By Mo Scarpelli

Marsa fell in love when she was fifteen years old.

“He had no goats,” she says. That means the man she loved couldn’t afford to offer her parents a dowry.

So Marsa’s family found her an older man from a different tribe in the Sudan, a man that didn’t speak her language or know her at all prior to their wedding.

“His brothers knew my language and translated,” she said.

Marsa, her new husband, and her brothers came to America in 2000. Pregnant, she soon found out she had syphallis and needed to take a series of shots so that her baby would live.
“If I had not had the shots,” she said, “then my baby would have died.”

But Leno, now 7 years old, survived, and Marsa is thankful for that.

“At first, I get here and I cried every day,” she said. “But I was happy after I had children.”

Marsa has four children, actually. The banging screen door is an indicator of their presence as Marsa explains her story with six-month-old Apik in her lap. Abuk, 5, helps herself to a hotdog for lunch and Nyakajn, 2, lingers around the couch area where her mother sits.

Marsa’s family is one of hundreds living in the Kennedy Park city housing in Portland, Maine. Most of those within blocks of her apartment are Sudanese and Somali refugees, brought into the United States through Catholic Charity sponsorship.

The city has the largest Sudanese immigrant population in the country. Even on rainy days, the neighborhood courses with some of the darkest-skinned people in America.

“But there are many others – over 42 nationalities are represented just in this community,” said Peggy Hinman, volunteer ministry coordinator of the Root Cellar, a community center that aids refugees and immigrants in their transition to American life.

In a brand new world, among new languages and social norms, many immigrants like Marsa crave stability and direction. The Root Cellar tries to provide that in the form of food and clothing donation, education, free dental and medical care and relational ministry.

“We have refugees come straight from the plane to the Root Cellar to get clothing,” said Hinman. “They know us so well. Many refugees went through hard times coming here and they just want to be in a community with peace.”

Experience Mission started working with the Root Cellar just this summer. Interns Noah Nells, Heidi Clum and Cori Lyons are the first to manage EM teams in Portland, where they see building relationships as the most important service for people adjusting to a new culture.

“These kids need people that are genuine to love them,” said 22-year-old volunteer Leah Sherck from Greenville Church of the Bretheren in Greenville, Ohio. “From talking with the kids, you see they’re so distrustful, they’re really looking for someone they can trust. I haven’t been here even a week and I already see a difference with some just from talking to them and remembering their names.”

Marsa’s children, along with more fifty more from the neighborhood, come to the Root Cellar every weekday for Kids Club with Experience Mission. The volunteers’ time with them for several hours a day in a safe place gives them stability, confidence and a chance to relate to others.

“It seems really odd because it’s Maine, it seems to be the middle of nowhere,” said Sherck. “When I think of serving refugees in America, I always think of L.A. or New York City, but there are so many immigrants here. It’s a very unique situation.”

Portland was named a refugee city in the country by Catholic Charities. Through the Charities alone, more than 5,000 people from more than two dozen countries arrive in the area as refugees from foreign countries.

Portland has the most Sudanese immigrant population in the United States.

Just by walking through the neighborhood, says Hinman, you feel like the United Nations is right in your backyard. The vast diversity, many languages and continuing cultures don’t hinder the Root Cellar and EM’s message of Christian faith through service, however.

“I say we believe in God,” Hinman said of the volunteers. “And I don’t apologize for that one bit. We can do all sorts of projects, but it’s really the faith that does it. God just does things – it’s so awesome, I can’t stand it.”

Experience Mission will serve the Portland, Maine area until July 18, and hopes to return to the area again every summer for years to come.

Experience Mission is offering Summer 2009 mission trips to Portland and other locations in the U.S. and abroad. Visit www.experiencemission.org or call  360-732-0986  to learn more.

Well, we have officially come to our final week here in Portland, Maine. Noah, Cori and I are all amazed at how fast this summer has flown by. It has been amazing seeing the Lord’s work throughout these few weeks though! He is so good!

For the past six weeks, we have been in close contact with the First Free Methodist Church here. They have been perfect and have done their best to make our stay at the church as comfortable as possible. We couldn’t have asked for more.

Today during church, I sat there listening to the people of the congregation rejoice in all the Lord had done fore them. I was blown away by how grateful they were. Although it’s a very small church, their hearts are full of so much love and thankfulness for all that Jesus does. I feel like, so often, we can get wrapped up in our everyday lives that we miss the opportunities to see ALL of the blessings the Lord showers on us. It has been wonderful to see the beauty of simplicity here.

We don’t need to have extraordinary lives or be someone special. Our whole goal in life is to see the amazing beauty of the Lord and let his love live in and through us. We are only here on earth for a short while, but we will spend eternity with Christ forever! How great our God is!

Heidi

Over the past few weeks we have been given the opportunity to participate in many cultural events. However, tonight’s had to be one of my favorites thus far–we were invited to attend a funeral for one of the elderly people who had passed away in the community. Although this sounds like a sad event, it actually was very exciting.

The African culture has an interesting way of honoring their family and friends when they pass on. The entire community comes out to celebrate the person’s life, by singing, dancing, and most importantly, eating amazing food. One of unique things about this culture is that when an elderly person passes, the community will wait 40 days, and then hold a celebration for everyone in the neighborhood. They do not see the sadness in death, but instead, highlight the happiness of that individual’s life. This, I feel, is how a person should be honored when they die.

In our culture, when someone passes away, the funeral tends to be a solemn and secluded event. In the African culture, however, the person is honored by a joyous celebration and the whole community is invited. Young and old, they gathered in the basement of the Root Cellar to participate in this amazing event. The African culture is beautifully displayed throughout every part of the ceremony. It is amazing! I never thought something so sad could be so joyous. The three of us felt very privileged to share such an event with the families of the community.

Waking up at 9:45, taking a ferry ride to a secluded island, eating free lunch, and spending a whole afternoon on a beach, in the sun, on the ocean. Sounds like a pretty sweet gig to me.

Yesterday we got to spend the day on Long Island, with some of the staff of The Root Cellar. The Root Cellar is a Christian outreach ministry located near government subsidized housing here in Portland. For the next five weeks we will be working along side them doing different outreach projects like Bible Club, Kid’s Club, neighborhood dinners, and Friday and Saturday night teen centers.

Most of their ministry revolves around building relationships, so the majority of our time and the mission trip teams will be building relationships with the kids of the neighborhood. The neighborhood is made up of primarily African immigrants, representing close to 50 different nations.

We will be staying in two different locations. For the larger teams we will be staying in the Portland YMCA. Today we got to go and check out the facilities, we will be staying in a new section of the building, sleeping on the floor of a gym. For the smaller groups we will be staying at the First Free Methodist Church, just down the road from The Root Cellar. The trustees in the church have been very gracious to us.

All of the people that we have met, and have been working with are great, we can not ask for more from a location. So far it seems that Portland will be a very good area to work in. Our first team arrives on Sunday night–we will begin on Monday morning by doing some small chores at The Root Cellar, and also working on some painting in the Church. Everyone here is really excited about getting so much help this summer. We hope and pray that our presence has a lasting impact on the people we come in contact with!

Noah