UPDATED 9/8/24! —
In 2021, First Free established a relationship with World Relief, an organization whose mission is to ‘Empower the local church to serve the most vulnerable’. With a heart to minister to our refugee neighbors, the C.A.R.E. Team was then organized, whose goal is the movement of the Gospel through care. This is a team of five to seven people who work directly with World Relief to learn about refugee families needing assistance, and then engage with those families long-term, to provide aid with anything from housing to groceries to clothing or even help with learning English. Between 2021 and 2023, we hosted a family seeking asylum from Angola. They have since relocated to Skokie, Illinois – where we continue to maintain an on-going relationship with them.
Now, working in partnership with Faith Community Initiative (part of the Sanctuary Working Group consortium), we’ve established the “New Neighbor Care Group”. Our Focus Statement is “. . . to share the shalom of God across human-made barriers of culture and language so that all people may experience God’s goodness and be made whole in God’s love.” By working through three modes: 1. Basic Needs; 2. Language; and 3. Advocacy, we hope to move from a posture of superficial involvement with our New Neighbors to one that involves a deeper incarnational ministry.
Earlier this year, we began hosting a family from Mexico in one of our apartment units. There are a number of opportunities to surround them with love and support during their stay with us. If you’re interested in being involved – in big ways or even small ways – with this ministry to care for our neighbors in need, please let us know by using the “Contact Us” button below to engage with us!
If you’d like to learn more about the great work that Faith Community Initiative is doing in Chicago to help our New Neighbors find semi-permanent housing with local churches, click here – or learn more about the Sanctuary Working Group by clicking here.