PROGRESS • FEBRUARY, 26, 2017
CHARITIES AND FAITH What’s inside?
“There’s so much going on now, but we come in here on Sunday and it’s just us together, nothing else.” — KASEE YAR
U.S. CITIZEN WHO FIRST CAME TO THE COUNTRY AS A REFUGEE FROM THAILAND 14 YEARS AGO
Finding a new place to
WORSHIP Encouraging others Sentence to Service crew leader helps people find a place in society. Page 2
A revitalization project A Habitat for Humanity program in A.L. aims to rebuild homes, community. Page 3
A jailhouse ministry Grace Christian Church shares message of Jesus Christ in the jail. Page 3
Hay Tha, a United States citizen who originally came to the U.S. as a refugee from Thailand, leads a prayer during a Karen worship service at the former First Baptist Church in Albert Lea. COLLEEN HARRISON/ALBERT LEA TRIBUNE
Refugees meet for services at former Baptist church By Colleen Harrison
colleen.harrison@albertleatribune.com
Dedicated to service Associate pastor at First Lutheran Church helps re-establish local Key Club. Page 5
K
aren people have been fighting for independence from Burma for more than 60 years. Since 1962, Burma has been a military dictatorship. The military has reportedly tortured, raped and killed thousands of Karen people. Many died under conditions of forced labor and month-long walks to refugee camps. In 1989, Burma was renamed Myanmar, but because of the name’s negative military overtones, most minority ethnic groups — like the Karen — refuse to use the new name. Many of the Karen have been displaced to refugee camps in Thailand over the years and still today, where there are limited sources of food and clean drinking water, and where safety is not always guaranteed. Many have come to the United States as refugees, and some 4,000 Karen refugees now live in Minnesota. See WORSHIP, Page 2