Hosting former refugees

Cambridge, Ont.


Photo: Tieng Lin and Vicki Robinson enjoy renewing old acquaintances.


On April 5, Preston Mennonite Church hosted all the families it has sponsored or helped to settle in Canada. It was an evening to renew acquaintances and celebrate friendship.

It was a gathering of old friends, no longer the needy and the helping. Both the hosts and the newer Canadians were greying at the temples as they smiled and talked about children, marriages and accomplishments.

The feature of the evening was the potluck dinner and the music that reflected cultural tastes. The congregation was honoured to have 31 of a possible 44 guests come. One young women who came at five years of age is married and living in Colorado, others could not come due to scheduling difficulties.

Guests to the church have come from Laos (1979-93), El Salvador (1987-89), Ethiopia (1989), Sudan (1989), Peru (1995) and the Philippines (1990)—35 people in total. We have always admired the diligence with which our friends have continued their lives. Within two months of coming to Canada, they were all working.

Many people from the church have helped with housing, transportation and support over the years, but the most consistent relationship has been with Rufus and Ruth Jutzi. They have become surrogate parents and grandparents, attending weddings, funerals and even helping to name babies. It was Rufus and Ruth who knew people well enough to sense tension and to take necessary steps to ensure positive relationships all round. Rufus recalls the experience of teaching the Bible with a Laotian and Mandarin copy as well as English. They sought a common word with the aid of a variety of dictionaries until they found a word that brought them together.

We have learned much from these friends who have contributed to our understanding and comprehension of life in their homeland. We continue to enjoy food from countries around the world. One year the Laotian community in Cambridge catered our church Christmas party and we always delight at Laotian refreshments during coffee time when it is Khim’s turn to do coffee. The word “papoosos” has a delicious ring to it too as we reflect on Spanish treats.

At the church celebration, two women who had lost touch for at least 12 years each came to the evening hoping the other would be there. They shared a warm embrace and sat together, talking about work, homes, daughters.
But the culmination of the evening came when the Ethiopian crossed the room with his hand extended to the Laotians whom he had never met—greeting them warmly in Chinese. A whoop went up from the crowd and everyone knew the evening had been a great success.
—Nancy Kinzie

Refugees celebrate new home

Abbotsford, B.C.




To an outsider, it would have appeared to be a typical house warming party, but there was nothing typical about the party at the Raqi family’s new home. It was a celebration of families coming together from two different worlds—the Raqi family of Muslim faith from Kosovo, and the families of the Church of God in Christ Mennonite in Abbotsford.

Mr. and Mrs. Raqi, along with their daughters, Hava, Spresa and son Bekim, came to Canada four years ago when the war in Kosovo created a refugee crisis. As Albanians, they describe their life in Kosovo as living in “occupation” under the Serbs. They could not study in their native language or learn their own history. Although Mr. Raqi had a good job, he often had to work long hours, seven days a week. They lived in a home that Mr. Raqi built and a hobby farm of sorts. And then the war came.

“We were told, ‘you have two hours, go’ and so we just took maybe some food, the clothes on our backs,” says daughter Hava. “In that moment, we just ran.”

The eldest Raqi daughter remained in Kosovo because the Serbs had jailed her husband. (He was eventually released and she is still there, with her four children, and misses her family very much.) The family fled on foot to Macedonia—about 100 kms—staying away from the road, travelling through muddy fields and forests. They saw dead bodies on the roads along the way. When they were stopped by Serbs who were looking for men, Bekim made himself look tired and poor and answered questions in a way that would make him seem foolish to the Serbs so that they would not take him away. Back home their house was looted and torched.

When they reached Macedonia, they were put in a refugee camp situated in what Bekim describes as a desert. It was stifling hot in their tents by day and cold at night. There were bugs and snakes—snakes so large that a young boy in the camp was choked to death by one. The camp was fenced off, creating a feeling of isolation. Still, they consider themselves lucky because they only stayed in the camp for a month.

Through NATO, an opportunity came for refugees to travel to other countries in the world, including Canada. Mr. Raqi woke at 5:00 a.m. to be first in line and put his name down. They arrived first in Nova Scotia where they lived on an army base for three months before coming to Abbotsford.

When they first arrived in Canada they didn’t know what to think.

“We had been on the plane for such long hours,” says Bekim. “It was dark and raining, there were no houses, we thought ‘where are we?’ It felt like we had travelled to the end of the world!”

When they arrived in Vancouver, they were met by Wilbert and Arlene Giesbrecht, members of Church of God in Christ Mennonite, part of the team sponsoring the Raqi family through the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC.)

Jake and Pam Barkman, Claude and Ruth Friesen and Brad and Donna Giesbrecht, and several others from the church had found and furnished an apartment. Different people helped fill out paper work, took the family grocery shopping, and helped them to adjust. But it was the Barkmans and the Friesens who took a personal interest in the whole thing. Jake called them every day and at first they spent a great deal of time together.

“We have been so enriched by this experience,” he says. “They have become our family.”

Pam remembers praying for the family before they even met. “While the war was on, we would sit together at breakfast and Jake couldn’t even read about the war in the papers. It touched us so much; so we prayed, praying for [the Raqi family] even before we met.”

“We were very blessed that the church sponsored us,” Hava says, the rest of the family heartily agreeing. “We don’t know what we would have done if they hadn’t been there.”

But the good relationship has been a two-way street. Brad Giesbrecht, the contact person for MCC, says they were spoiled as sponsors, having received a family that was so grateful and who worked so hard to make Canada their home.

After a year in Canada, the family applied for landed immigrant status. They have taken hours of English classes and have found work at Lilydale Farms, Vanderpools Eggs and Bradner Farms where employers praise them for their strong work ethic. Bekim is studying at the University College of the Fraser Valley.

Shortly after they arrived, the family decided to move into a smaller apartment because their three-bedroom was “too big, too expensive.” This attitude towards saving and the desire to stay together as a family, allowed them to purchase a new home in Abbotsford, just four years after arriving here.

At the housewarming, Jake asked each person to say a few words. Over and over the words, “this feels like family” were spoken. Jake says it’s interesting that they have developed such a close relationship despite their faith differences. “Part of that may be the fact that the Raqis have strong family values and a strong work ethic, something we as Mennonites appreciate and can relate to.”

The Raqis are established and the formal sponsor/refugee relationship is technically over but the relationship has moved beyond formalities. On this evening, they celebrated a milestone together as families.
—MCC B.C. release