Have you heard of Vickery Meadows?
Right across the highway from all the glitz and the glam of Northpark Mall is a little community called Vickery. Vickery is a bunch of apartment complexes all build next to each other and in them they house a large population of refugees, mostly African…among other people.
Although I have not had the great privilege of getting to know these families and these kids, my brother, Johnny has and they are dear dear dear to his heart. Please read this email written from Stephanie, Johnny’s girlfriend and Vickery Meadow’s staff person.
For several years our walk here has brought a few of us deeply into the lives of several Liberian families from west Africa who came to Dallas as refugees. We have shared birthdays, holidays, and glimpses of everyday life with our Liberian friends, cooking, eating, dancing, playing, and sitting with each other; I could write a book about them. Their kids have been involved in Kids Club and Teen Girls’ Group for the past five years too. Alice, mother of three, is the firey one, the pot-stirrer, so to speak, and the matchmaker of the group. She is one of the funniest, wittiest, and most candid women I know. Then there’s Decontee, with her five boys; Decontee is in a way the mother of the group. Alice and Decontee live next door to each other at the Ivanhoe; Abraham lives directly upstairs with his family, including his niece Naomie (16 years) and nephews Malfred (12) and Prince (5). Abraham is the leader in many ways of this Liberian community at only 25 years old. Rita lives with her daughter in another close complex but spends her free time at Ivanhoe with “the family.”.
Yesterday Christiana – Naomie, Malfred, and Prince’s mother – died. She had been very sick for over a year, constantly in and out of the hospital as her strength and body decayed; she was around 35 years old.
The community is taking care of each other, but we need help. Burial costs are roughly between $5-7,000, and our families barely make enough money in their minimum wage jobs to feed and clothe their own children. As when our Eritrean friend died last year, we are setting up a fund through Vickery Meadow Ministry to help with as much of the burial cost as possible, or the possible cost of sending the body back to Africa. Any extra funds left over will be given to help take care of Christiana’s kids and/or for helping other families as emergency needs arise.
You can send checks to Vickery Meadow Ministry with a separate note included that designates the funds “for Christiana’s family.” We are at PO Box 671127, Dallas TX 75367.
Thank you so much for helping us care for our families, and particularly for Naomie, Malfred, and Prince. Please pray for them, that they would receive comfort and peace beyond their understanding from their Father in heaven, and for the community as it grieves and learns to live life again anew.
In His mercy and grace…
Stephanie
I wish I could send everyone who reads this just a glimpse of Malfred’s smile…it would light up your life…We have much saddness in knowing that his joy, his smile is all in mourning right now…but we do hope in the power of the Holy Spirit to turn his mourning into dancing. Please pray with us and if you can give…give.
Thanks friends.
