Refugees save Tennessee church in distress

SMYRNA, Tenn. — Ye Win was 16 years old when government troops showed up at his family’s home in an ethnic Karen village in eastern Myanmar.

They pointed a gun at his mother, recalls Win, and accused his family of supporting rebels in one of the world’s longestrunning civil wars.

The threat against his mom angered Win.

Win, who had just finished high school and hoped to become a missionary like his father, was long gone when the government troops returned to the village and burned it to the ground.

It would be 10 years before Win would hear his mother’s voice again.

During those years, he saw many friends and fellow Karen suffer and die or end up as refugees. More than 100,000 Karen relocated to refugee camps in Thailand, which shares its northwest border with Myanmar. Others, like Win, would be resettled in the United States.

Through the arduous journey, says Win, God was close by.

When Win and about 70 Karen refugees ended up in Smyrna, Tenn., a small city about a halfhour from Nashville, they found God waiting for them — at a tiny Episcopal church that was on the brink of shutting down. Together, the refugees and older congregants brought the church back to life.

It’s a story told in All Saints ,a new faith-based feature film from the Sony-owned AFFIRM Films that opens in theaters this month.

Leaders at All Saints church hope that the film will show that welcoming refugees can be a blessing in disguise. By opening their doors to refugees, churches may find their own faith restored.

All Saints Episcopal Church is the kind of place most people drive by without a second glance.

The modest red brick building on the outskirts of Smyrna doesn’t have a sign with catchy sayings to draw in newcomers.

When Ye Win and other refugees showed up a decade ago, the church had fallen on hard times.

The congregation had been limping along after a split, with a handful of mostly older people left behind. All Saints wondered if they had a viable future.

In 2007, Win and a few refugees showed up at the church door, asking if they could attend worship.

Like many Karen, Win and the other refugees were Christians — in this case, Anglicans, part of the same worldwide communion as the Episcopal Church.

A turning point at All Saints came when Karen attendees asked if they could plant crops on the property. All Saints was built on about 16 acres of bottomland, perfect for farming. The Karen wanted to plant crops to feed their families and help the church out.

It was a kind of miracle, said Michael Spurlock, who was pastor of All Saints at the time. God, he said, had sent more than 70 expert farmers to the church at their hour of greatest need.

Before long, rows of spinach, sour leaf and other vegetables had been planted and were growing behind the church building. When the crops were harvested and sold off, most of the proceeds were donated to the church to help pay the bills.

The church also got a helping hand from John Bauerschmidt, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee.

Once the Karen showed up, the bishop decided to invest in the ministry there. All Saints became a mission — meaning it would get financial support from the diocese.

Spurlock hopes All Saints will bring the plight of the Karen still living in Myanmar to a broader audience. And he hopes it inspires other Christians to open their doors to refugees.

“Sometimes scruffy little churches who have this helpless dependence on God find out that God’s arm is really strong,” he said. “God has a better roadmap for us than we can come up with for ourselves.”