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Founded by Refugees, Christian Reformed Church Keeps Reaching Out
Marvis Corneh (left); her mother, Massah Sannoh (right), and Marvis's four-year-old granddaughter Moujeh Corneh, with Laura Hoekstra from Eastern Avenue CRC.
Photo: Laura Hoekstra
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By Carol Fouke-Mpoyo
More than 150 years ago, pastor Albertus Van Raalte fled the specter of religious persecution and famine in the Netherlands for refuge in America.
Van Raalte, his family, and some 40 others settled in and around what is now Holland, Michigan. The Christian Reformed Church in North America (CRC) traces its origins to the colony they founded.
While a majority of the denomination's 300,000 members are still from Dutch backgrounds, the CRC has become increasingly diverse -- in part because of its empathy with fellow refugees and immigrants from all around the world.
"We are a church made up of immigrants and refugees," said Peter Vander Meulen of Grand Rapids, Mich., the CRC's Coordinator for Social Justice and Hunger Action. "This is an important piece of our identity. We have a long history of helping immigrants and refugees arrive, settle, and feel welcome in the United States and Canada."
As early as 1922, the CRC urged its churches to assist Dutch immigrants and refugees. After World War II, the denomination helped Dutch and Hungarian refugees, and later Cuban, Vietnamese, Laotian, and Cambodian refugees.
Since July 1999, Church World Service affiliate PARA Refugee Services in Grand Rapids -- founded with support from Church of the Servant CRC out of its longstanding commitment to refugees -- has housed the CRC's Denominational Refugee Ministry and Resettlement Office and worked with CRC congregations across the United States to help them sponsor refugee families.
Over the past 18 months alone, CRC congregations in Michigan, Minnesota, Arizona, and Illinois have cosponsored 55 refugee families from Liberia, Laos, Burma, Russia, Sudan, Vietnam, Rwanda, and Guinea.
Among those families is that of Massah Sannoh, who with her daughter, Marvis Corneh, and Marvis's four daughters fled Liberia's civil war for Sierra Leone in 1991. They spent 14 years in a refugee camp before resettling in Grand Rapids under the auspices of PARA Refugee Services. Eastern Avenue Christian Reformed Church cosponsored Mama Masseh, Marvis, and two of Marvis's daughters; Kelloggsville, Cutlerville-Hillcrest, and Cutlerville-East CRCs cosponsored the other daughters and their children.
Mama Massah is a chieftain's daughter, and Marvis was an elected leader in the refugee camp, teaching women how to raise food for themselves and for sale. "She still gets called for advice," said Laura Hoesktra, who, with Lisa Walhout, cochaired Eastern Avenue CRC's refugee resettlement committee.
"Marvis's strong opinion is that we are all one," Hoekstra said. "In the camp, she had to work with people who came from both sides of the conflict. Her philosophy is that what you do affects me and we have to work together. I have learned a lot from her about how to be with people.
"I've never seen such resilience, great determination, and strong faith -- faith that things will be better," she commented. "And I just really enjoy being around them. They aren't busy and rushed like Americans, who can't wait to get on to the next thing."
Eastern Avenue CRC's refugee resettlement committee included social, medical, educational, and financial coordinators, along with a liaison to PARA's Matching Grant program.
The church set up a two-bedroom apartment for the family, helping furnish it through a "reverse offering." Hoekstra explained, "I put nails into foam board and put the board up at the back of the church. Then I hung up 3x5" cards asking for such items as 'a pair of boots, size seven,' 'toaster,' 'scale,' 'curtain rods,' 'handyman services,' and 'bicycle repair.' People would take home a card and bring the item the next week."
Challenges included health problems, "especially for Mama Massah, who was 70 when she arrived," Hoekstra said. "Her teeth always hurt. She got all but two teeth pulled and has new teeth now -- and no pain. Her eyes don't look like she's in pain anymore. She also had cataract surgery. She could hardly see. Now she sees fine." A dentist and ophthamologist donated services.
Vacant parsonage = opportunity
Jamestown (Mich.) Christian Reformed Church has a parsonage, but it was sitting empty after the congregation's new pastor decided to buy a home. "I have a friend who's been involved in refugee resettlement," said member Tammi VanderMolen. "I thought, 'Why can't we help a family?'"
The church council agreed, and in January 2006 "we were blessed with an awesome couple from Liberia with six children and a seventh on the way."
During the family's time in a refugee camp in Ghana, the father served as a pastor. Now he works full time in manufacturing and studies part time at a Christian college. He also leads a weekly church service that draws other Africans, including refugees resettled by Immanuel and Messiah CRCs in Hudsonville, Mich. All but the baby, a boy born in October, are in school. His mother cares for him and attends ESL classes.
"Our church has grown to love this family," VanderMolen said. "There's been a ton of giving and caring for them. This has opened our church more to outreach. Our church is all Caucasian except for a few adopted children. We are learning to accept the family's differences. They are chugging along and learning the way of America."
Refugee resettlement enhances congregational life
The CRC's Peter Vander Meulen affirmed that "refugee resettlement is a tried and true way for healthy CRC congregations to move out of their comfort zones in doing relational ministry while increasing their experience and knowledge of the wider world. Most refugee resettlements enhance congregational diversity, life, and ministry."
Hope Christian Reformed Church in Oak Forest, Illinois, agreed to cosponsor a refugee family after identifying its core values -- worship, fellowship, education, and service -- then examining how well it was living out each of those values.
"We explored what partnerships we could be engaged in that would help us turn our faith outward as a body," said Pastor Roger Nelson. "Refugee resettlement was something tangible we felt we could share as a congregation."
With the help of CWS affiliate Interfaith Refugee and Immigration Ministries in Chicago, "we found an apartment, cleaned, painted, gathered furnishings, and then went to the airport to meet the mother and her three children -- refugees from Liberia who'd been living in a camp in Ghana for about 10 years."
Recovering from the trauma of the murder of loved ones, rape, hunger, and flight, the family is getting back on its feet. The mother is working in a factory and the three children are in school. "The children came with some stunted development issues, and you can just see they are growing, and the patchy hair is filling in, and they are happy," Nelson said.
"Reformed churches understand that God's desire for creation is shalom -- peace," he added. "It's about restoring creation, and we can seek after that in our own time and place."
Related stories:
- Refugee From Laos Now Raises Money to Fight Hunger
- Church Cosponsorship a Support System for Refugee Family's Success
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