Dear Friends, It is now official! Instead of returning to Thailand in June, we will be staying in the US for the next few years to serve as a bridge between the Karen coming to live in the US and the churches that are helping them. We are still International Ministries missionaries but on “Special Assignment” to the US. But, we will be returning to Thailand a couple times per year as well, to keep in touch with the churches in the refugee camps and the Karen in Thailand. The Karen have been driven from their homes in Burma, forced to live in refugee camps for years, and now when they come to the US, for the first time in their lives have the chance to become citizens. It has been very encouraging for us to see how the body of Christ in the Baptist churches, has already been working and is pulling together even more to welcome the Karen and other Burmese refugees. With so many partners in this effort, it can only be described as the body of Christ at work. We recently had the opportunity to attend the Asian Caucus of the American Baptist churches. Some caucus members, having lived what the Karen are now experiencing, are very supportive of the efforts to resettle the Karen. The caucus was also instrumental in getting a combined Burmese choir on the program at the upcoming biennial in Washington D.C. You might already know that the American Baptist Churches administratively is composed of three main parts; The Office of the General Secretary, National Ministries and International Ministries. A situation like the Karen coming to America blurs the line between national and international, so all three branches of the denomination have joined to form a task force to help churches respond to the influx of Baptist refugees to America. We are a part of this task force. It is brand new and has only met once so far, but the next meeting will be May 14th. Exciting for us as well is a new partnership with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF). We became familiar with the CBF in Thailand and now we will be jointly appointed by International Ministries and the CBF. Particularly strong in the southern US, partnering with CBF provides an expanded network of churches that might have interest in working with the Karen in the US or overseas. We have recently attended one “Exploratory Conference” with CBF to begin to become acquainted with their system and will attend another orientation conference in May. A dually aligned ABC/CBF church in Louisville has begun working with the Karen there so we feel this partnership has already been useful. Most exciting of all, has been the response of the Baptist churches in reaching out to the Karen in their communities. In the past few months we have personally been to Utica and Buffalo in New York; Akron, Ohio; Indianapolis and Ft. Wayne, Indiana; and Louisville, Kentucky. Next week, Duane will be visiting St. Paul, Minnesota as well. In each case, we have been impressed with how the church has opened its doors and hearts to the Karen people. The Karen too have been impressive as they bring their spiritual energy into the churches they enter. But there are so many other places to go. We’ve had contact or requests to visit the Karen in Texas, Arizona, Oregon, Georgia, Florida, California, Tennessee, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Washington D.C. and more. In addition, there are many other places that reportedly have Karen and we’ve not made contact yet. Our role in the effort to reach the Karen will be as resource people and catalysts, helping people in the churches get connected to the Karen. We can only be in a few places so where needed, we hope to connect the churches with the resettlement agency and the Karen community in their area and provide resources and information to the churches where the connection has been made. We also hope to help keep the Karen connected with each other both within America and with their brothers and sisters still overseas. Over the last few weeks, with the help of Kerry Hassler who has been volunteering his services to International Ministries, we have established a web site related to this new work. Reflecting our role in making connections, we have called this web site: www.karenkonnection.org. Take a look at it and let us know what you think. If any of the information is of interest to you, feel free to copy it and use it as you like. The web site has a link to a blog site as well: www.kareninmychurch.wordpress.com. Feel free to use the blog to connect with us and others interested in this work. In the near future, we’ll add a Karen language section and some additional photos of the refugee camps and Karen life in general. We hope this is one way we can provide some resources to those that need them. So a lot has been happening and a lot remains to be done. Please pray for us as we enter this new work, pray for the churches and individuals directly involved with the Karen and pray for the Karen as they make a huge adjustment to a very new life. Yours in Christ, Duane & Marcia Binkley Check out our new web site at www.karenkonnection,org and new blog at www.kareninmychurch.wordpress.com