Photo credit: Becky Davis

Moving to the Twin Cities to accept a Lutheran Volunteer Corps position at MCC Refugee Services represents a kind of homecoming for Emily, who grew up outside St. Paul before heading to Luther College in Iowa. While a student, Emily pursued a double major in Anthropology and Nordic Studies program, and studied abroad in both Norway and Tanzania.

Brian, MCC’s new Health Case Manager, joins the Refugee Services team with a wide variety of experience.  In addition to being a nurse, he has a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and recently graduated with a Master’s Degree in Public Policy from the Humphrey Institute. He describes himself as an “old soul” because of his love for music from the 1970s and 80s and old architecture. Since childhood, he’s dreamed of traveling to Cuba and would love to see the classic architecture and cars there.

Each year, we have the opportunity to host Social Work interns from local universities, sometimes at the Bachelor’s level, and sometimes at the Master’s level. This year, we are hosting both and are excited to share with them the reality of daily work with families who came to Minnesota with refugee status, and to have their help and support in this work.

This year, we asked each intern to introduce themselves, so without further ado, meet:

Erin:

We all know the familiar story of Christmas--Mary and Joseph, wandering from inn to inn on the verge of giving birth, finding every door barred to them. Every door closed to the Messiah, the Son of God, who would later say "when you welcomed the stranger, you welcomed me." It's hard to miss the irony in the fact that the deadline for governors and county officials to submit their letters of welcome, or by default close the door to refugee resettlement in their community, falls at Christmastime.

The name of the innkeeper who made room in his stable for Mary, Joseph, and Jesus doesn't appear in the Bible, but I bet that Mary and Joseph never forgot, and that he never forgot the miracle that occurred that night in his barn. And what about all of the other innkeepers in town? Do you think they regretted their decision to close the door?

Jami joins the MCC Refugee Services team in a newly-created role coordinating cultural orientation classes for new refugees arriving in the Twin Cities. As part of a new consortium approach through the Minnesota Refugee Programs Office, we will be coordinating with the International Institute of Minnesota and the Twin Cities YMCA to offer orientation to a broader group of new families than before. Jami will be working closely with the instructor for these new courses who is based at the International Institute.

Members of the Delta Phi Omega Chapter in the Twin Cities made a generous donation of grocery gift cards for particularly vulnerable families who arrived with refugee status this year. These gift cards provided tangible support and the encouragement of welcome to each of these families. But how did the sisters in this chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha come to make the donation? Every donation has a story, a point where the donors heard about refugees and decided to take action. We wanted to share a bit of that story with you, as told by their president, Mary Dedeaux-Swinton.

Ta may be one of the newest faces in the MCC Refugee Services office, but she’s not really new to Refugee Services. She started earlier this year working in partnership with MCC Refugee Services at North End Neighborhood Association (NENO), where she focused on reaching out to Karen-speaking families in need of support. Now, she has transferred to a Case Aide position based at the MCC Refugee Services office. Ta came to the US through the refugee resettlement program when she was just 9 years old. After living in a Thai refugee camp, Ta traveled to Texas with her parents and siblings.

MCC Refugee Services in Mankato recently agreed to partner with an initiative of the Minneapolis Synod ELCA working to combat predatory payday lending in Minnesota communities. Payday loans are small loans, usually less than $500, that charge a high interest rate and must be repaid in full by the next paycheck. Families without financial margins can become easily entrapped in a devastating cycle of payday loans.

Blue Earth County has the 3^rd highest rate of payday loans per capita in Minnesota and the statistics are staggering. For example, in 2018 there were: