CommunityLink
Our Vision Statement: Bringing dignity and respect to refugees and immigrants by offering opportunities to learn life skills, so that they may be empowered participants of our multicultural community.
CommunityLink incorporated in 2008 as a 501 c 3 non-profit. Grand Rapids International Fellowship– a Church of the Nazarene began serving refugees in the year 2000. The program began with just a handful of Vietnamese in an ESL class. Over time, the demand for services grew, and in fact surpassed the ability of our local church to adequately meet the needs of those seeking assistance.
CommunityLink Refugee and Immigrant Services:
1. Education Services
CommunityLink provides English as a Second Language (ESL) classes for refugees and immigrants. The curriculum is geared toward ‚"Everyday English" and "English for the Workplace." We offer classroom, small group and one-on-one learning opportunities.
CommunityLink offers computer-based learning opportunities. CommunityLink operates a computer lab that is utilized in English classes; it is also open to the public throughout the week. Refugee and immigrant children and adults use programs that help them develop English literacy. Also in the computer lab students can receive job skill training.
2. Cultural Orientation & Adjustment Services
CommunityLink provides a Cultural Orientation Series. Many refugees and immigrants experience a difficult transition from their old culture to the new U.S. culture. The purpose of Cultural Orientation is to help refugees acquire the information and skills necessary to adapt to a new society and culture. A series of classes are provided in the following areas: Orientation to U.S. Health Care, Introduction to Public Education, Orientation to U.S. Laws, Employment Readiness and Expectations, Orientation to U.S. Banking and Finance, Family and Cultural Adjustment, Orientation to Your New Home.
3. Life Skills
CommunityLink provides an on-going life skills training program. We have a ‚"Training Kitchen" where refugees and immigrants are taught the basics of nutrition, home safety, food safety, kitchen safety and fire safety.
"We offer hope to our multicultural community through relationship-based programs and services as a reflection of Christ Love."
Compelled by faith in Jesus Christ and God call to “do justice.” CommunityLink works in partnership with other service providers to assist individuals in our multicultural community achieve self-sufficiency. By providing educational and relational programs, CommunityLink lives out Christ commandment to love God and our neighbors. Following Christ example, people are served regardless of their heritage or beliefs.
OUR BASIC BELIEFS
GOD—In one God, the Creator of all things, who reveals Himself as Father, Son and Spirit.
JESUS CHRIST—God's eternal Son, is fully God and man at the same time, became like us to bring us salvation.
HOLY SPIRIT—God active in the world, bringing us to salvation, encouraging us to live lives that are God-pleasing.
THE BIBLE—Is the inspired Word of God.
SIN—Attitude that wants to play God, call the shots, alienating people from God, causing rippling effects throughout the universe. A human plight with no exceptions, crying out for a remedy.
ATONEMENT—Jesus freely offered his innocent life to die on the cross in our place. By trusting in His death, we are forgiven and restored to a right relation to God.
MAN’S FREE CHOICE—God enables and empowers us, by His grace, to freely turn from our sin to His salvation, but He does not force us to do so.
REPENTANCE Each person must make a u-turn from a life of sin to childlike trust in and obedience to God.
JUSTIFICATION, REGENERATION AND ADOPTION—When we turn away from our sin and trust in Christ, the old record of sin is wiped clean and we are born anew, becoming a part of the family of God.
HOLINESS—The process of becoming like Jesus in habits, thoughts and deeds. God cleanses the rebel heart, supplies daily grace for daily challenges, and enables believers to never stop growing through the Bible and his Spirit.
THE CHURCH—All who place saving faith in Christ and call him Lord, becoming his active Body in the world.
BAPTISM—Sacrament that initiates new believers into the Church, a public sign that celebrates God’s grace in our lives.
THE LORD’S SUPPER—Sacrament that feeds the faith of believers along the way, looking back to our Lord’s saving death and ahead to his victorious return.
DIVINE HEALING—We believe God can and does heal; also that God works through medical science.
SECOND COMING OF CHRIST—Jesus is coming again—visibly, victoriously and swiftly—to establish God’s just and righteous rule.
RESURRECTION, JUDGMENT AND DESTINY—Everyone will
face God’s judgment with its rewards and punishments.
