Stand in the GAPS with N2N
In our community over the last three weeks, several of our new neighbors reported having been called names. Others have been frightened into staying home from work or leaving work early. And as you likely followed, there was a conflation of immigrant presence and crime in our community, coupled with an offer to develop a local venue into a detention center. That proposal has effectively been rescinded.
During the same time, we assisted our local resettlement office in educating Billings’ beloved refugees, whom many of you know, about their rights as lawfully-present refugees and SIV holders. We developed a protocol for safeguarding program participants—and then trained active volunteers in it. We sought and received the approval of parents to speak with their kids about their safety and rights, and then met with the kids alongside counselors, even practicing each of our responses. Friends, I never thought these things would be part of our job!
From our beginnings as a small group of community members united around the conviction to “welcome the stranger,” Nations to Neighbors has envisioned a Billings community where refugees belong, thrive, and actively contribute to the collective well-being of their new home. Realizing this vision requires filling plenty of gaps, even with a well-functioning US Refugee Admissions Program.
Now, with government funding halted to help refugees who have recently arrived and with refugee arrivals on hold for a minimum of 90 days and what is likely to be much longer, N2N is needed to step into even more ways that help ensure refugee success. In addition to our afterschool programming for refugee kids, English language classes for refugee women, and a program to help refugee parents support their kids in school, we are preparing to respond to more emerging needs.
Most critically, we hope to open the doors of a walk-in refugee community center. A community center will give refugees a “place” in Billings–to gather, learn, seek assistance, and experience belonging over the long welcome.
As soon as possible, we want to offer driver’s training to help our new neighbors pass the driving test, to respond to an enthusiastic community gardening partnership, and to begin monthly gatherings that offer extended cultural orientation along topics of pressing interest.
If resources allow, we will plan opportunities to refurbish and equip kids’ bikes, and celebrate with the kids while teaching them safety precautions and traffic laws.
We also see a need to equip more refugee homes with basic laptops, to help teens do their online homework and parents increase English learning–two jobs that are much harder on the small screen of a cell phone.
Rest assured that our dedication to Billings’ new neighbors will continue well into the future, over the present bumps and diversions. N2N will be around as long as our new neighbors are here, wanting to gather, learn, and share–in seasons of apprehension and in moments of profound joy.
We are now and will be tomorrow standing in a growing gap. Last week, our friends at World Relief shared this acronym that illustrates how you can stand in the GAPS with us.
Give. Now more than ever, your contributions will be what carry the work of welcome forward. Nations to Neighbors Montana has always been 100% community funded. Every financial contribution now will help us respond to our community’s increased needs. Give here.
Advocate. Contact your congressmen today about refugee resettlement and care, using this letter as a model. If you have already, I encourage you to do it again. Persist. And keep these links handy to express other concerns you might have.
Sen. Daines: https://www.daines.senate.gov/services/email-steve/ (202-224-2644)
Sen. Sheehy: https://www.sheehy.senate.gov/ (202-224-2644)
Rep. Downing: https://downing.house.gov/contact/email-me (202-225-3211)
Pray. Join N2N’s prayer team early each week as we pray for refugees, staff, volunteers, and the work of welcome. (Use contact info below for details.) And please remember the “stranger” (Lev. 19:34) and your community in your own prayers, resting on our assurance that prayer is powerful and effective (James 5:16).
Serve. Volunteer to be part of a warm welcome that won’t let go. There are large and small opportunities to come alongside these amazing folks. Persist with us and don’t grow weary in doing good (Gal 6:9).
-Nancy Van Maren, Executive Director