Who'd a thunk it? Piggybacking on the new Rambo movie

When I saw the new Rambo movie a few weeks ago, I was so stirred by the fairly accurate way the movie portrays the treatment of the Karen people by the Myanmar, (Burma) military, that I wanted to stand at the end of the movie and yell to the crowd as they departed that many of the suffering people depicted in the movie now live here in Phoenix as refugees. I was ready to do it, but I forgot that at the end of movies these days, the volume of the music is increased as the credits roll...for more than 10 minutes!

So, I thought I'd take a shot in the dark and call the Arizona Republic, the largest newspaper in the state, and tell them that their readers might be interested in knowing about the people that are referenced in the new Rambo movie...especially since about 500 of them are now living in Pheonix as refugees.

Surprise, surprise, they thought it was a great idea and so last week, Pastor Ramey, Pastor Tha Hgay, Say Pwei, Htoo Wei, and myself were interviewed by a reporter from the paper and a photographer came and shot pictures during the Sunday morning service.

The story came out in today's paper, (Monday, February 25, 2008.) Although it is inaccurate in a few instances and includes a statement from me that I didn't make, the main point comes across. And my phone has been ringing off the hook.

If you'd like to see it, here's the link:

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/0225refugee0225.html

Finally, believe it or not, a few hours ago I answered a call from an obviously older woman who started out by asking me the difference between an illegal immigrant and a refugee. I explained the difference quite thoroughly, and then she proceeded to tell me there's no difference and that these are the kind of people who are ruining America, and I'm helping them do so. Being the feisty sort that I am, I asked her if she was descended from the American Indians. She said no, that her ancestors were from England and of course, "that's completely different". I then told her as a Christian, I am called to help the poor and the oppressed and before I could finish the point I was going to make, she yelled an expletive in the phone--at which point I said "goodbye" and hung up.

Then, about 45 minutes later, another call came in that I couldn't answer because I was out helping a refugee with some governmental things. On this one, a woman who sounded like she was in her 40's, said that she saw the article and that she thinks it's wrong for me to help them, that if I had kids, she hoped my kids would be adversely affected by the gangs that this group of people would produce, and that my motive really was to just use these people to raise money for the church! She concluded by saying that I needed to get a "real" job and stop using helping people as an excuse to not work.

YIKES--these responses were shocking, but I guess not surprising.

Please keep all of this in prayer, especially the continued need for the Karen to learn English, find jobs, and hopefully have no contact with the kind of people I mentioned above.