St. John’s UCC in Merton has put the band back together.
Less than two years ago, St. John’s and four other Waukesha County UCC congregations came together to support the resettlement of 11 members of a Rohingya family in Milwaukee. Now, the churches are working with Lutheran Social Services of Wisconsin and Upper Michigan to create a new home for a seven-member family from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The Congolese family had spent more than a decade in a refugee camp in Malawi after fleeing their homeland. “The longing for home – to return to Congo – is much greater,” said St. John’s Pastor Mary Jane Huber, drawing a comparison with the Rohingya family. “You simply don’t walk away with three little children unless that’s the best option.”
The UCC team assembled by St. John’s – it includes members of Redeemer UCC in Sussex, First Congregational in Oconomowoc, Emmanuel UCC in Dousman and First Congregational in Hartland — has helped the family obtain clothing and household furnishings and appliances for their Milwaukee apartment, taken them to doctor’s appointments, helped the eighth-grade daughter negotiate the admissions process at the Milwaukee High School of the Arts, and helped the father find a job.
“We did not have the means to make that happen alone, volunteerwise or financially,” Mary Jane said. Together, however, the congregations had what is most important: human assets. “The partnerships that have formed among the congregations are a real blessing,” she said.
The congregations also may be showing the way forward for the Wisconsin Conference as it anticipates the sunset of the current association structure and the proliferation of ministry groups that tap the passions of individuals and congregations to respond to local needs.
“This is an amazing ministry of relational and resource collaboration and a powerful expression of the United Church of Christ,” Conference Minister Franz Rigert said. “What we can do together in witness to the Gospel and through acts of neighborly love far exceeds what any of us can do on our own. This is the kind of partnering that points to a promising future for the Church.”
The UCC resettlement team plans to support the Congolese family at least through Easter. “Because they’re people of faith, we thought that would be appropriate to celebrate with them and say, ‘This is your new life,’” Mary Jane said.
After that? “The team will take another break and probably go back at it,” she said. “The people involved are dedicated to living out their faith in ways that welcome the refugee.”