Immigrant Hope

The Vision
While immigration issues will remain a hot political topic, the Church has a wonderful opportunity to love our immigrant neighbors and reach them with the Gospel. This helps us stay rooted biblically in the command to love the strangers and aliens among us. Missionally, one of the best ways to show God's love is to meet a felt need of the people you are trying to reach with the Gospel.

The Need
One of the biggest needs of our immigrant neighbors is the help needed to fill out the forms required for green cards, citizenship and the petitions for bringing other family members to the U.S. This is a daunting task, even for those immigrating from English-speaking countries. Lawyers are hard to find and can be quite expensive. Other providers present themselves as qualified but can take advantage of the immigrant and even harm their status. Thus, non-profits with a heart for the immigrant can fill a huge need.

The Opportunity
The U.S. Dept of Justice recognizes non-profit organizations that show competency in understanding immigration law and have the experience necessary to provide these services. Non-lawyers can be accredited to provide counsel in this specific area of law. And volunteers can be trained to work under these legal representatives and fill out forms with the immigrant client.

With a Gospel Purpose
Our mission is evangelistic and wholistic. The non-profit organizations which are recognized by the U.S. Dept of Justice can be religious in nature. Thus, the door is open for all faith-based communities to provide these services. The mission statement of Immigrant Hope is: to build relational bridges with our immigrant neighbors, sharing:

• the HOPE of the Gospel,
• HELP toward legal residency, and
• a HOME in the church which cares for their needs

Our mission is evangelistic and wholistic.

An EFCA-Wide Initiative
Our national EFCA leaders have incorporated Immigrant Hope as a national organization. Under that umbrella, there is the potential to open multiple Immigrant Hope sites around our district and around the country. Ben Johnson is an EFCA based missionary charged with helping churches to establish their own Immigrant Hope Centers. These can be churches with the EFCA or in the evangelical community at-large.

The link to the national Immigrant Hope website is: www.immigranthope.org.

Open to All — Providing Services to Those who Qualify
Legal counseling is open to all. We are only able to provide legal pathways to those who have proper documents and who fulfill the requirements of the law. However, giving good information in a loving way helps everyone and there are even some who have a legal pathway and don't know about it.

About our Brooklyn Site
Brooklyn, NY was chosen as the pilot site where there are Chinese, Spanish, Arabic and other immigrant groups present in large numbers within a mile of First EFC. Some census tracts have more than 50% foreign born residents.

Lisa Yeung, Legal Director of Immigrant Hope

Lisa Yeung is the legal director, an immigration lawyer and seminary graduate
Two accredited reps and three more applications pending
Over 20 have taken volunteer training — several want to commit to serving
Began seeing clients: Fall/2011

Lisa Yeung has a unique skill set that allows her to serve in multiple capacities in the Eastern District. Born in Hong Kong, she can speak, read and write fluently in Mandarin, Cantonese and English. She is an attorney who practiced immigration law in Maryland for 6 years and in other law practices in the 14 years before that.

But God was also calling her into ministry and in 2006 she enrolled in Alliance Theological Seminary, earning a Masters of Divinity in 2009.

In 2009 -2010 Lisa served as an associate pastor of the NY Chinese EFC and was the Executive Director of Dorcas Ministries which serves the needs of the Chinese immigrant community in Brooklyn.

In February of 2011 she began serving with Immigrant Hope, a non-profit ministry under the Evangelical Free Church of America. Immigrant Hope has as its mission statement to build relationships among the immigrant community in order to provide:

• the HOPE of the Gospel,
• HELP toward legal residency, and
• a HOME in the church which cares for their needs

Brooklyn, NY was chosen as the pilot center where volunteers and trained immigration counselors will lovingly provide legal services to qualified immigrants, guiding them through the processes of obtaining a green card for permanent residence, citizenship and other immigration benefits. As we earn their trust we hope to have opportunities to invite them to other church-related activities and share the Good News with them.

Lisa and her husband Herman live in the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn.