Refugee Beads

 

 I see colorful piles of round, square, big, small, flat, fat, objects with holes in them.

Nadine sees unassembled jewelry.

I see pliers, scissors, crimps, clasps, and wires.

Nadine sees jewelry making tools.

I see a beautiful necklace, a present for my aunt.

Nadine sees a part-time income to feed her family.

Nadine and five other refugee women gather weekly to make jewelry for Refugee Beads.  Every Friday evening we carpool with the ladies to church.  We enjoy dinner together first and then get down to business.  Piles of beads, wires, loops, and clasps soon become earrings, bracelets, and necklaces.  The ladies sign and package each piece of jewelry, attaching a tag that explains the heart behind Refugee Beads.  Jewelry is sold at open air markets, churches, small groups, and craft fairs.  

 Through our evenings of making jewelry together, packaging hundreds of pairs of earrings, laughing at stories, creating new styles, tasting new food, we have built strong relationships.  It is an amazing opportunity to learn from the ladies through their stories of coming to know Christ, becoming a refugee, and moving to the United States.

Nepali Celebration

The unfamiliar, yet beautiful sound of worship filled the room as 25 Nepali women sang to our Savior in native tongue.  Dressed in traditional colorful wraps and scarves, some older, some younger, all worshiping.  It was evident these refugee women loved the Lord and desired to glorify him through their rich cultural heritage.  After listening to a few songs, we attempted to learn a simple one.  Luckily God is concerned with our hearts and not our pronunciation!

We heard the testimony of a few of the women from Nepal and the story of a missionary from India (above on the left) who hiked into Nepal many years ago to share the good news of Jesus to the Nepalese.  Many years later he came to the United States to work as a chemist in Michigan.  While in the US God called him to move to Atlanta to work amongst the Nepalese, but he could find no Nepalese people.  Not long later (only a few years ago), thousands of refugees from Nepal began coming to Atlanta due to unrest in their country.  Over the past few years the Nepalese church here has multiplied into three congregations of about 100 believers!

A Nepali celebration would not be complete without
some delicious Nepali food.

The purpose of the Nepali Celebration was to see people from different cultures brought together with a Kingdom focus.  It was awesome to see God unifying the hearts of our church with those from the Nepali church.  What an encouragement to celebrate what the Lord is doing among different groups of believers right here in Atlanta!

Taco Night...In Pictures!

We began by learning how to make tortillas from Eileen.

It took a lot of practice.

Then we learned how to make a Thai dessert.

Soy boiled some frog eggs...I mean tapioca...

Then we learned how to make a sweet egg. 
(You poach it in sugar water.)

The boys were responsible for figuring out how to get the coconut milk out of the coconut.

Time to eat!

Eileen demonstrated how to build a taco.

Then everyone made their own.

Boy, Knock, and Soy's first bite.


Yumm!!!

Dessert time. 

Frog eggs (I mean tapioca) and sweet egg in warm coconut milk.  It was very tasty!

Knock made a birthday cake for Jill.

Our friends sang Happy Birthday to Jill in Thai then in Korean.

Mina noticed this poster in my room.  We had a good discussion about what it means.

Game time!

Jinga was a familiar favorite in both Korea and Thailand.

(But it might not be Eileen's favorite anymore.)

Before the evening was over we had to dress Jill up like a Thai warrior.

 Many good memories!