My senior project was about refugee resettlement this year because that is what I think I want to pursue a career in. For the project we have to have a certain amount of hours of actual hands on experience. I had already wanted to get involved in the large refugee community that we have in Boise.
Through searching for hours I got connected with Gates of Hope, an organization that serves communities in Kenya and also comes along side refugees here in Boise. In October I started helping with the “child care” for the women’s group program that they have. Which is just a small group of some of the ladies who live in the apartment complex. It was a smaller group of kids and we only met about once a month.
I loved my time with the kids so dearly and I wanted to bring all my friends and get as many people involved as possible. So I made announcements at school and a couple of my close friends started coming and we went to the apartments every week! It was so much fun to see all the kids more often and to start to build better and deeper relationships. And another part that I enjoyed so very much was how my friends joined me in my passion.
In the summer we go every Tuesday. We play loud music, sing, dance, play soccer, duck duck goose, play truth or dare, and just run around like crazy kids of course. I also deeply love hearing the small snippets about their lives. We call our selves the summer ones and it is a BLAST! Every time I go I come back saying “that was my favorite time!”
These kids have hard lives and they each come from very different paths. It is not just all fun and games when we go to the apartments. The devil is trying to ruin the work that Jesus is doing in that place but it has been so growing and I have loved fighting back! Through just listing to how God wants to move in this community and declaring it. These kids are seen and gone through so much but we are just there to consistently love them. Coming to the apartments this year has truly been my favorite and the sweet blessing.
Happy World Refugee Day !!!
1. 2. 3.…….. SUMMER ONES !!!!!!!
video of our time at the apartments is below
