Redding Church of the Nazarene in California added 88 new members in a single Sunday service on 31 August 2025. Those members were all part of the new Mien PAC congregation, which was officially recognized. 

The Mien congregation has long been a part of Redding First Church, allowing some autonomy as a congregation in its own right, both figuratively and procedurally. Lead Pastor Colin Duffy said that the Church wanted to acknowledge the Mien community as part of their congregation, like they had been for many years.

The history between Redding Church of the Nazarene and the Mien congregation dates back to the 1980s. Many Mien people were resettled into refugee camps in Thailand, later immigrating to the United States.

According to Mike Fitzpatrick, a board member with the Mien congregation and long-time leader in the local church, a woman who attended Redding Church of the Nazarene saw some of these refugees who had come to her community while driving around; she began inviting them and their children to church and Sunday school classes.

They spoke little to no English, so the church began offering English classes. The Mien people responded by attending in droves. Soon, they began to understand and accept the gospel messages preached at the church.

One other aspect of the refugee resettlement program for the Mien was that the refugees needed sponsors to leave resettlement camps. So the church began sponsoring more families to come to Redding and assimilate into American life. 

The church reached out to the Callaways, Nazarene missionaries who served the Mien refugee population in Thailand. They came to Redding to hold services in Mien and provide the church with resources to minister to the Mien, including Mien hymnals.

According to Fitzpatrick, by meeting the material needs of the Mien community, the Redding church and the Mien population initiated a beautiful development within the church—to participate in missions in addition to their faithful giving toward missions. 

“I felt like God was saying, ‘They haven’t been able to go, but the church has been praying for these places, and they’ve been giving money and supporting others to go and visit these countries. Why don’t I just bring one of these other countries to them?” Fitzpatrick said.  “And so, God did. He brought these people to us.”

Pastor Fou-Vang has led the Mien congregation at Redding Church of the Nazarene since 2013. 

Fou-Vang himself was a refugee who came to Portland, Oregon, before coming to Redding in 1990. His sponsor told him that if he ended up going to California, he needed to attend church there. So when he moved to California, he started attending the Redding Church of the Nazarene’s Mien congregation.

Years later, the leader and pastor of the Mien congregation left, and Fou-Vang began to feel a call to ministry. He traveled to the Bay Area every weekend to finish his schooling and was eventually ordained in 2012. He became a pastor in 2013.

When Pastor Fou-Vang began attending the church, it was just 20-30 families. Now, the congregation sees 80-90 families attend weekly services. He hopes the church can continue to help the Mien community. 

“I want this church here to become a community for Mien people, for Asian people, and any other people who need a place to come and find Jesus,” Fou-Vang said through a translator.