Stories of Hope

If 17-year-old Austin Hunter and Lucca Ramone are any indication of the characteristics their generation will offer to the world, then our future is looking bright!  Arrive Five co-organizers, Austin and Lucca show that Generation Z is enterprising, compassionate and resilient.   Enterprising This summer, as the

When Sharon and Larry Wahala moved houses this month, their Somali friends, Samira and Ahmed insisted on helping them set-up their new home. The Wahalas have been tutoring and in friendship with the couple for many years; in fact Samira and Ahmed’s family has been living at

Haleema hadn’t learned to read and write in her own language I met Haleema exactly a year ago through Arrive Ministries. After our first meeting her husband told me that in Afghanistan she only went to school for 4 years and that she never had the opportunity

Introducing one of Salem Arts Exchanges wonderful volunteers, Patricia* *Due to the sensitivity of her future ministry, she’d ask if we could use a pseudonym and not use her picture.   – How did you hear about SAE and what made you want to get involved? I heard

After meeting with a newly arrived family from Moldova, I found out that two of the daughters and their mom are passionate about sewing and they even have degrees in Apparel Design from Moldova’s capital city of Chisinau. We began working on how to convert centimeters to

Becky started volunteering with Afghan Women’s English Language Learners (AWELL) because of her passion for building cross-cultural relationships. She was introduced to a sweet Afghan family in Bloomington through Arrive Ministries, and has been teaching the mom English since 2019. “I liked them a lot right away,

God has greatly blessed my life through many of the refugees who have settled in my small hometown of Willmar, MN. Through a sewing program in my town, I have been able to meet and become friends with many of our Somali neighbors. I felt compelled to

During this time of social distancing due to COVID-19, starting a church refugee garden might be an ideal way to support and love our refugee neighbors. How would you feel if you were a farmer, and suddenly, you were landless? Feeling a lack of purpose, connection, even

A needle and thread might be just the tools needed to stitch hearts together in Willmar, MN. Melissa Scheele founded the Rey’a Community Arts sewing program in 2017, and since then she has watched great friendships form through the 8-week sewing class. This one-on-one teaching program held

The most succinct answer to this question is that God loved me first, which is why I can have love for anyone. As 1 John 4:19 says, we love because He first loved us. But in fleshing that out, the reason we love anyone is because we