Today’s episode of Hometown features an interview with Ben, a pastor, evangelist and asylee from Nigeria. He lives in the Southeast United States and was granted asylum in 2020. We also speak with the Reverend Leeann Culbreath, who has accompanied individuals and families impacted by immigrant detention in South Georgia, most often at the Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla, Georgia. In 2017, she helped found South Georgia Immigrant Support Network, which they referenced in today’s interview. South Georgia Immigrant Support Network is a humanitarian nonprofit that provides a hospitality house, visitation, pen pal, post-release, and advocacy programs. Leeann frequently travels around the Diocese of Georgia teaching and preaching about immigrant detention and accompaniment ministry. And in 2020, she became one of our volunteer co facilitators for EMM’s detention ministry network.

Read the interview transcript here.

Join us on December 13, from 7 to 8pm. Eastern for a virtual Advent vigil and it will be available by Zoom webinar and also Facebook Live we invite you to register for the zoom webinar at bit.ly/EMMvigil.

Follow EMM on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram where we are @EMMrefugees.

In the season of giving, we invite you to make a gift to support the refugee and immigration ministries of the Episcopal Church through the work of Episcopal Migration Ministries. Visit episcopalmigrationministries.org/give or text Hometown to 91999. We also want to invite you to get your very own EMM swag at bit.ly/weareemm. We have a variety of EMM branded shirts to help you proclaim loudly that you welcome our newest neighbors.

Our theme song composer is Abraham Mwinda Ikando. Find his music at abrahammwinda.bandcamp.com.