The Pastor at Emmanuel Evangelical Free Church in Steinbach says more than a year after starting the process of sponsoring a refugee family, their family of four now calls Steinbach home.

Terry Kaufman says in fall of 2015, with support from the congregation, they embarked on a mission of sponsoring a Syrian family. Kaufman says they were matched up with a young couple with two small children. Initially, they were told that by the end of February, their family would arrive.

February came and went, but their family remained in Jordan. Kaufman says the Church was never told why their arrival was being delayed. In fact, two times over the course of one year, they were given flight numbers and dates for their arrival, only to be told it wasn't happening.

Kaufman says the federal government eventually informed the Church that if they wanted to sponsor a different family, they could go ahead. But Kaufman says this was their family and if Emmanuel Evangelical Free Church pulled the plug on them, it would dash their hopes.

On December 21st, they got the message they had been waiting for. In 30 hours time, their family would be arriving at Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport. On December 22nd, after several days of travel and then getting lost at the Winnipeg airport, an exhausted family from Syria met their sponsors.

Kaufman says thanks to the federal government, the family came with only the very basics needed for a Manitoba winter. The rest of their belongings could all fit in only a couple of suitcases. Kaufman says for this family who had lived in a refugee camp in Jordan for several years, they had just enough to get here but not enough clothing for them to live here.

Kaufman says Emmanuel Evangelical Free Church has two teams in place to help care for this family. The first team secured an apartment and made sure there was adequate funding in place. A secondary team, made up of people of all demographics is in charge of things like visitation, grocery shopping, getting this family to their appointments and building relationships.

The family knew very little English when it stepped off the plane in Winnipeg. But Kaufman says with the help of a local woman who is fluent in Arabic and Google Translate as a tool, they are able to hold conversations. He jokes that probably on more than one occasion there has been some miscommunication between the two sides. Though he says some of those misunderstandings might only be discovered down the road.

According to Kaufman, his Church is committed to sponsoring this family for at least a year. But he says they will not abandon them after 12 months. Kaufman says the hope is for this family to be mostly independent within a year. He notes the goal is to get them fluent in English in order to be a self-sustaining family.

Kaufman says as a Church, this is very new to them. He credits the federal government's push and the media for giving it a platform. He notes their refugee family is anxious to figure out how life works in Steinbach and is very curious why the Church would help them out.

"The Bible tells us that we're responsible to care for orphans and widows and I think these folks qualify," he says.

Kaufman says there has been tremendous support from the community towards this family and he asks residents to be welcoming.

"Be generous to them and I think you will find a blessing in return," he says.