One Life at a Time by Mary Knox
Matthew Anfinson is a college student at Bethel University in St. Paul, MN. Matthew is Haitian, and the adopted son of Byron and Heidi, founding members of the Urban Refuge. Matthew was adopted at 18 months old when his adoptive mother was pregnant with their 2nd son Ben. Heidi and Byron raised their sons as twins, with two daughters (the youngest also adopted from
Haiti). Matthew was raised in church, where he served as drummer with the worship team and was active in youth group. There were blessings and trials to being raised by white parents. When the family moved from a suburban area to an urban area, Matthew faced some culture shock. “A lot of my tendencies were ‘white and dorky,’ ” said Matthew. “But I eventually viewed growing up with white parents as an opportunity, to see myself as a bridge between whites and blacks, by being more dimensional.”
In 2011 Matthew’s birth brother found him on Facebook. Matthew found out about his Haitian family—brothers, sisters, his parents, and relatives in Canada. “I discovered my lineage goes beyond Minnesota. I have another family,“ said Matthew. “I started dreaming about how to intertwine the two.” In 2014, Matthew went on a mission trip to the Dominican Republic. That trip gave him a deeper desire to see what God had for him in Haiti.
This summer, Matthew was offered an Act Six scholarship to Bethel University. “They take leaders and pump them back into the community, to see them make a difference in their worlds,” said Matthew. The AS scholarship could be a vehicle for him to go to Haiti, accompanied by his adoptive dad and church friends, with dreams of impacting lives, possibly, eventually church planting, and even pastoring, making a difference and fulfilling the requirements of the Act Six vision. Pray for this young man, that he would see his dreams come to fruition.
