REFUGEE MINISTRY IN UTICA
A Validated Ministry of ABC/NYS
We live in a world in which one no longer needs to board an airplane to have a first-hand experience of cross-cultural mission. The mission field has come to the Mohawk Valley in the heart of upstate New York. Through the auspices of the Mohawk Valley Resource Center for Refugees (MVRCR), Utica has welcomed 10,000 refugees in the last decade. Currently, one in every eight residents of this city of 60,000 has arrived as a refugee. In the last six years, Tabernacle Baptist Church, a historic American Baptist congregation in downtown Utica, has welcomed into its midst over 250 refugees from South Asia and Africa.
Responding to the needs of this growing contingent of new neighbors is a task too large for any one congregation. In recognition of this reality, the Utica Refugee Ministry was recently designated a Validated Ministry of the American Baptist Churches of New York State.
Approximately 230 ethnic Karen from Burma (Myanmar) are served by Tabernacle Baptist Church. The Karens, (pronounced Ka-rans’), are an indigenous people to the southeast Asian countries of Thailand and Burma. Their population numbers around 14 million with the majority of the Karens living inside Burma. Christians constitute roughly 30% of the Karen population. A significant percentage of Karen Christians are Baptists: the fruit of the Judsons’ pioneering missionary witness in Burma. The Karens at Tabernacle Baptist Church have fled the persecution of Burma’s brutal military regime, regarded as one of the most repressive dictatorships on earth. Before being settled in Utica, most spent months and years in refugee camps in Thailand.
To most people who are familiar with the Karens, they are known for their colorful traditional clothes and their energetic, jubilant festival dances. Members of Tabernacle Baptist have also discovered that the Karen people have a well-deserved reputation for hospitality, friendliness, and industry. The congregation, working with MVRCR, has assisted the refugee families in furnishing apartments, securing employment, obtaining vehicles, and negotiating life in a new land. Most of the first families to arrive in the community have recently purchased homes. The church has also sponsored a home repair and maintenance course, English pronunciation classes, Vacation Bible Schools, a variety of cultural and community celebrations, as well as a food, clothing, and home supplies closet.
REV. DR. AUGUSTUS SPURGEON
In Fall 2004, Tabernacle Baptist added a Karen language worship service on Sunday mornings. The Rev. Dr. Augustus Spurgeon, a Karen Baptist pastor from Burma who in 1993 completed a doctorate at Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School, conducts these services.
After finishing his studies in Rochester, Dr. Spurgeon returned to Burma to serve as a pastor and denominational executive with the Karen Baptists. Because he preached human rights in a country that does not recognize human rights and ministered openly to internally displaced persons within Burma, Pastor Augustus was forced in Spring 2004 to flee his native land in fear for his life. Through the generosity and concern of friends at First Baptist Church of Rochester and American Baptists from ABCRGR and ABCNYS a successful effort was launched to raise funds and bring Augustus to the United States. Subsequently, Dr. Spurgeon’s wife and daughter secured visitor visas and joined him in Rochester. Tabernacle Baptist Church provided a grant in aid and housing to enable his son to enroll in Utica College. With Dr. Spurgeon’s family safely reassembled in the upstate New York, in Spring 2005 they filed for asylum with the U.S. government.
THE NEED
As Dr. Spurgeon and his family await a ruling on their asylum application, plans are quickly moving forward to move the family to Utica where his pastoral skills, professional training, and unique history can be put to the best use. The Karen Baptists are eager to have a Karen pastor, who speaks their language and knows their culture, residing in Utica where he can provide daily pastoral care and proclaim God’s Word in their native tongue. Through a generous gift from First Baptist Church of Rochester, an apartment has been rented and furnished. This is a first step toward this goal.
However, as the 2005 ends, most of the funds initially raised for Dr. Spurgeon’s support will be expended. New funds to underwrite Dr. Spurgeon’s salary, insurance, and transportation expenses must be immediately raised. Thirty Karen families in Utica have pledged their support of Dr. Augustus’ ministry through their sacrificial giving. Tabernacle Baptist Church continues it sacrificial commitment to outreach, service, and witness to the Karen community in Utica. But, this alone is not enough!
YOUR RESPONSE