Refugee Sponsorship Update

November 1, 2021

We are delighted to share some wonderful news!

Thanks to the generosity of people like you, we have already raised the funds we need to secure the sponsorship space for the family of our congregation member David Mazambi currently in a refugee camp in Uganda.

We are so excited and so grateful for your help to achieve this goal so quickly – two months ahead of schedule!

We want to send our deep thanks, and to let you know what will happen next.

We will now submit our application forms with the amazing help of Canadian Lutheran World Relief.  And then we will start organizing for their arrival, raising funds for their immediate needs when they arrive in Canada.  CLWR has told us they hope that might happen before the end of 2022.

We are also organizing and raising funds for the other sponsorship we have undertaken.  We are working with a family who live on Victor Street, who we were able to meet through their involvement with The Excel Empowerment Centre program that operates out of our church building to support refugee and newcomer women.  This family have an adult nephew who is also in the refugee camp in Kampala, having fled there from Somalia.  He was forced to leave Somalia following the killing of his wife in retaliation for his refusal to help a criminal gang.  As you can imagine, his family here are eager to have him safely with them for love and support.  We are honoured to have the chance to work with this caring family, and to have the chance to get to know them better through this process.  We feel very blessed to have the opportunity to work together across faiths with this Muslim family.

We will provide more updates as we continue our journey to help these amazing families.

If you are in a position to provide additional support, now or in the future, to help with this ongoing work, they are gratefully received at our Canada Helps site, https://www.canadahelps.org/en/dn/40734
(select International Sponsorship on the drop down menu),

or by mail to:

First Lutheran Church
580 Victor St.
Winnipeg, MB
R3G 1R2 (marked for International Sponsorship)

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact First Lutheran Church Council President Tamsin Collings at tamsinandrew@shaw.ca or (204)786-7595.

Thank you once again for your amazing support!