Students for the Relief of the Oppressed

Thank you to everyone who showed up for the Benefit Swing Dance on Saturday Night! We had to lower our fundraising goals when it became clear the Benefit Concert would not materialize this term, but the Swing Dance brought in more than we hoped, netting about $250 after expenses. Along with money from the fundraising jars in local coffee-shops and a couple private donations, we have $390 to give to Sabbath House to help Naing Thang pay for the purchase of malaria medications in Burma--a sum that should go a long way in such a poor country. Praise God and pray for even greater fruits of our labors this fall!

This just in: the Sabbath House board voted today to approve the bringing of the three refugee families from Boise up to Moscow in the near future. The plan is to move them sometime in the month of June, after which time Sabbath House and local volunteers (including SRO members) will oversee their housing and furnishing needs, as well as helping them find employment, learn English, and gain other skills necessary to adjust to life in America. The only difficulty will be the translation issue--the plan is to translate using a phone contact during meetings with the family at least in the near term; hopefully something better will become available soon. Praise God for this opportunity to serve and pray that all would go smoothly.

The trip to Boise by Rusty Olps, Sabbath House board member, and I (Brad--I'll go ahead and speak in first person for this post) was a resounding success. Htee Khu (Beth) remembered me very well (much better than I remembered her, I must admit), and warmly greeted us. We were introduced to her aunt, uncle, and cousins, who, with her, are relocating to a new Karen community in Sault St. Marie, Michigan. She then took us next door to meet three families which are hoping to be able to relocate to Moscow (she had wisely assembled them from their apartments scattered around Boise so we could meet them all at once). They were very friendly and eager to meet us, though they spoke only a few words of English. One family had six kids--an 11-year old girl and then 5 boys aged seven and under (these had a rather violent streak and enjoyed swarming all over me and taking turns pretending to choke me); another had two toddler girls, and the third had one toddler boy and another on the way,...