CHEEKTOWAGA
Cheektowaga church offers refugees spiritual home
Members of Cleveland Heights Christian Church in Cheektowaga anticipated a slight boost in attendance when they began helping a refugee family of four from Myanmar resettle in Buffalo.
That small uptick has grown into a major influx.
Up to 40 refugees from the Karen people of Myanmar fill up the pews Sundays, sitting alongside a regular congregation of 75 people, in the church on Union Road.
“Definitely, the face of the church has changed,” said the Rev. Nadine Schrodt, pastor.
Working with Journey’s End refugee resettlement, the church in April decided to sponsor Htoo Lwe Moo; his wife, Say Lar Paw; and their two daughters, La May Paw and Htoo November Paw, helping the family get settled in an apartment, providing furnishings and otherwise easing the transition to a new life.
The family was placed on the West Side, near eight other Karen families who had been previously resettled without aid from churches. Soon, Htoo Lwe Moo invited them all to the Cleveland Heights church.
“I just said that I have a church, and if they wanted to come with me, they can,” said Htoo Lwe Moo, 32, who was trained as a sanitation engineer supervisor in Myanmar and Thailand, where he lived for several years in a refugee camp. He now works as a dishwasher at Salvatore’s Italian Gardens in Lancaster.
People of the Karen tribe, an ethnic minority group, have been forced out of Myanmar, a country in southeast Asia formerly known as Burma.
Htoo Lwe Moo (pronounced “too way moo”) is the only adult in the group who speaks fluent English. But on Sunday, the refugees gathered with other church members to express their appreciation through the universal language of good food.
They prepared a delectable spread of spicy Burmese salad, rice noodles and green curry soup with chicken.
Htoo Lwe Moon then introduced all of the refugee families, translating their words of gratitude.
One other refugee, Poe Ler Gaw, was able to offer his own simple thanks. “This is my family: two daughters and three sons,” he said proudly. “Everybody, thank you very much.”
Longtime members of Cleveland Heights were just as grateful for the presence of the Karen people. The church has long been geographically mixed, drawing people from around Western New York, but overwhelmingly white. Now, it can claim a racial diversity as well.
“They’ve added so much to the church, as far as a community feeling and helping each other,” said Dianne Serio, one of several people who drive to the West Side on Sunday mornings to pick up refugees for worship.
Each week, the church prints out hymns, scripture readings and the order of the service in the Karen language so refugees can follow along. Church members are trying to raise money now to purchase Bibles in Karen.
Htoo Lwe Moo translates the children’s sermon. A church member also has begun teaching informal English courses to help refugees interact better with other Western New Yorkers.
Not all Karens are Christian, said Htoo Lwe Moo. “Some are Buddhists, some are Muslims,” he said.
No matter, said Schrodt, the pastor, as long as they’re finding a sense of community and some “spiritual nourishment.”
“People wonder why they come all the way out here,” she said of the refugees’ commute from the West Side to Cheektowaga every Sunday. “But I think they have found a home.”
