Finding fellowship

Susan Pugh / Lynchburg News & Advance
Published: March 9, 2008

The men, women and children from Burundi sang for the congregation at New Hope Free Methodist Church in Lynchburg.

With the exception of two translators, no one understood a word. The songs were in Kirundi, the singers' native tongue, or Swahili, the lingua franca of much of equatorial Africa.

Yet there was a feeling of true fellowship, church member Romayne Stenstrom of Bedford said.

The Burundians are refugees, who recently immigrated to the U.S. and settled in Roanoke.

After the singing, Mpoye Jean (by custom, the Burundians put their family name first and given name second) told the
congregation through translation, "We are among brothers and sisters today. We are very happy for that.

"Jesus can bring us together, the children of Africa and children of America, because we are all children of God. … All the different colors, we will meet in heaven one day."

"He's right," New Hope Pastor Ken Tesch added. "We'll all be in the same in heaven."

The 39 people from Burundi arrived Sunday, March 1, at New Hope, a storefront church in a former health club on Bay Street. They came from Roanoke where they now live, and their presence more than doubled the size of the church's congregation, which averages 35 on Sundays.

In Africa, the refugees worshipped as Free Methodists. After arriving in Roanoke, they asked to go to a Free Methodist church - a branch of Methodism Tesch said accords closely with that of founder John Wesley. The name comes from the faction's opposition to slavery and advocacy of free pews for all, rather than the old practice of renting and selling the better seats.

There is no Free Methodist church in Roanoke, Tesch said. The closest one is in Lynchburg.

So New Hope invited the people from Burundi to come worship with them last Sunday. New Hope sent some of its members in their own cars and a van loaned by the Lighthouse Church to pick up the refugees. The Lynchburg Police Department had supplied extra car seats.

"Their faith and their life are so entwined," Tesch said, "that you literally cannot separate the two."

During his testimony, Mpoye talked about Nicodemus' confusion about being born again. Jesus told him that it would be rebirth in the spirit rather than the flesh, and that people would be able to tell those who have been born again by their everyday attitudes and actions.

Mpoye and three other men - Nyandwi Joseph, Ndayizigiye Damiano and Ntahonkuriye André - are the heads of their families, who received permission to immigrate during the past year. Around Christmas, the families were brought to Roanoke by that city's office of Refugee and Immigration Services of the Catholic Diocese of Richmond from refugee camps in Tanzania.
They are called "the 30-year Burundis" because they lived so many years - or their whole lives — in refugee camps, Beth Lutjen, director of the Roanoke office, said later.

The older members of the families were just teenagers themselves 36 years ago when their families fled Burundi after fighting broke out. They ended up in refugee camps, first in the Congo, then in Tanzania, where they have lived ever since. The younger members of the families were born in the camps.
Based on what she has heard, Lutjen said life in the camps could be hard. There can be thousands and thousands of people, all living in limbo.

"To have survived the camps this long, they have incredible strength," she said.

The Burundians arrived at New Hope in their Sunday finest. The men wore suits and ties, the women long skirts and dresses, with headdresses.

The adults paid attention to the service, even the parts in English, which they don't know much of yet. The children sat still or whispered to one another during the
service.

Afterward, Barbara Pavone of Lynchburg, who helped serve a potluck lunch, said, "Everybody was saying how well-behaved the children were."

"They're a sweet, loving, wonderful people," the pastor said.

Among those at the service were Peter Ozolins and Mary Bakken, an American couple from Blacksburg who lived for seven years in Tanzania. They speak Swahili, and have acted as interpreters for the Burundians. (Ozolins apologized for any meaning lost in translation; "My Swahili is only so good.")

Ndayizigiye, who works in a laundry, is the only one of the Burundians so far who has a job, but the other three family leaders want to know when they can begin working, Ozolins said. For most jobs, they will need to know more English.

Their children, meanwhile, already are in school, in Roanoke, so they will learn English quickly and be able to help their parents, Ozolins said.

The transition to life in America has brought new and strange things. For instance, Ntahonkuriye said through translation that people in his part of Africa spend most of their time outside.

"To come here and you stay inside of a building, every day you're inside a house," he said.

Another difference is that in Africa, "whenever you see somebody, you greet them and ask them their news," he said.

"We've been here two months, and we've never seen the neighbors," Ntahonkuriye said.

"But we're very happy about things we have received here," he said. They have received food, medical care, clothing, transportation and other necessities.

Most of all, he said they're grateful that they will be allowed to become American citizens.

"For what they're going through," church member Lillie Bowen said, "they seem to be very happy people."