Hi Friends,
Compared to last month, this month in Phoenix has definitely been a lot better as I’m getting to know my team more and also my apartment complex. As I’ve been plugging into community here more, I’m extremely grateful for this place I get to live, serve, and represent the gospel in. It’s one of the most diverse and unique places I’ve seen, and the mind-blowing thing is that it’s all right here in Arizona! To give you an idea of what my neighborhood is like, here are some unique aspects of the apartment complex I live in called 19 Apartments:
- 19 Apartments has 236 units. GoTEN has calculated that 90% of those units are occupied by refugee families.
- Within our English classes alone, there are 21 different countries represented.
- There are A LOT of languages represented here. Some that I’ve come across are Burmese, Rohingya, Malay, Thai, Kurdish, Arabic, Somali, and Hindi.
- One of the units here at 19 Apartments is actually used as a mosque for the Rohingya refugee population living here. Every Friday, the men go over to the mosque to pray, and every weekday evening all the Rohingya kids have Arabic school where they learn about the Quran.
This is just a taste of the cross-culture context my team gets to see and engage with everyday. And once again this is all happening within the United States in Arizona! It just further solidifies the fact that God is working through the movement of different people groups and inviting all of us into this opportunity to reflect Jesus and the gospel to people from all over the world.