Refugees' Grit Paying Off
Episcopal News Service. November 7, 1985 [85225]
Howard Wilson , Ann Wilson
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (DPS. Nov.7) -- Kin Ing Heng entered the U.S. District Court here at 9 a.m., Aug. 21, as a Cambodian refugee. She left that same courthouse two and a half hours later as an American citizen. Diocesan Refugee Coordinators, Bill and Connie Redd, and we, as chairmen for St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, felt extremely honored to witness her swearing in.
Ing's journey to us began six years ago last April, when her mother, a very courageous woman, led five of her seven youngsters -- Ing among them -- through the jungle fighting of Pol Pot's regime toward the Thailand border and relative safety in a refugee camp. All had been in Pol Pot's labor camps, where children were separated from parents, husbands from wives, for the previous five years. Their father had been a wealthy artisan of jewelry, and their mother, Liv, owned pepper tree farms before the torching of their home and crops by Pol Pot's men.
That same spring, President Carter was beseeching us as Christians to aid the escaping thousands of Southeast Asians. Milt Glor and his wife, Janice, members of St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, Huntsville, Ala., approached the parish about sponsoring a refugee family. Once we knew that there were four little children and a 20-year old involved, the response was terrific. Within six months, the family arrived -- frightened, not knowing where in the world they were, clutching a sheet of paper with two dozen English phrases; little Po (being the only male in the family) had tried to learn these without anyone to emulate for pronunciation.
After a quick settling-in period, they immediately started to work: cleaning department stores at 5 a.m.., babysitting, mess hall attendants -- whatever was available.
The children were enrolled in public schools; church members provided medical and dental care gratis; others provided transportation that first year or so and taught Ing to drive, after which she bought her own car. Meanwhile she and brother Po rode bicycles to work in rain, sun or snow. Since 1982, Ing has been an electronics assembler with S.C.I. Now that she is a U.S. citizen, she'll be eligible to work for any industry, space or otherwise. Of her own accord, she studied for the citizenship interview (test) at Atlanta, arranged her own transportation to that city last Easter, passed the test and awaited her swearing-in ceremony.
And now we're anticipating three more members being sworn in later in the fall. Lan, at 15, has to wait another three years, and Mama Liv feels more comfortable waiting until she can take the oral and written tests in Chinese in 1999 (unless she masters the English language meanwhile.)