Canvassing the neighborhood



Jenny & I spent Saturday morning with some friends from church. Our church has adopted a refugee family-- they're Sudanese, and they arrived back in September. Here's what made Saturday so much fun... and challenging:
-- We learned that we've had the family's last name wrong for the last 3 1/2 months.
-- We learned the above information because the family's public assistance is about to run out and John, the father, has no job yet. So we canvassed the family's neighborhood in Old East Dallas, looking for places where he could work. And we helped him fill out job applications... which, of course, require the correct last name.
-- John speaks very little English. So this made the job search even more difficult.

John spent 25 years operating his own tailor shop in the Sudan. If someone needs a suit or dress altered, he would probably be fantastic. But only if you told him the instructions in Arabic. Otherwise, who knows? He's been enrolled in an English class, but his instructor would sometimes fail to show up. Nice.

John is a very nice man who is eager to work. It's gotta be difficult moving to a new country and not be able to converse. And I'm sure there's a pride issue with him not being able to provide for his family.

Our group on Saturday split up-- Jenny & I went on our own, looking for fast-food places and grocery stores that would consider hiring a refugee. The others took John to a couple of tailor shops. We got some good leads, and a couple of the tailor shops were interested, but the language barrier will be a problem.

Oh, and one of our leads panned out-- he has an interview at the Weinerschnitzel today. There's something amusing about a Sudanese refugee who speaks Arabic but little English possibly working at a fast-food restaurant with a German name. Anyway, your prayers -- and even job leads -- are welcome.

Posted: Mon - January 10, 2005 at 11:36 AM          

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