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Karen refugees have found a welcoming community at Crescent Hill Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – In Burma, where only six percent of the population is Christian, approximately 35 percent of the Karen people are Baptists. They trace their faith history back to Ann and Adoniram Judson, Baptist missionaries who arrived in Burma in 1813.

For nearly 60 years, civil war has raged against the Karen and other ethnic minorities as they have sought independence from Burma’s military regime. Their Christian faith has carried them through years of persecution, hiding and waiting. Village relocations, forced labor, land mines, rape and murder are common. Villagers who are able flee into the jungles, sometimes live for years on the run.

Today, nearly 163,000 Karen people are crowded into nine refugee camps along the Thailand-Burma border.

"I don’t think God [wants] us to suffer this way," said Wah Do, a Karen who teaches in the Kawthooli Bible School and College located inside the Mae La Refugee Camp. "God in Jesus Christ is also working for the weak and the oppressed. God is a liberator. God is not a passive God – He is at work. God has not forgotten us."

With the violence in Burma, many Karen have sought the opportunity for better lives in the United States. During 2007 and 2008, it has been predicted that as many as 30,000 Karen will arrive in the U.S.

"To have them here has created a great deal of excitement," said Greg Pope, pastor of Crescent Hill Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky., where nearly 40 Karen are attending. "One opportunity I think that springs from this experience is to immerse ourselves more fully in the Biblical story. Israel clearly understood what it meant to be foreigners in a strange land, and Jesus told his followers that we would always be foreigners in this world."

Although the Karen have many needs as they adapt to life in the U.S., Crescent Hill has intentionally looked for opportunities to welcome the refugees into the daily life of the church.

"We need to be the ones who model the message that we are all created in the image of God, no matter where we were born or what language we speak," Pope said. "So we welcome them as we would welcome Christ; and if we can be a home for them and engage them in the larger life of the congregation – that would be my greatest hope."

To learn about ways your church can minister to Karen refugees, contact Matt Norman at mnorman@thefellowship.info or (800) 352-8741.

CBF is a fellowship of Baptist Christians and churches who share a passion for the Great Commission and a commitment to Baptist principles of faith and practice. The Fellowship’s mission is to serve Christians and churches as they discover and fulfill their God-given mission.