Heart to Heart Update

by Amy Caskie

Groups, families, and individuals are welcome to sponsor a family or families that request holiday assistance this year by purchasing gifts for them. Sponsors will be asked to contact their sponsored family directly to get ideas for Christmas gifts and make arrangements for delivery or pick-up. Our dedicated volunteer and social worker extraordinaire, Kitty Rohrer, will get contact information and family make up from the clients, then match inquiring families with those looking to sponsor them. We will accept requests from October 20 through December 9. After that date, all inquiries, clients and sponsors, will be referred to other programs by our team of resource volunteers. Click the link below for more information.

All financial contributions to Heart to Heart from November 1 through December 31 will be matched up to $20,000. With the increased demand and cost of food in recent months, the food pantry needs more financial resources than ever. Please know that your doubled donation will be doubly appreciated this year!

For the eighth year running, Jill and Duke Thomas have graciously made this matching pledge to support our mission to respond to God’s commandment to love one another. Heart to Heart began serving the community in 1986 and still exists today thanks to the foundation laid by its task force and early leaders, including Jill. We are eternally grateful for the Thomas family’s ongoing support of our mission.

Join us in worship on November 13, and bring a donation for Heart to Heart food pantry.

The Share and Learn Garden at First Community North sits on the property behind the Mary Evans Child Development Center. All the produce grown in the garden goes directly to Heart to Heart. The garden is managed and harvested by a small but mighty and fun group of volunteers. Master Gardeners Cheryl and Loren VanDeusen, and their daughter, Kate Paulson, are the group's leaders. Kate has been sending weekly emails with beautiful photos since before the growing season began. The group has reconvened every Tuesday morning again, weather permitting. 

We receive weekly updates from Kate Paulson. Below we share excerpts from those recent emails.

by Kitty Rohrer

In August 2022, Ashlesha Onawale, Director of Deep Griha Society in Pune, India, wrote a grant proposal to the First Community Mission Council requesting funds to replace the old stone floor in the outdoor kitchen and eating area at the multipurpose Tadiwala Center. This area is the focus of much of the food-related outreach to the community, where Seniors and Youth gather, socialize, and receive much-needed nutritious food. The Mission Council awarded a grant of $10,000 for this project. Please note that your donations to and purchases from the Trading Post permit the Mission Council to respond to local, national, and international requests for assistance!

It is worth noting that Deep Griha is back to providing a wide range of services to youth and adults alike in all 5 of its service locations. The shutdown during the height of the pandemic allowed the management and staff to re-assess the programs being offered and make adjustments that better utilize the staff and serve the needs of the residents more efficiently and effectively.  

photo submitted by Asmaa Khalifa

Since 2017, our Refugee Task Force has stood by the Khalifeh family following their arrival as refugees from Syria facing a variety of resettlement challenges most people uprooted from their own country, culture, and language confront – not to mention the trauma of having to leave other family members behind, including their parents.

We first became involved with Bashar and Asmaa, a Muslim family, and their five children (they soon added a sixth) after moving into a small, decrepit house in the Linden area of Columbus. When we became involved, their initial refugee benefits had run their course. The local refugee resettlement agency approached us to see if we could provide some English as a Second Language (ESL) tutoring and assist Bashar with finding employment. He had been a very successful business owner and entrepreneur in Syria. With almost no English skills, and no opportunity to start a business of his own again, he desperately needed to find a job to support his family as financial assistance was running out.

Through one of our task force members, we reached out to a congregation member involved in hotel/motel management and found him an hourly maintenance job at the Varsity Inn on Olentangy. We also assisted Bashar and his oldest son Mohammed in setting up banking and savings accounts. We continued making weekly ESL visits to their home as our relationship with the family increased.

Eventually, through the refugee grapevine, the family miraculously found housing in Hilliard, relocated themselves, and three of our task force members have continued to visit and assist the children with tutoring in reading and math over the past several years. Their oldest daughter, Nour, soon became quite proficient in English, graduated from Hillard Davidson High School, and is now enrolled at Columbus State. The mother, Asmaa, continued to be tutored in English, and Bashar's skills gradually increased through his work situation at the motel. Recently they have begun to purchase their own home.

Five years is the minimum time for someone to qualify for citizenship, assuming they can pass the required exam. Last week, on October 19, Nour and Asmaa were sworn in as new U.S. citizens in a naturalization ceremony at The Ohio State University. (Asmaa took the photo above during their ceremony.) Bashar also recently passed his exam and will participate in a similar ceremony at The Federal Courthouse on November 29.

Safety restrictions prevent us from sharing pictures of the family in this article. Still, those who attended the ceremony for Nour and Asmaa can attest to their great pride and joy in this achievement. We wanted the FCC community to know that through your financial contributions, an initial donation of household furnishings, and the volunteer work of your Refugee Ministry Team, you all have had a significant part in this family's successful resettlement. We're proud to report that eight of the refugees tutored by our volunteers have become American citizens this past year!

If you're interested in becoming involved with the refugee ministry at First Community to be part of stories like this in the future, please contact the Mission Office.

Family of Ten Arrives this Thursday