First Baptist Church

St. Paul, Minnesota

Yesterday, I spent most of the day on highways driving to and from airports, sitting in airports waiting for flights, and in the air flying from Syracuse to Chicago and Chicago to Minneapolis/St. Paul.  I am in St. Paul for the first of several visits to American Baptist congregations that have, like Tabernacle, welcomed Karen refugees.  

First Baptist Church - St. Paul, MN

First Baptist Church - St. Paul is an appropriate place to begin these visits. First Baptist has been at this ministry for over fifteen years. In the fall of 1999, when the first Karen family arrived in Utica and walked through Tabernacle's doors one Sunday morning, I reached out to a national denominational leader for resources to understand who the Karen people are. He referred me to Rev. Bill Englund, First Baptist's pastor, the only ABC pastor he knew of doing ministry with Karen people from Burma. Bill quickly became a trusted colleague, advisor, and friend.  St. Paul also boast the largest concentration of Karen people in one urban area in the U.S. - approximately 7000.  In many ways, St. Paul, MN is the Karen capital of the U.S. and First Baptist Church is the mother church.

This morning Pastor Bill invited me to attend a 10:00 a.m. new members class.  Bill was joined by a couple of the congregation's lay leaders and a Karen interpreter.  The students consisted of 25 Karen adults and one transplanted Euro-American from Texas.  When asked, "how long have you been in the United States?" Many students replied that they have been in the country three to five years.  However, a couple had come from a refugee camp in Thailand within the month!

As the class began, I instantly recognized the bright orange cover of the Scriptographic Booklet, About Being Baptist.  We use this same resource for new members at Tabernacle!  However, it was what was passed out next that surprised me: the Karen translation of About Being Baptist.  I will return to Utica with a new resource!

About Being Baptist and the Karen translation

Pastor Bill shared a couple of stories with the class that I found particularly meaningful.  

He told the story of Harriet Bishop who as a young girl in Vermont had read the letters of Ann Judson that were reprinted in a popular magazine. These letters, describing the beginnings of Baptist mission in Burma, so moved and inspired Harriet that she dedicated her life to following in Ann Judson's footsteps. This sense of call eventually led her to travel to Minnesota as a teacher.  She not only taught her students "the three R's," but organized a Sunday School for them.  That Sunday School grew into First Baptist Church of St. Paul.  

Front Door - First Baptist Church

Front Door Detail
Harriet Bishop Teaching Sunday School

Pastor Bill also shared some of his personal journey.  His pastor when he was growing up was a former American Baptist missionary to Burma.  When in the 1960's foreign missionaries were asked to leave the country, he returned to U.S. to become the pastor of a local church in Minnesota.  Bill recalled that he grew up frequently hearing stories about Burma in church.  In fact, he was baptized by a pastor who had also baptized believers in Burma.

Rev. Bill Englund holding the portrait of
Harriet Biship

In these stories I heard again the notes of a familiar theme. In the providence of God, even our small and seemingly insignificant acts of faith can be used by God in ways that we could never imagine.  A letter from the mission field of Burma inspires a young woman who begins a Sunday School on the American frontier. That humble Sunday School grows into a church that one hundred fifty years later opens its doors to the spiritual great, great, great grandchildren of that pioneering missionary to Burma.  And, those Baptist brothers and sisters from Burma are welcomed by a pastor who whose own spiritual formation was shaped by a pastor who followed in the footsteps of Ann and Adoniram Judson to serve as a missionary to Burma.   

Sabbatical Overview

On September 1, I began a four-month long sabbatical.  Sabbaticals are times for pastors to take a break from their normal duties and responsibilities to be renewed, refreshed, and re-energized for ministry.  The Lilly Endowment, Inc. annually provides about 150 grants to congregations across the nation to allow their pastors to step aside from their ministry to pursue a period of personal and professional renewal.  The Lilly Endowment’s generous financial grant has made this sabbatical possible for me and Tabernacle.

Many friends and colleagues have asked what I will be doing on my sabbatical.  Here’s the plan. During September and October, in addition to spending time in focused prayer and reflection, I will be catching up on some long-overdue reading (on Adoniram Judson, theology from a non-western perspective, and the history and culture of Burma).  I plan to make extended visits American Baptist congregations in St. Paul, Chicago, and Trenton that are welcoming new neighbors from Burma into their congregations and communities.  I hope I will be able to identify a set of “best practices” for churches doing cross-cultural ministry, particularly with refugee communities.

I will spend much of November and December in Thailand and Burma.  First, I plan to visit my seminary classmates Chuck and Ruth Fox, ABC missionaries to the Akha people near Chiang Rai in northern Thailand.  I will then fly to Yangon, Myanmar (Rangoon, Burma).  While in Yangon, will be staying at the Karen Baptist Theological Seminary guest house and participate in classes at the Myanmar Institute of Theology and the Karen Baptist Theological Seminary.   I have been asked to prepare a lecture on “The Significance of Adoniram Judson from an American Perspective.”  I will also be visiting Bible Schools and churches related to the Karen Baptist Convention:  bringing greetings, encouragement, and preaching.   Among my most anticipated visits will be to Tabernacle Associate Pastor Daniel’s hometown and church. I am also eager to visit fellow Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary alumnus Dr. Ya Ha Lay Lay Lah’s church.  I look forward to attending the Karen Baptist Convention of Myanmar’s celebration of the Judson Bicentennial.

At the beginning of December, I join a group of American Baptists sponsored by International Ministries (our denomination’s foreign mission board) that will be in Burma for the Myanmar Baptist Convention’s Judson Bicentennial celebration. Adoniram and Ann Judson, the first Baptist missionaries sent abroad from the United States, arrive in Burma on July 13, 1813. Thousands of Baptists from the U.S. and around world are expected to travel to Yangon to celebrate the 200^th anniversary of this historic event. After the celebration, our group will travel to several historic sites throughout Burma related to the Judsons’ ministry.

By December 17 I should be back in Utica!  Paula and I will have been apart for about six weeks --- the longest period of separation in our 28 years of marriage. We plan to enjoy a few days together in Cape May, NJ, where we honeymooned, right before Christmas.  Between Christmas and New Year’s I will reflect on what I have learned during the sabbatical as I prepare to return to pastoral ministry at Tabernacle as 2014 begins.

While I am away, our congregation is blessed to have an experienced pastor, the Reverend Dr. Marilyn Baissa serving as our Short-term Interim Pastor. The Lilly Endowment grant not only provides money for my sabbatical program, but for Tabernacle to engage short-term interim pastoral leadership.  Pastor Marilyn is a recently retired United Methodist pastor who has a deep personal and professional commitment to cross-cultural communication and ministry.  She is Professor Emeritus of Political Science and the former Director of the International Studies program at Utica College.  I cannot imagine a more perfect fit for Tabernacle at this important moment in our congregation’s life.  I also believe that congregations benefit from having diverse voices in the pulpit and in positions of leadership.  I am certain that Pastor Marilyn will be a role-model worth emulating for girls and young women in our congregation sensing God’s call upon their lives. It makes it a little easier to step away from my ministry for a time knowing an experienced, gifted, and caring pastor will be ministering to Tabernacle during this sabbatical time.

Please hold me in your prayers while I am on sabbatical. Periodically, I will be posting reflections, photos, and updates from my sabbatical to this blog.  So, check back from time to time! You can also follow my sabbatical on Facebook.  To follow me on Facebook, you will need to send me a friend request.  Send your friend request to: www.facebook.com/mark.caruana.58