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Eventually, U.S. officials took her case. In time, she and her daughter landed in Tabernacle church in Utica. Today, Htoo has an apartment and a minimum-wage job, and through Utica's Christian community, she is aware that a merciful God will meet her deepest needs for forgiveness and security.

Poe Kee, a Karen single man, immigrated to the United States about the same time that Htoo did. With her aunt in Utica acting as a traditional Karen matchmaker, Po Kee married Htoo within six months. They met the week of their wedding and were never alone together until their wedding night. Theirs was the first Karen wedding at Tabernacle. Tom Deragon walked the bride down the aisle.

Htoo turns giddy when talking about Po Kee. Now married five years, they have two daughters in addition to Htoo's first child, Pa Suda.

"Po Kee accepts Pa Suda like a daughter, and he loves her like a daughter," says Htoo. "He never jokes about my life before."

But last year, Po Kee was diagnosed with leukemia. Htoo wept and doted over him at the hospital. At home, he lay silently in her lap for hours on end. Miraculously, the cancer has now gone into remission—after just one round of chemotherapy.

"When I lived in Bangkok, Thailand," Htoo says, "I felt problems. I wanted to blame God. I said, 'God is not taking care of me.' " She felt kinship with the biblical Joseph—a victim of injustice in a foreign land.

But like Joseph, Htoo discovered God had not abandoned her. "Later, I humbled myself, and I knew that God planned everything for my good."

For generations, residents of Utica had christened their troubled town "the city that God forgot." But Utica's immigrant Christians are writing new chapters in the city's history about how God didn't forget them—one resettled life at a time.

Pastor Caruana says, "We have children in this congregation, all of them growing up thinking that it is absolutely and perfectly normal to be part of a church where there are people from literally around the world—together."

Denise McGill is assistant professor of visual journalism at Palm Beach Atlantic University.

Copyright © 2007 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

A photo essay, also by Denise McGill, accompanied this article.

The Utica Observer-Dispatch has a collection of articles on the refugees resettled there.

The Baroness Cox wrote about the situation of the Karen in 'The Homeless Church of Myanmar'

Other articles about refugees include:

Does Darfur Have a Prayer? | Genocide in western Sudan proves nearly impossible to stop. (December 13, 2006)

'They Know We Are Christians' | Lebanese Christian compassion impresses Muslims during bloody conflict. (September 28, 2006)

Homeland Security's Catch-22 for Exiles | 'Ridiculous' interpretation of law bars thousands. (May 1, 2006)

Border Crackdown | Government seeks to stamp out North Korea refugee problem. (April 1, 2004)

Churches Demolished at Sudanese Refugee Camp | Bulldozers raze prayer centers as part of government re-planning exercise. (December 1, 2003)

On The Run from Police, Iranian Christian Survives Church Attack | Fleeing persecution with no passport, refugee witnesses last week's grenade murders in Pakistan (March 1, 2002)

Books & Culture Corner: Keeping the Dust on Your Boots | Remembering the Afghan refugees—and the church in Iran. (January 1, 2002)

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February 2007, Vol. 51, No. 2