HMONG PEOPLE

[David Mauldin]

  I am currently enrolled in a CLAD class.  We are studying Hmong people.  I remember these very quiet, small Vietnamese looking people sitting at the back of the Assistence League. Anyone recall the brother who worked with these immigrant/refugees?  Does anyone know anything about them? As I remember they were "encouraged" to stop attending the Assembly because of language issues. I suspect it had to do more with $$$$. These people were farmers from Laos.  (Their main crop was opium!) The instructor hasn't even mentioned Huntington Beach, rather Fresno as there main location. Are they still around?  These people were allies of the U.S. during the Vietnam War. It makes me angry that we had them in our church but took so little interest in them.  I guess they just were not important enough for George's vission.

[outdeep]

The name of the person who reached out to the Hmong was Steve Arlow who died in a plane crash a few years ago.  They immigraged and settled in Westminster and Fresno.  I believe I heard that most of them left Westminster and joined the community in Fresno.

I don't know all the reasons why the Hmong outreach was stopped.   I think part of the reason was that it is inneffective to take someone from another culture, put them in an American setting and assume that translating the message is going to help.  This is why the spanish translation was never too effective - too many cultural references that just don't translate well.  I think the way that things went was the starting of a Hmong church with Hmong leadership who were familiar with the Hmong culture.  Having them come to our HB prayer meeting and try to sing holding our hymnbooks upside down and then pray for campus ministry just didn't do it.

[David Mauldin]

  Dave as I recall Steve was learning their language?  Didn't he kinda fade out after the Hmong outreach was ended?  I remember Steve having dinner at our house one night. He was so jazzed about these people. I remember him telling us a stories about trips he would take to Fresno to help them. (I remember thinking very highly about Steve, "This guy is a missionary!") I really think it took the wind out of his sails when George or whoever stopped it. The instuctor says that these people are very tribal and that a relocation took place a few years ago in order to allow them more community amongst themselves. Anyway thanks for the input. I am trying to learn more as I have chosen them for my research paper.

[outdeep]

He did continue with it.  After all, he married a Hmong woman.  He left the Assembly over a personal issue which he never disclosed to me.