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To close out Volunteer Appreciation Month, we spoke to one of our Good Neighbor Teams about their experience welcoming a family into the U.S. and walking alongside them as they start to rebuild their lives stateside. These teams of 6-8 people are often the first friends our newest neighbors will have when they arrive, and they help explain the differences and culture of the United States during their first months in Memphis. 

In October 2020, Jessica Shoup and her son were waiting at the Memphis airport to welcome an Afghani family to the United States. As the they slowly descended on the escalator, Jessica’s 11-year-old son turns to her, saying, “They look like us.” 

From there, a relationship started to form between Jessica’s family of four and our new arrivals, who have children around the same age as Jessica’s.  

“I enjoy getting to know them, and every time we’re there we’ll probably stay for three hours, just talking,” said Jessica, part of Hope Church’s global outreach team. “That’s been the most enjoyable part so far– hanging out with them.” 

Jessica, alongside other members of her church, are part of the Good Neighbor Team that welcomed this family to the U.S., walking them through first grocery store visits, medical appointments and even school enrollments.  

For her family, it’s “about coming alongside and showing love to a stranger. You can do that in so many different ways, and our kids could just try sitting on the couch and smiling saying ‘thank you.’ We could do it by installing a washer and dryer or bringing them a meal.” 

These little actions have helped weave a bond between the families and other members of the team despite the cultural differences that once loomed large. For Jessica’s husband, Jared, it’s like introducing someone from southern California to someone from Boston—there will be cultural differences in the way we communicate, but we all have things in common, such as food and the traditions linked to it.  

“Culturally, they’re very open to having these conversations with us, and I think that the more we talk to them and understand the world they lived in, the more [we’ll begin to understand,]” Jared said. “Our worlds were obviously very different, and I know that life-wise they’ve been through experiences that I 
just can’t imagine [such as] their constant want for security.” 

The Longs, who also make up part of the team, were able to witness part of these difficulties first-hand when they helped the family return to Afghanistan to pick up their daughter, who they had been forced to leave behind because of delays in her paperwork.  

“I feel like in the sovereignty of God, you really form a lot of relationships,” Lucy Long explained. “Your heart is very vulnerable in that vein, and it really opened up a powerful bond.” 

Because of this bond, members of the Good Neighbor Team can often be found at the the family’s apartment, sharing a meal around their table or helping the children with their homework.  

“It’s been a great experience for us, and we’ve really enjoyed it,” said Johnny Long, who is the director of global outreach at Hope. “I want to build a relationship, and I call it relational discipleship. We have Christ in us, and if we’re having a relationship with someone, then we’re sharing Christ with them.” 

In the future, the Longs would love to see others be a good neighbor to new families as well. In doing so, you will “learn things that you never would learn before in Christ’s character” by being open to the idea and being willing to go outside of your comfort zone. 

In the meantime, Hope’s good neighbor team will continue walking alongside the the family as they rebuild their lives in the U.S. just as they have since that moment in the airport six months ago.  

“I think the ultimate goal is to become friends with this family. We want to see them thrive,” Jared said. “We’re in it for the long haul.” 

Hope Church family, thank you for coming alongside us and this family as we welcome them to the U.S! We all are so grateful for the way you show love like Jesus would, and we cannot wait to see how the future unfolds.  

If you want to come alongside a family just arriving like the Shoups and Longs did, fill out a volunteer application today. As Jared would say, “What’s stopping you?” 

In 1949, a young Yugoslavian man left war-torn Europe with all that he had in the search of a better life. Rather than packing multiple suitcases like we would today, however, he had to build his own out of nails and wood.  

A Nazi prison camp survivor, he had spent the past five years of his life in a displaced persons camp in Europe, one of over one million to do so after the war. He had worked for the U.S. army for a time, and when offered the chance to emigrate by the Serbian Orthodox Church, who sponsored displaced persons (DPs) after the horrors of World War II, he jumped at the opportunity.   

Upon arriving in the U.S., he had nothing but his plywood suitcase. Over time, he built a life for himself here, marrying a fellow immigrant from Serbia. Both families had saved every penny they had in order to be able to come to America, the land of opportunity, in the aftermath of the wars so that they could build a life for their future children, and they did.  

Today, their children and grandchildren are thriving American citizens, having become engineers, teachers, IT professionals and doctors. Several generations have proudly served the U.S. military. One of them, in fact, has even begun giving back to the refugee community that is so similar to that of her father’s by volunteering with us at World Relief Memphis.  

Last fall, Melissa got involved with our Resiliency Program, which helps refugee and immigrant women learn to sew so that they can empower themselves and eventually help support their families.  

Prior to COVID-19, Melissa had been unable to volunteer because of the distance. In fact, she lives on a farm in Franklin County, TN, about five hours from Memphis. Yet with the pandemic, she was presented with the opportunity to come alongside the refugee community remotely to help them learn the hard and soft skills necessary to fully integrate into life in the U.S.  

“One of the main things is teaching them the skills for working outside of a home,” Melissa explains. “Some of them have jobs, some of them don’t, so understanding how to call somebody, how to be on time . . . it’s teaching them to be responsible for their jobs.” 

For a couple hours each week, Melissa sits down at her kitchen table and connects via a WhatsApp video call to go through the different projects with each woman. They follow a series of videos that teaches them how to make various items such as masks, scrunchies, bow ties, etc.  

“They are so brave to do this,” said Melissa, 62. “Imagine, they are watching a video that is not in their native language, and then I can’t help them hands on.” 

One time, a student’s bobbin, which feeds the thread through the machine to stitch, wasn’t working. When she called Melissa with the problem, Melissa patiently walked her through it via WhatsApp video, trying to help as much as possible from nearly 300 miles away. 

Learning to sew is always a challenge, yet doing so virtually, through videos with no teacher there to guide you, is even more challenging. For Melissa, however, it was something that was passed down through the family, from generation to generation and from country to country. Now, she’s taking what her grandmother, who was from Serbia, taught her and passing it on to other immigrants and her own daughters.  

“My maternal immigrant great-grandfather was a tailor, and [my grandmother] was a true fashionista,” said Melissa, who sewed her own clothes during high school. “She would say, ‘Cut here, cut here!’ I would sew dresses for her, after she had suffered a crippling stroke, and those came out really beautiful. She didn’t even use a pattern, and, you know, that’s how I learned to sew.” 

With the rising prices of fabric and sewing materials, Melissa sews fewer clothes these days, focusing mainly on quilting, home décor and tailoring ready-made clothing. However, she still maintains the family tradition by teaching other immigrant woman to sew.  

“It’s really been wonderful for me to make friends with these women,” she said. “We talk about other things too [such as] their jobs or what they’re cooking for dinner, their culture.” 

In doing so, Melissa is building relationships that will last a lifetime and are mutually transformative. For her, she’s learning about other cultures and carrying out what the Bible has called us to do by loving and caring for her neighbor.  

“We’re called on by Christ to care for all people. There’s no nationality for Christ’s teaching,” said Melissa, who is a member of a local church in her hometown. “He said to love others as you love yourself . . . even in the Old Testament, the story of Ruth reminds us that there is no difference with strangers in a strange land because we are all God’s children.”   

For one woman that she teaches, this devoted care has made all the difference. Yordanos, who just started the Resiliency Program four weeks ago, already knows she can turn to Melissa in any circumstance.  

“She’s very generous and helpful, and she cares about her work,” Yordanos’ daughter said as she translated. “Even if she finishes the program, she’s still going to have contact with Melissa, and she knows she’ll easily help her and try to do things in a different way.” 

A former student who recently completed the program echoed Yordanos’ sentiments, saying that Melissa was a good teacher who encouraged her and helped her with her English.  

“She was a big help for me. Whenever I had done my projects, I showed her and she said it’s great,” she said. “I could turn to her for any difficulties.” 

In the future, this student would like to look for a job as a seamstress. Melissa, on the other hand, would like to continue volunteering with World Relief Memphis, even coming in person if needed from time to time.  

“Everyone has been so open and friendly to me,” she said. “I like to speak to people who are not native English speakers, and I like to learn about their cultures because I have an interesting culture.”  As a former teacher who has experience listening and understanding people who have a strong accent or beginning English skills, Melissa is able to help students become confident in expressing themselves in English.  

Through her time volunteering at World Relief Memphis, Melissa has not only helped empower the lives of the women she helps, but she’s also expanded her own learning about other cultures. 

“Melissa has been pivotal to the program, and she’s engaged with clients beyond just sewing – she’s been their friend, a person to talk about their culture with, someone to share successes and set-backs with,” said Rachel Hatfield, who leads our Resiliency Program. “She is one of the most willing people I have ever met – I think she’s demonstrated that skills can be helpful, a language to communicate can be helpful – but, really what it all boils down to is a willingness to help, and learn, and grow alongside of clients.” 

When her father arrived with a plywood suitcase over 70 years ago, he came with the hope of creating a new life for himself and his future children. He succeeded, and now his daughter is giving back to other immigrants and refugees through the family tradition of sewing.  

With the help of volunteers such as Melissa, our work at World Relief Memphis goes far beyond simply welcoming someone when they first arrive. It creates mutually transformative relationships, and it empowers these men and women so that they might succeed in their new life in the U.S., just as Melissa’s family did all those years ago.  

We are so incredibly thankful for our volunteers, and if you want to make an impact like Melissa did, fill out a volunteer application today. We are always looking for volunteers, regardless of whether or not you can sew. All are welcome here.  

Bailey Clark serves as the Communications Coordinator for World Relief Memphis. With a background in journalism and advertising, she is passionate about storytelling and its power to make a difference. 

In 2009, Arrey Kelvin Bissong made the long journey from Cameroon to Atlanta, alone. He left behind his mother and father, his five siblings and his high school sweetheart in order to be able to provide a better life for his family.  

The journey to immigrate to the U.S. was a long one, fraught with challenges, and, once here, those challenges didn’t stop. From going to the post office to going to the grocery store, even mundane tasks became new and different.  

When he got home at night, he was alone with no family to talk to, no friends to console him. Today, his high school sweetheart, now his wife, has joined him in the U.S., and they have been blessed with two children. This past year, Arrey’s mother joined them as well, but his early days in America have had a profound impact on his life and that of others.  

“It’s not easy to be lonely. You come home from work and there’s nobody to talk to, it’s painful,” Arrey said. “Some days I would cry to God ‘Why? Why can’t you bring my wife here?’ You see people in the church, but it’s not the same.” 

His first-hand experience with the loneliness and isolation that accompany an immigrant’s arrival in the U.S. are what drew him to give back to others in situations like his, and, when he heard about World Relief Memphis during a church sermon one day, he felt God’s call to get involved.  

“While I was in church, I found out that World Relief helps refugees come to America, and I said ‘Wow, this is me,’” he explained. “I’m not a refugee, but it’s almost my story, so if I’m able to help other Africans who may not know how to speak English like myself, who may not have any background, any education—why not?” 

Yet it wasn’t at this moment that Arrey became involved with World Relief, for God had a different plan for him. Rather, it was a few years later when he was going door to door in hope of sharing the Gospel with others that he met Ruth, a Congolese woman pregnant with twins who had been separated from her husband during the immigration process. 

Ruth had arrived in Memphis in 2016 with her mother, sister and brother. Since she had filed her paperwork before her marriage, however, she was separated from her husband when it came time to leave the refugee camp. During the medical examinations that are conducted before immigration, she found out that she was pregnant with twins.  

When she arrived, World Relief helped her and her family begin to get settled into their new life. It was Arrey, however, who took them under his wing and welcomed them.  

“I was drawn to invite more people to the church, not just to promote the church, but because it was what Christ asked us to do and when he was living, he commissioned the disciples to win more souls,” said Arrey, who is an active member in his church. “Every weekend, we would go out to evangelize, and that’s how we were sent to the apartment where they were.” 

Ruth and her family were thrilled to meet to meet a fellow immigrant from Africa, and they eagerly accepted Arrey’s invitation to come to his church. From there, their friendship began to blossom. He soon learned that she was pregnant with twins, and the church became aware of her refugee status.  

“She said that they were in a refugee camp for almost two years because they were escaping war in their country, and she said her husband and siblings were still back home,” Arrey said. “Cameroon had never had any wars, and I had never been in a situation like that, so I was drawn by the story.” 

Nurses, doctors and police officers at his church all began helping Ruth as if she were family. Because she had no car, they took turns driving her to doctor appointments and her English classes with World Relief.  

“We made a schedule, and I was the main guy because I was still working night shifts,” said Arrey, who is now a police officer. “I scheduled myself for mornings so that I could take her to her appointments, and one of my church members who does not work in the afternoons was taking her back home.” 

At times, even the pastor’s wife was helping as well. Through one person, a community had arisen around this young woman who volunteered to take care of her when her husband was thousands of miles away as she prepared to give birth.  

When her children were born, Arrey was there to welcome them into the world.  

“The doctors even told me ‘Dad, congratulations!’” Arrey said with a laugh. “I told them I was not the dad, that he was in Africa, and they couldn’t believe it.” 

Because of his help, Ruth named her children after Arrey, Kelvin and Kelvine. To this day, he still has the photo from the day the babies were born.  

From there, Arrey worked with Ruth and World Relief Memphis to file the proper paperwork to ensure that Ruth’s husband, Dieudonne, could come to Memphis as quickly as possible. He became an official WRM volunteer, welcoming other refugees to Memphis as one of our Good Neighbor Teams.  

At the same time, he continued helping Ruth and her family and visited them weekly. When Dieudonne arrived, Arrey rushed to welcome him, taking him on a “Boys Night Out,” to show him the city: where to buy groceries, where to find African food, etc. 

Today, Arrey is “like a big brother to him. Anytime he’s making a big decision, like taking a job, he would ask my opinion.” When it came time to buy a car, he helped Dieudonne learn to drive and eventually choose one.  

He’s continued to welcome other refugee families alongside World Relief so that they will not have to experience the same loneliness that he did. Four families have come and gone, but Ruth and Dieudonne remain the exception, and they’re still close to this day.  

“My story is what drew me to them, and it was heartbreaking to see a young girl separated from her husband with two children, and how difficult it was,” Arrey said. “God works in mysterious ways, and I’m always willing to help in any way I can.” 

We cannot thank Arrey enough for coming alongside us and the refugee community to welcome them to Memphis, empowering them to build a new life for themselves. Our work only goes so far, and the help of our incredible volunteers is what truly makes a difference in the lives of these men and women and helps them to build a home.  

If you want to get involved like Arrey, whether it’s on a Good Neighbor Team or as a conversation partner or a youth mentor, get started today by filling out your application. Along the way, you just might make a new friend or two, and we promise that you will be making a difference in the lives of our new neighbors. 

When Ed Thompson took a business trip to France nearly five years ago, he didn’t think it would have such a profound impact on his life today. But this one experience of speaking a foreign language in a country that is not your own is in fact what spurred him on to become a volunteer at the Connect Language Center’s Café English. 

“What very little French I knew, I was scared to death to try because I was afraid they either wouldn’t understand me or I would just botch it up so much,” Ed explained. “I only had to do that for 8 or 10 days, and these folks are here, and they have to do it day in and day out.” 

With that thought in mind, Ed signed up to volunteer with World Relief Memphis after hearing a colleague talk about the organization. For months prior to that, immigration had been a hot topic in the U.S., and, after having multiple discussions with colleagues and friends about it, he decided to take the leap and turn words into actions.  

“If you read so much Scripture, you see the widow, the orphan, and then you see the foreigner attached to that. So much of what God instructed Israel to do was to take care of those groups,” said Ed, a member of Crossroads Baptist Church. “As far as we are to treat them, we are to walk justly and to seek mercy.” 

Ed remembers reading articles written by prominent theologians Russell Moore and Bruce Ashford about immigration, and these pieces in combination with other resources such as the book Welcoming the Stranger are also what encouraged him to take the leap.  

“It was just more of a conviction for me, and the legal issue was really, to me, moot,” he said. “God gave His Word. Legal and illegal immigrants didn’t exist, there was no differentiation, and in so much of this, people seem to be more concerned about the laws than the actual how we’re treating these folks.” 

Because of this, Ed decided to get involved in whatever way he could, even if it was only for an hour a week. Having experienced what it was like to try to speak another language and simply receiving a nod in return, he knew he could provide more than that for those looking to build a life in America. 

“Depending on the level, the ones that weren’t quite as advanced were usually a lot more hesitant to talk,” Ed said. “The biggest challenge is encouraging them to go ahead, to try to speak. If any of the students are like me, I learn much better through trial and error and actually trying to do something than just looking at a book.” 

Even if getting some students to speak was a challenge, it presented a learning opportunity for not only the student, but also for Ed and other Café English volunteers.  

One time, a Hindu student had mentioned that her favorite American food was a burger. Knowing that Hindus had a special relationship with beef products, however, Ed decided to dig a little deeper. What he discovered was that she was referring to a Chick-fil-a chicken sandwich. Although it comes on a bun, he explained, we don’t call it a burger because a burger implies beef.  

Laughing, Ed said that’s why they were there to help: “If you mess up, we’re here to explain that and tell you, ‘Yes, English does this stupid thing. You would think it would be this way, but it’s not.’” 

In fact, one of the biggest challenges for Ed personally was rewiring his own way of speaking so that those just starting to learn English would be able to understand.  

“The biggest challenge was learning how to not talk English the way we do it every day because you use so many idioms,” said Ed, who now works from home for Fedex. “I would catch myself phrasing something a certain way that I knew they didn’t know what I was talking about.” 

Despite these little challenges, however, Café English and its participants grew on Ed, and he faithfully volunteered there for a year until the pandemic hit. Even then, he was one of the few volunteers who stayed, helping to take the program online for the remainder of the semester.  

For three weeks, he and two others helped keep the program running online. Yet because it was during the day, few students could make it to these new times. When the semester ended, so did Café English for the time being.  

Even though it couldn’t continue, Ed and his wife still plan on partnering with World Relief and the Connect Language Center in the future to help make a home for our new neighbors in Memphis.  

“There’s a big need for the English help that World Relief is providing. There’s a lot of people that probably don’t realize that, through something like Café English, they could make a contribution to help these folks adjust to life here,” Ed concluded. “I enjoyed meeting people from different parts of the world and hearing their stories, and I thought it was just as much a Christian response to show up and say ‘I want to show you some love and say you’re welcome here, and I’m willing to help in whatever way I can.’” 

If you, like Ed, would like to help others improve their English and get acclimated to life in the Mid-South, start filling out your volunteer application today. If you want to improve your own English like others did through the café, sign up for a class at the Connect Language Center.   

Bailey Clark serves as the Communications Coordinator for World Relief Memphis. With a background in journalism and advertising, she is passionate about storytelling and its power to make a difference.