Najib receiving his new Civic with his advocate John from the Bryan Rotary Club.
OnRamp staff and volunteers gathering with Najib to pray over his new car with his permission. Prayer is never forced in our ministry. We are always careful to ask the client if prayer is something they would like from us.
Our first client of 2023, Najib and Hedye, are the third family from Afghanistan that OnRamp has been privileged to serve. This stellar young couple was nominated by John Anderson and the Bryan Rotary Club who have gone above and beyond to help them settle into their new home here in the United States. They have actually made such progress since arriving that there were no additional action steps we needed them to take before qualifying for a vehicle. That’s not surprising. It takes incredible strength and perseverance to relocate half way around the world, learn a new language and culture, and make a new life for oneself! So without delay, we donated this 2012 Honda Civic to Najib and Hedye yesterday. Huge thanks to the donors who helped us purchase this vehicle, Christian Brothers for preparing it for donation, and Chip Jennings for cleaning it up for its new owners. As a reminder, like all of our clients, Najib and Hedye now become part of the OnRamp family and receive a full year of free maintenance, resourcing, and encouragement to help them along on their journey.
Sonita, with her husband Saboor and advocate Dr Shinn, explaining the incredible Afghan dishes she had cooked from scratch for us.
Coincidentally, one of our former Afghan clients, Saboor and Sonita celebrated great news last week as they received permanent status in the US! So they invited all those who’ve been part of their journey from Afghanistan to enjoy a home-cooked meal prepared by Sonita. Y’all, it was incredible! Afghan food is excellent. I did not found OnRamp so that I’d get home-cooked meals from clients… but I’m never going to pass on that! It was actually the second time this has happened recently. The week before, a former client named Catalina brought our whole staff homemade enchiladas! There were enough for me to take some home to my kids for dinner who wanted to make sure I knew they were much better than the tacos I make them every week. Yes, indeed they were, kids!
In OnRamp-organizational news, our primary goal for 2023 is to go deeper in our care for clients. We are implementing a massive new software system to better manage all of our intake, care, and processing for our clients. If you are an advocate or applicant, please bear with us patiently as we get that new system fully operational. And let us know if you have questions or haven’t heard from us in a timely manner. We’re still working out the bugs! More importantly, we’re meeting with new advocates and partners who can help us connect our clients to more services and care so they can make even more progress towards their goals.
Oh, and thanks to Wade Zimmer we now have a kicking front door to the office!