Check out one of the following exciting programs!
- Join us at our weekly Community Table, where we enjoy a potluck dinner and build community with our refugee friends;
- Help a refugee meet their goals through our Mentorship program;
- Buy a book from our exciting Storybook Project, which honors refugees by collecting their life stories and publishing them as bilingual storybooks;
- Serve as a teacher during one of our daily English classes;
- Visit us at the PLACE, our refugee-focused multicultural community center; or
- Book our Translation Services to meet an upcoming translation need.
Learn more about how these programs get us to our vision of the flourishing of refugee communities.
Refugee Language Project exists to ensure that individuals from refugee communities in the Amarillo area are increasingly flourishing as they confidently interact with the world around them, enabling them to honor God with their lives. RLP is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization in Amarillo, Texas. Launched in 2017, we became a standalone organization in 2020. We are funded primarily by monthly recurring donations, alongside generous one-time gifts and strategic grants. Learn more about our team here.
Understand the broader context from our 2021 Amarillo Refugee State of the Union.
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Ramadan Mubarak to all our friends who celebrate!
For our Afghan neighbors, a feast is usually never far behind an invitation to a party. Isn't this a beautiful display of generosity and flavors? This kind of feasting will be common after sundown during Ramadan, which starts tomorrow! Have you ever been invited to join in an iftar meal with your Muslim friends? Let us know about your experience in the comments!
Although we are sad that our time with Jennifer Freeze is coming to an end, we want to celebrate her and all that she has meant to us and to the refugee community in Amarillo. We know that you will miss her too! Please join us for a lunch in her honor next Wednesday, March 22 at 11:30 at The PLACE. We will provide charcuterie and desserts. We hope you can come and spend time with her and wish her well.
Ramadan starts this week! For those of you who have students that are Muslim, there is a wonderful resource that comic illustrator Huda Fahmy @yesimhotinthis has made available with useful tips and information for educators. It's free to download, so give her a follow and snag yours today at the link in our bio.
Join me for lunch on Friday, March 31st at the PLACE. We'll talk about mentorships and any issues you might be facing in those relationships. Even if you aren't actively in a mentorship, I plan to also bring up a couple themes from our book recommendations that I've been posting on social media. We'll plan to hit on the topics of storytelling and assimilation for refugees, so come join our discussion! We'd love to have you join us and chat! No need to RSVP, just show up.
As a boy, Van Thang often sat in the cold morning air and drew on the large boulders outside his home. Using charcoal from the fire pit or vines he’d collected from the fields that had been burned for farming, he would sketch as the sun rose over his village, warming the people and the land. He started out drawing stick figures and animals he had seen on the farm, but as he grew older and more skilled, he created scenes of village life or his latest hunting expeditions. Van enjoyed seeing people stop to admire the art and try to figure out what he had drawn. Living in the mountains of Chin State in Myanmar, Van had never heard of Leonardo DaVinci, Andy Warhol or Georgia O’Keefe. There were no paintings or drawings hanging on the walls of his home, or any other homes in his village for that matter. In fact, the idea of someone working as an artist for a living was completely unheard of. That reality would not be known to Van until he was a teenager living in Malaysia, after he and his family fled as refugees to escape the military conflict in Myanmar.
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I had the honor of interviewing Van recently about the artwork he did for an upcoming storybook. You can read about his journey and desire for his art in this month's e-newsletter. Go check it out at the link in our profile and give @vansarts a follow!
We are offering a new monthly class called Refugee 101: Equipping the Church to Welcome Refugees. The first one will be on the evening of April 12th. Email John (john@refugeelanguage.org) to register, as there are a limited number of spots. This is a great first step for people interested in learning more about refugees and what RLP does! Mark your calendars and tell your friends!
Read an interview with Josh Van Thang, the artist we used in an upcoming storybook, set to be released later this year. Also check out the Save the Date for a new monthly class we are offering. It's all inside this month's e-newsletter. Link in bio.
New month, new book! This month we are reading Everything Sad is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri. If that name looks familiar, it's because he is the brother of Dina Nayeri, the author of The Ungrateful Refugee, which we read last month. Maybe at the end of March we can have a lunch to talk about these two stories together.
Send a DM if you are planning to join me in readingthis month. 🙂
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Do you like to read? Join me! I'll post a book recommendation at the beginning of each month and if you want to join me in reading the book, grab a used copy from your local bookstore, borrow from a friend, or head to the library. If you have a book that was written by or about refugees, drop it in the comments below as a suggestion. I'll be compiling a list of choices for the coming months!
Community Table is pausing for a few weeks, so there will be no potluck meal tonight. Be sure to follow @theplaceamarillo and stay tuned for updates!
At this month's Board meeting we heard from Samuel, a Language Assistant with RLP, about problems facing Amarillo's refugee youth and creative solutions he is dreaming up. Our Board listened and then prayed over Samuel. We are so grateful for a Board that listens well, prays with and for us, and provides the wisdom and encouragement our team needs at each turn.
Looking for something to do this weekend? You are invited to check out the 75th Chin National Day and support this vibrant Amarillo community! Chin food, fashion, wrestling and dancing will be highlighted. Come anytime on Saturday, February 18th between 1-8:30PM at Amarillo Chin Christian Church located at 1500 N. Arthur St.
READ WITH ME - FEBRUARY :: Are you reading "The Ungrateful Refugee" with me this month? If you haven't started, you can still join in. I would highly recommend it, and I am not even finished! I wanted to share this quote today as it hits the mark on what we try to communicate to volunteers and community partners. It is so much easier to be the rescuer than a friend, and relationships are messy. The quote by Dina Nayeri on page 318 says of refugees: "They need friendship, not salvation. They need the dignity of becoming an essential part of a society. They have been so often on the receiving end of charity that when faced with someone else's need, their generosity and skill shines. Now and then, they will fall short, their wounds will open, they will have too many needs. You might misstep and cause harm. That is better than drawing a thick line around them. In life, people disappoint each other. Messes are made. The only way to avoid pain is to distance yourself, to look down at them from the rescuer's perch. But that denies them what they most urgently need: to be useful. To belong to a place."
Drop a comment below if you are reading along this month!
Valentine's Day is the perfect day to spend at The Community Table. Enjoy a warm bowl of turkey Shepherd's Pie and slice of hummingbird cake for dessert while chatting with your neighbors. Bring your refugee friends and a plate of something to share! We'd LOVE to see you there! 6-8 PM @ The PLACE
Come work with us! We are currently looking to hire a full time Operations Manager. Applications and a full job description are available at https://refugeelanguage.org/about/jobs/
Come grab a warm plate of spaghetti tonight and meet us at The Community Table! Bring something to add to the feast and invite an immigrant or refugee friend to join you!. 6-8 PM at The PLACE, 3107 Plains Blvd, #500
How do you spell S-U-C-C-E-S-S? - Surprises at the spelling bee, RLP is hiring, and more! Read this month's e-newsletter for the latest news! Link in bio.
Take a tour of The PLACE with John, our Director of Church Engagement and Business Development! You can see his video tour by clicking the link in bio.
Do you like to read? Let's try something new. We'll post a book recommendation at the beginning of each month and if you want to join me in reading the book, grab a used copy from your local bookstore, borrow from a friend, or head to the library. If you have a book that was written by or about refugees, drop it in the comments below as a suggestion. I'll be compiling a list of choices for the coming months!
We'll start with The Ungrateful Refugee by Dina Nayeri. This one has been sitting at home for awhile and I haven't read it yet, so I am glad to finally get to it. Send a DM if you are planning to join me this month. 🙂
