There are many ongoing challenges facing our ministry of the Amini family. Many of these obstacles are opportunities for our church to serve and support, whether through prayer, financially, or through service. One of the more time sensitive and critical needs is for legislation (the Afghan Adjustment Act) to be passed, providing a path to remaining in the United States. This is an opportunity to provide indirect support, by petitioning our State’s Senators to cosign the proposed legislation.

Because the unusual and unprecedented process for evacuating the 76k Afghans, these families do not have the normal path to a more permanent immigration status, which would normally exist for refugees seeking asylum. These Afghans, including our Amini family, are in the middle of a two-year temporary status. During this timeframe, a more permanent immigration status must be attained, in order for these families to remain in the United States. Unfortunately, this has created a bottleneck and has overwhelmed the legal claims process/system. It is unlikely that all claims will be processed prior to the expiration of the two-year deadline.

The Afghan Adjustment Act, would fast track the current, onerous process, giving these Afghan families a path to remain in the United States. This act has been presented to the Senate and in the House. However, to gain significant traction and have any hope of being passed this fall, it needs the support of our State’s Senators (Senator Lankford and Senator Inhofe). This is the most feasible solution to not only keeping our commitment to these families, as a country, but also, more near and dear to us, it allows us to continue our ministry to the Amini family.

A letter has been drafted, addressed to Senator Lankford and Senator Inhofe, urging them to support this bill. It is our hope to get as many Oklahoman signatures on this letter as possible, to encourage their support. Below is a Google doc link, where you can read the letter and consider signing your name by providing your contact information. Feel free to share this link with your family and friends! We want the best for our Afghan friends and this legislation would be a huge step forward. The letters will be delivered next week on September 23rd so we appreciate your timely support and continued prayers!

Click to read and sign
https://bit.ly/3DqtvW2

The 2022 SBC Annual Meeting will mark the first time in more than 40 years that Southern Baptists have held our annual convention in the great state of California. After the largest crowd we’ve seen in a generation last year in Nashville, we want to invite you to join us in Anaheim, California on June 12-15, 2022. We are so excited about the opportunity to join together with messengers and guests from across our Convention to come together and celebrate what God has done as we cooperate together for the Great Commission.
We are here to help you prepare for your journey to Anaheim to join us. We hope to answer any questions you may have and share insights you didn’t even know you needed.
In episodes of The Road to Anaheim, we will give you all the information you need to know about Southern California, the convention center area, the annual meeting itself, the Pastors’ Conference and yes…Disneyland—which is just blocks away from where we are meeting.
Join us each and every week on The Road to Anaheim presented by California Baptist University.

Church Family,

Tomorrow evening (1/28/22), Bro. Shawn and Tina are hosting our Afghan family and a couple of their Afghan friends for dinner. They could use our help in a couple of ways:

• We need one man and one woman driver (2 vehicles) to transport the family from their apartment on N.W. 36th & Rockwell at approx. 6:00-6:30 pm - and pick them back up and take them home after dinner. (You'd have about 2 hours of free time to get your own diner or go to Walmart while you wait.) 
• We would also like to provide dessert for their dinner. (approx. 12 people)

This is a very easy way to get involved with our Afghan friends while providing a really big service to our pastor and his family!

If you can help in either of these areas, please call Sandy in the church office ASAP.