Launch & Lead Alum, Hannah Terry

Meet the minister building bridges between refugee communities in Houston, TX: Hannah Terry, an alum of Launch & Lead (then The Academy for Missional Wisdom). Hannah's work with FAM was recently featured in Houstonia online magazine.

"It was while she was attending Duke Divinity School in North Carolina that Terry was recruited to Westbury UMC, thanks to her fierce curiosity and her intense desire to build bridges—qualities church leaders saw as crucial in continuing their outreach mission to address what they call “the disparities next door.”

Upon arriving here, Terry didn’t just march into the apartments near her new church and start handing out bus passes. In fact, like many of the refugees she works with, she was initially overwhelmed, daunted by the task before her as she adjusted to life in her new city.

To get a toehold, she started small, leading bible study for one group of African refugees in the crowded 516-unit Los Arcos complex, where rent starts at $699 a month. At the same time, she began doing a lot of what she calls “deep listening.” 

As she made inroads into the community, Terry decided to move into a similar complex just down the street from Los Arcos, to live alongside those she served, “in solidarity with our neighbors,” she says." 

It was around this time that Hannah joined a cohort in the Academy for Missional Wisdom (now "Launch & Lead"). Read more here.