Building Bridges with Burmese Friends

This was the last week of classes for the year at For the Nations. Though I'm sad that I won't see many of my international friends and students for a while, it's a blessing to look back over this semester at all they have learned, as well as all they have taught me. Since we will be celebrating their accomplishments at the FTNRO graduation ceremony tomorrow and I still haven't written about my adult ESL class, I'd like to share about a few of the students who have impacted me the most.

In my Level 1 adult ESL class, I typically sit between whichever two students need the most assistance and guide them through the lesson at their own pace, while the teacher instructs the rest of the class. This is Htwa Meh (right). She is from Myanmar (Burma), a country in Southeast Asia where minority ethnic groups, such as the Karenni, suffer from internal ethnic conflicts. Several of the students in my class, including Htwa Meh, are Karenni, and most have no background in English. Htwa Meh came to America about three years ago, but this was her first year to enroll in English classes here at FTNRO. What is most remarkable about Htwa Meh's success in English this year is the fact that she is deaf. That's right, she's trying to learn a written language for the first time, with unique phonetics that she can't even hear, at the pace of a roomful of hearing students! So back in February when I was asked to sit with her each Thursday during class, I gulped, prayed, and wondered how to teach a deaf person in a class that includes listening/repeating exercises and pronunciation. But God knew what He was doing. Htwa Meh was determined to learn, and she surprised me with her ability at lip-reading. Even better, one of the teachers had already taught her the American Sign Language alphabet, and because I had taken ASL in my last semester of college, I was able to teach her basic ASL vocabulary to go along with each English lesson. Once she finally realized that ASL is a legitimate language, we started having a lot of fun with it and bonding. She has made incredible progress in both English and ASL, and was one of the fastest learners in the class! Trying to interpret for her during the Bible lessons with our limited vocabulary was a challenge, however. Even though her background is strongly Catholic, I sense that she has very little concept of what is in the Bible. It is my prayer that she will someday be able to watch the Deaf Bible in ASL (www.deafbiblesociety.com) and understand its message of salvation!

Oo Meh (to the left of me) is another Karenni woman from the same ESL class as Htwa Meh. When she started class this year, she knew zero English and was entirely illiterate, even in her own language. She was shy and wanted to blend in with the group, constantly repeating under her breath whatever the teacher said without comprehending the meaning. When I tried to help her with the alphabet, she struggled a lot just learning to hold the pencil and tracing the letter "A." But gradually she began to pronounce simple words and associate them with pictures, and can now even write her name and copy words from the whiteboard! In recent weeks, some students from the Graduate Institute for Applied Linguistics (GIAL) in Dallas have been creating simple vocabulary sheets with pictures and corresponding words in her native language, but written with the Latin (English) alphabet. This provides a bridge between the two languages and gives phonetic meaning to letters on a page. It has helped Oo Meh immensely with adjusting to written language, and as this tool develops it will hopefully be useful for many similar Burmese students in the future. Even in this last week of class, I noticed how much confidence Oo Meh has gained. I'll never forget the smile on her face when she was the first to recognize and call out the "kitchen" flashcard! It has been very eye-opening and humbling to be the “teacher” for this dear woman who has so much she should be teaching me! She inspires me by her perseverance to learn new and hard things at her age.

I didn't know what to expect when I first signed up to help with an ESL class, having little experience and no certifications. But God knew just where He could use me most and teach me most. When I "randomly" decided to take ASL for fun in college, I had no idea I would actually have a use for it a month later. But "we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose" (Romans 8:28).


*To respect the privacy of individuals mentioned in this post, please do not share this information in a public setting or on social media.*

This is the next generation...

One of my biggest highlights of my spring at For the Nations has been Thursday afternoons at Kids' Club, when twelve to fifteen 4- to 12-year-olds come sprinting from the van to greet us. Four or five of us volunteers and staff members help the older kids with their homework assignments and direct the younger ones to work on coloring and activity sheets. As you might imagine, it's an interesting challenge trying to communicate the significance of Texas history names and dates to a bunch of Afghan and Ethiopian refugee kids who can barely pronounce them! But it is always rewarding to watch these scholars make connections once someone has taken the time to explain their social studies or math concepts on an individual level.

When it's time for the Bible lesson, one of the staff shares a short Bible story and reviews the creation-fall-redemption narrative. It always makes me smile to hear these kids (from different religious backgrounds) enthusiastically filling in aspects of the gospel story they have learned this year. Some of them ask excellent and thought-provoking questions. One particularly bright 6th-grader, Hassan, asked just the other week, "Why did Jesus have to be baptized, since he didn't have any sin?" Last week I was able to follow up with him and explain more about Jesus' identity and how He fulfilled everything written about Him. Such an awesome privilege to be able to talk freely with the youth from some of the most "restricted" nations in the world!

The opportunities also come with obstacles. These kids have no problems learning and reciting biblical truths, as they belong to a culture that values religion and even shares the same Bible characters. But one-on-one, they often share things their parents have told them about God and eternity that are simply truth twisted. They love to discuss spiritual things, but it is a challenge to help them understand the personal implications of God's truth.

Pray for these children, that Jesus will reach into their lives and that they will realize their need for a Savior. Pray that they will read the gospel books and watch the Jesus films they received for Easter, and that their families will find salvation in Christ. And please pray for wisdom & boldness for us tutors; next Thursday is our last Kids' Club of the school year. Pray that we'll take advantage of opportunities to share the Truth  with these children through VBS this summer!

*Names changed for privacy reasons. To respect the privacy of individuals mentioned in this post, please do not share this information in a public setting or on social media.*

Creative Connections

I have found that getting involved with refugee outreach is so much more than just teaching English or having fun with kids. It's about connecting with people, hearing their stories, and becoming part of each others' lives. And it is amazing to watch how God can direct women from totally different backgrounds to cross paths and find that we actually have so much in common!

Having prayed for a creative way to advance my language learning, I first met Rafia after asking a friend if she knew someone with whom I could practice speaking Arabic in an informal sort of English/Arabic language exchange. She then introduced me to Rafia, a young woman from East Africa who speaks fluent Arabic (among other languages) but very little English. She was delighted to meet someone who attempted to speak/understand her language, and I was delighted (and a little overwhelmed) to practice my very rusty and limited Arabic! She immediately recognized my colloquial dialect, and that's when we discovered our "Egyptian connection." She had spent nearly three years in Egypt prior to gaining refugee status in the U.S.

As we reminisced about the charms and the woes of life in Cairo, I realized in a new way how God never wastes anything that happens in our past, and He has a way of answering our prayers in creative and unexpected ways! But it also reminded me how sovereign God is and how small this world is. As a kid, I had carelessly observed countless refugees attempting to pass through Egypt from oppressive and war-torn countries and hoping toward an eventual better life in the West. Now I was chatting in the home of one of them, welcoming her on the other end of her journey to "my country, America." Realizing this was incredibly humbling; we had literally walked the same streets, yet we come from vastly different walks of life. I don't know why God has allowed me the blessings of being a citizen of a free country and living in safety with my Christian family, or why He would allow another girl in her 20's to arrive in America only after a possibly permanent separation from her home and family and nearly losing her life. But God knows His purposes, and He has given His followers the opportunity to be a part of that purpose as channels of His love. "For the love of Christ compels us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf" (2 Corinthians 5:14-15).

*Names changed for privacy reasons. To respect the privacy of individuals mentioned in this post, please do not share this information in a public setting or on social media.*

Introduction

Welcome friends! This blog is intended to be a way of making myself accountable to record what I learn through my experiences working with refugees in the Dallas area, so that I can look back on what God has taught me and how He worked in people's lives. It's meant to be personal, and I most certainly won't be offended if you don't read it. But if you do, I hope the stories, pictures, and articles will encourage you to pray for God's work among international refugees and inspire you to seize opportunities for joining Him in that work in your neighborhoods. I'd really love to hear your stories, as well as any comments, questions, or ideas you may have!

*To respect the privacy of individuals mentioned in posts, please do not share this information in a public setting or on social media.*

"For the Nations" - Some Background Info

Dallas has the second largest refugee population in the U.S. with over 200,000 refugees in the greater Dallas area. For the Nations Refugee Outreach serves about 1,550 legal & permanent refugees annually, coming from over 20 countries including Burma, Thailand, D.R. Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, Afghanistan, Syria, Iran, and Iraq. They include men, women & children of all ages, speaking over 50 different languages, and coming from a variety of religious backgrounds. All have persevered though incredible challenges and dangers, interviews and screenings before becoming among the privileged few to arrive here in the U.S. These people are desperate to learn English and the basics of navigating life here in America, are eager and grateful to anyone willing to help them, and in most cases have incredibly open hearts and minds. What an amazing opportunity to share the love of Jesus!

For the Nations seeks to serve refugees in the Dallas area through education, acculturation, and sharing with them the good news of Jesus Christ. Primarily we do this through ESL, literacy and citizenship classes and GED prep for adults. There is a preschool class while parents are in ESL class, and after-school homework help & English practice for pre-K through 8th graders. All classes are free of charge and offered to anyone, but attendance is required to stay in the program. There are also occasional classes on cooking, computer literacy, job skills, etc., as well as an intensive summer reading/ESL program for recent arrivals to the U.S. The organization has seen many of their students successfully integrate into their jobs and communities.

Most importantly, every class/event includes a Scripture passage and presentation of the Gospel, strategically placed in the middle of the class time as a required part of the curriculum. Throughout the course of the year, this presentation begins with the Creation account and ends with the Resurrection. The outreach has seen several believe as a result of these teaching times and the relationships that have developed.

I first learned about FTNRO last summer through someone my mom met, after I had been praying towards possibly working with refugees in some way. I’m so thankful God enabled me to get involved already this January, and that my other part-time jobs allow me to spend all day on Thursdays with the outreach. I volunteer as a pre-K assistant, ESL teacher’s assistant, and a Kids' Club tutor, and although it has stretched me in various ways, I am thoroughly loving it!

(statistics and information gathered from For the Nations literature)


*To respect the privacy of individuals mentioned in this post, please do not share this information in a public setting or on social media.*