New refugee 101 classes helping connect refugee to the Panhandle

AMARILLO, Texas (KFDA) - Refugee 101 is a new monthly class, through The Refugee Language Project, focusing on who refugees are in the area and how churches and other volunteers can be involved.

“The goal is really just to put people into relationship and see mutual flourish happen with refugees and with Americans that have been here for a long time,” said John McMeans, Director of Church Engagement at the Refugee Language Project.

The Refugee Language Project says the classes started due to a combination of an increased number of refugees in the area, as well as filling in a gap.

“I just had a desire to connect the church to what we’re doing. I feel like for me from a faith perspective, like I was once outside the people of God and Jesus welcomed me in and so I feel like the church should be the first people to welcome in our refugee neighborly,” said McMeans.

McMeans says he sat how churches can be more involved, and wanted to offer classes as a starting point for those who may not know how to become involved.

“We’re gonna go over kind of a Christian faith perspective of why we should care for refugees. Really just to address the what I feel like can be kind of a disconnect sometimes where you have all these churches in the area that maybe want to get involved, maybe don’t realize how many refugees are here. And so this is just an avenue of like a first step of hey, come learn about the refugees that are here, come learn about how you can be involved and put your faith into practice and caring for refugees,” said McMeans

McMeans says he saw the lack of connectivity and wanted to help reduce fears some may have when it comes to refugees, to begin relationships with them.

“What they don’t always have is good relationships with Americans or being invited into an American’s home, they get to experience our culture for the first time and so we just have an opportunity to do that and to work and really provide that for them,” said McMeans. “One of the goals is just that those refugees can get connected into relationship with Americans that are here. They can just help them navigate daily life.”

The classes will focus on different ways of connecting with refugees to help better connect them, from learning about who they are to ways they can help refugees as they learn American culture.

“We’re gonna go into ways that individuals can get involved either volunteering with us, but also just that they can be aware of how to serve refugees in their day to day life, whether that’s in their job, whether that’s at school, whatever just they can be thinking about ways to care for refugees in their daily life,” said McMeans. “We’re gonna go into ways that individuals can get involved either volunteering with us, but also just that they can be aware of how to serve refugees in their day to day life, whether that’s in their job, whether that’s at school, whatever just they can be thinking about ways to care for refugees in their daily life.”

Refugee 101 classes are scheduled to begin April 12, at 7 p.m. and will be at the PLACE.

Registration is required due to limited space, to register email John at John@refugeelanguage.org.

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