! Important Post !

Hi Blog Readers,

My church group is welcoming and "adopting" a refugee family to Austin. They're a family of 4 from Burma (the parents are in their late 20s and have a 5 year old daughter and 2 year old son) and they fled Burma due to ethnic/religious persecution and have been living in India for some time now. We meet them at the airport for the first time next Thursday, September 3rd and have lots of things to do before their arrival!

Our group is excited about all the preparation for their arrival and could really use some support and help if you're able and willing :). The refugee family will only have a few personal belongings when they arrive so we're collecting things for their apartment and everyday items before they arrive.

Some things we're collecting:
- bedroom furniture
- kitchen items (place settings and cookware)
- appropriately sized clothing
- HEB gift card donations
- monetary donations to fund the purchase of the above items + misc items

In addition to preparing for their arrival, we're looking forward to getting to know them, welcoming and showing them around Austin, and helping them as much as we can (i.e. applying for social security cards, scheduling health assessments, practicing english with them). Prayers and thoughts for the family as they transition are also much needed and appreciated.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions. Let me know if you're interested and I'm always open for suggestions/ideas on how to welcome this family well! Feel free to forward this opportunity to anyone else that might be interested.

<3 johanna and her church group

p.s. info about burmese refugees for your reading pleasure:

1) Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL) - In depth 88 page publication on Burmese Refugees, with highlights on the Chin ethnic group – page 50.

http://www.cal.org/co/pdffiles/refugeesfromburma.pdf


2) Church World Service - Short news piece on plight of Burmese monks and refugee situation, 2007:

http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:dWhhfZnKjz0J:www.churchworldservice.org/site/News2%3Fpage%3DNewsArticle%26id%3D6362+church+world+service+burma&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us


3) Relief Web – News article on the Monk’s uprising in Burma, 2007:

http://www.reliefweb.int/rwarchive/rwb.nsf/db900sid/TBRL-78CQ3N?OpenDocument


4) Christian Today – News article on refugee situation in 2006, with reader comment at bottom from Burmese refugee persecuted for religious beliefs:

http://www.christiantoday.com/article/church.world.service.calls.on.un.to.respond.to.burma.violence/7805.htm


5) Refugees International – Short current 2009 piece on Burmese refugees, with links to other resources:

http://www.refugeesinternational.org/where-we-work/asia/burma?gclid=COCr98iDwJwCFQ8MDQod7HJbmw


6) Indo-Burma News – news piece on Chin Burmese refugees living in India (profile of the Nawl family), 2009:

http://www.indoburmanews.net/archives-1/archive06/aug_06/273/

Taiwan 8.6.09

congrats linton & phoebe!

phoebe and i grew up in the same church and i've always known her to be quiet yet wise. (i say this with much thought after just studying James 3.) every time i see her i have to refrain myself from spilling my guts to her because i know she'd love to listen about my "troubles." Linton and I served on core team together & we got to know each other pretty well through serving aacm together. i really admire his willingness to serve others and i cant get enough of his corny jokes! i am very happy for them because i believe their marriage will bear lots of fruit.

more pictures here.

happy bday mr.lam!

we celebrated your birthday early and now i'm posting a late birthday shout-out. nothing is happening on time this year for you! anyways, hope you had a fun birthday in LA & thanks for being one of the few people who read my blog :)

of all the fishes in the sea

CUTEST bridal shower theme EVER. click here for pictures.

congrats, irene!

happy bday clam!

thanks to the guys' planners, christine's surprise bday dinner was a fail. who knew guys kept their planners up-to-date?? o well, i still had fun making frozen margaritas for the first time, eating my fav cupcakes from uppercrest, & discovering the awesomeness of streamers. i'm going to have these at my wedding! click for more pictures.

how functional

Not only are these fully functional leather bags, they may also be used to hang your coat! not completely crazy on how it looks but it's unique & i appreciate increased function.

tom valenti

i volunteered for my 2nd cooking class with central market's cooking school this past friday. tom valenti was the guest chef and he made 5 different recipes from his new cookbook, you dont have to be a diabetic to love this cookbook. supposedly tom valenti's a pretty famous chef that's good friends with bobby flay and mario batali, which he made sure to name-drop them at least 4x during his class. the food was good with clever ways to incorporate a diabetic's eating limitations however the recipes are too complicated for my liking. i ended up not buying his cookbook and i think i might have offended him :x.

menu included:
- shrimp toast (good but too many ingredients for me)
- salmon carpaccio (didnt get to try :()
- fresh fettuccine with asparagus
- grilled tuna with red pepper puree (fav dish)
- stuffed chx breasts w basil, goat cheese, & sun-dried tomato (not a big fan of goat cheese)