Congregational Care
Resurrection is blessed to be filled with people who love and care for one another. Our Caring Visits Ministers are trained members of our community who go out into the world to bring Holy Communion, prayer, and faithful companionship to in our community who cannot make it to worship in person either because they are bound to their home, or because they are in the hospital. Their ministry of presence bears witness to Christ's light outside the walls of the church, in the lives of God's people.
If you would like to recieve vists from a Caring Visits Minister, or if you feel that God is calling you to become a Caring Visits Minister, please contact Pastor Wyatt here.
There is nothing quite like receiving a handwritten and handmade card from someone who cares about you. Resurrection Card Writing Ministers write and make cards for all manner of occasions, and send them to people in our community. It is our way of caring for our community and reminding them that God loves them. If you feel that God is calling you to become a Card Writing Minister, whether you have any experience with card writing and making, or not, please contact Pastor Wyatt here.
Coping With Grief, is a ministry to people dealing with a significant loss in their lives. This is a 9-week course that meets weekly. The class is limited to 6 participants. However, if there is a larger group than 6, a second group will be scheduled for 6 pm the same day. These sessions are offered quarterly.
This group provides a support community for people caring for loved ones with cognitive decline (Dementia, Alzheimers). The group will be reading and discussing ‘The Dementia Care Partner’s Workbook’ by Edward G. Shaw, MD, MA. They meet the 4th Wednesday of every month from 1:00 to 2:30 PM in the High School Youth Room.
The Helping Hands Ministry offers free maintenance on simple home projects for anyone in the community. Simply click below or call the church office at 520-575-9901.
If you have a special skill that you would like to share with your church family, you are invited to become a Helping Hands Minister. If you are interested in learning a new skill while serving your church community, you are invited to become a Helping Hands minister. There is no experience needed! If you would like to become a Helping Hands Minister, simply click below or call the church office at 520-575-9901.
Holy Grounds is the ministry that provides coffee and doughnut holes after worship on Sunday mornings!
This support group provides encouragement from meeting with others who have Parkinson’s disease. The meetings provide an opportunity to discuss experiences and feelings and to share solutions to common problems. Meets every 3rd Wednesday of the month in the High School Youth Room.
Consider sharing your gifts of hospitality by serving as an Altar Care Assistant, Usher, or Communion Assistant!
Community Care
We are so grateful to be able to host a blood drive at our Oro Valley campus. With your support, we will be able to raise awareness about the importance of blood donation and collect numbers of life-saving donations. These donations will undoubtedly make a profound difference in the lives of those in need within our community.
Sign Up for an Appointment Here
Anna Lawrence is a 3-8 school on the southwest side of Tucson. Resurrection volunteers work with school staff and the Comm. Food Bank of So. AZ to provide dry goods, produce, and bread to an average of 140 families as part of each of the 15 or so pantry days we operate during a school year. Anyone interested in knowing more should contact Jerry_Olson36@msn.com
Scheduled Trip dates:
November 14-17, 2024 SIGN UP NOW!
March 13-16, 2025 SIGN UP NOW!
Please click here to register for the trip in November, 2024
Please click here to register for the trip in March, 2025
WHY WE DO IT
Casas por Cristo exists to open the door for local pastors and churches to share the love of Jesus Christ by serving.
WHAT WE DO
Our mission is to build and serve.
Build
We are builders. That’s who we are. We build homes for families that need to be reminded that Jesus loves them. We build relationships between volunteers, families, and pastors that would otherwise never have met. We strive to build the Kingdom of God by partnering with other local churches and ministries. We strive to build opportunities for growth by creating structured experiences that cause our volunteers to be stretched beyond their comfort zones.
Serve
Through this building process, God allows us to interact with our teams, local families, pastors, churches, vendors, and fellow missionaries. We do not want to take any of these interactions for granted. We believe that these are unique opportunities presented to us by God to serve each other.
The team members of this ministry arrange receptions for the families and friends of loved ones who have passed away.
Please contact the church office at 520-575-9901 or email rlc@orovalley.org to volunteer.
Lutheran Campus Ministry at U of A
Future Leaders in Ministry: Hosts annual golf tournament where proceeds help defray costs of seminary tuition for future ELCA Pastors.
Members of the group knit or crochet prayer shawls, which are given to members, families of our members, or others in need of comfort.
Primavera Foundation now provides:
- Emergency shelter and services through a men’s shelter, a women’s shelter, a scattered-site family shelter and two day drop-in centers
- Participation in coordinated entry through Tucson Pima Collaboration to End Homelessness (TPCH) with homelessness intervention and prevention and rapid rehousing
- Transitional housing
- Safe, affordable housing at 11 properties with 145 units
- Community building and engagement through gardens, public policy education and convenings
- Workforce development through Primavera Works, a temporary staffing agency
- Homeownership and financial education classes and workshops.
This ministry supports the Primavera Men's Shelter in Tucson. Empty orange prescription pill bottles with removed labels are collected. The Shelter uses the bottles to distribute toiletries such as shampoo and soap.
The pill bottles are collected in the church office at the Oro Valley Campus.
The members of this group meet twice a month to prepare quilts for veterans, babies, and other charities who can use the quilts.
Meeting Date: September through May on the 1st and 3rd Fridays of the month.
Meeting Time: 10 AM to 2 PM
Location: Music Room in the Sanctuary Area at the Oro Valley Campus
Contact: Marguerite Hepner at 520-797-7311
Resurrection Lutheran Church Refugee Ministry
A refugee is someone who has been forced to flee their home because of war, violence or persecution, often without warming. They are never able to return to their home country.
Refugees receive a legal status granted by United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) after passing a rigorous 8-Step process by the UNHCR. This involves initial assessment to determine whether to continue the process for resettlement. Less than 1% of people who have fled their home country move beyond the first step. The process includes background checks conducted by the FBI, Homeland Security interviews and screening by US Customs and Border Protection. The average length of time to receive UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) is about ten years. Refugees leaving their country of origin are always considered to be FROM their country of origin. Whereas refugees born in refugee camps HAVE NO country of origin. They are citizens of "nowhere." This is a major reason they seek US citizenship, to have a home country, and why many refugees strongly defend the US, regardless of administration/politics. This reinforces our call to “welcome the stranger.”
Many people confuse Refugees with Asylum Seekers, Immigrants and Migrants (see definitions below).
Asylum seekers: Those seeking protection from the dangers in their home country, but whose claim for refugee status hasn’t yet been determined legally. Asylum seekers must apply for protection in the country of destination. They must be able to prove to authorities that they meet the criteria to be considered for the legal refugee status. Many of those crossing the U.S. border from Central American countries—El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras—are asylum seekers. They have a well-founded fear of persecution if they were to return home.
Immigrants: An immigrant is someone who makes a conscious decision to leave their home and move to a foreign country with the intention of settling there. Immigrants also go through a lengthy vetting process to immigrate to a new country. Many immigrants become citizens.
Migrants: A migrant is someone who is moving from place to place (within their country), usually for economic reasons such as seasonal work. Similar to immigrants, they were not forced to leave their native countries because of persecution or violence, but rather are seeking better opportunities.
History of RLC Refugee Ministry (RM)
The Resurrection Lutheran Refugee Ministry began in spring 2018 with a presentation by Lutheran Social Services-SW about the Refugee Resettlement program. At that time, they invitedus to become a co-sponsor congregation to work with them resettling refugees into Tucson. After hearing their presentation, those present signed their name if they were interested in this ministry.
In August 2018, the current chair of the Social Ministry committee gave Jeff Kraus and Martha Berg all the documents to lead the RM (Refugee Ministry) and it “officially started”. The first activity was hosting two Orientation Sessions for the volunteers to be trained on how to work with refugees. Topics included fingerprinting requirements, cultural differences, dietary preferences, sensitivity to them so we asked no questions about why they fled their home country, etc.
After orientation in September, RLC member, Jeff Kraus signed a “Faith/Community Commitment Form” with Lutheran Social Service of the Southwest (LSS-SW) to co-sponsor/partner with them for a refugee family for 90 days. A family is defined as a single person as well as a large family with children. RLC was on stand-by until we were alerted by LSS-SW that a refugee family had arrived. Our first refugee arrived in October 2018 (more about that later.) Jeff Kraus and Martha Berg served as Resurrection’s first Refugee Ministry Team Co-Leaders.
On October 25, 2018 RLC’s first sponsored refugee arrived - a young single woman, Ayinkamye Grace, age 21. While Ayinkamye is her first name, we have always called her Grace. She was born in the DRC (Democratic Republic of the Congo) and fled her country when she was 7-years old. For 14 years before coming to America, she lived in Burundi, Tanzania and most recently in Nairobi, Kenya where she learned English. Members of the RM team cleaned her apartment, stocked the pantry with food and supplies, prepared a welcome meal, and met her at the airport.
Resurrection sponsored another young lady, Zareeda; unfortunately, after setting up her apartment, the language barrier plus COVID made it difficult to continue the sponsorship. However, Zareeda found a community of friends who she connected with and is doing well.
Our next family arrived on March 28, 2019 from Afghanistan: The Kerimi Family consisted of a widowed mother (Merziye Serifi) and her four children (Sekine, Fatima, Musteba and Latife). The two youngest children were born after the family left their home. Prior to arriving in Tucson, they lived in Turkey for 7 ½ years. We communicated using Google Translate English to Turkish, which was a second language for them; their native tongue is Farsi. We welcomed the family at the airport, provided their first meal, stocked their pantry and refrigerator, and had their new home ready for occupancy. Jeff Kraus and Martha Berg, in particular, helped the family acclimate to our culture by visiting them and playing board games with them to help them learn English. The family remained in Tucson until August 2021 before relocating to Virginia for personal reasons. Jeff and Martha have remained in contact with the Kerimi’s to this day. All of the children are employed and the family has recently purchased a townhome in the Richmond area. They are also beginning the application process for US citizenship.
Jeff Kraus and Martha Berg made the decision to step down as co-leaders of the Refugee Ministry Team and Rachel Rulmyer assumed leadership in 2022.
We welcomed a single woman, Zawadi, from Afghanistan
The Refugee Ministry Team assisted other families who needed additional help until March 17, 2022 when we formally sponsored and welcomed the Mikechi Family from Afghanistan consisting of the father, Mmunga, the mother, Riziki, their son, Mmunga, and two daughters, Antonitte and Matrida. They arrived in Tucson having spent time in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Tanzania.
In the summer of 2023 Rachel Rulmyer requested additional leadership support, so Kris Perry assumed the leadership position assisted by Rick Wall.
On January 25, 2024 RLC welcomed the Ndabunguye family from Burundi, Africa. Family members included
Father: Freddy Ndabunguye, age 39
Mother: Nyaruhanga Nyamboneza, age 40
Daughter, Soleil, age 22
Daughter, Nyinawurugo, age 19
Daughter, Ange, age 16
Son, Jean de Dieu, age 14
Daughter, Joyce, age 10
Son, Bismark Durkein, age 8
Daughter, Mushikiwabe, age 4
Daughter, Dorcas Ngabire, age 6 months
Our RLC Volunteers jumped into action and accomplished the following
- Secured used furniture in very good condition
- Received and/or purchased household items
- Cleaned the rental home
- Stocked the pantry with groceries
- Stocked the refrigerator with perishables
We learned that the following items are must-haves for any family we welcome – a TV in order to help with learning English, 1-2 cell phones in order to remain in contact with LSS and our refugee ministry team as well as to remain connected to family members back home and other refugee families who reside in their community, and a computer to help the children with school work.
The RLC Refugee Ministry Team (RMT) ultimately made the decision to provide a TV with cable access, two refurbished cell phones with WiFi up to six month, and a gently used computer to all sponsored families to help them better assimilate into our culture. Additionally, thanks to the RLC Social Ministry Committee, the RMT will have a storage locker in which to collect gently used household items and furniture for our families.
In March, 2024, the RLC RMT was asked by LSS-SW to help set up four apartments for incoming families, three from Afghanistan and one from Africa because they were unable to identify a sponsoring congregation in Tucson. Three of the four families subsequently moved to other parts of the USA where family were located, and one family remained in Tucson. We made the decision to sponsor the Nazari family of seven from Afghanistan.
Jeff Kraus and Martha Berg, along with LSS staff, met the Nazari family for a short initial visit on June 4, 2024 bearing gifts of fresh strawberries and chocolate/oatmeal bars, all of which were a big hit. Family members include:
Father: Mirwais, age 55
Mother: Krishna, age 32
Son: Ali, age 15
Son: Murtaza, age 11
Daughter: Aiasha, age 8
Son: Haidar, age 7
Daughter: Bibi Hawa, age 18 months
Subsequent visits to the Nazari family have revealed some pressing needs that LSS is unable to provide. The RMT provided a smart TV (for English learning), and three cell phones (dad, mom, and oldest son) for communication with LSS and RMT members.
The family is settling into their new home. LSS is working to find employment for the father, who has begun ESL classes. The children will begin school in August and begin ESL classes at that time.
There is an ongoing need for co-sponsorship of refugee families. The RMT would like to continue to support these families and help them assimilate into their new environment. It is our experience that these families are very motivated and hard working. They are an incredible asset to our society. It is a joy and a privilege to walk along beside them in their American journey.
We give God thanks and praise for this wonderful church community, your loving and serving hearts, and your kind generosity. Team members are always needed – we invite you to prayerfully consider how you can be a part of this meaningful ministry. If interested in learning more, please email us at: rlcrefugeeteam@gmail.com. Financial donations are also cheerfully accepted by placing a check in the offering plate, with “Refugee Ministry” written on the Memo line.