Posts Tagged ‘World Relief Chicagoland’
Why World Relief Chicagoland Staff Are Thankful This Year
As we approach the end of the year and the start of the holiday season, many of us take time to reflect on the year behind us. We consider what we have to be thankful for. For some, the previous year was difficult, full of hard things and grief. That might make this holiday season feel painful or bittersweet. For others, this year has seen immense change or big life milestones.
Yes, practicing gratitude in the face of suffering and change is difficult. And yet, reflecting on what we have to be grateful for can help us be more hopeful as we seek joy and practice thankfulness.
At World Relief Chicagoland, we have seen God’s faithfulness in countless ways. Even amid big challenges and sad events, there is much to be grateful for. Because of that, we asked staff to share what they are thankful for this year. And the responses were inspiring! Join us in practicing gratitude today and read our staff’s testimonies below.
We believe that there are so many reasons to give thanks! Join us in counting your blessings. As a result, you might even see God’s grace and goodness in your life in new ways.
What are you thankful for this year?
I am grateful for trusting relationships with the people we serve and the chance to speak Swahili with some of them. I am also thankful to have friends among my coworkers and for the vibrant neighborhood and friends in Albany Park where our Chicago office is located, an office cube to make into a hospitable space, and the opportunity to worship each morning at our 8:30 prayer time.
– Katelyn Skye Bennett, Employment Counselor
I am grateful to work on a team that is passionate about serving refugees and other immigrants in learning English so that the students can fully integrate into the community and workplace.
– Mary Cerutti, Education Director, Suburbs
This year, I am grateful for the opportunity to be part of the World Relief family. I have felt welcomed and challenged to grow in my walk with God during morning prayer and words of encouragement from coworkers. I am so thankful to form part of a Christ-centered organization that supports and empowers the immigrant and refugee community through a holistic and sustainable approach while exemplifying the love of Christ.
– Brenda De Leon, Immigration Legal Services Paralegal
Welcoming our new neighbors…
Reflecting on 2021, I’m thankful that so many churches and volunteers are standing with us as we welcome arriving families and build community with immigrants and refugees who are already living in our neighborhoods and communities.
– Sara Aardema, Church and Volunteer Engagement Director, Chicago
One thing that I am grateful for is to work in an office when I can freely mention Jesus and prayer. I am also thankful that every day, I get to go to work and make a difference in someone’s life. Being the hands and feet of Jesus is priceless.
– Isoken Aiwerioba, Office Manager
I am grateful for the partnership with churches across Chicagoland, which are contributing to the reach of our God-given work in building and creating communities of love and welcome! Thank you, churches, for being the hands and feet of Jesus to strangers!
– Adrian Hendarta, Church Mobilization Coordinator
Making an impact, together…
Reflecting on 2021, I am grateful to work in a place where people make a difference and impact other people’s lives in the community and all around the world. World Relief has been an answered prayer in my life, and in many people’s lives. It is a blessing to be part of this work.
– Andrea Rodriguez, Immigration Legal Services Administrative Assistant
I am grateful for the foundation partners who believe in creating a brighter future and investing in their communities. That vision inspires me and reminds me that by working together, we really can create just and welcoming communities where everyone thrives.
– Carrie Woodward, Foundations Partnerships Manager
This year, I am so grateful for the incredible outpouring of love from our church partners. I am thankful for their strong interest in volunteering, generous giving, and inspiring their members to engage.
– Keith Draper, Church and Volunteer Engagement Director, DuPage & Aurora
What are YOU grateful for?
Thank you for reading what World Relief Chicagoland staff are grateful for! Now, spend some time thinking about the blessings in your life and work. What are those things that you are thankful for?
Finally, share your reflections with us! We want to hear from you! Please share what you are grateful for by tagging @WorldReliefChicagoland on Facebook or @WRChicagoland on Instagram or Twitter.
Thanksgiving: Inviting You to a Moment of Praise and Prayer
As we enter into the holiday season, what are you most thankful for? Maybe it is the birth of a new grandchild this year, more time spent with your family, tending a garden this past summer, spending time in nature, or even experiencing the struggles in life that led to growth.
As an organization motivated by Christian faith, World Relief Chicagoland considers our gratitude as a moment to see God at work in our midst and respond in prayer. How can you do the same? The Psalmist captures this gratitude as he celebrates God’s love and compassion. He responds in praise.
In Psalm 103, we read:
Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits – who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
Psalm 103:1-5 NIV
Moments of Praise
A call to praise God is often the climax of praise in the Psalter. Here at World Relief, there are many ways we can praise God for his work as we enter into Thanksgiving. May we take a moment to recognize and praise God for his love and compassion.
- Between our three offices in Aurora, Chicago, and DuPage County, we have welcomed nearly 200 arrivals since September 1st.
- Our Chicago office began welcoming newly arriving refugee families for the first time since 2018.
- Well over 1100 people have inquired to volunteer in the past three months.
- Students attending the Careers Pathways class were hired in well-paying positions to support their families.
- More students have been able to take part in English classes because they are virtual.
Moments of Prayer
At the same time, there are many ways we are asking God to move in the months ahead. This Thanksgiving, will you join the World Relief community in prayer for lasting change?
- For all the new refugee arrivals for smooth adjustments to the United States and to be able to adapt to the weather this winter.
- For our refugee and Afghan evacuee’s who are arriving to the United States with high expectations and finding everything much more difficult than they expect it to be from housing to jobs.
- More volunteers to tutor students who are learning English.
- The right people to join the World Relief Chicagoland team as there are many open positions and that these new staff members would feel welcomed.
- Permanent housing options that are affordable for families to move into upon their arrival.
- For our Immigration Legal Services team who are hearing about many situations of people processing trauma and feeling very overwhelmed.
- For World Relief Chicagoland staff to find times of rest and renewal this holiday season.
Join us in Prayer
We’re reminded that while creating change isn’t easy, it’s possible when we move together. May we pray this prayer of thanksgiving as we gather with friends and family this holiday season.
God of all blessings, source of all life, giver of all grace: […]
We thank you for setting us in communities: for families who nurture our becoming, for friends who love us by choice, for companions at work, who share our burdens and daily tasks, for strangers who welcome us into their midst, for people from other lands, who call us to grow in understanding, for children, who lighten our moments with delight, for the unborn, who offer us hope for the future.
Vienna Cobb Anderson
We thank you for this day: for life and one more day to love, for opportunity and one more day to work for justice and peace, for neighbors and one more person to love and by whom be loved, for your grace and one more experience of your presence, for your promise: to be with us, to be our God, and to give salvation.
For these, and all blessings, we give you thanks, eternal, loving God, through Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.
We would love for you to share these moments of praise and prayer with your family and friends. When you share this post, tag World Relief Chicagoland on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.
Thank you for joining World Relief Chicagoland in praying for our refugee and immigrant neighbors as they rebuild a new life in our community.
Change Rebuilds: Jerome’s Story
As we round the corner of 2020 toward the end of the year, we’re bringing you more made-for-change stories from across the World Relief community.
Today, World Relief Chicagoland’s Jerome Bizimana shares his story of rebuilding. He fled violence in his home country of the Congo and eventually resettled in Illinois. Jerome now works for World Relief, and his story reminds us that change rebuilds because we serve a God who is in the business of rebuilding.Â
We hope Jerome’s story excites and inspires you to join us as we come alongside others to rebuild.
Fleeing From Home
It was 1996 and the war had just broken out. The Democratic Republic of the Congo had always been my home. But this was a brutal, bloody war, and it was too dangerous to stay in the country, so my family and I fled. For the next 19 years, we lived in one Tanzanian refugee camp after another. When one camp closed, we packed up and moved to another. It wasn’t perfect, but it was a life away from the war.
One night in 2012, I was attacked by criminals at my home. Luckily, nearby police officers were able to save me from harm, but my assailants escaped. Before fleeing, they told me that they would kill me. They told me that they had to “terminate my life,” but never gave a reason why.
My heart was broken, and from that day forward, I lived in constant fear. I couldn’t sleep, and many nights I would go to bed wondering if I would wake safely in the morning.
My eyes are wet with tears as I write this. I do not usually talk about my past. I prefer to forget the thirty-one years of my life that I lived hopelessly. But I hope that sharing my story will help others by bringing awareness to the need for refugee resettlement support.
Had it not been for the support systems in place, my family and I never would have been given the opportunity to resettle in the United States as refugees. But thanks to the United Nations refugee services, we were given that chance in 2012. We arrived in the U.S in 2015 after three years of waiting.
But relocation was only the first step.
New Challenges
Life in the U.S. was more difficult than I expected it would be prior to my arrival. My family and I had lived a rural life in Africa. This means that we had never rented a house, paid a monthly bill or applied for medical benefits.
I was so confused, and I wondered if I was destined to be homeless. I wondered how I would survive. During sleep, I dreamed of someone breaking into our new apartment and killing us. The trauma from my 2012 attack was apparently still causing me great anxiety and pain, and that pain was now amplified in this new place.
And the culture was so new, too. During the week leading up to my first Fourth of July, I mistook the sounds of fireworks going off at night for bullets. It wasn’t until I was able to speak with my World Relief caseworker the following morning and hear her explanation that I was able to breathe a sigh of relief.
Building Something New
Over the next few years, with the help of the great staff at World Relief Chicagoland’s Aurora office, my family and I slowly built a new life here in the U.S. At first, we survived on less than twenty dollars a week. But thanks to the case managers and employment counselors at World Relief, my family and I continued to work and learn and acquire new skills.
After a while, I started to think about ways that I could give back. I felt so fortunate, and I wanted to help others that were in my situation. In the beginning, I volunteered at World Relief by providing transportation for new refugees who needed a way to get to their appointments. But I wanted to do even more, and so I kept this request in my everyday prayers.
Then one day, a World Relief AmeriCorps Lifeskills Coordinator who had heard about my daily prayer brought to my attention a job opening at World Relief. I first doubted to apply.
“But with my broken English, do you think I will get this position?” I asked.
But he encouraged me to give it a try anyway and leave the rest to God. So I prayed, and then I applied for the job.
A few weeks later, I was offered the position. I am now a Family Support Coordinator at the World Relief Chicagoland Aurora office.
I love working at World Relief because World Relief changes lives. When I do my job, I am helping God’s children. When my service brings a smile to someone’s face, I am happy.
Back in Africa, I lived a life without goals. But now I have many goals. I have hopes and dreams and plans for the future! I go to bed every night feeling safe, and I wake up in the morning without fear.
I never thought I would be living the life I live. But with the support of World Relief, my life has changed. I believe their services are crucial for helping refugees and other immigrants. This helps them build a prosperous life here in the U.S. Even a one-dollar donation to World Relief means a lot. That dollar will save the lives of countless families in need.
Sometimes I wonder what my life would be like if World Relief had not come to my aid. I still do not know the answer, but I do know that supporters of World Relief’s mission empower millions of families like mine. I have nothing to give that can show you how important your love and support is, but I so want to say thank you so much.
I keep each and every one of you in the World Relief family in prayers. Your hands have been helping to change our lives — the lives of vulnerable populations. Today, I pray that you join me in helping immigrants rebuild their lives in the U.S. and empower churches around the world to serve the most vulnerable.
Will you join us by giving today?
Jerome Bizimana is a Family Support Coordinator at World Relief Chicagoland. He was resettled in the U.S. in 2015 after leaving his home in the Congo. Jerome is now a dad of three children, and he loves to travel.
In Celebration of Resilience
In my work at World Relief, I am constantly reminded of the strength and resilience found in people who have faced great hardship to not only come to the United States, but also to rebuild their lives here.
Now, with a worldwide health crisis and a national reckoning of racial injustice, many refugees and immigrants must once again stand firm in the face of struggle and find power in their resilience.
Take for example, the story of twin sisters, Sona and Hana Barichi, who are not only standing strong for themselves and their families but are working hard every day to provide care for their entire communities as the country continues to struggle with COVID-19.
Sona can’t hug her young son when she gets home from work even though he cries for her and doesn’t understand why. First, she has to take a shower. She leaves her work clothes and shoes in the garage until they’ve aired out for at least 24 hours, and then she washes them separately from her family’s laundry to prevent contamination. She takes these precautions because she is a respiratory therapist at Delnor Hospital in Geneva, IL where she works with COVID-19 patients.
Her twin sister, Hana, works as a phlebotomist for Elmhurst Hospital, about 40 miles down the road, where she, too, cares for COVID-19 patients. Both sisters tell me they are doing their absolute best to help every single person that comes in through their hospital’s door, regardless of race, religion or country of origin. As religious refugees from Iran, they know all too well what it feels like to be forgotten and refused, to be in danger with lives on the line.
Life for Hana and Sona was not always easy or safe in Iran. As non-Muslims, their lives were often at risk because of religious extremists who often terrorized local communities.
“We are not Muslim, so it was hard,” Sona said. “We [had] to take a lot of caution [in Iran]. My uncle’s shop was recently robbed at gunpoint because he is not Muslim. And the government never helps over there. Every day, people are going hungry. People sell their kidneys just to eat. It’s a bad situation.”
The sisters fled their home to escape persecution and were resettled in the United States in August 2006. Soon after, they connected with World Relief Chicagoland who helped them secure their first jobs as factory workers for Home Depot. But despite their good work performance and praise from their supervisor, the sisters were eventually fired because neither of them could pass their English test.
“Our supervisor liked our work,” Sona said. “But we couldn’t pass our English test and he had to let us go.”
That’s when Kara, a World Relief volunteer and friend to the sisters, decided to help out. The women enrolled in an English class in the Chicago suburbs. Hana’s husband, who is American, helped her study in the evenings, while Kara studied with Sona.
“We were working days and nights to learn English,” Sona said. “I was sleeping [just] 2-3 hours a day just so I could have enough time to improve my English.”
“Kara was a big reason I learned English,” she added.
After years of hard work, Sona and Hana were able to improve their English enough to return to school in pursuit of their shared dream of working in the medical field.
“Our dad’s side of the family were all in the medical field,” Hana explained. “My dad was a surgical assistant. He inspired me to be in medicine.”
In 2014, Sona graduated from school and was immediately employed by Delnor. A year later, Hana graduated and was hired by Elmhurst.
“It was always a dream to work in a hospital, and to help,” Sona said. “I see the sickest people get better and go home to live their life. That’s what I love about my job.”
“I feel like I’m here to help every person,” Hana said. She said that people sometimes look at her differently because she’s from a different country and has an accent, but she doesn’t let it bother her anymore.
“I’m here to help everyone no matter what,” she said. “It makes me happy to come to work every day. It makes me happy to help.”
Recently, though, the COVID-19 pandemic has increased the risks and challenges of going to work for both women. The stressors have reminded them of the danger they faced back in Iran, and Hana said she hasn’t been able to see her mom or sister due to social distancing guidelines at her hospital.
“Work is now very stressful,” she said “I do not want to get close to people. Every day, I see someone die. That really affects you. Just the other day, I was taking a COVID-19 patient’s blood, and ten minutes after I finished, he went into cardiac arrest and died.”
“It’s definitely scary,” Sona added. “People are very sick. Many are on oxygen. They need a good two months or more to recover.”
Nevertheless, the sisters continue to show up and help those in need at their hospitals in the U.S. while also helping others back home in Iran.
“We send $100 back home to Iran every month,” Sona said. “We donate [the] money to women who are not working due to the virus and who have children. Women are not as respected as men, and they don’t get jobs even in good times.”
Hana has also become a champion for the rights of her countrymen here in the United States.
“There are lots of language barrier problems with this virus,” she explained. “I know the language barrier is the biggest problem for many [COVID-19 patients]. My hospital has translator lines, but there wasn’t a line for Farsi, the native language of Iran. So, I spoke to the hospital administration and a line for Farsi was added.”
The United States is not just a home to Hana and Sona, it’s a community in which they are deeply invested. So invested, in fact, that Hana plans to go back to school to become a registered nurse once the threat of COVID-19 has subsided so that she can expand her field of care to all patients that arrive at the hospital. Resilience is a trait that doesn’t rest.
*this story was originally published by World Relief Chicagoland.
Rob Carroll serves as Communications Manager for World Relief Chicagoland. Rob’s professional background includes time spent in publishing, design, marketing and communications. He has written and edited for numerous outlets, and he even spent a year as the Managing Editor for a respected peer-reviewed science journal published by Oxford University Press. He views his current work with World Relief as a true vocation — a place where his experience and skill can help the greater good.