[voiceinthewind]

Little Green Footballs did an update on this, and Lutheran Children and Family Services has several articles about this.
http://web.lssm.org/site/PageServer?pagename=homepage

Type in ahiska in their search bar. They are a people who were forcibly converted to Islam. They were sponsored by the Lutheran services. Wikipedia has an entry about them under:
Meskhetians

[Romanov]

Radio Free Europe also reported it:

"Prague, 28 July 2004 — For the third time in 60 years, Russia’s stateless Meskhetian community is setting off into exile.

Last week, 84 Meskhetians bid farewell to Russia’s southern Krasnodar region and arrived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, under a U.S. resettlement program. These few families are the first of a 9,000- to 10,000-strong contingent expected to emigrate to the United States within the next few months.

Arrangements for their initial accommodation are being made by the Lutheran Children and Family Services, a private voluntary agency that is providing them with resettlement services, such as housing, food, clothing, and other basic necessities."

IF they're going to Philly, won't they have a problem with the Kalmyk population there?

[Das Outsider]

They were sponsored by the Lutheran services.

They were sponsored by the Lutheran Social Services of Michigan. The following page, Affiliations, lists them as being in fellowship with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).

If you know anything about ELCA, it will all make sense.