Learning from our immigrants

“I’ve never been where God was not” remarks our young man of 30 from displaced from Burma as a child. It was his way of saying that he feels that God has taken care of him all these years. As the third son he was required by his people to resist the Burmese as a child soldier. At 15 he was arrested and bound by his enemy for two weeks before he escaped in the jungle. I can’t imagine what his eyes had witnessed during those 10 years of resistance before he left his family to come to our country. His wife and daughter stayed behind because her parents still live. When her parents die hopefully she will be able to come and join him here in the states.

It is really hard for us to relate to this story. We can not imagine such a high loyalty to one’s parents. We can not imagine such a high loyalty to one’s people. We can not imagine the almost fatalistic acceptance of whatever happens, whether we live or whether we die, God will take care of us. But this is the story we see lived out among our Karen speaking people every week.

It’s not that they are not concerned about the future. When our first family came and started to earn some money they started to buy rice. When I discovered what they were doing they had accumulated 22 forty pound bags of rice stored in their basement and closets upstairs. Totally amazed I explained that the stores will always have more rice. Rice will attract mice and storing this amount of rice may be too much weight for the floor to support and maybe the rice will spoil in the damp basement. They heard me and did not buy any more rice until they had consumed all that rice. But stored rice was always their way of seeing a future ahead. When they saw their bags of rice they felt safe.

On the other hand when really tragic news was shared of death, floods, fires, their response seemed to us that they accepted this news with little emotion. These stories seem to be normal for them. I’m not sure what living in grief is among our Karen people. We held a memorial service for a young man’s sister. She lived here, moved to Chicago but her fiancé’ lived in Australia. For several years they tired to get permission for him to come to this country but permission is hard to get. His sister got depressed and took her own life. The grieving brother made a video to be shared, planned the memorial service, gave testimony of their life together as a family and sang songs together. I believe the healing for the family came primarily in the shared experience. It was important for them to tell their story of their sister and for us to acknowledge their loss. So while we witness little emotion, I believe what we learn from them that it is in walking together through grief that we find healing.

Loss of work is routine among our immigrant population. It is not unexpected that someone will stop me in aisle after church telling me that they have no work. For me this creates untold stress especially if they are family providers. But resources are shared, food is received wherever one happens to be without invitation and survival is not questioned. While I imagine the worst most of our immigrants feel like something will work out somehow. One young father with a good job questioned whether he would need to work every day since he has more then he needs for survival. I could not believe what I was hearing so I wondered what he was meant. He told me they always worked for their “daily bread”. This is what is necessary.

Accessing blame and taking personal responsibility for problems is clearly not an important value of our Karen people. Whatever happens is what happens and casting judgment is not necessary. Sometimes it is almost humorous. A window is broken in one of the apartments in the middle of the winter. No one reports the problem but I discover the cardboard and duct taped window one Sunday morning picking up people. Of course I want to know what happened and who did it but no one knew. Of course everyone knows but no one will say is the better way of putting it. When guys get together and drink beer I want to know who buys the beer and of course no one ever knows. When one person of 3 Karen workers was blamed by the English landscaping crew for throwing a stone with his weed wacker accidentally breaking a window it was most disturbing to all three, so much so that all 3 slept in the next morning. I got a call from the boss at 7:30 wondering where his guys are at; he needs them to do the job promised for that day. Since no one answered the phone I ran into town and pounded on the door. I tried to explain that the boss is not angry, windows can be fixed, but we need to keep working. At the end of the day I called again and everyone had a good day. To be blamed is such a serious problem no Karen person will ever do it.

Politeness and respect toward each other is really a high value among our Karen people. I tend to be an aggressive kind of guy I think. I generally want what I want and if I can I usually go for it. When I feel frustrated or disappointed I can be emotional. In all the books about Karen people, authors say anger and emotion is not accepted well among the Karen. I tell myself this all the time but sometimes I could not contain myself and I show anger. Numerous times I have asked them to forgive me for my anger especially related to the war I wage against alcohol use. They have assured me that they know I love and care for them and accept my anger as warranted. Apparently they talk about me often and joke that they don’t need to follow Jesus, if they follow Jonathan that is enough. That’s pretty funny especially because what they have witnessed of me is pretty raw. I tell them I wish I could model the kindness and spirit of community bonding that I see in them. I do really like these guys and want them to prosper in this country.

As they share resources they also share in the care of children. Children are given freedom to roam wherever. It is assumed that whoever is in their whereabouts will care for their children. Children are loved above all. To have children is the greatest of blessings. It is assumed children will be born immediately after marriage. For us English who have prayed for children for years the presence of children is an enormous blessing, even as it is overwhelming. One cannot describe the blessing it is to connect the generations with the joy of children. I believe a 55 and older community is not God’s idea of a church community any more then a peer group of people of common culture. This whole experience of hosting our immigrate population has given us English an opportunity to exercise our conviction that indeed “there is a wideness in God’s mercy”.

Praying and singing together in Church is a high priority among our Karen people. It is a great inspiration for us English that people love to come to church and participate. One person said in church he doesn’t know where home is. To be rooted is our natural impulse as English who have lived with in the same square mile for 10 generations. To sign a 15 or 20 year mortgage is not unusual because we assume permanence. Our Karen people have run from their homes and villages seeking safety in refugee camps for years before scattering all over the world in Australia, Canada, US, and some in other countries. Everyone has relatives in several states, Canada, and Australia. It is tempting to keep roaming but this too is really hard. It is our prayer that in our church community with our foundation in Christ and secure covenant relationships among his body everyone including the English will find our home.