Anglican Church of Canada
Page updated: September 15, 2007
| BURMESE/KAREN REFUGEES |
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arriving from Refugee camps in Thailand. September 26, 2007 We were truly blessed the day the Karen came to choose from the donated household items. We knew they didn’t have much but as we delivered items to their homes we saw how very little they had – no bedding for instance. We had assumed they would at least get one set of bedding per person! Thank you to everyone for your donations, prayers and gifts of time to get this initiative done. The Karen were very grateful, with many a “we thank you” being repeated over and over again. Coming Next: - We will be starting a warm clothing drive soon. The Karen are small framed people so no large sizes please! Clean warm clothes please. The kids are really excited to be wearing the Latest in our North American clothing so bring on the jeans! - Ongoing, the Karen have a huge need for warm bedding. - Sheets - Blankets (NOT the polyester inexpensive blankets that pill and are not warm. We think they must have been given these in the refugee camps and know they are not warm!) - Duvets - Comforters - Towels - Pillows September 14, 2007 Over 80 new Government-sponsored Karen refugees arrived in Ottawa over the summer, with more to come. Collecting furnishings for the Karen arrivals. (July – September, 2007) Saturday September 15, 2007 Volunteer drivers are asked to arrive at Bromley Road Baptist Church at 1:00 to drive Karen to the storage facility so they can select what they need for their homes. Directions to Bromley Road Baptist Church: Maitland north which becomes Sherbourne as you cross Carling Avenue, first left onto Bromley Road, first right onto Lauder and left into the church parking lot. Pastor Joyce Trask and Monica Brown will be there to meet you and give you directions on what’s next. Here’s what’s happened so far: People have been most generous and we filled a 10’ x 25’ storage locker with donations. Bentley Mini Storage at 70 Bentley Avenue donated the storage locker. Manotick United Men’s group received the furnishings or went to people’s homes to collect it. Thank you to the MUC Men’s group! And big Thank you to all of you who were able to donate furnishings, clothes, and school supplies! 10 – 12 volunteers worked away for several hours each throughout the day Thursday September 13 sorting all the donations. We asked for two extra storage lockers for a few days so we could display the items for the Karen to see what was available. We have one locker just for the kitchen supplies, one locker for the clothing and one locker for electronics, towels, bedding and baby furniture. A huge Thank you to those volunteers. And a really huge Thank you to Bentley Mini Storage for being so generous with their space! I hope you’ll keep them in mind if you ever need a storage facility. ESL Tea (August 2007) We held English as a Second Language (ESL) Tea for the Karen on Wednesday afternoons throughout August, after the volunteers received training in July. What a wonderful, gentle yet full of humour group of people we met at the teas! They were quick to laugh at themselves and at us when we tried to speak in their language! Thank you to the volunteers from our Church for making this so much fun and such a wonderful connecting time with the Karen people. HISTORY: CANADA’S ROLE Canada has committed to assisting 2000 Karen refugees from refugee camps in Thailand over the period of a few years. Some will come to Ottawa. Supported by the government, the Ottawa-based refugees spend 6 weeks at a Refugee Immigration Centre downtown for orientation and helping them get over the worst of the culture shock. Can you imagine the shock of going from virtual starvation to walking into one of our grocery stores? The refugees are then provided with a home, and main pieces of furniture such as beds, sofa, kitchen tables. The government also provides a small monthly income for one year while the refugees learn English and become more comfortable in their new surroundings CHRISTIANITY AMONGST THE KAREN The history of the Karen people included the belief that a book they once possessed, which contained the truth about life, was taken by a white brother across the seas. The Karens believed that one day the brother would return with the book. This prepared the way for the arrival of a Baptist missionary, Adoniram Judson, and other missionaries, who brought the “book” of God’s Good News to the Karen people. BROMLEY ROAD BAPTIST CHURCH (near the corner of Carling and Sherwood/Maitland) In recent years God brought 8-10 Karens to the Bromley Rd Baptist Church. When this group of people heard about the government of Canada resettling 92 Karens in the Ottawa area in the fall of 2006 they began to explore how they might reach out to them. The Karen people worked long and hard to welcome and help the ‘first wave’ of Karens in the fall of 2006. We are looking forward to the ‘second wave’ in the summer of 2007 and want to build on what has already happened at Bromley. Support from the Bromley Church congregation and Ottawa community came in many forms such as: - Providing the smaller furnishings to supplement that given by the government. This included microwaves, kitchen utensils, plates, cutlery, pots, tvs, and radios - Making clothes to supplement what the government provided - For the duration of the 6 weeks, the Bromley congregation provided a bus to transport the Karen people to the Bromley Rd Sunday services. - Within the first two weeks, they discovered a minister in the midst of the Karen people and established a regular service in the Karen language each Sunday. Many of the refugees are now members of the Bromley Church, attending the Karen service and/or the English service - Purchasing car seats so members could safely and legally transport the Karen children for worship and appointments - Giving out bus tickets to encourage people to come to church - Enthusiastic response to the Karen children in Sunday School - Christmas gifts for each family and child, both practical and toys - Making lunch available after the English worship service - Having one of the original Karen’s translate bulletins and conversations to determine the needs. - Snow Day (tobogganing, etc) Email Rosemary Clarke Email Pat Thornton Email Joyce Trask |