City of Immigrants

My wife, Laurie, is the granddaughter of an Armenian immigrant who landed at Ellis Island as a 14 year old searching for a dream.  Laurie now touches the lives of the refugee and immigrant community in Memphis day in and day out. Tonight, we have one of her “kids” staying with us who is sick and lives in a somewhat dysfunctional family who were not able to care for her.  It is part of our ministry.  It is a normal part of our lifestyle.  We would not have it any other way.

Lately, we have read much about the plight of immigrants in our country and some perspectives on the U.S. response to the issue of illegal immigrants.  I ran across this video today where Steve Earle sings of New York — the city of Laurie’s grandfather’s landing — this city of immigrants.  It reminds us that “we are all immigrants’.

“Livin’ in a city of immigrants
I don’t need to go travelin’
Open my door and the world walks in
Livin’ in a city of immigrant”

These words from this song, “City of Immigrants” reminded me of the motto of Laurie’s ministry Multi-National Ministries ——- “Reaching out to the world… Right here in Memphis!”

Enjoy this video of Steve Earle on Letterman

New Director of Multi-National Ministies

I am thrilled to announce that Laurie, my lovely wife, is the new director of Multi-National Ministries here is Memphis. James Kellum, the founder of MNM, retired at the end of December and Laurie received the nod to be the successor. It has been so exciting to see how God has developed Laurie both personally and professionally for this new challenge in her life. Her vision is large and her faith is great.  I expect God to really bless this ministry under her leadership.

FedEx Delivers Christmas

Thanks to one of our dear friends , Lisa, who works for FedEx, Laurie’s Multi-National Ministry kids will have a very fun Christmas.  Laurie received a check for $2100 from this Memphis based company.  FedEx made this check out  to Target so she could go and buy Christmas presents for the refuge and immigrant children with whom she works. 

I had the wonderful privilege of going with her to purchase the gifts.  What a blast it was!!!!  As you can see, we filled up three shopping carts full of presents, and we did not even spend the whole wad!!  Target was gracious enough to put the balance on a gift card so that we can strategize and then come back tomorrow to finish our gift buying. 

I could not believe all the toy choices.  I was completely out of touch with all the options out there and somewhat overwhelmed.  We had fun, but we found ourselves being very self conscious of what it looked like for us to be stuffing carts with all these toys.  While standing in line with our overflowing carts, I heard someone say, “Their kids must have been very good this year.”  Well, they have.  Laurie has had a great year with these Children, but life is usually pretty lean for these families.  They struggle to pay the bills much less give many gifts at this holiday season. 

For more about Multi-National Ministries click here. 

Laurie – Making a Difference

My lovely wife, Laurie, was honored earlier this week at a banquet organized by Memphis Woman Magazine.  She was one of the “50 Women who Make a Difference” in Memphis.  And as you can see from the picture above, I think she is        # 1!!!!

Here is what was listed as her bio in the magazine:

Laurie Graves

Children’s Outreach Coordinator

Multi-National Ministries

 “As the Children’s Outreach Coordinator since 1999, Laurie reaches 350 elementary and middle school aged children annually.  Multi-National Ministries is devoted to serving the immigrant and refugee populations in Memphis by ministering  to their academic, social, and spiritual lives.  These children love “Miss Laurie” and their faces all turn into huge smiles when they arrive for their tutoring sessions, see her at school, or attend the summer camp.”

Nominated by Debbie Compton — Community Volunteer at Multi-National Ministries

Inspiration & Motivation - Seeing the rainbow of refugee/immigrant children from around the world learning to read and develop friendships with their Memphis mentors at my Multi-National Ministries’ Reading Program makes my heart smile.  It’s like a little piece of heaven!

Community Service - Hope Presbyterian Church – Mission team leader

Laurie is married to David Morris, a pastor at Hope Presbyterian Church, and has 3 children: Rachel Graves, (a physical therapist and graduate of Washington University Graduate School), Sarah Graves (a recent graduate of Harding University Graduate School with a Masters of Arts in Counseling) and Jonathan Graves (a senior at the University of Memphis).  The other very special member of her family is Chasity Nguyen, an amazing 11th grader at Hernando High School.

My Heroes!!!

Here is a picture of my beautiful wife with some of her cute Work Crew girls.

Why are these my heroes? Well, for one thing my wife is in the picture and she is my ultimate hero for marrying me. And another thing is that surrounding Laurie are some of her ministry girls who have spent a week at camp tirelessly serving with great attitudes. This is incredibly fulfilling for Laurie in that she loves these girls with all her heart and this gives her a chance to spend a whole week with them.

A little about the significance of her ministry: She works at Multi-National Ministries (MNM) as the Children’s Coordinator. MNM is a ministry to refugee and immigrant families in the Memphis area. They touch the lives of various nationalities — families from Vietnam, Cambodia, Mexico, Bosnia, Yemin, Greece, ….. MNM’s purpose is to serve their unique needs and in so doing share the love of Christ.

This week these girls have been helping prepare and serve the food and do all the clean up after each meal. I have gone out to the camp a couple of times and seen them in action. What a finely tuned serving machine they are!!! They have been doing this for a few years now and each year they get rave reviews from the camp leadership.

As you can see, Laurie is really proud of “her girls”!!!