On November 7, nearly 250 FIRM partners, supporters and friends came together to celebrate 20 years of ministry with refugees in Fresno! The event was held at Fresno First Baptist Church and featured a keynote address by FIRM’s founding director, the Reverend Dr. Sharon Stanley. She reminded everyone about some of the beginnings of FIRM and some of the highlights over the first 19 years of ministry. The event also featured entertainment from the Slavic Choir, a Lao Master flute player, Joel Pickford (singing a song in Lao), the Lao Champa Dancers and a traditional Hmong flute/dance team. The entire evening was fantastic and attendees enjoyed a menu of Slavic finger foods, pho and sweet coconut sticky rice.
During the evening, FIRM also gave out the first annual Rev. Dr. Sharon Stanley Award given to one individual that embodies her passion and love for the refugee community. This year, the FIRM staff voted to award Pastor Tom Sims, the Chairman of the Board at FIRM for his tireless efforts through the transition period between Executive Directors Rev. Dr. Sharon Stanley and current Executive Director, Zachary Darrah. He has been instrumental in also supporting Zack as he settles into his role and there is no doubt that Tom will continue to serve the FIRM community for many years.
The crowd also heard about some of the future vision for FIRM from Zachary Darrah. With new leadership comes a new vision and he spoke clearly about his main goals for the upcoming year. FIRM will hope to focus on the refugee youth through several key ways. First, FIRM is going to work to hire a FIRM Youth Pastor that would run junior high, high school and young adult ministries. Secondly, FIRM will work to start an after-school program to meet the pressing needs of the refugee community in their academic pursuits. Lastly, FIRM will take at least 20 kids to Calvin Crest Christian Camp next year. We look forward to an exciting year of youth ministry in 2015!