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Refugee Ministry at Lake Avenue Church
Lake Avenue Baptist Church has a long heritage of involvement in refugee ministry. Recently, this has come to mean that a significant proportion of our congregation is now refugees from Burma. In the early 1800s, Baptist missionaries Ann and Adoniram Judson baptized the first Christian convert of the Karen ethnic group in Burma; that event led the way to thousands of members of several ethnic groups in Burma eventually becoming Baptist themselves. The Karen, Chin, and Kachin Baptists, as well as other Christians, who are relocating into the Rochester area have found a worshiping home here at LABC. They are actively engaged in our Christian education programs, both as students and as teachers. They serve on our church boards and volunteer for our church events. We now have morning worship in three languages as well as worshipping communities of Karen and Chin meeting after our main worship service.
In addition to our church life, our refugee ministry extends beyond our church doors. The Refugee Mission Coordinating Team is composed of leaders from the Karen and Chin communities including Buddhist and Muslims, representatives from the church, community, and city organizations, and many volunteers from other churches and organizations throughout the Rochester area. We have created staff positions at our church specifically for outreach to the refugees from Burma and we work closely with the resettlement agency to help make the transition into life in Rochester as successful as possible.
We have seen our own mission as Baptists “come home to roost”. The work of the Judsons two hundred years ago now reinvigorates our church life in Rochester. We give thanks to God for the opportunity to be part of this historic, and joyful, experience. |
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