2024-2025 Grant in Aid of Research
An explorative study of cross- cultural witness by Seventh-day Adventist Karen diaspora in the United States.
William Wells
The Karen (Ka-REN) are an ethnic minority from Burma/Myanmar and predominantly live in the east of the country along the Thai-Myanmar border. More than 87,321 Karen, as of 2019, have been resettled as refugees in the United States since 2005. Given that more than 87,000 Karen have been resettled in the United States, a diaspora network has been forming through the use of social media and local, regional, and national organizations. Even within the Seventh-day Adventist Church in North America there is a significant and growing population of Karen believers and church plants which add and reflect this diaspora formation.
Diasporic people groups can and should play a significant role in the Great Commission obligations upon the Church. The Karen are part of this evangelizing purpose which revitalizes Christianity in the local and global communities in which they reside. Thus, through using the tools of Diaspora Missiology, it is possible to understand and encourage cross-cultural witness within these diasporic and glocal communities like the Karen. The purpose of this research is to explore the extent to which Seventh-day Adventist Karen engage in cross-cultural mission towards their host communities in the United States and mobilize for cross-cultural mission. The end goal of the research is to understand how mobilization can happen individually and/or institutionally among the Karen to engage in cross-cultural witness in their host community. This research will learn of their cross-cultural mission capacity and to gain insights on how the concepts of diaspora missiology can be included and utilized among other resettled refugee populations now living in the United States.