Sugarmoon didn’t have a last name. No one in her tribe does, but in the United States first and last names are required, so now her legal name is Sugar Moon.
“It’s very strange to separate my name that way,” the 22-year-old said.
Home for Moon until just a year ago was a Burmese refugee camp in Thailand. Moon is part of the Karen tribe, a group of Burmese people who fled their country, now called Myanmar, seeking refuge from the ruling government.
In Myanmar, many were forced to work in labor camps and were physically and sexually abused by military personnel, said Duane Binkley, an agricultural missionary who has worked extensively with refugees in the United States. Most of those who fled first went to refugee camps in Thailand and Malaysia.
Over the past year and a half, more than 100 refugees from Myanmar have been placed in western Massachusetts with the help of Jewish Family Services of Springfield and Lutheran Social Services in West Springfield.
Both organizations help hundreds of refugees from around the globe resettle in Massachusetts each year. The agencies help find housing, transportation, jobs and enroll children in schools, said Misha Grigoryan of Lutheran Social Services, who works with the refugees when they arrive.
Language is one of the three basic things necessary for the refugees to prosper here; the others are work and transportation. He has helped place the Karen children in schools where they are completely immersed in studies in English and also enrolls as many adults as he can in English classes.
Moon, a student at Springfield Technical Community College, works part-time with Lutheran Social Services, translating for new refugees as they arrive.
Many of the refugees have also found a kind of home-away-from-home at First Baptist Church, Agawam.
“It is such a blessing to have them here with us,” said Pastor Thomas N. Rice. “They are learning from us, but we are also learning from them, about their traditions and their way of worship.”
Each Sunday, he encourages the refugees to read a passage from the Bible in their native language and sing a worship song to help introduce the American congregation to new cultural and religious traditions.
Rice’s parents were missionaries in Myanmar (then Burma), where he was born in 1947. “Having them here feels like a piece of my past,” he said. “It feels like the natural thing to do to help them and welcome them to our church.”
Baptists have a long history with Myanmar. While Buddhism is still the primary religion there, a number of Burmese have converted to Christianity since Baptist missionaries began visiting the country in the early 1800s.
“The Burmese government only accepts Buddhism as the national religion, and many of these refugees have been persecuted for their beliefs. We feel it is important for us to help them now,” Rice said.
Binkley estimates more than 40,000 refugees have been moved to the United States in the past five years, many from separate camps in Thailand and Malaysia, he said.
High school teacher Ray Williams Jr. began English classes for the refugees at the church on Sundays after the services.
“Some of them come to church on Sunday, and then they do not leave their house again until the next Sunday,” he said.
“There are many difficulties for us here,” acknowledged Ka Ba Aye, one of two Burmese ministers at the church. He is regarded as a spiritual leader of the group and conducts services in Burmese after the regular Sunday service in English.
“The biggest difference in our small service is the language,” he said through a translator, Aung Myo. “We still worship the same God. We still read the same Bible.”
Rice said that while there are some problems to work out he is proud of the congregation for accepting the Karen people.
“It has been an adjustment for all of us. … It is really our faith that has brought us all together and is transforming us into one community,” he said. (RNS)
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