From youth minister Jason Crosby, Crescent Hill Baptist Church, Louisville, KY...
On two different occasions last fall, the youth of Crescent Hill Baptist conducted a program entitled “ASsK ME! Who is Aung San Suu Kyi?” Soon after Karen refugees began being resettled in Louisville three years ago, Karen refugees originally from Burma began attending Crescent Hill. The Karen elected to fully unite with the congregation, rather than simply use the church’s facilities for a separate Karen worship. Now, more than 150 Karen and other refugees are part of the church’s family. Roughly half of the youth at the church are refugees.
Late last summer, one of the youth at the church, Adam Creech, expressed a desire to organize an event to raise awareness about Aung San Suu Kyi. Other youth contributed ideas and volunteered to assist in various ways. In the end, the completely youth-led presentation explained the connection between Adoniram Judson and Baptists from Burma, who the Karen are, what human rights abuses are taking place in Burma currently, and of course, Aung San Suu Kyi. The youth told this story using the spoken word, Karen music and videos. One of the videos featured in the presentation was put together by Adam and set to the U2 song “Walk On,” which was written by the band to honor Aung San Suu Kyi.
More than 200 people attended the presentations. Hundreds of dollars were raised at the events to support Karen who were attacked by the Burmese government in the summer of 2009 at the Ler Per Her camp for displaced persons. Furthermore, many people in Louisville and beyond, who did not attend the presentations, learned about the situation in Burma and Aung San Suu Kyi through “t-shirt outreach.” More than 100 t-shirts were distributed to Crescent Hill youth that stated “ASsK ME” on the front and “Who is Aung San Suu Kyi?” on the back. The youth reported that those shirts sparked many conversations, in which they were able to share what they had learned.
For more information, contact Jason Crosby at jasonwcrosby@gmail.com.
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