HANOVER COUNTY, Va.—Before the end of April, the Htoo family will be able to hang the welcome sign on their newly-constructed house just outside of Richmond, Va. Their new home in America is an answer to prayer for the family which spent 10 years in a refugee camp.
Ler and Lay Htoo and their six children fled their homeland of Burma (now known as Myanmar) for Thailand, landing in one of that country’s numerous refugee camps.
Way Ku, daughter of Lay and Ler Htoo, is baptized by Tabernacle pastor Sterling Severns and former associate pastor for youth and young adults Eric Hasha, now serving a church in Hawaii.
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The Htoos are from Burma’s mostly Christian Karen ethnic group, which has been oppressed for decades by the government. Many Karen have been displaced as the army has ravaged the countryside and burned villages. Their faith in Jesus Christ makes them targets of the military in Burma.
According to the Htoo family, they joined 200 to 300 people from five villages who walked through the jungle for a week to reach safety over the Thai border. Their resettlement in the United States was sponsored by the Virginia Council of Churches, in connection with Church World Services, which reports across the U.S. are more than 30,000 Karen refugees.
“In August of 2007 our church was contacted by Duane Binkley, a dually-commissioned Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and American Baptist Church missionary,” says Sterling Severns, pastor of Tabernacle Baptist Church in Richmond.
Binkley lived and worked in Thailand with the Karen people for more than 20 years, says Severns, and was commissioned to help Baptist churches minister to the large influx of Karen refugees coming to America.
Because the Karen are grateful to American Baptist churches for sending missionaries who taught them about Jesus Christ, they often seek out Baptist churches when they arrive, says Severns. In 1813 American Baptist missionary Adoniram Judson began work in Burma. One of Judson’s earliest converts was a Karen named Ko Tha Pyu. Following his conversion, Christianity spread rapidly among the Karen as more missionaries were sent to spread the gospel.
An intergenerational choir formed at Tabernacle last summer includes members of the Karen community. The choir’s favorite songs are old hymns which they sing in both English and the Karen language.
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“We may not speak the same language, but we all know the same Baptist hymns,” he admits.
According to Severns, the Htoos were not only one of the initial Burmese families that came to Tabernacle, but they’re leaders among the Karen community and helped make way for many others to follow. Every Sunday afternoon people groups within Burma gather for worship in their own language at the church.
Within two or three weeks of arriving, Ler and Lay Htoo began earning money. He works for Walmart and she sews costumes at Wolff Fording and Co., using a skill she learned as a child. The family rented an apartment when they first arrived, and then rented a house owned by Mechanicsville (Va.) Baptist Church.
Now permanent residents, the Htoos worked hard to become eligible for a Habitat for Humanity home. Since being approved by Hanover Habitat in June, the family has put in about 1,000 hours to help build four Habitat houses, far more than the 300 hours required in sweat equity.
Construction on the Htoos home began last November and should be completed in April. Severn says while the congregation stood with the family during building, they didn’t have to get very involved. The family had so many volunteers that some were turned away to other homes under construction.
“For this congregation God has used the Karen people to bring renewal. It’s been a transforming experience for us in every way,” he says. “Now we are them and they are us.”
Today about a quarter of the congregation and 80 percent of its youth group are Burmese refugees, Severn says. Through its various tutoring efforts, the church is interacting with Bhutanese, Iraqi, Somali, Tanzanian, Karen, Burmese, and Chin people groups.
“This is a really good example of what the kingdom of God looks like,” he says.
And the American dream will soon come true for the Htoo family as they move into the four-bedroom house that they and their brothers and sisters in Christ helped build in Hanover County.
Barbara Francis ([email protected]) is on the staff of the Religious Herald.