The Small Things are Big

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Dan thought KIN’s Embrace Initiative would be a good outreach project and a way for his men’s group to experience community mission work and grow closer. One of the young men in the group thought, “This is going to be fun, just hanging out and building relationships.” So KIN representatives met the 7 men on a Saturday morning, walked them through a not-so-short orientation, and introduced “their” international family.

Junior lost his wife and new baby in a refugee camp shortly before his name reached the top of the list. Still mourning, he took his 8-year-old son, Jonas, and boarded a plane to Knoxville, Tennessee--a place he’d never heard of in a country where he didn’t speak the language. Bridge Refugee Services found him a place to live and a job. They helped Jonas get into school, and assisted in other ways, too. But this small family needed more long-term support than Bridge had the capacity to provide.
 
As Dan and his group learned about Junior’s struggles to manage life in Knoxville, they dug in, tackling one problem at a time. That’s when Dan realized, “We had to quit being social and be more like missionaries.” It wasn’t easy, and everyone in the group stepped up.

• One guy taught Junior how to hold and strum a guitar.
• One man negotiated with Junior’s landlord about past-due rent payments.
• Another guy went to the bank with him and helped him set up a checking account.
• Yet another person showed Junior how to pay his KUB bill online.

 
Some things were easy, others were hard. But even the small, seemingly easy things were big to Junior. Along the way, the wall between Junior and this Embrace group began to break down.
 
One day, they simply went for a walk. Junior and Jonas both relaxed, and Junior talked more freely to some of the men in his group—men who are the same age but have lived completely different lives. That’s the day they moved from being people who helped him to being friends.
 
Friendship. It seems like a small thing, but it’s big.
 
Junior still leans on this small group as he learns how to be self-reliant in his new hometown. But the learning isn’t one-sided. The group learned they didn’t need to provide all the answers. They needed to be present, sometimes learning alongside Junior, sometimes just listening. Because listening is a big, small thing too.

READY TO GET INVOLVED?
Embrace is hard. "Sometimes,” Dan says, “it was really a pain.” But it’s clearly one of those hard things that’s worth it. Interested? Learn more about the initiative on our Embrace page, then let us know when your group is ready for a no-commitment info session.