Terri Saelee

Terri Saelee has been working with refugees and immigrants in various capacities since 1982 when she was a student at Union College. She spent four years as a student missionary in Thailand working primarily among Lao, Hmong, Cambodian, Vietnamese, Mien, and Khamu refugees. Returning to the States to finish her education, she stumbled upon refugees who spoke the very languages she had learned in Southeast Asia and felt a life-long calling to cross-cultural ministry. Together with like-minded Weimar students, she launched SEARCH (Southeast Asian Refugee Community Helps), a joint outreach from Weimar College and the Sacramento Japanese Church. This grew into two refugee church plants—Lao and Hmong—in the Sacramento area. Terri has served as secretary of the Sacramento Area Refugee forum, job developer and employment service worker helping refugees find jobs, Asian Outreach Coordinator for a legal organization protecting the rights of people with disabilities, and has been church planting with her husband, Ko Saelee, among Lao and Hmong refugees since their marriage in 1995. They are now church planting with their three children among Hmong families living in Wisconsin where her husband is Hmong Coordinator for the Wisconsin Conference. Terri coordinates Adventist Refugee and Immigrant Ministries in the North America from their home in Rio, Wisconsin.