Asian churches meet needs of refugees from Bhutan

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HOUSTON—When Bishnu Dhaurali heard about free medical treatment offered in Houston, his first concern was for his parents. His father, Dhan, suffers from acute back pain due to severe attacks he endured while imprisoned in Bhutan, and his mother, Dharma, also was beaten by government soldiers.

New Song volunteer Sue Kim works in the free clinic checking blood pressure of Bhutanese refugees. (PHOTOS/Joshua Winata)

Dhaurali also was concerned for the health of his wife and daughter, who grew up in the squalid quarters of a Nepali refugee camp before the family was resettled in the United States last year.

Dhaurali and his family—like many other Bhutanese-born Nepali—were forced to leave behind comfortable agricultural lifestyles and homes and flee Bhutan in 1992 after the government began a nationalistic drive to expel people of Nepali origin and staunch the immigration flow.

Together with about 200 Houston-based Bhutanese refugees, Dhaurali’s family received medical and dental treatment during a recent mission trip organized by Carrollton-based New Song Church, a church predominantly composed of first-generation Korean immigrants, and hosted by Asian-American Church of Houston, which is geared toward second-generation Asian-Americans. Both churches are affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

Such outreach efforts made by ethnic ministries in the U.S. are redefining “local” missions in a way that is in a sense more international than any overseas trip as people representing diverse racial backgrounds gather together to spread the gospel.

Bhutanese refugees wait outside the makeshift pharmacy where pharmacist Michelle Bang, left, and pharmacy student Laura Paik, right, of Asian-American Church of Houston dispense generic medications. (PHOTOS/Joshua Winata)

As relative newcomers to the U.S., many members of the Korean congregation had a keen understanding of the refugee’s plight and were eager to reciprocate the assistance they themselves had received.

“We came here saying the same thing: ‘Please help us. Please help our families,’” said New Song church member Steve Lee. “They just need help.”

Due to the language barrier, Lee did his best to communicate the gospel by repeating “Jesus loves you” to every person he met. Several refugees who spoke English were asked to serve as translators and present the gospel to their colleagues. Others received gospel tracts translated into their native tongue that were read aloud.


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“I used hand motions and body language to reinforce what they just read, then told them Jesus—Yeshu Christ is how they pronounce it—is the only way for us to relieve our sin,” said Joseph Park, New Song education pastor. “I learned a couple words through our short encounter.”

George Tak, New Song’s director of local missions and the trip coordinator, said his team brought evangelism books in three languages—English, Nepali and Korean.

After hearing the gospel, each visitor went on to receive dental care, many for the very first time, from four licensed dentists, who performed cleanings, extractions and cavity fillings at a makeshift clinic set up in a Sunday school room.

In a neighboring building, church volunteers checked patients for diabetes and high blood pressure, and Dr. Min Yi, an internist with Harris Methodist Hospital of Fort Worth, provided free examinations with assistance from two medical students from Asian-American Church. Yi said he has been on many international medical mission trips, but this was his first local one.

Bhuwan Phuyel, 12, cradles his sleepy brother, Basanta, 4, as they wait for their medical check-up. (PHOTOS/Joshua Winata)

“It kind of opened my eyes to people who are in need in my own backyard,” Yi said. “There are a lot of people who are in need, and you don’t have to travel thousands of miles to help them.”

Bhutanese attendees were also served a hot meal by Asian-American Church and received donations of food, clothing and other supplies brought by New Song church members. The outreach concluded with a short worship service and a screening of the Jesus film in the Nepali language. During the invitational that followed, eight Bhutanese refugees indicated a desire to accept Christ.

The mission trip added to growing church movement in Houston among Bhutanese refugees that started in 2008, when the first wave of nearly 5,000 refugees arrived in the U.S. from Nepal. Houston currently hosts around 400 refugee families, but that number is expected to swell to about 5,000 within the next few years thanks to United Nations resettlement programs.

So far, 25 home Bible study groups for the Bhutanese refugees have sprung up in Houston, and dozens have come to know Christ.

Margie Randall, a missionary who has been working full-time with Bhutanese refugees in Houston since December, has seen a tremendous response from the newly settled immigrants. She delivers food and clothing to families throughout the city and is working to develop both spiritual and assistance programs for the refugees.

“We don’t just say, ‘Oh, you need to have Jesus.’ In Asia, you must build a relationship first. Yes, you need Jesus, but your stomachs are empty, your worried about how to get a job, your tooth is hurting, your kids are crying, everybody wants to go back home,” Randall said. “They’ve come to the land of opportunity in the worst economic in 25 years.”

Dentists Dan Hong (left) and Ellen Hong (right) with help from dental student Juri Huh, perform a dental cleaning on a Bhutanese refugee man. (PHOTOS/Joshua Winata)

The greatest need for the refugees is skills development, especially since self-sufficiency is a key component of successful resettlement, Randall said.

“The church’s role is to support them and not to give them handouts,” she said.

Even the refugees themselves agree they can only subsist so long on donations. However, services like the ones offered during the medical mission trip are helpful in giving refugees a head start while they find their bearings.

Bhadra, a 25-year-old refugee who is spearheading the development of a Bhutanese church in Texas, said such events are a way of showing God’s generosity to his people even in the midst of troubling times and are a good witness to many in the Hindu-steeped culture.

Bhutanese refugee Dibya Bhayati sorts through clothing donated by New Song Church of Dallas. (PHOTOS/Joshua Winata)

“We can help them and also show the love of Christ, the Christian love, to them and give them some way to salvation,” “Whether they want to accept it or not, let them hear the gospel of God.”

Through such efforts, people like Dhaurali have become Christians and are in turn beginning to minister to their own people. Dhaurali has opened his apartment for Bible studies, even as he continues his struggle for survival in a new land and culture.

“I study the Bible continuously, and I have come to know Jesus now,” he said. “We know now God.”

 


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