JUBILEE PARTNERS REPORT

Transcription

1 JUBILEE PARTNERS REPORT December 2008 It turns out that there is more fashion at Jubilee than we thought. Not the festive overalls or garden boots which typify the classic Jubilee fashion statement. It s a fashion more closely associated with the Latin root of the word, which means a group of people acting together. In the past year, all of our wardrobes have permanently grown and brightened as our lives have become intertwined with new Karen (kuh-ren) friends who often bestow upon us their masterfully-woven garments. At the same time, Jubilee is witnessing God acting together with Karen refugees and North Americans, fashioning the kingdom before our eyes and renewing our vision for what is possible when we share our dreams, our work, and our homes. Common Dreams Two dramatic examples of faith and shared dreams are Robert Bruce Davis and Eh Kaw Htoo, two people who came through Jubilee this spring. Poh Lay weaves blue and white thread on the traditional Karen loom. Robert Bruce was a visitor from neighboring Clarke county, and Eh Kaw was a newly arrived Karen refugee, now living in neighboring Oglethorpe county. As Eh Kaw recalls it, We were working the garden, and I was telling Blake (of Jubilee Partners), Oh, if only we could have a Karen Jubilee Partners where we can live on our own land, build our houses, worship and live together as Christians. Not long after this, Robert Bruce came to visit Jubilee. CHRISTINA DYCK EH KAW HTOO Robert Bruce Davis and Blake Ortman stand behind Eh Kaw Htoo in his rural home in Maxeys, GA. I had been working with rural Georgia farmers, and when I talked to people at Jubilee about refugees I felt that maybe God was opening the door for work with the Karen. Robert Bruce s calling began to align with Eh Kaw s vision of a rural Karen community. I grew up in Brazil, he explains. For many years I felt called to work helping brothers with needs who had come into difficult circumstances. When my family couldn t go back to Brazil I wanted to find a way in the United States to help families be productive in a way that fathers could still be with their families.

2 During worship at Jubilee in July, another Karen refugee named James Novel and volunteer Zachary Cooke played guitar and earnestly sang together, God will make a way, where there seems to be no way. James, his parents, and his four siblings departed Jubilee for Atlanta, but are now among the 19 Karen people living and working in Maxeys, GA, 30 miles south of Jubilee Partners. God is making a way with the help of many willing people. Residents of Maxeys, members of Maxeys Christian Church, Epiphany Episcopal Church in Atlanta, county school teachers, Robert Bruce s family and church, and Jubilee have all provided a support structure. They are helping these families navigate paperwork and procedures which native English-speakers often find treacherous, and most people new to the system and the language would find impossible! Common Work ANTHONY-MASTERSON PHOTOGRAPHY It is fitting that a seed of the first rural Karen community in this area was planted in Jubilee s garden. Garden-keepers Russ and Christina Dyck strongly believe that common work between different cultures provides a framework for new relationships and possibilities. Many Karen people mirror Russ and Christina s passion for working with their hands, sharing with Jubilee their traditional techniques and skills in gardening, farming, and weaving. Former Jubilee volunteers Marcus Rempel and Jenn Nast-Kolb are among the founders of a rural community called Ploughshares, near Winnipeg, Manitoba, a city in which 30 Karen families have already been resettled. While wandering the community s 160 acre plot, Marcus reflected on what he is learning. Kay, Glory and Djou quietly wade ahead of me in the river. They scan the sandy bed intently. Every few steps they stoop, reach down, and pull up a fresh water clam. The ice cream buckets I handed out for this excursion are filling up quickly except for mine, which only holds a handful of clams. They have clearly done this before. I have never. In this moment, I feel like I am the one who has left my home, like I am the one who suddenly finds himself in a strange new country. There are many different ways to live in a place; different ways to assess its opportunities and treasures. For these people who love to eat frogs and clams and wild mustard, this fledgling farm is already a place of abundance. And so, through them, I discover that I am already a rich man. At the same time, through them, I am losing the fears I have of poverty. Before we went clam-hunting, Kay served up a delicious soup of pork ribs and cucumbers gleaned from a Manitoba market garden's rejects. "If you have one Karen family living here," Kay pronounces to me with a proud grin, "nothing will be waste." MARCUS REMPEL Page 2

3 Hovering around Russ during milking time this fall was Sine Bee, who began asking Russ in Karen about the cow. Glaw or glaw nu tee, he d say, which means cow or cow milk. Finally, Russ asked Sine Bee s daughter to translate, and she said In Burma, we had a cow, and my father would like very much to milk. Russ invited him to come the next morning at 5:30. He was there with bells on, Russ recalled. Sine Bee cut grass and moved the chicken pens every morning and evening, doing what Russ called the lion s share of the work. Meanwhile, Sine Bee s oldest daughters, Hser Tee Doh Pah and Poh Lay spent endless hours weaving with Christina on their handmade looms, sharing their knowledge and their beautiful craft with her. They spent almost every evening weaving together during the family s last two weeks at Jubilee. It s during these times of common work where the barriers of the typical client-service relationships tend to break down, roles reverse, and friendships form. In many of the tasks around Jubilee, the Karen become the teachers. Russ is learning from their foraging that Jubilee s productive agricultural land is our entire 260 acre plot. Christina and Hser Tee Doh Pah s long stints of silent weaving were broken by discussions about life, culture, and theology, in addition to the weaving terms they taught each other in English and Karen. In another role reversal, Pa Saw Paw Eh Kaw s wife and one of our students last spring has been living at Jubilee, providing translation for new refugees, and began offering tutoring in Karen to several partners during the week. Jennifer Drago-Smith was pleased to discover that the newest refugee family understood her attempt to speak to them in the Karen language, thanks to Pa Saw Paw s instruction. CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: Jennifer and Russ in Karen class with Pa Saw Paw; Karen of Canada on a tour of farms; Christina in the garden; James practicing guitar; Sine Bee feeding grass to the cow; Christina, volunteer Rang Sey, and Hser Tee Doh Pah weaving; completed altar cloth, a gift to Jubilee Partners.

4 Common Worship Is it okay if we have a short service before you leave? Eh Kaw asked volunteer Brian Bolton as several volunteers wrapped up a late night of ESL tutoring on wheels for our Karen friends living in Maxeys. Sure, Brian said. Okay, you can begin then, came the quick directive from Eh Kaw. The group sat in a circle and began a hymn familiar in both languages, singing, Have we trials and temptations After a short closing prayer, the volunteers drove off into the night. What is coming to life in Maxeys is being given a pulse by the worshipping heart of the people who live there. Worship seems to be the time when everyone remembers that they are relying upon God for every gift, and the Karen Christians are setting the example, turning to God in every task. The fruit of that faithfulness is already visible. With the Karen in our church, I m seeing a reigniting of joy in our faith as we come together in worship, said the pastor of Maxeys Christian Church, Ken Burnat. You can see how they love the worship life. He continues, Even apart from the Karen, our attendance has increased since they started coming. I wish we had more jobs so more of them could come here. Ken s words allude to the difficulties inherent in this transition finding work, learning from mistakes, and paying the bills. In an effort to place their concerns squarely in God s hands, the Karen organized a Saturday afternoon worship service at one of their houses, inviting folks from every church and family that supports them to participate in singing, praying, feasting, and celebrating God s work in all of our lives. TOP: Volunteers break for dinner while teaching ESL. MIDDLE: Karen pastor Novel Chin prays aloud during a blessing service for Karen homes in Maxeys, GA. LEFT: Maxeys Christian Church members and visitors on Homecoming Sunday, Page 4

5 Transforming our Homes It is always a blessing when Advent and Christmas are paralleled by the expectation and event of a new birth at Jubilee. This year we are blessed many times over, with three expecting mothers living at the Welcome Center, one of whom will likely bear her child before Christmas. The beauty of the parents and children in all of these new families reminds us of the heavenly kingdom which comes here on earth when people trust God with their dreams, their work, and their homes. Our prayer is that North Americans will be as willing as the Karen to worshipfully and vulnerably invite God to lead them into the story of God s work. Photo credit The Karen families of Maxeys, GA, together with the family of Robert Bruce and Jennifer Davis. BELOW: Volunteer Judith Cobban models the vestments woven by Pa Saw Paw for Epiphany Episcopal Church. EH KAW HTOO Christian writer and activist Anne Lamott writes in Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son s First Year: While we are on earth, our limitations are such that we can only see the underside of the tapestry that God is weaving. God sees the topside, the whole evolving portrait, and uses us as the pieces of thread to weave the picture. We see the glorious colors and shadings, but we also see the knots and threads hanging down, the thick lumpy patches, the tangles. But God and the people in heaven with him see how beautiful the portraits in the tapestry are. CHRISTINA DYCK It was in the birth of Jesus that God first altered the fabric of creation by binding God s existence to ours. It is clear this Christmas season that the new colorful outward attire we don only mirrors dimly a more heavenly fabric which the Holy Spirit is weaving the kingdom coming into our lives, binding us with one another and with God. View Jubilee s newsletter in color online at

6 Jubilee Partners P.O. Box 68 Comer, GA Non-Profit Organization U.S. Postage is PAID Comer, Georgia Permit Number 14 RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED DECEMBER 2008 COMMON THREADS: NEW FRIENDS SHARE THEIR TRADITIONAL KAREN GARMENTS Poh Lay, Hser Hte Doh Paw (Burma), Kirsten (Germany), and Rang Sey (Cambodia)