Continues to
E X PA N D
S
ince CBFNC launched the Welcome House Community Network (WHCN) ministry in 2020, the ministry has grown beyond the Raleigh-area, creating 30 expressions of Welcome House ministries across North Carolina. Because of this growth, two Welcome House Managers have joined the team to coordinate hospitality ministry in other regions: Linda Jones in the Triad and Paula McCosh in the Sandhills. For founders Kim and Marc Wyatt, the addition of Jones and McCosh is the natural next step for the expanding ministry. But for Jones and McCosh, it’s a personal venture that reflects their life journeys. “Refugees and other cultures always have been a passion of mine. I’m sure it came from my mom, who was well-read and well-traveled,” Jones said. She recalls a decades-old memory, when her church in Dayton, OH, resettled a Cambodian family. “We delivered Christmas presents on a Friday night,” she remembered. “They lived in an old home, but when a Mercedes drove by, the mother said, ‘We had a car like that.’” Those words drove home the vulnerability of life and the reality that surface appearances do not reveal refugees’ stories. Jones is no stranger to this work. She was previously the missions coordinator for CBFNC and also helped CBF Global with its Encourager Church and Latino Network programs before she retired. So, late last summer, she quickly agreed when Marc Wyatt asked her to help find housing in Winston-Salem for Afghan refugees employed at a chicken-processing plant in North Wilkesboro. That evolved into collaboration with both Welcome House and the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, as well as churches as Jones recruits congregations to help provide hospitality and housing. “The rewards are great,” Jones said. “Just think about the relationships you form, the love you have for each other.” That love, particularly for Afghan refugees settling near Fort Bragg, comes easily to McCosh, associate 14 | The Gathering
From Left: Linda Jones (Triad) and Paula McCosh (Sandhills)
pastor of family ministries at Mount Pisgah Baptist in Fayetteville. “My husband is alive today because of the Afghan refugees we are supporting,” she said. He is a CBF-endorsed chaplain with the U.S. Army Reserves. He served two tours of duty in Iraq By Marv Knox Contributing Writer and and three tours in Afghanistan, priFounder of Fellowship marily working with Special Forces. Southwest “I am helping three families whose members served the U.S. Special Forces community in Afghanistan,” she explained. “I know their loyalty and commitment—at huge risk to their lives and to their own families—ensured my husband and his soldiers were safe.” McCosh is working with Lafayette and Snyder Memorial Baptist churches, which are operating multiple homes that provide both short- and long-term housing for Afghan refugees. She also builds off her military relationships to collaborate with Fort Bragg families and she’s coordinating interfaith response to refugees. The addition of Jones and McCosh to Welcome House reflects a natural progression beyond metropolitan centers and refugees. “The needs are greater, so the work is expanding,” Marc Wyatt said. He adds, “There are many more possibilities for housing needs in rural parts of the state than where refugees traditionally are resettled. About half the churches in our network are serving other kinds of vulnerable people. We’re interested in seeing how housing develops for all kinds of people in other parts of the state.” “We want to impress upon the fellowship, that if they have a church that has an unused parsonage, a missionary residence, other properties not currently used as housing or members involved in real estate, we want to speak to them,” adds Wyatt. “It’s a call to stewardship to show God’s love through affordable housing.” To get involved, contact the Wyatts at wyatt@cbf.net and 910.632.4774.
