The family sponsored by Kentville, Canaan, and Kings Presbyterian has arrived! We greeted them at the airport and let Mom talk with our translator. Our Eritrean and Ethiopian friends were there to greet them with us. They were alert and the boys active and playful. They were hungry and tired, but thankful to be here. Their new life as Permanent Residents of Canada has begun!
Some nice warm clothes to keep everyone warm!!!
Good news!!
Flights have been booked for the family we are sponsoring from Ethiopia. They are scheduled to arrive next week. The family has been on route from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to Halifax for over 27 hours by the time of their arrival, and therefore, in order not to overwhelm them, we are taking only a small party of people to welcome them. Not only will be they be overwhelmed by our culture, they will also be very tired and cold.
Please pray for this family as they adjust to
* life without a large community of people who speak their language;
* temperatures that are 10 to 20 degrees cooler than they are used to;
* a culture reliant on appliances and gadgets;
* different foods and customs.
We are so thankful to have Nova Scotia residents from the same region of Ethiopia and Eritrea, who are helping us with food and customs. And we have several translators in Ontario who speak the same language as the family.
And we are thankful that another group, in Ontario, received a family from the same place and ethnic-languge background as our newcomers, and we are already learning from them so that we can be better prepared.
As we are permitted by the newcomers, we will post some photos and updates.
The Neighbours Near and Far Committee feel it is time to thank the many people who have supported our group through prayer, donations of money, furniture, beds, kitchen and bath items and the many other accessories that make a house feel welcoming!
We would like to begin by thanking the congregations of the Kentville Baptist church, the 3rd Horton Canaan Baptist Church and the Kings Presbyterian church. Without the support of these congregations of time and money we would never have gotten this project off the ground, so thank you and Gods blessings to each of you for your support and encouragement!
Our committee also wants to express a huge thank you to the owners of the rental house for going above and beyond what was asked of them! We appreciate the expense that they have incurred to make this house an inviting and safe place to live.
We also want to thank our local business community.
The generosity of these businesses has been a huge help to us and we appreciate everything they have done to support our committee’s goal of bringing a family here to the valley.
A huge thank you to Phil Jordan’s, Holland Home Leisure, the Black Rock Jolly workers, Country Stoves and Sunrooms, Meadow Brook Farms, Gates Insurance, and Henny Penny’s for their support.
Thank you to individuals like Emily Leeson for providing back packs filled with school supplies and other items for the children. We also want to thank the Horton school for collecting winter clothing. We also want to thank everyone who donated house hold items to make our house a home, as well as the men and women who donated their time to help us move the items into our rental property. Last but not least we can’t forget the ladies who came in to clean the house for us.
I hope I haven’t forgotten anyone, but if I did you can be assured that we are grateful for your support.
The Neighbours Near and Far Committee
We want to thank everyone who responded to help clean and furnish our sponsored family’s home in preparation for their arrival. We are encouraged and feel blessed that we were able to obtain all needed furniture items!
We have received an early Christmas Gift!
Our committee has been meeting weekly for a couple of months and recently we requested to sponsor a family of four to come to Canada, from Ethiopia where they had taking refuge from the conflict in Eritrea. Although the conflict in Syria and its refugees hold our attention, war in Eritrea is the source of the most refugees in the world, over 4 million.
On Friday (18 Dec) the Matching Center for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada notified our Signed Agreement Holder (Convention of Atlantic Baptist Churches) that we were matched with the family, and so we may formally apply to sponsor them! The family is travel-ready and the checks were again verified, and so they should arrive approximately 8 weeks after the official approval of our application–we hope for approval in January.
In order to maintain their personal privacy, we cannot say much beyond what is in this post. However, we will keep this page up-to-date with information about our progress and the family’s arrival and settling into Nova Scotia. Watch this space or follow us:
Gmail Address – kckrefugee@gmail.com
Blog – http://www.kckrefugee.wordpress.com
Twitter – https://twitter.com/kck_refugee
We are excited!
Here is a picture of some of the kitchen items/appliances that have come in so far. Just a sample of the generosity we have experienced to date. Thank you for your support.
The board is empty! The board was full of items that we need to fill a kitchen for our soon-to-be neighbours! Thank you to everyone for your generosity!
We are ready to start turning our refugee family’s house into a home. Each of the three churches has a poster listing the small household items needed and collection has begun! Donated gifts should be in gently used condition or new. Furniture and other items not listed on the posters will be added at a later date.
We are excited about sponsoring a refugee family. Here is a video from the government of Canada that describe this process.
KCK Refugee Committee 