Refugee Services

Ten years ago, Mohamed graduated from Medical School in Somalia. He completed training with the International Committee of the Red Cross and began to work in hospitals in Somalia and East Africa. For the next six years he worked with the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders in Somalia and East Africa, helping primarily with emergency medicine and surgery for patients who had been wounded in the civil war. When deteriorating security conditions forced most non-governmental organizations to evacuate the region in 2014, Mohamed applied to join his wife and son in Minnesota.

Minnesota Council of Churches leaders are applauding Gov. Tim Walz’s Feb. 12 announcement that his administration will continue a lawsuit to block the construction of the Enbridge Line 3 tar sands crude oil pipeline, a dangerous and unnecessary project.
Days before Walz’s announcement CEO Rev. Curtiss DeYoung and Director of Racial Justice Rev. Jim Bear Jacobs joined faith leaders at the Capitol calling on the Governor to stop Line 3.

Members of the co-sponsorship team from Holy Trinity Lutheran in Minneapolis worked diligently for weeks collecting furniture, household goods, school supplies, personal hygiene items, and car seats for a Karen family of 9. They also worked to line up drivers, babysitters, shoppers, and a support system to accompany their family through the first difficult weeks in Minnesota. Literally one day before the family was to leave Thailand, MCC Refugee Services received notice that their travel had been cancelled and that there was no plan to reschedule their arrival in Minnesota.

During a recent Teen Tapestry session about home, Amina showed the class a sketch of the tent that had been her family’s home during their refugee years in the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya. “I was a refugee too, and that’s not what my home looked like,” countered Constance, who arrived as a refugee from South Sudan.

After 12 years as MCC’s Controller, Lisa Bennett and her family are relocating to a new state. In parting, she was kind enough to share this reflection on her work with the Refugee Services program. It could be easy for an accountant to feel distant from the day-to-day work of a direct service program like Refugee Services, but Lisa has truly embraced the work and mission of welcoming refugees. She has been a passionate advocate and supporter, and we will miss her!

For the first time in many years, MCC Refugee Services is excited to host a Lutheran Volunteer Corps member, and we are excited to welcome Theresa Milazzo to our team.

Refugee Services’ newest staff member isn’t really new to Refugee Services at all! Ami Armstrong came to Refugee Services last fall as a senior Social Work intern from Bethel University. 

Can you picture yourself in this scene? It’s a warm summer day, but dark clouds are rolling in. Outside, Somali kids are playing a game of soccer when the tornado sirens go off.

The Church of St. Leonard of Port Maurice and the Church of the Holy Name share a priest, but are otherwise quite different Roman Catholic parishes in Minneapolis, with their own memberships, cultures, worship spaces, and histories. They had been actively looking for an initiative to share that would bring their communities together in a common work, and after a long process of exploration and planning, they decided to work together to co-sponsor a new family in their journey from refugees to Minnesotans.

When Colonial Church of Edina and Upper Room volunteers took the call from MCC Refugee Services last summer inviting them to welcome a 7 member family who had fled Afghanistan as refugees, they could hardly have imagined the bond they would form in the coming months. They shared some reflections with us as the family’s one year anniversary in Minnesota approaches, and we wanted to share a bit of their journey with you.