DALLAS (BP)–Kurdish families rescued in December from the deadly grasp of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein are finally entering the United States — and feeling the warm embrace of Southern Baptists.
Now arriving in Texas and South Carolina are some of the Kurdish refugees connected to a relief agency through which Southern Baptists aided Kurds in northern Iraq after the Persian Gulf War. Up to 175 men, women and children will be resettled by Southern Baptists over several months.
Since early December they’ve been at a U.S. air base in Guam, where they were taken for resettlement processing after leaving Iraq. The United States evacuated them following repeated appeals from Western relief workers, who feared Saddam would carry out his promise to kill all Kurds who “collaborated” with his enemies. Iraqi troops or agents murdered several Kurds related to Western aid groups.
The first Kurdish family of December evacuees arrived in Dallas in late February. Dallas already is home to more than 2,000 Kurds. Several Kurdish families from suburban Midway Road Baptist Church greeted Abduljabbar Yousif Hasan, his wife, Zaheda, and their three small children, Niyan, Sundis and Sedrah, at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.
“In Iraq, we were helpless and hopeless,” Hasan said. “When I saw the Kurds who met us here, it was like we had been given new life and new hope. We are very, very happy.”
The Hasans left Iraq with the clothes they were wearing and the few possessions they could stuff into a single suitcase. But when they arrived at their apartment near Midway Road Baptist Church, they found basic furnishings already provided by a Baptist layman. And when they walked into the kitchen, a hot Kurdish meal was on the table.
Women from Midway Road’s Kurdish ministry continued to bring meals to the Hasans’ apartment until the family had time to get settled.
“I believe in the great living God. He is the one who has provided these things,” Bob Dixon, executive director of Texas Baptist Men and a member at Midway Road, told the family as he delivered additional furniture to their apartment.
Hasan, who had trained to become an elementary school teacher in his homeland but was drafted into military service for seven years, worked as a guard for Southern Baptist relief workers in northern Iraq.
Midway Road offers a citizenship class for men and a teen club on Sunday evenings that draw more than 150 Kurdish participants, plus a weekday citizenship class for about 80 women, along with child care for their preschoolers.
Sponsoring churches also are being sought in Houston.
In South Carolina, 13 Kurdish families — 52 people – will resettle in the Greenville area, thanks to the efforts of Southern Baptist layman Buddy Kellett and his wife, “Butch.” The Kelletts, who own a well-drilling company, spent a month as volunteers in northern Iraq right after the war ended, helping Southern Baptist relief workers set up a well-drilling operation.
“When the Iraqi army pulled out of the northern zone, they filled all the wells full of rocks to keep the Kurdish people from having any water,” recalls Kellett, who also has helped Southern Baptist missionaries drill water wells in west Africa.
When the Kelletts were asked to help resettle some of the Kurdish friends they made in Iraq, they got excited — and so did South Carolina Baptists.
“There’s churches all over the state calling, sending donations and saying, ‘What do you need? We want to be a part of it,'” said Kellett, who will personally hire several of the Kurdish men experienced in well drilling.
“It’s just been overwhelming. I think that’s what it’s all about. You’re either a mission-minded church or you’re not a church; you’re a building.”
The Kelletts’ home church, Fork Shoals Baptist in Greenville County, and several other area churches are sponsoring one or two Kurdish families each. Refugee sponsorship includes helping families find shelter and jobs, learn English and seek citizenship. The U.S. government will provide up to six months’ help with rent plus food stamps, Medicaid and funds for English classes.
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