Missionaries for Refugee Resettlement
American Baptist Churches of the Rocky Mountains
23 February 2010, Vol. 10, No. 4
“We used to cross the oceans to reach the nations. Now we must cross cultures to reach our neighbors for Christ.”
– Dr. Malcolm Newton, Denver Seminary
We are pleased to announce that we have accepted a two year assignment as missionaries for refugee resettlement with the American Baptist Churches of the Rocky Mountains (ABCRM). This assignment will begin on March 18th, just a little less than a month away.
As most of you know, it has been a long journey of prayer and discernment for us to reach this point. Upon arriving home in Denver last year, one of the first things that caught our attention was the growing refugee population from Burma and the efforts of some of our American Baptist churches to help meet the needs of that community. By late summer, with the support and affirmation of International Ministries, we decided to begin exploring the options for getting involved in this ministry on a short-term basis and, to make a long story short, we are pleased to find ourselves in a position that is a perfect fit in light of our overseas experience working with immigrants and training church leaders.
Our new ministry will emphasize training and equipping leaders in the following areas:
1. We will be working with Ebenezer Baptist Church, an ethnic Karen congregation in Aurora, primarily in the areas of teaching English as second language (ESL) and leadership training. We will also be exploring opportunities to organize and/or support other refugee congregations in Denver and the Rocky Mountain region.
2. We will assist local volunteers in the organization and management of the homework tutoring program for refugee children at the Blackhawk Apartments in Aurora with the long term goal of replicating that ministry at other apartment complexes with sizeable refugee populations.
3. We will provide support and training for American Baptist churches that are interested in either sponsoring refugee families or being more inclusive of refugees who wish to be a part of their congregational life.
Since this is a self-funded position (see update on financial support below), Dan is currently teaching ESL at the Community College of Aurora and Estela will soon be substitute teaching in a Denver-area school district. Initially, we expect this outside employment to enhance our ministry by facilitating networking and relationship building, both within the refugee community as well as with community leaders who are working with the refugee population.
And, of course, we will continue to be available to speak at Rocky Mountain area churches on a regular basis as well as churches outside of the region when travel support is available. So if your church is interested in getting involved in refugee resettlement or would simply like to learn more about the work taking place in our region, please contact us to arrange a visit.
As the boundaries between home mission and foreign mission have become increasingly blurred, we are excited about embarking on this next chapter of our ministry and equipping our local American Baptist churches to do cross-cultural ministry in neighborhoods that, more often than not, are just a few steps out their front doors.
PRAYER REQUESTS
1. Pray for Marc Stout and Amanda Zepeda, the volunteer directors for the homework tutoring program at Blackhawk, and their ongoing work with that ministry.
2. Ebenezer Baptist Church is currently looking for a location where they can meet on weeknights for ESL and leadership training classes.
3. We are currently looking for a house near the East Colfax corridor of Aurora, which seems to be the hub of refugee activity here in the Denver area. Our goal is to move by the time the lease on our current apartment expires in May.
FINANCIAL SUPPORT
We are thankful for each of you who have regularly supported our ministry during our years in the Bahamas as well as during this past year of transition. Since our new assignment with the ABCRM is a self-supported position, we encourage you to consider continuing or increasing your support. Presently, we need fifty more people to commit to giving $25 per month and twelve people to commit to giving $50 per month in order to meet our target goal for 2010.
You can support our ministry by sending a check designated for “Schweissings Region Missionaries” to:
American Baptist Churches of
the Rocky Mountains
6855 S. Havana
Street, Suite 220
Centennial, CO 80112
If, instead, you prefer to continue supporting International Ministries’ work in the Caribbean or elsewhere in the world, you can send contributions to:
American
Baptist International Ministries
c/o Development Office
P.O. Box 851
Valley Forge, PA 19482-0851
You can also give to International Ministries online by going to http://www.internationalministries.org/give and selecting a missionary or ministry from the menu bar on the left hand side of the screen.
THANK YOU!
As always, we greatly appreciate your continued prayers and financial support, both of which make our ministry possible.
Serving Christ,
Daniel and Estela Schweissing