WHAT DOES BRIDGE DO?
Bridge is the refugee resettlement agency for East Tennessee. Over the last 20 years, we have resettled more than 1,500 families from Bosnia, Burundi, Congo, Kosovo, Iran, Iraq, Poland, Romania, Sudan, Ukraine, Viet Nam and many other countries. Bridge shepherds the family through the first six months of their new lives and provides services to insure that the new arrivals' living conditions are safe and sanitary; that the families are in good health and that they have access to medical care; that all children over the age of five are enrolled in school; that the adults have fair and full employment; and that the family has sufficient information to make the cultural adjustment.
In order to assure the Office of Refugee Resettlement (within the State Department) that we can give newly arriving families everything they need for a reasonable expectation of success, we must have the assistance of churches, synagogues and mosques. Churches in our area have historically been most generous in their commitment of time and resources on behalf of these new families. In their generosity, they are living out the biblical call to all people of faith to extend friendship and hospitality to the strangers in our midst:
". . . for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me . . . . Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me."
Matthew 25:35,40
