The Sunday Van Club: Where a Faith Journey Leads

By Dot JB Powell

"When [my father] talked, his words were about going back. He reminisced and became nostalgic.

He missed his previous life when things were better.

It was peaceful existence. Until the war."

Nine little girls, the children of Vietnam War refugees, found themselves in the no man's land between their

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dorothy Powell
• Release date: Jun 22, 2021
• ISBN: 9780578888170

Book preview

The Sunday Van Club

Where a Faith Journey Leads

By Dot JB Powell

and

Bla Xiong, Christina Yang, Ka Zieng Chang,

Kao Lee Lee, Mai Moua Chang, Mai Nhia Yang

Pa Houa Vang, Pang Vang, & Vilay Lee

THE SUNDAY VAN CLUB: WHERE A FAITH JOURNEY LEADS

By

Dot JB Powell

Contributors

Bla Xiong, Christina Yang, Ka Zieng Chang, Kao Lee Lee, Mai Moua Chang, Mai Nhia Yang, Pa Houa Vang, Pang Vang, & Vilay Lee

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher and/or author.

Copyright 2021 Dot JB Powell

Cover Design by The Violet Agency

Book Design by Emily Mealer and Jessica Aby – The Violet Agency

ISBN: 978-0-578-88817-0

Publisher Information: Powell Publishing

When our people (the Hmong) arrived in America as refugees from a war-torn Laos, we were truly strangers to this land. Many arrived with nothing but the glimmer of hope in the eyes of their children. This is a story of God’s love transcending across cultures – I see Dot Powell’s love as the principal and mentor to nine Hmong refugee girls. She changed the destination for them from a routine immigrant struggle to a flourishing path in their new home. It is so unique to read the girls’ stories from their points of view and then to read from Dot’s as well. After reading this book, The Sunday Van Club, you will want to run to the nearest elementary school to become a mentor.

Praise for The Sunday Van Club

Vong Mouanoutoua

Clovis City Council Member

California State

University Fresno

Instructor

External Relations & Project Development Director

The Sunday Van Club gives you a sense of what can happen when a positive adult steps into the lives of children; in this case, nine of them. Nine Hmong girls were introduced to the possible successes that awaited them by their elementary principal, Dot Powell. This book shows the amazing impact Dot has had by committing twenty years of consistent mentoring. It is a model for all of us to follow. Once you’ve read The Sunday Van Club, you will want to discover how you can mentor and inspire the young people where you live.

Alan Autry

Fresno Mayor, 2000-2009

CenCal Mentoring, Founder

cencalmentors.com

Film Producer, Writer, & Director

churchfirstfilms.com

Most of us would feel blessed to be given the gift to mentor one or two people in a lifetime. At one moment in time Dot Powell was sought after by NINE LITTLE GIRLS who felt scared, awkward, and insecure living in a place that was culturally and vastly different from their own. This fascinating book leads you through their heartache, joys, and transformation into becoming lovely young women. In The Sunday Van Club read how Dot became their Power of One and learn tips on how we all are able to make a huge difference in someone’s life.

Joan Crawford Sandlin

Christian Business Women of Fresno (CBWC)

President

Former Elementary

Principal, FUSD

Special Event Planner Newport Beach and

Hollywood

MJCS School of Etiquette & Protocol,

Founder/Director

Dedication

To Mrs. Faythe Landis, Who Lit the Path

Mrs. Landis was a new teacher at Ewing after her career as an educator in China. She and her husband Howard, along with their two sons Justin and Blake, lived in China and taught English for years among Chinese speaking students. She was a gift to Ewing students.

To Mr. Ger Vang, Who Bridged the Gap

Mr. Vang was our Home-School Liaison at Ewing Elementary School. He acted as a bridge between the Hmong community and the English-speaking teachers and staff. Ewing was the largest year-round school in Fresno Unified School District, and the surrounding neighborhood held the greatest number of Hmong clans in the city of Fresno. His sturdy faith and spunky personality kept him at the top of the popularity polls with adults and children. He related how he’d moved to the United States from Southeast Asia ahead of his family and as a youth he’d lived with a couple who told him about America and took him to church.

Hmong students and families developed rich friendships with him and he remained a strong supporter of my work with the Hmong children and families.

Acknowledgements

Thank you, Larry Powell, for your support and understanding as I spent time and money while I was away from home fulfilling my calling. You and I have the same purpose in life – to teach, encourage and inspire others to be the best they can be.

Dot

Thank you, Jean Freed. You loved me, included me, and taught me by example. When you think I didn’t do anything, remember this.

Dot

Epigraph

In Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis tells us that people say very foolish things about who Jesus is. His message is intended to clear up all misconceptions about the identity of Jesus.

I heard a man of the cloth describe Jesus as a great prophet. Others say Jesus is a valued teacher; simply a man who teaches truth and morality.

Lewis says if Jesus is only a man and says the things he does, he is crazy and has a deranged mind. Lewis compares that to a person who claims to be a poached egg.

Each of us has a choice... is Jesus a man or God?

We can laugh at him. Insult him. Ignore him... or call him Lord God.

We must not be unwise and call him a great human teacher. There is no sitting on the fence about his identity. We must leap to one side or the other.

He did not leave us any other way to go.

Introduction

Prologue ...................... How I Learned of the Hmong People

Chapter 1 ...................... A Letter to Mai Nhia – The Girl Who Started It All

Chapter 2 ...................... Kao Lee, the Courageous

Chapter 3 ...................... Beginnings

Chapter 4 ...................... Christina, the Survivor

Chapter 5 ...................... How to Spell Love

Chapter 6 ...................... Bla, the Determined

Chapter 7 ...................... Hmong New Year

Chapter 8 ...................... Pa Houa, the Leader

Chapter 9 ...................... Unfortunate Events, but Happy Endings

Chapter 10 .................... Mai Moua, the Achiever

Chapter 11 .................... Memories

Chapter 12 .................... Pang, the Beauty

Chapter 13 .................... Growing with No Fear

Chapter 14 .................... Vilay, the Adventurer

Chapter 15 .................... From Editor to Author

Chapter 16 .................... Ka Zieng, the Introvert

Chapter 17 .................... Two Worlds Collide

Chapter 18 .................... Mai Nhia, the Brave

Chapter 19 .................... The Power of One

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Resources for Hmong Culture

End Notes

Author’s Bio

This book is filled with the stories of nine Hmong (pronounced Mong) girls who were students at Ewing Elementary School in Fresno Unified when I worked as their principal. Ewing was the largest year-round school in Fresno Unified School District during the years I served. Hmong families clustered in houses and apartments around the school. Most Hmong clans in Fresno lived in this neighborhood. The surrounding community teemed with little children playing in front yard gardens with live chickens raised within their fences.

Mai Moua told me her mother always has Hmong chicken soup herbs in the back yard. She raises the typical lemongrass, mint, green onion, cilantro, and basil used in a lot of Asian cuisines. These herbs include perhaps the most important to them: a variety of homegrown medicinal plants. Most of them she boils into herbal teas. Some she uses for external applications. She gets them from various places such as Asian shops, swap meet, and relatives, and then plants the salvageable roots and parts in her garden to grow more.

The stories in this book come from my life’s mission: whatever I do, do it for God, who is my savior Jesus Christ, and with His Holy Spirit to guide me, work for Him and give His name glory. Even after decades of walking with Him, I still have so much to learn. I want to explore the trinity of God and His word. I want it to grow and strengthen my writing while I continue to explore my faith.

As I sit by my window, I hear rippling water in my front yard and see our lake embraced by trees, ferns and flowers, waterfalls, boulders, and a stone bridge. This private place reminds me of a line from my mother’s favorite hymn…

I come to the garden alone while the dew is still on the roses…

This is where God meets me and restores calm in the middle of my struggles — to be a better person, wife, mother, grandmother, friend, mentor, and writer.

I pray that you, the reader, will be blessed by the stories of nine girls who helped me learn about the Hmong culture and how they connected the links to their new American culture. I hope I’ve clearly shown my learning curve too, and how I’ve shared my best with them.

This book is for you if:

You are ready to leave a successful career and make your retirement years count.

You are a girl or boy who is uncertain about God and your own journey of faith.

You like to learn about cultures other than your own.

You enjoy reading the history of someone else’s faith or their struggles with faith.

You wonder what you could do to give your life more significance.

INTRODUCTION

Which of you, if your child asks for bread, will give her a stone?

Matthew 7:9, NIV

Discredit the view

that the second half of your life will never measure up to the first. Instead of giving up and settling for life on its own terms, you are ready for new horizons, new challenges. You are ready to move from success to significance.

Bob Buford

Prologue

Every Hmong student at Ewing had a story to tell. Sometimes they told their stories just in the way they looked at me. Oral history wove life’s traumas into their identities. Some born in Southeast Asia and others born in the United States, they listened to the same stories passed down from generation to generation.

I learned that these refugee families felt they were living in paradise here in Fresno compared to the camps of Thailand. Mothers told me how they gave birth to children in dirt-floor tents with no running water during the years they lived there.

I had not known about the Hmong people’s struggles until a Southeast Asian boy was placed in the second grade class I taught at a Fresno Unified elementary school. The seeds of destruction were planted and grew to displace this boy’s ancestral heritage and culture when I was just an infant. Before I attended first grade, his homeland was overtaken by aggressors from China and Russia.

The countries of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam seemed far away and unknowable to me for most of my life before my teaching days.

How I Learned of the Hmong People

The first time I heard of these countries was when my brother Bill came home from school in tenth grade with an assignment to write a report on Laos. It was 1960 and I was 13 years old. Due to his knowledgeable teacher Mr. Boother, Bill was intensely interested in world affairs. He showed us how much he had learned in his class by describing to us the conflicts in Southeast Asia. He told us about The Truman Doctrine which stated that the United States would provide political, military, and economic assistance to countries that were under the threat of take-over by authoritarian forces. Little did we know that ten years later Bill would be in his first tour of duty, flying over the very land he’d studied for a school project. Through the presidencies of Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson, American involvement in Southeast Asia grew into a Vietnamese’s full-blown civil war – the Vietnam War.

The year I graduated from high school (1964), an American ship was torpedoed by the North Vietnamese. President Johnson called for airstrikes on North Vietnam boat bases. The Soviet Union and China increased their defense infrastructure on the sea and land of Vietnam. I was learning about war, but nothing about the Hmong people or little Asian boys like my new student who would have to flee their country.

By the time I graduated from college in 1968, tens of thousands of American troops were in these small countries trying to defend the inhabitants against authoritarian rule. South Vietnam suffered a drastic blow when the Viet Cong, the army of the Communist National Liberation Front of Vietnam, rained down a bloody massacre on many cities and the United States Embassy in Saigon. A grandfather, maybe of this boy in my class or others like him, lost his life while helping downed-American pilots escape capture.

I met a Hmong man whose father, grandfather, and uncles rescued American pilots shot down into enemy territory. They saved as many as possible, risking their own lives. Some gave all. His elders voted to get their entire family out of Vietnam. With the ingenuity of his inventive father, they found a way to transport all their living members to safety. His father knew of a way to obtain some abandoned boats, how to fix them, and how to use them. The entire family got into the boats and escaped to a place where they could be safe until they could get transportation to the United States. After devastating losses in Southeast Asia, his family found freedom and developed productive lives in America.

This action, taken by many Hmong, is a

paraphrase of a scripture in John 15:13, no greater love has anyone than to lay down one’s life for a friend. The Hmong people did this even when they didn’t know my brother or any American. They put their lives on the line because General Vang Pao, a soldier who had formed a private Hmong army in the fight against the Vietnamese Communists, was their leader and friend. They went to our aid even though they knew it could mean death or, at the very least, loss of home and family.

General Vang Pao first worked with the French Indochina Government and then with the Americans. Fluent in many languages, he became an interpreter and operative. His fight the against Communist forces made him a much-loved commander among Hmong men who wanted to join the fight.

After thousands of Hmong people were killed in Vietnam and Laos for helping America, survivors fled through thick brush and open countryside. Some were transported by US troops to refugee camps in Thailand. The camps and shelters existed for more than 30 years until Thailand wanted them gone.

Waves of Hmong refugees came to America between 1975-2004. The Migration and Refugee Assistance Act of 1975 helped many

Hmong people get out of South East Asia and relocate to California and Minnesota. The Central Valley of California mirrored the agricultural characteristics of their homelands. It was the right place for the Hmong to transfer their farming tradition to America.

On May 23rd, 1975, refugees from South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia were granted a special status that allowed for financial assistance and relocation rights into the United States. This act was called the Indochina Migration and Refugee Assistance act, and it was vital to the eventual integration of elementary students.

One of my nine girls, Christina, wrote,