Welcoming the Stranger:
Congregations Collaborate to Support Afghan Evacuee Resettlement
The Rev. Barbara Thrall Christ Church Cathedral, Springfield
L
ast November, I wondered aloud among fellow clergy whether anyone was doing anything about helping Afghan evacuees. I had hoped to hear that a church was hosting a family and to learn how the Cathedral could help. No, no one was hosting a family yet, and so I was asked to do some research and report back to our deanery clergy. Then later, the outreach committee of Christ Church Cathedral was very clear. “We want to host a family,” they said, and the ball started rolling. Not long after that meeting last November, Deacon Terry Hurlbut and a group from St. David’s, Agawam got on board. We began to build a coalition 14
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A B U N D A N T TIMES
of volunteers from the Cathedral, St. David’s, All Saints’ in South Hadley, and among our families and friends. Working with Jewish Family Services of Western MA (JFS) in Springfield, we assembled a team of five leaders to be responsible for the care of an Afghan family in the areas of employment, medical needs, education for children and adults, housing, and community engagement (getting a bank account, learning to ride the bus, grocery shopping, recreation, legal matters). It has been and continues to be a rewarding, revealing ride. Our family arrived in Springfield from an east coast army base on January 31st. They are a father, mother, and five very active boys, ages 12 to 2. They left Afghanistan late last summer in fear for their lives, as the father’s government service created a threat for them under the new Taliban regime. They still have
family at home and worry for them as the situation in Afghanistan continues to deteriorate. Here in Springfield, they are safe and well provided for. A team of painters, cleaners, furniture movers, and arrangers fixed up the house that JFS found for the family and, using the items donated, made a warm and welcoming spot for the family to call home. In Afghanistan they had lived with a big extended family in one large house, having perhaps two rooms to themselves. Here they rent a three-bedroom house, and found a stocked refrigerator—their first glimpse into American life. Over the weeks since their arrival, they have had medical checkups, a trip to a local playground to swing and hang from the zip-line, encounters with Stop & Shop and Sav-a-Lot, an interview
