Our Focus
- Refugees
- Urban
Our Mission
The mission of ITeams St. Paul/International Village is to be a Christ-centered presence and grow God’s Kingdom in St. Paul’s Asian and African refugee communities of the North End neighborhood. Through ministries of compassion, empowerment, training, and the establishment of simple churches, we aim to be a holistic, transformed, people.
Vision: We will be known by refugees in our neighborhood as Kingdom-centered people who do everything they possibly can to help in Jesus name.
The Team
John and Charity Trotter have served the North End neighborhood for the last four years and worked cross-culturally in Asia and urban America for the last decade. Charity has a tutoring/nannying job in the community and John teaches as an adjunct faculty at North Central University. John leads the team and oversees ministries of a drop-in center for refugees and ethnic church plants.
Our team also has two other families who serve with International Village, a drop-in center and church focused on meeting the needs of our predominantly Asian neighbors and a Somali apartment complex across the street. The Klucks and Echanis’ are new to the area and bring much experience. Tenny and Sara Echanis served for 9 years in the Northern Mariana Islands and the Klucks pastored for 6 years on a Native American reservation in Montana.
We also are surrounded by a handful of committed volunteers from several denominational backgrounds who are invaluable to our work.
Our Ministry – website
ITeams St. Paul/International Village is a team of 10 cross-cultural workers from a variety of agencies who live incarnationally in the North End neighborhood. Our hood is mostly Asian and African and we live within walking distance of those we serve. We eat together, play together, pray together. . . this is OUR home.
In the last five years, we have been able to establish our roots in the North End neighborhood and see some amazing breakthrough. We were able to pioneer the launch of a Hindu background Bhutanese church that now has its own indigenous pastor and continues to grow.
In the fall of 2011, we opened a drop-in center for refugees in the community where we have ESL classes, citizenship assistance, job search help, and cultural preservation classes. Recently, we launched language immersion classes in Nepali and Somali for those preparing to serve the unreached from this part of the globe.
Additionally, , International Village Church is a multi-ethnic congregation that meets at the drop-in center and has a high focus on urban outreach and refugee ministry. It has been wpmderful to watch this group of believers from different places of the world come together in worship and learn to serve one another.
Most notable to all of this is the trust that we have gained in the lives of many refugees in our neighborhood. Having this ministry of presence where we can drink tea, laugh, cry, and celebrate together is the crux of our work. Any established ministry is merely and overflow of this sharing of our lives.
Opportunities To Serve
| After-School Tutoring Coordinator | ||
| Coordinates after-school program for Somali and Bhutanese children at the center where they match students with tutors and provide oversight to volunteers. | Long Term | |
| Church Planter (Ethnic) | ||
| Person willing to invest him/herself in the lives of refugees through building relationships, helping them with practical needs and sharing God’s love. Establish a healthy, self-sustaining, Asian-led church in the Northend of St. Paul MN | Long Term | |
| Communications and Media Coordinator | ||
| Develop media resources designed to challenge, train and help churches effectively reach out to forcefully displaced people in the MSP context. | Short Term | |
| Refugee Ministry Intern | ||
| Spent 6-12 months learning and being involved in refugee ministry outreach. Activities include kid’s ministry, ESL tutoring, home visitations/welcoming new refugee families, and learning the language of those you serve. | Short Term | |
| Summer Kid’s Club Worker | ||
| Assist in outreach among Karen and Bhutanese refugee children through outdoor kid’s ministry | Short Term | |
| Team Members | ||
| People willing to invest themselves in the lives of refugees through building relationships, helping them with practical needs and sharing God’s love. Possibility to join existing ministries or to develop new ones. | Long Term | |
| MSP Refugee Summer Team | |||
| Evangelism and Outreach Physical Work Teaching and Training Children/Youth Programs Humanitarian Service |
Cross-cultural ministry serving and befriending refugees in the Twin Cities metro through special outreaches, children programs, Bible studies, meeting practical needs such as ESL tutoring and furniture delivery. Be the hands and feet of Jesus to refugees from around the world. | Less than 3 weeks | |
Opportunites To Give
| International Village Block Party | ||
| Summer block party for children and families in the North End neighborhood. This annual event allows us to get to meet many of our refugee new neighbors and helps various ethnic groups come together on Rice. St. Backpack giveaways, food, and games for kids will all be provided for. | 1,500 USD | |
| St. Paul Market Place for Refugees (for-profit business) | ||
| St. Paul Cultural Village is a 7100 sq ft space that will house a small ethnic marketplace wherein refugees will sell items from their home country, providing jobs and facilitating relationships across cultures. Live music, an ethnic cafe, and several stall owners from Bhutan, Somalia and Burma will work inside. Funds will go toward start-up and this endeavor will be self-sustaining. | 15,000 USD | |
