Congregations in the St. Paul Area Synod have been asked to tell their stories of working with refugees. We thought you may want to read CtK’s story. Here it is:

We all know that America is a land of immigrants. Most of us have stories of our ancestors - predominantly European - arriving here seeking opportunity and freedom to live and worship as their faith led them.

In the past few decades the new arrivals have come largely from lands that we knew little of until they made the news because of upheaval, war and the resulting refugees. The victims of these conflicts have come from many scattered places but they have in common their hardship, their desperate, dangerous flights from their homelands and their need for help when they arrive here. It is our mission as Christians to invite these “strangers” into our midst.

Our Christ the King community heard the first “knock on the door” in 1976 when we were asked to aid a refugee family from war-torn Laos. The first arrivals were six teenaged siblings. Within four years thirteen extended family members and their elderly widowed mother had now joined them here. We became parents, mentors, friends and caregivers. There were many culture and communication challenges, such as the time a family member needed to go to a dentist because of a pain in her mouth. After being examined the patient was found to have a sore throat. This family has kept in contact and is forever grateful for the help and friendship they have received.

After supporting our Laotian friends the members of CTK were now passionately committed to helping other refugees resettle in Minnesota, and a ministry was born!

In 1980 a Vietnamese family was briefly supported and then moved away.

In December of 1980 another Vietnamese family of three arrived on a bitter cold winter night. Their eyes told us that they were frightened. What kind of a place was this with this kind of weather? The head of the family was a young, widowed mother (Cuc Tran) with two small children. They had escaped Vietnam in a small boat, had been attacked by pirates and finally reached the Philippines where they lived in a refugee camp until they were able to come to Minnesota. This family also captured the hearts of our support group, which now included families with young children. Our young children were very excited to be a part of welcoming this family. For many years we would all get together for family and holiday celebrations. This family joined CTK and the children were confirmed. The children graduated from our area high school and then college. Both have good jobs. The mother remarried and now lives in northern Minnesota.

In the early 1990's, Christ the King sponsored a 10-member Iraqi Kurdish refugee family. They had escaped Saddam Hussein's chemical bombs by running over the mountains into Turkey, where they lived in a refugee camp for several years.

One of our members will never forget meeting this family at the airport. After all of the other passengers had gotten off of the plane, she went to look to see what the problem might be. A very slow moving, terrified family was clinging to each other with the husband in the lead. His wife and eight children accompanied him. The difficulty of riding the escalators, of not being able to relieve oneself on an airport pillar, and the English language were just a few of the first of many new and culturally different issues that the family had to deal with. A large group of Christ the King volunteers helped to house, clothe, feed, teach, assist, transport, and befriend them. We also helped one of the boys have very extensive dental work, and another to have successful Spinal Bifida surgery. Christ the King volunteers not only successfully settled this fascinating family, but were opened up to a whole new different culture and part of the world. This family was only the second Iraqi Kurdish family in Minnesota at the time. The family now resides in Nashville, TN, where a large group of Kurdish refugees live.

In 2000 we had the opportunity to support our first refugee group from Liberia. They had been living in a refugee camp in Ghana. New supporters joined the group and we began our ritual of planning for the immediate needs for this family. Our congregation, as always, readily gave donations of clothing, furniture, housing supplies and money. This family consisted of a father, a mother, a 10 year old son. The son is now an accomplished senior in high school. The mom is a CNA. Two more children have since joined their family. Sadly, the parents are now divorced. The mother has remarried. They are now members of Christ the King.

Another young Liberian woman who came at the same time has worked to support herself while going to school. She continues her education to become a LPN. She worked very hard to bring her husband from Liberia to join her. They have become active members of our congregation ~ ushering and lecturing. A year later their 10 year old son was able to join them. The family is anxiously awaiting the arrival of their 13 year old son.

In the winter of 2000 a young Liberian couple and their pre-teen daughter arrived in our area and were happy to find a church home at CTK. They found work and began planning for their 8-year old son to join them within a few months. In the meantime, the father joined the church choir and made plans for night school. However tragedy struck when he died suddenly from a latent lung parasite only 4 weeks before their third child was to be born. Many of us took part in the Liberian funeral service. When this very special baby was born, his mother named him after a special mentor in our support group. Our congregation was supportive to this family in many ways including helping with child care, setting them up in a new apartment and generously donating financially to keep this family “on their feet.” The mother is now a full-time nursing assistant and attends night school to provide her training for a more advanced position in medical technology. The family has joined Christ the King and the mother has also joined our refugee support group. Best of all, she recently became a U.S. citizen and will finally be able to bring her older son to join her! Her daughter will graduate from high school this spring and plans to continue her education at a local community college.

2001 brought us another family ~ this time from Bosnia. This family was another very determined family and succeeded in getting jobs, pursuing schooling and purchasing a home. Life now has become more challenging in this economy as they are now at risk for losing their home.

In 2007 we received a daunting request from Lutheran Social Service to aid a family of fourteen (ages 2-58) from Liberia. We gave it prayerful thought and then readily accepted this challenge. Since the family had already arrived, quick action was in order. Good news was that that a daughter of the family was already living in the area. Not so good news was that most of the new arrivals were to live in her small apartment together with the daughter's husband and two children.. Their immediate needs were transportation and housing. With many donations from the congregation and new members joining our group we were able to do it!

Since then the family has become independent with a few family members continuing to worship with us.

Our latest family is Bhutanese. They came from a refugee camp in Nepal, where they lived for 17 years in a one-room hut. This family has Nepali heritage from many generations ago. Because of this heritage, they were not welcome in the southern part of Bhutan where they had lived their whole life. As with many of our previous refugee families this family feared for their lives. One night the father and mother fled Bhutan with their three boys, ages 5, 3 and an infant. They spent many nights sleeping in forests until they reached a refugee camp in Nepal. Seventeen years later with the help of Lutheran Social Service the family arrived in Minneapolis. We were very excited to once again be preparing for the arrival of new friends. When the family saw their small, two bedroom apartment in St. Paul, they exclaimed that they were now “in paradise.” The temperature was very hot and humid when they arrived. The boys had visions of snow and were anxiously awaiting its arrival. When the snow came with the very cold weather they were excited for only a short while and then began looking forward to spring. The boys, who are 23, 21 and 18, have enthusiastically embraced the

new culture and love to learn. They had English classes in the refugee camp, which helped in their transition to school. The parents are learning English and are participating in a three month job training

experience at Good Will. This family loves having visitors come to their

home for a cup of chai. Through this family we have had the opportunity to meet many new Bhutanese friends. The boys are worshiping at Christ the King each Sunday.

Since 1976 Christ the King has helped about 80 refugees from 6 countries.

These people have gone on to lead productive lives in America. We have an optometrist, nursing assistant, sales person, nurse, people working in the computer industry and sales people to name just a few.

/s/ Linda Schweppe,

Ralph Berg, Co-chairs

Refugee Committee

If you would ike to be involved in this very rewarding ministry, and experience meeting new friends from a different culture, please call Linda Schweppe at 651-633-5460 or Ralph Berg at 651-786-8796.

Christ the King has been involved in Refugee Ministry for over 30 years. During that time, many of us have been blessed with getting to meet new friends and learning new cultures.

Throughout the years the makeup of the Refugee support group has changed. A few of the original members remain. With each new family comes new passion and new friends.

In welcoming refugees and helping them adapt to our culture, each one of us knows that it is we who benefit from meeting new friends from around the world. Christ the King has been blessed with this very special ministry. We look forward to where our journey will take us next.

GUIDED BY THE GOSPEL: GATHERING • GROWING • GIVING