SCHOFIELD, Wis. (WSAW) -Yauo Yang was 11 years old when he experienced his first Christmas.
Yauo Yang was 11 years old when he experienced his first Christmas.
As a refugee from Thailand who knew little English, Yang didn’t know what Christmas was when he first heard about it at school. Yang was one of 11 siblings living in a two-bedroom duplex. His father made $25,000, making it difficult to give his family a Christmas.
That changed when Yang’s ESL teacher, Anne Merrifield, gave them their first Christmas.
“For somebody to show so much love, generosity, kindness for a poor Hmong refugee family, that was just a really heartwarming experience to be shown so much love by a person that they didn’t even have to do that,” Yang said.
One of the first traditions Yang experienced was baking Christmas cookies. Merrifield then gave presents to Yang and each of his siblings.
“Underneath the Christmas tree, there were a bunch of Christmas presents. And she said that those presents belonged to us. And so I remember opening up my very own Christmas presents for the very first time in my life,” Yang said.
Merrifield’s generosity extended beyond Christmas. She and her family took the Yangs fishing, camping and boating during summers. Her kindness helped shape Yang into the man he is today.
“Because of the inspiration that she had given me as a young student, then I also wanted to impact other lives,” Yang said.
The impact of 9/11 encouraged Yang to enlist in the Wisconsin National Guard in 2001.
“The very last person that I was going to say goodbye to was Anne Merrifield. I didn’t know if I was going to make it back from the war so I just wanted to spend a day with her just thanking her for all that she had done,” Yang said.
After returning from Iraq, Yang decided to become a teacher to help students the way Anne had helped him. Now, Yang is a pastor at The Cross Church in Schofield. He welcomes anyone and everyone, helping as many people as he can through the church.
“What’s really missing in the world today is love. And so I just feel like Christmas is all about love. And the more love we can show towards our family, towards our community, the better that is,” Yang said.
Yang will spend today and tomorrow celebrating Christmas with the people from his church, giving sermons. He still keeps in touch with Anne and her family, boating and fishing with them over the summer when he has time.
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