Coming to America from a refugee camp in Uganda where she'd lived 17 years, there was a lot that Rehema Mukeshimana found unfamiliar. Different climate. Different foods. Running water.

But Mukeshimana, along with her parents and four brothers, found a familiar faith in Knoxville. As Jehovah's Witnesses from the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo, they attend services at the Kingdom Hall on Harris Road in East Knox County — in Swahili.

"We were so happy to find them," Mukeshimana said. "It makes you feel a sense of community (when) you don't need an interpreter to go to church."

In the church, they also found community, a support network of people who helped and prayed when her parents were seriously injured in a car wreck last fall.

"We feel like we are one family," Mukeshimana said.

Services in Swahili

That Kingdom Hall began services in Swahili around 2007, member Rodney Smith said. Smith and his wife spent four years as missionaries in Tanzania before returning to Knoxville because he needed treatment for a serious chronic medical condition.

Two years after their return, they noted an influx of Congolese to the Knoxville area. The Smiths began teaching members of their church Swahili.

"It is our strong feeling that the message of the Bible, the message that we teach, needs to be done in the person's mother tongue — the language of the heart," said Smith, whose Kingdom Hall has long had Spanish-language services. "So that's the primary reason we try to learn Swahili, so we can teach them in their mother tongue."

Many existing church members took on learning the language, as the number of new African church members swelled to 50 and the church opened two Swahili services — Mondays, and Saturday mornings, to better accommodate the work schedules of the refugee members.

But they also participate in churchwide events, Smith said: "We consider ourselves brothers. If we have a gathering, everybody is there."

Because the global church translates the same study materials in more than 700 languages, Smith said, the Swahili service at the Kingdom Hall on Harris Road should be nearly identical to what Jehovah's Witnesses experienced in Africa.

Since there are language and cultural obstacles to their resettlement, and many have experienced unspeakable trauma, he said, it provides a touchstone.

In church, "they've just picked up right where they left off," he said. "We believe God's kingdom is the solution to these problems, so that provides a lot of comfort and a lot of hope to them."

Fast-growing group

In Knoxville, the Congolese are the fastest-growing refugee group. They began arriving in larger numbers around 2007, and over the past three years — since President Donald Trump's travel ban limited refugees from other countries — they've made up the majority of new refugees to Knoxville, said Katie Weber, program director for Bridge Refugee Services.

Weber said so far this fiscal year, Bridge has resettled 71 refugees in Knoxville, with 80% to 90% of them Congolese, depending on the time.

Most long ago fled violence in the Congo, she said, coming from Tanzania, Uganda or Burundi. Many speak some English already, though their proficiency varies. Some have spent most — or all — of their lives in refugee camps without access to running water, electricity or even indoor shelter.

"That's a huge job for the case manager" when they first arrive, Weber said. "They're jet-lagged, they're tired, and we're showing them how to lock their doors, turn on the stove, run water — all these unfamiliar things that they're in charge of now."

But as a group, Weber said, Congolese refugees are resilient and hardworking. Most begin working within 90 days, Weber said — labor-intensive jobs with lots of overtime. Any benefits they receive from the U.S. government upon arrival — such as food stamps — are time-limited to about three months, and within six months of resettling in the U.S. they begin to be billed for the cost of their travel here, which they have three years to pay off.

"Industries tend to be excited about working with our clients," Weber said. "We get calls on a regular basis from employers who are desperate for more refugees."

Many work in hotels as housekeepers or dishwashers, in food service (such as Custom Foods) or agricultural services (such as the Monterrey Mushroom plant in Loudon County). But manufacturing jobs are especially in demand among the refugees, Weber said, because they can supplement their salaries, which average $10 an hour, with long shifts and lots of overtime, and find communities of other Congolese at their workplaces.

In fact, Weber said, some refugees who were resettled in larger metropolitan areas —such as Atlanta — are moving to Knoxville for the lower cost of living and better employment opportunities.

"We've had 160 people relocated to Knoxville," Weber said. "That's a crazy number. It's nothing like we've seen before."

Long hours, lofty goals

It's been three months since Therese and Adolph Mukante moved with their two children, ages 9 and 11, to Knoxville from Uganda, where they'd been living for seven years.

In Uganda, the Mukantes, married 11 years, had a store that sold traditional clothing and jewelry. Here, they work 12-hour night shifts at Aisin Automotive Casting Tennessee in Clinton, where Therese Mukante's two sisters and several other Congolese also work. Neighbors in their apartment complex they befriended at their children's school bus stop look after the children while they work.

Therese Mukante, who inspects pistons, has an immediate goal: a car.

"Right now, we're dependent on someone if we want to go somewhere," she said.

Long term, her goal is a house, though she appreciates the quiet security of their apartment.

"In Uganda, nowhere is safe," she said.

Besides being unable to talk to family still in the Congo, the quick pace of American life has been the hardest adjustment, she said. Bridge has helped, with volunteer Beth Chappelle driving them to the myriad of medical and government appointments new refugees have.

"They're very driven, very hardworking," said Chappelle, who volunteers with several families through Bridge. "I'm just so proud of everything they've accomplished — and their resilience and their faith in God is so inspirational."

Bridge will have a communitywide celebration for World Refugee Day 5-8 p.m. Saturday, June 22, at the Jacob Building in Chilhowee Park, 3301 E. Magnolia Ave.

'Moved by faith'

With around 1,300 Burundian refugees alone resettled in Knoxville, the African community here now supports several of its own churches, including the Baptist Imani African Community Church and the Light Mission Pentecostal Church, which last month moved from a dilapidated storefront to a large church building.

But refugees sometimes find new church homes in more traditional settings, such as First Presbyterian Church. Church elder Colleen Shannon said the church has supported missions in the Democratic Republic of Congo for nearly 40 years after a member, Dr. William Rule, went there as a medical missionary. Rule, now deceased, began medical schools there the church supports, Shannon said; members periodically travel to the Congo to visit the projects they fund and hear the needs of church leaders there.

"We don't go over there and decide what we're going to do for you," Shannon said. "We listen to them and let them tell us how we can best be in partnership."

When their commitment to the Congolese began to extend to local families, through Bridge, the church adopted the same philosophy, Shannon said. They help with green cards, medical issues, child care, English language learning and transportation. The church has a Congolese Sunday School class, using a children's Bible and CDs of the Rev. Desmond Tutu, though attending "is not a requirement for our helping them," she said.

But most are devout Pentecostals, she said.

"They knew the Bible stories, they just never had read them in English," she said. "We were very moved by the depth of their faith after facing so much trauma and violence in their lives."

Shannon said her church is among those participating in the World Refugee Day celebration and hopes even more churches become involved.

"They were one of the best things that ever happened to our church," she said. "We became friends, very dear friends."

World Refugee Day

What: International food fair, musical performances, kids activities center, refugee stories and fashion show featuring styles from around the world modeled by refugee community members

When: 5-8 p.m. Saturday, June 22

Where: Jacob Building, Chilhowee Park, 3301 E. Magnolia Ave.

Cost: $5

Benefits: Bridge Refugee Services, which assists refugees resettled in East Tennessee from Democratic Republic of Congo, Vietnam, Myanmar, Ethiopia, Ukraine, Burundi, Iraq, Afghanistan, Venezuela, Colombia, Sudan and other places

Info: www.bridgerefugees.org

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