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Powerful prayer
Published 9/20/2008 in News : Area coverage
Editor's note: This is the second in an occasional series about a Burmese refugee family adjusting to life in Garden City.
By EMILY BEHLMANN
ebehlmann@gctelegram.com
Worshipping together at last, they pray.
They pray for the safety of family members who still were in refugee camps in Thailand and Malaysia. They pray for their own adjustment to life in a new community -- Garden City -- and success in wading through governmental assistance programs like food stamps and Medicaid. They pray for the lowering of language barriers that separate their faction of the community from the larger whole.
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"Empower the Burmese refugees to be empowered with the language," the Rev. Jonathan Galia says during a service of the new Burmese Community Christian Fellowship. "Pray for their needs and fears, their loved ones at home, their survival in a new place."
A family separated
Sitting in First Southern Baptist Church, Cappa Tar, one of the church's leaders, looks to a Bible in his lap as he hears interpreter Dwa Tho's Burmese translation of the prayer.
Cappa Tar moved to Garden City July 30, a refugee who had stayed in a camp on the Thai-Burmese border for more than 20 years. His family and thousands of others reached the Mae La camp after fleeing ethnic violence in his home country, which was renamed "Myanmar" by the military junta in power.
Cappa Tar and son Lay Kler Htoo are the most recent arrivals in a family that is, bit by bit, being reunited in the United States.
Wah Lay and another brother, L'erkler Htoo, moved to Garden City in December, after a stint in Kansas City, Kan., to work at the Tyson Fresh Meats plant in Holcomb. They were among the first Burmese refugees to do so, and now Tyson employs more than 120, according to Galia, who serves as a chaplain for the company.
Their grandmother, Htun Mey, also joined them recently. Wah Lay's mother and more siblings remain in Thailand.
Worshipping together
The Burmese refugees in Garden City represent three major religions -- Christianity, Buddhism and Islam -- according to Galia. There are about 50 Christians, including Cappa Tar and his family, and Tyson expects more will be working at the plant soon, Galia said.
"One way to support the needs of these refugees is to create an environment of permission for them to exercise their faith," he said.
Until last month, the Christian refugees lacked such an environment, as they had no place to worship together -- a necessity especially for Christians, Galia said. That's why Garden City's First Southern Baptist Church had taken on the mission of providing a Burmese church for the refugees, with Galia as its pastor and the support of senior pastor Rick Durham.
"The Bible says all Christians need to worship together," Galia says during one service. "I'm glad we have a chance to gather together. ... When we go worship, we present ourselves to God. We come and worship together as a group."
That's just what happened in Mae La refugee camp, where Cappa Tar's family had lived with about 40,000 other Burmese refugees belonging to the Karen ethnic group.
The camp had churches and a Bible school, Cappa Tar says through interpreter Joseph Chitmaung, another of the leaders of the new Burmese church. The people worshipped three times a day -- once just the men, once just the women and once all together, praying and singing songs, Chitmaung says.
Bringing Christianity
The Burmese people had been Buddhist or animist before the mid-1800s, and a majority -- about 70 percent -- remain so, according to "Refugees From Burma," a 2007 report from the Center for Applied Linguistics. Many, however, were introduced to Christianity during British colonial rule, which lasted from 1885 through World War II, when various ethnic groups started to gain independence.
American missionaries came too, spreading information about Jesus Christ, Cappa Tar says as he thumbs through a book the missionaries had brought to explain Christianity. His handwritten notes fill in the spaces not taken up by Burmese text.
The missionaries baptized many of the Karen people, he says. He remembers his conversion, and tells the story through a combination of broken English and hand gestures.
"Our eyes --" he places his fists over his eyes, then spreads his fingers, opening.
"Our hearts --" he places his hands on his heart, then spreads his arms to his sides, opening.
"We saw light," he says. "We thank the Americans -- all the Burmese people.
Church in America
Now that he's living in America, Cappa Tar says he's glad to have a place to worship. He attends church on Sunday afternoons -- the service is later in the day because many of the refugees work the night shift -- with Htun Mey.
His sons, however, don't want to attend, he says. That makes him sad, he says.
There are others, too, who aren't attending church, and at a recent service, members expressed hope that they'd start.
Running the church presents other challenges, too, leaders say.
A few English-speakinig members, like Dwa Tho, a Garden City Community College student, and Chitmaung, can interpret for Galia, who preaches in English. They stand at a podium next to Galia's, speaking in Burmese, the common language among most of the refugees.
But many seem more comfortable communicating in the languages of their ethnic groups, which vary.
In church, then, the Karen sit on one side of the room, with members of the Chin ethnic group on their other. They sing worship songs together but in different languages, and they're planning separate Bible studies and searching for people to lead the sessions.
"The leaders will have a lot of things to do as we continue to build your church," Galia said at last week's service, introducing Cappa Tar, Chitmaung and other church leaders to the congregation.
In spite of the work, the church is a good thing to have, Cappa Tar said.
Galia said life can be troubling for refugees like Cappa Tar and his family, especially when they hear about hardships in their homeland and know they still have loved ones living there.
Their faith can help them through, according to Galia, who cites Bible passage Matthew 19:26 during a recent sermon at the church: "Jesus looked at them and said, 'With man, this is impossible, but with God, all things are possible.'"
"Here in the United States with our loved ones back home, we have that fear," Galia says. "We fear for their lives. It seems nothing is safe anymore. Be reminded that God is powerful. God will keep watch over your loved ones. Even if we are away from then, we cannot be there to protect them, it is still possible for them to be safe."
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