work with refugees. I was like, 'man, I wish we lived in a more diverse area where I could be more involved in this.' 

When I came back home to Hutchinson, one of our pastors told me that someone called our church looking for people to get involved. Our pastor called me and was like, 'hey, somebody called the church and this sounds right up your alley, Catherine. So why not check into this and see what you can find out.' So we started researching and checking into it. And the more we looked into it, we were really excited about it and the possibilities with getting involved as a church. We recruited a team and got people together to be involved. It was not always super smooth with all of our background checks and everything, but we were super excited to find out that we could do some of this work here in Hutchinson. 

Garth: Well, I was not even aware of the IRC as an organization. Let alone, familiar with their activity in Wichita and South Central Kansas, so that was a pleasant learning experience for me to find out about all that. I actually heard about this from Tom. He and I are in a different group and it was just a casual conversation. He started explaining this and I immediately thought, ‘well, where's my church in all this?’ Which is Trinity United Methodist. When I realized that Trinity had not put their hand up yet, I had to march down to church and say ‘What’s going on here?’ They said, ‘Well, you have to talk to the missions team.’ I had to wait for that committee to give me the green light. I accepted the challenge. I recruited a team and it has been a real blessing. 

What is your motivation to participate?  

Tom: My wife and I are retired, so we decided to get more involved in volunteering opportunities—even more than when we were working. When we attended the meeting, we were really impressed with the presentation. We would be involved with someone who was coming here with absolutely nothing, having left everything behind. It all fit in our own social justice tendencies that we’ve developed through church and everything else over the years. 

Garth: My motivation started out a long time ago. My dad worked on the railroad and he would take sandwiches to the immigrants he worked with. As a very young child, I was quite captivated by that activity. Our church has done some mission work out of country and most recently I went on a mission to South Dakota to a Native American Reservation. It was quite a moving experience. These life experiences are just floating around and I am one who is naturally inclined to volunteer. When I heard about this opportunity the Bible chapter Matthew 25 just popped right in my head. 

Catherine: We feel like it's a biblical mandate to care for people, to care for our communities, to care for refugees. And that's not just caring for the members within our church, it’s caring specifically for strangers, and caring for foreigners who are in our land. We feel like it's something that we have to be involved in and we want to be involved in.  

What have you most enjoyed?  

Tom: I think the most enjoyable thing is getting to know our refugee family. We've learned about their Muslim culture and faith and about the enormous struggles they have been going through for years before they got here.I think one of the biggest things that my wife and I experienced, and I think I can say it for our team, is we've really developed love for our family. We consider them family and have told them that they're family and they told us we feel like their family and we told them we love them and they said the same to us.  

Garth: Well, for one, getting to know our family. But it was a little beyond that for me. I have a big brother but I never had a little brother. Now it feels like I have a little brother in a lot of good ways. It’s been a really heartwarming experience. I’ve also gotten a kick out of seeing other people respond. They are very willing to help and when you present them with opportunities there’s this kind of glow. I like to see that.  

Catherine: I myself have eight children and seeing my own children and family become family with this family—watching them play, eat, go places together—is the number one thing I enjoy. We see them almost every day. We take them places and sit in a lot of appointments and things like that. My own kids are benefitting in a million ways: they’re seeing other cultures, learning to understand people who see the world differently, learning to ask questions, even learning other languages. I’ve also enjoyed seeing so many different people from the church step up and be involved in different ways. Despite the fact that maybe they weren’t able to be part of the original team, when I post needs, they’re all able to do different things to help.

What has been something you’ve learned?  

Garth: I’ve learned so much about a culture that I knew next to nothing about and it has been very interesting for me. Sometimes I’m taken aback when I realize how much I’ve benefitted. I’ve become a much richer person for having gone through this experience up close and in person. It’s different from, say, sending a check to some organization that helps people relocate. When you’re in it and your hands are dirty it’s a wonderful experience. I’ve learned there’s a few ugly people in the world but that mostly everybody else is nice. It’s interesting to see people jump out of their seats eager to say they can help. I've learned that our immigration system is rickety, at best, and I can’t believe how long it took our family to get through the paperwork and process. It needs help and I don’t know how we collectively can get that done, but we have to figure it out. I’ve also learned that the training that IRC provides is really good. It helps you understand the challenges and prepares you with the understanding and tools to make this a good experience. 

Catherine: I’ve learned the beauty of another culture. I’ve learned the resilience of the human spirit. Seeing a family that has been through so much. They still are so resilient, so fullof joy, and so full of hope. 

I am seeing the power of hope through these families who have waited for 10-15 years. They hold onto hope that things are going to get better at some point, that they're going to be able to make it to a different country and be ok. I’ve been reminded of the importance of seeing the world through someone else’s eyes and seeing their felt needs. It’s easy for us as Americans to assume that we know what they need. Sometimes we can be very unhelpful so taking the time to see and listen to what they really think are their biggest needs is important.  

What would you tell other community members who want to mobilize their city and faith groups to welcome newcomers?  

Tom: Well, probably the first thing I tell them is be prepared for a lot of surprises. You just have to hang in there, go through with it, because you also get blessed with great feelings of love and friendship and having accomplished something really worthwhile.  

Another thing is that your relationship doesn’t end after six months. It could, if you walk away, but our group has developed enough of a feeling for the families that we are still involved and available to them.  

Catherine: I would tell them to get started because the need is overwhelming. There’s work to be done and I think that when you start looking at what can be done—starting with one family—it feels much more doable. When you all band together and everyone combines their resources and abilities, you can really make a difference. Everybody has a piece to play and together you can make a really awesome team. 

You can be part of transforming lives too. We hope you'll join us and share with your neighbors, friends, and family. Learn more about our work and getting involved at www.Rescue.org/Wichita and donate here.

 

Read more stories of impact through our turning hope into action holiday series:

Interfaith mobilization in Kansas

Employment Specialist Mawada Ibrahim's journey in LA

Client voices shaping responsive services in New Jersey

Fred and Adele's volunteer journey in Seattle

Setting up refugee resettlement in a new community in Florida