In Fort Wayne, there is New Life Lutheran Church.
The church is for Burmese people. But the church members are mixed between American and Burmese. Some of Burmese can speak english, but others can't do that. For them who don't know english, when pastor is giving speech in english, the church members are translating the speech in Burmese language.
Juju and Thiri come from Burma 6 years ago are doing translation at the church for volunteer.
Now, James Keller is the pastor of the church. However, Pastor James Keller didn't start the church. Keller said he felt that God wanted him to work with Burmese community so he started reaching out to them and that's how he started working with them.
When I first visited this church, I was able to meet Keller's 8 children. Every sunday, they come to church with Keller. One thing that I really impressed was that these American children get along with Burmese children very well. And by growing in this situation which means they can be exposed by different culture, they have broadened insights and don't have any unbiased view toward minority people. As I posted before, some people even don't know the differences between refugees and migrant and have preconception toward Burmese people. Contrary to that, these 8 children have lots of Burmese friends and know about Burmese language little bit.
Since it is the only church for Burmese people, many Burmese people come to church. Even if it varies weak to weak, on average, about 60 people are worshiping with church members. If the church has special occasions, up to 300 people come to church.
For example, the thanks giving day in last year, the church host the party that serves food for Burmese people. Like that way, New Life Lutheran Church is not only doing worship for American and Burmese together but is sharing the attachment together. That's the purposes of New Life Lutheran Church.
This is a cool blog. If religion must exist it should at least consists of different cultures. Too many times religion causes biases against cultures and it's no good.
ReplyDeleteYup! the church are mixed both American and Burmese. That's so cool! :)
ReplyDelete