January 2026 – In the News

January 30, 2026

We are looking for 100 new monthly supporters this year. Click here to give and help us reach our goal.
We also need volunteers to help tutor two young men preparing to go to college & need help in our new English class in NE Amarillo. Click here to email Betty and get more information.

In The News

You might have seen our faces more than usual this month if you live in Amarillo! Refugee Language Project was featured in two local magazines in January:
Brick and Elm has named RLP Non-Profit of the Year, and we will be honored at their second annual Brickly Awards next week! They wrote a very kind article about us in their January issue, which you can read for free here. We are grateful for this recognition, especially in a community with so many wonderful non-profits.

Our Executive Director and Founder, Dr. Pennington, said,

“I’m so grateful for this incredible honor! Just 8 years ago, I was signing articles of formation, full of far more questions than answers. I’ve learned so much from other leaders in this city, and I’m humbled by the trust our donors, grantors, and community have placed in us.
To anyone reading this with a dream of serving your community: your vision can become reality. Some days, you may be the only person who believes in it. But keep going—one day, an entire community might just believe with you.”
Thank you to all of you who believed with us!

Amarillo Living magazine also featured RLP in a wonderful piece about Taste the World in their latest issue. It really captured the heart and spirit of the event, and we hope you’ll read it and remember to save the date for this year’s Taste the World on October 23rd!

A message from Ryan about our current moment

This week a friend of mine came to visit me. His job as an electrician has recently made it impossible to continue participating in our English class, but on Tuesday he needed to see his friends, to be hugged, and to connect with our RLP family. He’s feeling what many of our friends are feeling: fear. They sense that the tide has turned, that people are looking for pretenses to seek violence or deportation against even lawful immigrants. “Am I safe?” he asked me. “Do you think I should go back to Africa?” I put my arms around this dear man, made in God’s image, and I prayed for him.

This story is not unique. Every day our community trembles at the headlines. Local challenges compound the fear—Tyson’s recent B-shift closure left 1,700 people without work. The uncertainty exacts a heavy toll on our friends. Yet we as God’s people must keep extending Christ’s welcome, again and again. At RLP, we use language as our doorway into a community where burdens are shared, where no one bears their fear alone, and where all are honored as fellow beneficiaries of God’s grace.

Feeling overwhelmed by the chaos? Wondering what you can do from Amarillo? We invite you to join what we’re doing here. We need new volunteers for our daytime classes in northeast Amarillo, and we’re looking for tutors for two young men aspiring to go to college. Maybe it’s your turn to wrap your arms around the immigrant in love.

Let me tell you an ancient story that speaks to this moment. The Old Testament book of Ruth tells of a foreign widow who was disregarded as a problematic immigrant. Ruth took on back-breaking labor, waiting at the edges of fields to collect dropped grain. And as she labored, a faithful man named Boaz saw her and chose not to suspect evil of her, but instead to advocate for her. He opened his fields to her and protected her. Later, she became the great-grandmother of King David and the ancestor of Jesus Christ. Our God weaves the marginalized into his own family, and we get to participate. Like Boaz, we have the same opportunity to weave the displaced into our circles and families. I can tell you that being used this way—actively enveloping the displaced into your community—is a powerful antidote to despair.

If you don’t have the time for that kind of commitment, I invite you to become a monthly donor. A gift of $84/month provides for one student through all of our programs. Imagine the encouragement it brings today to see new donors coming alongside us at the very moment things feel especially broken.
We hope you’ll help us hold the door open,
Ryan

Pray through Pictures

We invite you to pray for RLP and our refugee and immigrant friends through pictures each month.

Praise God that a dear friend finally received his work authorization!

Pray for our new English class at North Grand. We need more volunteers to help lead breakout groups at this campus on Tuesday and Thursday mornings.

Many people who lost their jobs at Tyson are coming to the PLACE for help in applying for other jobs. Pray for those families who are out of work and for our partners at the PLACE that are assisting with high volumes of unemployment filings and new job applications.

Tagged brick and elm, immigration, news