Warren Wilson Congregation Hosts Afghan Refugees
Tyson Lewis | May 3, 2022
Special to The Echo | Steve Runholt
The 12 year old boy playing soccer at the church.
The US evacuated over sixty-five thousand people from Afghanistan following the military withdrawal from the country. As a result, the refugees resettled among various communities in the US. Asheville is amongst one of the six communities in North Carolina.
Steve Runholt, pastor at the Warren Wilson Presbyterian church, is personally involved in the matter as a host for a family resettling in Asheville. The family is made of a nineteen year old woman and her younger brother, recently turned twelve years old, who for security reasons will remain anonymous.
Runholt commented on the inclusivity of the town of Asheville. This was presumably why it was one of the places chosen for the resettlement effort.
“It's a town where people who don't look like they’re from around here are generally accepted,” Runholt said. “That was going to be important because some of these folks are very conservative culturally and religiously.” ”
As pastor of the Warren Wilson church, a congregation aiding in the resettlement, he explained how these organizations are structured to handle this.
“We have partnered with Lutheran Services Carolinas,” Runholt said, “and the way they have structured the work is to partner with individual congregations from all across the theological and religious spectrum, and including communities who are not.”
He described the conditions that the organizations were dealing with in trying to help the newcomers to the US, and the way they are overcoming them.
“The Lutherans put out a call for donations and within days they had five fairly large storage facilities available to them for all these donated items,” Runholt said. “These folks are arriving with nothing, just the clothes they carried with them on the planes. So they needed everything — winter clothes, toasters, shoes, blankets, toys.”
In Runholt’s words, the speed with which the storage facilities were filled was “like a biblical miracle of abundance and compassion.”
Runholt’s resettled family arrived in the states during February with no English skills. They were separated during a Taliban bombing of the Kabul airport where over 100 people where killed.
Runholt described the church’s priorities in their resettlement effort of the family.
“They're completely new. They don't speak English. They don’t know anything about the local area,” Runholt prefaced. “So they will soon learn and they are already learning. First of all finding housing, and we found an apartment for them in the Black Mountain area. Helping provide transportation to English classes. Helping the boy get enrolled in school.”
As well as school for the boy, Runholt aided in enrolling him in a recreation soccer league — a sport that he loves to play. His favorite player is Cristiano Ronaldo.
Ultimately, Runholt said his goal is to “try to normalize their experience. It's highly traumatic to be separated from your family under those circumstances.”
He described an anecdote wherein the woman invited him and his family over for dinner as a thank you gesture. Knowing that they were unfortunately separated from their family, he told them, “We’re not your family, but we want to be your family here in the US.”
Their long term goals are to help them learn English, to find a job for the woman, and work to support them until they are independent.
“Very high priority on learning English for both of them. Our second highest priority is helping her find a job,” Runholt said. “One of the Lutheran’s top priorities is helping these new arrivals become independent. At some point she's going to need a car. We’re here for the duration until they feel like they can be alone.”
In the meantime, they still needed a way to communicate with the family. WWC student, Mah Atimadi, helped with translating.
“She’s been crucially helpful to us at navigating cultural differences, translating complex situations, setting her (the 19-year-old) up with a phone at Best Buy,” Runholt said. “Try doing that without speaking English. Mah was unbelievably helpful and generous with her time. I want to give her a big shoutout.”
Students like Atimadi are crucial in helping the family from Afghanistan, and if any others are compelled to aid, primarily with transportation, one can contact Runholt at: srunholt@warren-wilson.edu.