By Grayson Hester
For many Western Christians, the hope in the gospel begins with the crucifixion and crystallizes in the resurrection. For Christians who are also refugees, however, the hope likely resonates most intimately with Jesus’ birth. It is there, on a donkey in the middle of the desert, that Emmanuel truly means something. Mary and Joseph, themselves refugees, bore unto this world its savior—a borderless baby, birthed humbly, amid dangerous surroundings.
As the world experiences its most widespread refugee crisis in history, perhaps Emmanuel is not found within the security of walls and the identity of nations, but in the wandering and wondering of those driven away—those whose itinerant existence puts them in line with Jesus’ very own footsteps. Those, like Zar Blue Paw.
Zar Blue Paw is one of thousands of Karen refugees from Burma (more widely known as Myanmar) who have sought in the United States not just shelter or safety, but the chance for life itself.
“The war between the Karen and the Burmese has devastated our lives, our home, our heart, our land, our village,” she said. “Many people have to cross the border to take shelter in a refugee camp in Thailand. People live in the refugees’ camps in Thailand a long time. Our Karen people need the peace and justice and the freedom.”
Pushed out by persecution and cast aside by conflict, the Karen people are branded with the same oppressive target Jesus’ family wore centuries ago. They need the same things that Jesus taught, fought for and for which he was eventually killed—peace, justice, shalom. While no single religious institution can fully reverse, let alone heal, the damage wrought by warring nations, while they cannot alone inaugurate the Kingdom of God, they can plant its seeds. They can prepare its way.
Cooperative Baptist Fellowship field personnel Lita and Rick Sample, who are called to the San Francisco Bay Area, do this kind of way-preparing daily. The Samples minister with and live alongside diverse populations, including the sizable Karen community in Oakland, California, and the surrounding East Bay.
“They are fleeing the country of Myanmar, formerly known as Burma; they’re living in refugee camps over there,” Rick explained. “For many decades, the Karen people have been persecuted by the government and have endured many difficult things.”
The good things the Karen people need are often the things U.S. citizens frequently take for granted—churches that worship in their language, food, shelter. The basics. And it is these things the Samples are called to provide.
“Pastor Rick and Lita, they brought the food for families,” said Zar Blue Paw “Not only one family—we had too many families, like my friends and my pastor and my cousin there. They had to help our Karen people here. They are very helper.”
Of course, what defines the ministry of CBF field personnel is not transactionalism nor paternalistic charity but presence and reciprocity. The Samples call San Francisco home and its people their people.
While Lita and Rick help minoritized people, those people help them as well. They receive as they give; they are ministered to just as they minister. “When we first met Zar Blue Paw, she was helping in the Karen Children’s Sunday school,” Lita said. “She would help lead them and teach them scripture.”
The Karen church in Oakland is a vibrant center for the Karen community, and Zar Blue Paw is one of its most vital participants.
“God equips me as a Sunday school teacher to teach children about Jesus. And I also teach them how to read the Bible and how to grow up in Jesus,” she said.
Closeness with the God of the oppressed isn’t merely a theological concept. Nor is it an accident. It’s a lived reality, a purposeful expression of God’s activity. When all other status is stripped away—nation, community, land—God remains. From the status of “beloved,” there can be no estrangement.
Zar Blue Paw knows this better than most. “I lived in refugee camp for 12 years,” she said. “We could not go outside when we were in refugee camp: We just worked there and went to school. Then, UNHCR helps us for foods.”
Dependence on the inconsistent generosity of others, the shaky machinations of organizations, is a hallmark of refugee experience. Devoid of governmental protection and care, they are at the mercy of others. Perhaps, then, it was mercy that came to Zar in the form of a life-changing chance.
“I got an opportunity from United Nations to go to America for getting better life and higher education,” she said. “Now, I can live in America peacefully without difficulties.”
Her faith helped sustain her in the crossfire of war and the desolation of refugee camps, the adversity of oceanic travel and the haze of culture shock. It carried her to California, to the Karen church in Oakland, and into the embrace of the Samples, unified in shared faith.
It is truly a symbiotic relationship, in which the benefits are shared equitably, and the blessings are manifold. “When we would bring something to Zar Blue Paw, she would say, ‘We met some friends, some Karen friends here, new in Oakland. Can you go and visit them? Can you bring them something?’” Lita said.
The love the Samples extend to Zar Blue Paw is then passed to others like her. The resources given them are not incidental to the Gospel; they are the very Gospel-made material. And for the Karen in Oakland, its fruits are evident and growing.
“They help our Karen people to love God and to praise the Lord and to worship,” Zar Blue Paw said. “They also teach our Karen people to love each other and work together in unity.”
When it’s all said and done, that’s all the Karen people, or any refugee people, want—love, unity, peace. They want their birthright, the same one that should be afforded to all humans simply by virtue of their birth. Seeking a better life is not an imposition; it’s an imperative.
And whether it’s in the United States or back in Burma, Zar Blue Paw intends to make that happen.
“I want my Karen people to get the unity, the truth and freedom as we live in America,” she said. “One day, we will go back to help our people by the educations that we get from here.”
This article first appeared in the Spring 2024 issue of fellowship! magazine. Check out the issue and subscribe for free at www.cbf.net/fellowship.