Finding the words to sing

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Tuesday, November 28th.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: escaping religious persecution.

A small ethnic group called the Zomi live in Columbus, Ohio. They hail originally from Myanmar. Their minority status there led to persecution. Following Bible translation into their native language in the 19th century, many became Christians. Then they faced religious persecution on top of that.

REICHARD: Today, most of the Zomi people are Christian, and they are still under threat in Myanmar. Some have fled to the U.S., bringing their culture, their faith, and their kids with them. 

WORLD correspondent Maria Baer visited a Zomi community … and brings us the story.

SOUND: [Kids playing outside]

MARIA BAER, REPORTER: It’s noon on a quiet street north of downtown Columbus, Ohio. Big, old trees are blowing red and golden leaves across a stretch of bright green lawns. Halfway down the block sits an old brick school building. In a few minutes, a group of first- and second-graders will explode through the backdoors.

SOUND: [Whistle]

No more quiet neighborhood.

SOUND: [Footsteps, yelling]

Roughly 260 students are enrolled here at Tree of Life Christian Schools’ Clintonville campus. The school teaches preschool through fifth grade.

Recess here is pretty much like recess everywhere. A very serious game of freeze tag is quickly underway. Girls are jump-roping. A couple daring young chaps are competing to see who can go the highest on the swings.

But a group of giggly second-graders is playing a game in an unfamiliar language.

CHILDREN: Cut-cut, cut-cut, Cut-Bam, Bam-Bam…

Grace, Cing, and Vung are three of the now 35 Zomi kids enrolled here at Tree of Life Clintonville. Each of their families fled to the U.S. within the last few years to escape persecution.

CHILDREN: [Counting in Burmese, laughing]

There are twelve major ethnic groups recognized in Myanmar, including the Chin people, which make up less than four percent of the country’s population. The Zomi are a small fragment of the Chin. It’s dangerous to be an ethnic minority in Myanmar. It’s even more dangerous to be a religious minority.

BAER: What percentage of the Zomi people are Christian?

PAU: OK, 95 percent.

Hau Pau and her husband, Pastor Thang Pau, lead Zomi Christian Church of Columbus. Pastor Thang came to the United States as a religious refugee in 2000.

Many Zomi Christians have followed him to Ohio in the years since; most with his name and phone number in their pockets. When they arrive in Ohio, Pastor Thang invites them to his church. If they have kids, he points them to Tree of Life, where this tiny tribe of persecuted believers is a growing subset of the student body.

CHILD 1: I wanna play freeze tag with Cing and Grace!

CHILD 2: Can I play too?

Katie Frost teaches second grade at Tree of Life. In her four years here, at least eight Zomi kids have come through her classroom.

KATIE FROST: They tend to at first migrate towards people from their own community, but then once they get more comfortable they do branch out and make friends with the other students as well.

Many of the Zomi kids here at the elementary school are siblings or cousins. Most have been living in the U.S. since they were babies. Seven-year old Vung was born — or in second-grader-ese “got borned” — in a refugee camp.

CHILD: Me and my sister got borned in Malaysia, and then we came here.

The girls have a hazy understanding of why they had to leave Myanmar.

CHILD 1: My family left Burmese because there was a lot of shooting there.

CHILD 2: I left there for my own good safety. (giggling)

Open Doors tracks Christian persecution around the globe. Myanmar consistently ranks as one of the world’s most dangerous countries for believers. Government forces often raid Christian villages and churches, kidnapping or killing believers. Sometimes they block Christian communities’ access to water or healthcare.

The situation got worse in 2021 when the Myanmar military staged a violent coup. Earlier this month, the military junta dropped a bomb on a school in the Chin state, killing eight children.

Now safe in the U.S., the Zomi families at Tree of Life are doing what they can to hold on to their culture. Most of the kids speak their native language, Zomi, at home with their parents and English at school.

CHILD: My parents get mad when I speak English.

BAER: Is it hard to be at school with people who only speak English?

CHILD: Not really. Sometimes they don’t understand me! (Speaking Zomi and giggling)

For their American and Hispanic classmates, the Zomi kids are a window to another part of the world.

Last year, Tree of Life’s music teacher organized a spring concert called “Trip Around the World.” Kids researched their family’s heritage and then performed songs from their native culture. There were songs from China, Peru, Australia, Italy, Kenya, and more. When it was the Zomi kids’ turn, the line of performers stretched all the way from stage right to stage left.

AUDIO: [Singing in Zomi]

Katie Frost said she loves watching the kids from Myanmar introduce their classmates to the quirks of their culture, from their holidays to the origins of their names. The name Cin, or the female version, Cing, is hugely popular — there are thirteen kids here at Tree with that name. It’s a reference to the Zomi people’s larger ethnic group, the Chin people.

And of course, to their classmates, being bilingual is a Zomi superpower.

CHILD 1: I want to learn how to say cheetah.

CHILD 2: It’s just cheetah! (Laughter)

But Zomi culture is also a Christian culture. The song they sang at the school concert? That was a worship song. Every Saturday and Sunday, most Zomi families in Columbus gather at Pastor Thang’s church, an unassuming brick building near a strip mall. Inside, in dim lights under a drop ceiling, kids run around while their grown-ups pray and worship in Zomi.

AUDIO: [Singing hymn]

Back at recess, the second-graders are goofing off on the soccer field. The Zomi kids seem perfectly at home here at Tree of Life. It’s a long way from Myanmar, but it’s right in the middle of the family of God.

BAER: Vung can you tell me something in Zomi?

VUNG: Hallelujah!

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Maria Baer in Columbus, Ohio.

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