Neighbor of MN Dennis Based on what we saw in the movies we thought we’d come to the U.S. and find affordable housing, and have a lot of opportunities to work here. The reality was completely different. It took a long time to find a good
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Celebrating 20 Years of RLM Amanda and Dustin Loge have led four RLM church teams since 2013. They are still in touch with all four refugee-background families. A Karen wedding celebration between Jill and Lay Ou in 2018, with Amanda and her daughter Maren sitting on her
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Celebrating 20 Years of RLM The Zaw Mae family is one of seven refugee families that a team from Grace Church Roseville, led by Bob and Julie Lorence, came alongside through Refugee Life Ministries since the early 2000s. The Zaw Mae family arrived in 2009 with
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Neighbors of MN Rebekah and Rueben We met this family of three at the airport at the end of summer. Cecilia and Koe Loe had just flown overnight from a refugee camp in Thailand with their 4-year-old son, in the middle of a pandemic. It’s been
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Neighbors of MN Akram “I grew up in a Coptic Christian family in Egypt. The word “Coptic” means Egyptian in the original Egyptian language. Coptics are indigenous Egyptians, descended from the ancient Egyptians, not Arabs, as people generally assume. I moved from my hometown in the
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Now that SALT is offering an option to tutor Somali adults over zoom, we’ve been able to expand our reach to further corners of the state. One tutor from Hibbing wanted to be connected with a Somali student, and we were able to make that connection with
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Before the pandemic, I helped a Somali high school student with his studies for an hour each week in the family home, then I had story time with his three younger siblings. This wasn’t the usual story time. I didn’t read to them. They read to me.
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Neighbors of MN Jill “We lived in the same camp but a different section. I lived in section 4 and he lived in section 6A. We went to same school in Thailand and we were in the same grade together until 7th grade. We knew each other
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After a two-year stint teaching English to students in Jordan through the Peace Corps, Marlene and Dan Hovland realized that teaching ESL was in their bones. Later when they moved to Willmar, their church was recruiting tutors to teach English to Somali adults. Marlene thought it would
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Christine’s story “I remember one day they announced at church that they start Salem Arts Exchange. They said something about sewing. I never doing that. I asked someone to tell me more,” said Christine. Four years ago and new to America, Christine found herself alone and
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