Empowering A Community

It’s Istanbul, not Constantinople.

 And it’s Myanmar, not Burma.

Meet my friend Paw Tha Hser.  She is brilliant, kind and generous.  She loves her family and her neighbors and serves them well.  I am constantly amazed at her intelligence, love of life, and her sacrificial attitude.  She is a refugee who settled here in Austin almost a year ago from Thailand.  She is Burmese, but she spent the majority of her life in a refugee camp in Thailand near the border of Myanmar (formally Burma).  Because of her (and her sister), I now lead a group that we have unofficially called “Burmese help group.”  We meet on Monday nights to do ESL, go over questions for the U.S. citizenship test, and to discuss any questions these recent immigrants have about insurance, teacher evaluation forms, school documents, etc.   Our main goal in all of this studying and conversation is to empower this community to navigate an intimidating environment of a new country that will be their forever home, having left behind their old country forever.

Are you looking for a way to serve in Austin?  Please consider joining me on Monday nights from 7-8:30.  You will not regret meeting these dear people, almost all of whom are fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.  If you can not join us, please pray for our group- that all would feel welcome and loved… that they would continue to become bolder about stepping outside of their mostly Burmese community to truly feel comfortable as Americans (hopefully soon-to-be official American citizens).

Contact me (kdunlap@allsaintsaustin.org) if you’d like more information about the group.