For 25 years, Arrive Ministries’ Good Neighbor Program has stood alongside refugee families as they begin again. Volunteer neighbors are paired with new neighbors, to provide friendship, as our new neighbors rebuild their lives here.
Where It Started
In 2001, one Twin Cities church had a new idea: what if welcoming refugees was less service-oriented, and more relationship-focused? Since then, 572 refugee families have been connected with Good Neighbor volunteers across Minnesota.
The founding church, Roseville Covenant Church has formed 15 Good Neighbor teams, building friendships with 85 refugees from 7 different countries.
“The challenges and the joys of coming alongside refugee families has taught our congregation more compassion and mindfulness of global challenges, but also awed us with the beauty of God’s work in lives very different from our own,” said Pastor Matt Kennedy of Roseville Covenant Church.
Twenty-five years in, the volunteers who’ve walked alongside refugees in friendship say it has transformed them just as much as it changed the families they signed up to serve.
A friendship that grew fast
“Through Arrive Ministries, my church very rapidly developed a relationship with an Afghan family in the Twin Cities. Working with the Good Neighbor program has turbocharged our desire to help meet their needs as new refugees to Minnesota. We’ve seen the positive impact on us, and our Afghan friends.” – Steve
A front-row seat to real life
“I’ve been to graduations, open houses, and funerals and weddings and just the day-to-day things that are celebrations. That’s the beauty of the good neighbor team, is, it’s like, “we have different backgrounds, we have different stories, but we can still do life together.” – Natalie
A faith made deeper by proximity
“It has definitely made me much more empathetic towards people in that situation. You really want to help them out. They are such people of faith. They’re just so strong. All the stuff they’ve been through and they still come back – God is good. God is in control. .” – Arnie
“He prayed a blessing on me. And I tell you, it was love and compassion. And Jesus Christ was there in that moment. And that’s something you can’t experience until you’ve done something like this and developed a relationship with someone. He appreciated me and I appreciated him. I was blessed.” – Oral
A place to belong — on both sides
“I feel like it’s more about the exposure into being welcomed into that and feeling like ‘I am accepted. I’m being accepted into this group. There is a member of this group that thinks I’m worth it.’” -Yannick
“I would not be who I am today, if not for spending time with these people who come from different parts of the world and bring different perspectives and have taught me so much. I’m so thankful that they’ve poured into me and changed my life.” – David
An antidote to fear
“I think the antidote to extremism is proximity. When you get close to and build relationships with people who are different from you, you can’t have extreme views because there’s this personal connection that supersedes any black-or-white thinking.”
-Lauren
“Compassion needs to be played out in a relationship. And Good Neighbor program is a perfect opportunity for relationship, it’s caring about people by getting to know them, appreciate them, love them, coming alongside them.” – Kristen
An invitation
“You’ll be surprised at what you gain in return. Love, a purpose, a fulfillment, and at the end of the day, a joy… I think you’ll grow. And I think you’ll appreciate more and more those people that God has placed in our paths and how important they are to His kingdom and how valuable they are in His sight.” – Mark
A quarter-century of graduations, birthdays, blessings, and ordinary Tuesdays shared between people who started out as strangers and chose, again and again, steadfast love.
That’s what 25 years of Good Neighbor has built: not a program, but a promise we intend to keep.
Together, we are neighbors for good.
Want to become a Good Neighbor volunteer, or start a team at your church? Learn more.
