African couples learn to ‘pray freely’ in U.S. on Owatonna

OWATONNA — For Omot Bawar and his family, worship comes freely. It is a sanctuary that they can enter into whenever they feel moved by their faith.

But this has not always been the case.

With Bawar immigrating to the U.S. from Sudan and his wife, Ariet, immigrating to the U.S. from Ethiopia, their family has gone to great lengths to find a home where they can feel safe and secure.

Bawar works at Viracon in Owatonna, but he said he still has many family members in Sudan, where political infighting has plagued the country for decades. He hails from Southern Sudan, where instead of the Muslim religion the region is known for, he practices his Presbyterian faith. Many Sudanese are historically Presbyterian after missionaries brought Christianity to Sudan.

On Saturday, Presbyterians from both the Sudan and Ethiopia were gathered at the Associated Church, to celebrate Easter with their native tribes.

The church’s pastor, the Rev. Ron Wilson officiated the service with an African minister, the Rev. Andrew Hennery, from out of town. Wilson said this is not the first time the church has hosted African services, which are filled with energetic worship and the sounds of the choir, the tambourines and African Drums.

“They come from many different backgrounds,” Wilson said. “When they come here, whether Polish or Irish or whatever, they all keep the things that bind them together.”

“In our culture, there’s such an intellectual influence,” he said. “Everything has to make sense intellectually. Their culture is very emotional. They have a rational side, but emotions speak to their spiritual needs.”

Jerry Ganfield, a member of the Associated Church who was on hand for the service, said as members of African tribes, the Sudanese congregants have a very close bond.

“Most of them are refugees from the tumult in Darfur,” said Ganfield. He said they are so close that even when someone in their tribe is killed in the political infighting in Darfur and the Sudan, they will commemorate the tribe member’s life with a funeral in the U.S.

“They’re very close in that regard,” he said. Gainfield also said that because they adhere to certain tribes, they consider everyone under the same name family.

“It is a tribe,” Ganfield said, “so they consider everybody else in the tribe a cousin.”

For Bawar, this is especially true. He said with so many of his family still living in the Sudan, his hope is to work hard enough to help them find new homes. He said in his native country, they are not free to worship, because when congregations come out to a church, they risk either being attacked by rebels or being bombed by the Sudanese government.

“They don’t pray freely,” said Bawar, who said even after the civil war in 1983, there is still surmountable violence in Sudan. “Many southerners were displaced.”

“It seems to be, in a free country, we preach strongly,” said Bawar. He said that the only place a person can feel safe practicing Christian religion around the Sudan is at a refugee camp, at camps like those in Ethiopia, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, or central Africa.

Melissa Kaelin can be reached at 444-2372.

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