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About
LCFS:
Lutheran Children and Family Service (LCFS), a faith based, social ministry organization, resettles refugees as an affiliate of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service through a cooperative agreement with the Department of State.
LCFS seeks committed congregations and individuals who are willing to “welcome the stranger” (Matthew 25), assisting in the resettlement of refugee families and individuals. Congregations are needed to assist newcomers with housing, transportation, clothing, community orientation, employment mentoring, tutoring and material assistance, as well as providing a crucial welcome to a new and sometimes frightening country.
LCFS assists refugees in connecting with an array of services, including refugee medical assistance, employment services, English classes, and other services as needed. While working toward self-sufficiency, LCFS provides an initial orientation and case management, partnering refugees with volunteers and congregations during this intense period.
Refugee Resettlement is generally an intensive initial four-month volunteer commitment to assist refugees to become self-sufficient, followed by a
redefining of the relationship based on the specific needs of the refugee family and the desires of the congregation.
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They have arrived!! From the 18th to the 29th, Fr. Dave will be hosting
our guests at the Rectory. On the 29th or before, they will be moving
into the Sexton's cottage. Click pictures below for larger views.
Welcome The Mustapaeva Family
Ilkham
( Ill-ham )
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Mavluda & Sevda
( Ma-va-loo-da & Sev-da )
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Dilyara
( De-lau-dra )
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Behind the Scenes:
Refugee Project: Called For Giving More But Also Taught Lessons
By Bess Stroh
The mission had a dramatic storyline: A young family facing persecution in Russia seeks asylum and a new beginning in America. Seizing the opportunity, with only an hour to prepare for their journey, the husband and wife leave the rural homeland with their preschooler and baby. They arrive at Philadelphia International Airport in the middle of the night, carrying only a suitcase and necessary documentation. Parishioners of Trinity Episcopal Church, which had committed to establishing the Russian family, stood ready last May to embrace the refugees.
Father Dave hosted the family while volunteers whipped together the sexton's cottage on church grounds to serve as a temporary home. Church members donated food, clothes and household goods. They also were on hand to transport and otherwise support Ilkham and Mavluda Mustapayeva and their two girls, Sevda and Dilyara, for what was believed would be a four month transition period.
After that period, it was expected the Mustapayevas would be able to make their own way, having been oriented to employment and housing options, government benefits, and education, health and social services in the region. Other Meskhetian Turks, including relatives of the Mustapayevas, were to be resettled in the area through coordination of Lutheran Children and Family Service, adding to a network the family could rely on. But this new ministry for Trinity proved to be far more demanding than anticipated by anyone, especially the volunteers who juggled the day-to-day responsibility for the refugees.
In the countless hours they invested, Leslie Vacante and Jen Prater confronted language and cultural barriers; unexpected physical and mental health issues; differences in expectations and values and the complexities of family dynamics that were completely out of their control. There also were more than a few surprises, ranging from emergency room visits to an overnight hospital stay to a grease fire in the cottage that called out two local fire companies.
As it turned out, nearly 11 months passed before the Mustapayevas moved out of the sexton's cottage to pursue life independent from the Trinity parish: In April, they relocated to Hagerstown, MD, where Ilkham's brother lives and works and where Ilkham believes it will be less expensive to live.
Despite the unexpected duration of the project, the unexpected issues and frustrations, the sacrificed vacation time and, by the end, the sheer exhaustion, Leslie Vacante says she would consider volunteering for another refugee resettlement. "All in all, I think it was a positive experience for me," she says. "I would do it again. I think we had the most difficult situation, and I think we could do anything at this point." She's heard that other area churches had easier experiences in establishing refugees, but knows there was "a reason why" Trinity's proved so challenging. "We still haven't figured that out yet."
Leslie, who works full time as a home health care coordinator, was responsible for many of the logistics of settling the refugees, including helping the family acquire Social Security identification, food stamps and public assistance. She also set out to find employment for Ilkham, not an easy task considering his work history was limited to farming with simple tools and he only was beginning to learn English.
It took until August to get Ilkham his first job, Leslie recounts, and then he was injured and out of work within a week. By late August, he was working again, this time at a recycling plant in King of Prussia. But then Leslie was drawn in to fielding interference between Ilkham and his
boss. "His work ethic wasn't ours," Leslie says of Ilkham. Coming from a societal background with much less structure, Ilkham had issues adjusting to working every day. There also were incidents at work that prompted the boss to call. Those times exemplified the cultural differences that made the ministry so frustrating and also enlightening, Leslie says. Trinity volunteers came to understand the Mustapayevas had to choose their own lives here, rather than leading the lives others thought they could. "Once we realized that, it was easier to manage," Leslie says.
That truth came to light again in the family's response to Mavluda's struggle with social isolation, anxiety and depression. That illness peaked several times from last September through March and was a major reason for the family's extended stay under Trinity's care. In addition to an effort to support Mavluda, there was concern about the well-being of the Mustapayeva girls, ages 4 and 1. At one point, after a meeting with Father Dave, Ilkham brought an older woman to stay at the cottage to help. Four-year-old Dilyara also was sent for part of the winter to stay with her grandparents in New Jersey.
Jen Prater, Trinity's Parish Nurse, worked to get Mavluda the help she needed, including finding the young mother, who also suffers from a hearing disability, a psychiatrist and a Turkish-speaking psychologist Jen transported Mavluda to those visits, managed her medications
and joined the effort to counsel Ilkham on taking over care of his wife – a significant challenge in light of the fact he came out of a culture in which women typically are left to support each other and men are considerably more independent in family life. It was Jen who stayed overnight with Mavluda at Abington Hospital at one crisis point, an act of dedication she didn't really stop to think about. Believing she was doing God's work in helping the refugees, she knew"this is just what I am supposed to do. "Jen, mother to two young children, had intended to limit her role in the resettlement to managing medical issues. As it happened, she found her life quite integrated with the lives of the refugee family: Her children played with the Mustapayeva children. She baked bread with Mavluda. She took Ilkham and his brother-in-law on an electronics shopping spree. Overall, the experience proved to be "life changing," says Jen."I really learned a lot about myself."She too struggled with the question of "how much of our own values do we put on (the Mustapayevas)." And because of the family's continuing and intense dependencies, Jen learned to prioritize the demands being placed upon her. She says she had to make a choice to attend to her own family first.
all of the unforeseen challenges and frustrations, the resettlement project did, in the final analysis, achieve its original goal. Responding to a deadline from Father Dave, Ilkham came up with a plan of family self-sufficiency and, with some moving and start-up money from the Trinity parish, packed up the cottage and took his family to Maryland. Jen recalls Ilkham's resourcefulness in seeking out the Russian community in Northeast Philadelphia last summer and in obtaining his driver's license, a car and car insurance without Trinity's help. She believes the family, proven survivors in their previous lives in Russia, will be fine. "They'll figure it out. They have the resources and the networking skills." |
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