Model Ministries for Peace Rooted in Justice

From pastor Carol McVetty, North Shore Baptist Church, Chicago, IL...

Last year was a difficult one for North Shore Baptist Church’s ministry with refugees from Burma (mostly Karen, some Karenni and Burmese as well).  Everything that had been going fairly well seemed to fall apart.  Adults were not attending the Karen language Sunday School class, even though an experienced Karen pastor had arrived in Chicago and offered leadership.  Kids were anywhere but their classes during Sunday School, the halls, the front steps, headed home but NOT in class. Many of the families with whom we had worked so hard to build relationships disappeared. “Moved to Kansas.”  “Moved to Minnesota.”  “Moved to Iowa” we were told.  The faces on Sunday mornings were all new and strange.  Was our ministry to be only a temporary one with new arrivals who move on because they can’t find jobs?  Do we have to give up our vision of building a Karen community within North Shore?  We were all feeling discouraged. 

But, by the grace of God, this summer and early fall has been a time of significant steps forward in our ministry with sisters and brothers from Burma.

Jobs have stabilized the Karen community in Chicago.  Doug Harris, one of North Shore’s pastors made a connection last spring, through a Baptist business owner at a sister church, with a food company in need of workers.  He and Poe Clee, one of our gifted young refugees working part time for the church, shepherded the first 10 Karen job-seekers through the interview and orientation process.  When they proved to be excellent workers, more and more were gradually hired.  Poe Clee worked all summer on identifying appropriate applicants and assisting them in obtaining jobs at Little Lady Foods.  By late July fifty refugees from Burma, and another fifty from other countries had found employment there.  It is impossible to overstate the importance of this breakthrough.  Karen families are no longer leaving Chicago as quickly as they arrive, and a stable community is beginning to grow. 

Sunday English tutoring builds momentum.  During July and August, Sunday morning English tutoring served as many as 70 Karen each week.  Sunday by Sunday a large third floor classroom grew more and more crowded and rang louder and louder with the sounds of simple praise choruses and chants of “nice to meet you” “nice to meet you”.  Under the leadership of a church member with training in ESL teaching, and with the enthusiastic assistance of a dozen or more North Shore volunteers, small groups divided by age and proficiency level then practiced their English skills.  But perhaps most importantly, the group began to develop an important sense of community that was lacking as long as families struggled with unemployment and relocation to other parts of the U.S.

Leaders decide to begin Karen language worship.   All this time, Rev. Roger Poenyunt, an elderly, devoted pastor among his fellow refugees, had been patiently working to build up the Karen community and its leaders through pastoral care and visitation.  During a meeting in August, they decided to call themselves the Karen Fellowship of NSBC, and to establish Karen language worship every Sunday, while still attending English worship. On September 13, 2009, that worship service began with great excitement.  North Shore is now the only church in Chicago to offer worship in the Sgaw Karen language.  Teens attend the worship service, while the children participate in Sunday School classes in English which are held for all the church’s children at that hour.  Sustained, intentional efforts have succeeded, so far, in helping these beginning English learners feel at home in Sunday School with their English-speaking peers.  They now smile and run toward me, instead of away from me when I say “Come on, time for Sunday School.”

We have come a very long way since the first refugee families from Burma began attending North Shore in October of 2006.  All those families have since moved on, as have many, many others whom we welcomed and assisted in their first months in the U.S. There is a long way yet to go, but finally the hard work and gracious welcome extended by so many is bearing new fruit.  As a new language group forms at North Shore, (our fourth, joining English, Spanish, and Japanese) we are living out our call from God as it is articulated in our vision statement:  North Shore Baptist Church is a multicultural community growing in faith through God’s love in Christ. Empowered by the Holy Spirit, we live out the Good News in our city and the world. In humility, we embrace both member and stranger, honoring our differences, while we worship and learn together.  “Christ is our peace, who made us one, and has broken down the dividing wall…” Ephesians 2:14

For more information, contact pastor Carol McVetty at cmcvetty@northshorebaptist.org.