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York church cluster renovates house for new refugee arrivals

October 11, 2007

York, Pennsylvania -- In York, Pennsylvania, an ecumenical cluster of churches that has resettled 18 refugee families in 21 years took its work to a new level this year when it purchased and renovated a house for new arrivals. The first to live there – a Karen family of nine – moved in this summer.

Six churches participate in the cluster's Inter-Church Refugee Resettlement Committee: Calvary, Zion, St. Paul's, and Otterbein United Methodist churches; St. Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church, and St. Matthew's Lutheran Church. Glenn Lehigh, involved since 1986, currently chairs the committee.

Until now, the churches have rented an apartment for each new arrival, Lehigh said. "At Calvary, where I'm a member, we said, 'All the years we've been sponsoring refugees we've been spending so much money on housing. We could do it cheaper.'"

A member of the church donated $50,000 toward purchase of a house, and Calvary borrowed another $50,000. "We were able to get a house for about $60,000 and renovated it," Lehigh said. "It's a row house with five bedrooms. We spent seven weeks doing the floors, painting, and an awful lot of other work. It's in very good shape now."

York's Inter-Church Refugee Resettlement Committee co-sponsors refugee families referred by the Church World Service Lancaster office, where Sheila McGeehan is director. Lehigh said that when McGeehan heard about the house in York, she told him, "This must be the Spirit moving. We have a family that's coming that will be nine people and we don't know who in the area would be able to sponsor nine people."

That is how the cluster came to sponsor its most recent family – a mother, father, and their seven children, ages 9 to 27. Most arrived in August, but the 27-year-old daughter and 21-year-old son landed about three weeks before the July 29 dedication of the newly renovated house.

Lehigh alerted them to expect a lot of company, and indeed, "We had a real houseful. People from all the churches attended. Everyone wanted to meet them. They were very cordial."

The cluster's first refugee family, from Poland, was chosen to represent all resettled refugees at the 1986 centennial of the Statue of Liberty. Other families have come from Vietnam, the Ukraine, Belarus, Bosnia, Kosovo, Croatia, Colombia, and Ethiopia.

"It's challenging sometimes," Lehigh said, "but it's all worth it, from the satisfaction you get seeing people doing well."

By Carol Fouke-Mpoyo

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