Vancouver volunteer guides refugees to self-sufficiency
Former teacher is a bargain shopper, a health advocate and dear friend
If you live in the greater Vancouver, Washington area and have ever listed household items on Facebook Marketplace, you may have met Joy Bradley. Joy spends a lot of time on Marketplace, perusing listings for couches, coffee tables, dining tables, art and other items that make a house a home.
“I am looking for items that are gently used, I bring them home and clean them, steam clean the upholstery. Sometimes I paint a wood item if it shows a lot of wear,” Joy said from her garage, now doubling as her LCSNW workshop.
“I want (LCSNW clients) to know the items they are receiving for their first home here in the U.S. were selected with thought and care, and attention to detail,” she said.
Often when Joy tells a seller what she’s doing and who will be receiving the items, the seller thinks of additional household items they no longer need and offers them to Joy. Many times sellers give the items to Joy free of charge.
Joy began this volunteer work soon after retiring as an educator. She spent 29 years as a teacher of deaf and hard-of-hearing students before moving to general education for her last seven years of teaching. Most recently, she taught third grade in Evergreen School District in east Vancouver. She has four grown children. The youngest is a deaf son, adopted from China. Her husband of 45 years, Mark, was a pastor for 25 years and now is director of the Pacific Northwest Campus of Gateway Seminary.
Joy retired at the end of the 2021 school year. Barely two months later, a humanitarian crisis unfolding in Afghanistan inspired her to help.
“We are Baptist, so I contacted the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Church to find out how to help people coming here as part of the airlift to escape the Taliban,” she said.
She was directed to Lutheran Community Services Northwest.
LCSNW added her to the group of volunteers welcoming new arrivals from Afghanistan and elsewhere. She and Mark have helped with airport pick-ups, transportation to health appointments, and navigation through medical care. She was instrumental in a backpack drive and a toy and clothing drive as part of a potluck for families.
In 2023, Joy, her husband, and some of their congregation at CrossPointe Baptist Church in Vancouver began supporting two LCSNW families from Afghanistan and Syria through the Circle of Welcome, a program of Global Refuge in partnership with LCSNW.
In the course of this work, more than a few clients have counted Joy as a dear friend, leading to many invitations to family gatherings and for assistance with health care. Once Joy was allowed into a hospital ICU to support an elderly client facing open heart surgery. Another time, a soon-to-be mother brought Joy into the delivery room as an advocate.
“It is a great honor to see them grow, with guidance and support in learning American systems, into self-sufficiency,” Joy said.
Her Christian faith calls her to volunteer in this way; she points out that when Jesus was a toddler, he was a refugee. “As Americans, we have freedom and privilege. As I have learned about heartbreak and fear that LCSNW clients and other refugees and immigrants experience from war torn countries, I want them to know they are welcome here, and in fact, loved.”
Joy recalls from a young age being aware of service to others. It was one of her family’s core values. Her father was a pastor who worked as director of Language Missions for the Northwest Baptist Convention, exposing her to many cultures and ethnic groups. Her family welcomed a nine-year-old refugee girl from Laos.
Joy’s goal as a volunteer in 2025 is to inspire others in her church network to get involved with similar work.
If you are in the Tacoma metro area or Portland-Vancouver metro area and have an interest in volunteering with our refugee resettlement and placement work, please contact one of our volunteer coordinators. In Tacoma, that is Sayed Farhat at [email protected]. In the Portland-Vancouver area, contact Bassam Altaee at [email protected] or 503-887-0050. Details about our work and the ways volunteers can assist can be found here.
Bassam Altaee, volunteer coordinator for MCS Refugee Resettlement and Placement in Vancouver and Portland, is picking up furniture at volunteer Joy Bradley’s makeshift workshop.