For The Record

Submit birth, marriage and obituary records online.

Personal Ads

Meet new friends today!

Advertising

Put your message in front of 33,000 readers.

PDF documents on this site require the free Adobe Reader:

Get Adobe Reader

2008-03-04 issue:

Transnational, transcultural

Mennonite higher education—part 5

by J. Daniel Hess

Print Article

The Eastern Mennonite College (Harrisonburg, Va.) class of 1959, of which I was a member, came from farms and small towns such as Sonnenberg, Ohio; Salem, Ore.; Quarryville, Pa.; and Lowville, N.Y. At the time of our graduation, I would not have guessed that many members of this ordinary class would live and work overseas. At last count this included Belize, Canada, Cuba, Costa Rica, Egypt, Ethiopia, Greenland, Haiti, Honduras, Israel, Korea, Lithuania, Nigeria, Puerto Rico, Somalia, Taiwan, Tanzania, Vietnam and Zambia.

How does one account for service on a world stage? First, it’s a legacy. Mennonites have been global wanderers, sometimes forced to hide from persecution, sometimes inclined to find havens to suit their lifestyles.

Second, it’s a collective mindset. Relief and service have been two defining contributions of this small denomination—efforts that take shape close to home in times of local disasters or far from home, where war, floods, earthquakes or poverty cause suffering.

Third, the church’s colleges, universities and seminary reflect the church’s larger mission. Many professors and staff members will have spent a year or two overseas prior to their campus assignment and thus become advocates of international service. These same colleges have instituted international perspectives by sending students overseas for study and serve as a way of earning credits and by bringing internationals onto campus.

The results of these important influences may be illustrated by reports of many alumni.

Honduras: In the late 1980s, when I was helping a crew make a Mennonite Central Committee film about refugees, we visited a huge containment of Salvadoran refugees at Mesa Grande in western Honduras. The place, in isolated mountains, was poverty central.

There we found David Martin (Hesston (Kan.) College, 1985) raising chickens. He and the evangelical group to which he was assigned aspired to give at least one egg each week to each refugee. His work was extraordinary, given the fact that water for the camp came from a dam 11 kilometers away. Daily he and his workmates had to repair pipes broken through hard use and sabotage. Further, he had to solve problems of tropical diseases. Directing David’s work and that of others serving with MCC was Linda Shelly, a 1978 graduate of Bethel College, North Newton, Kan.



Korea and elsewhere: Meanwhile in another part of the world Ruth Nisly (Eastern Mennonite University, 1959) was working with Holt International Children’s Services on behalf of orphans and abandoned children of postwar Korea.

Linda Shelly

The children’s center focused its service on children who, for medical reasons, couldn’t meet U.S. visa requirements. She worked with pregnant women, unstable families and foster families. Trips home were always as an escort for children going to adoptive families in the United States.

A second career has involved her major in English. She has taught English as a foreign language at Lithuania Christian College, Sichuan Province in China (Zigong and Pixian) and Colombia (in La Mesa at a Mennonite school).

A world citizen, Ruth’s vocational choices have taken her to many other countries—India, Ireland and the Philippines.

Haiti and Bolivia: Barry Bartel, president of Bethel College, assumed that he would go directly from college to law school. However, general education classes and one of his three majors—peace studies—turned him in a different direction. He and Brenda, his wife (both 1984 Bethel graduates), went to Haiti (1985-88), where they were project coordinators of MCC rural projects in development, agriculture and health.



Upon returning, Barry obtained a law degree at Willamette University, clerked for Oregon Supreme Court Justice Richard L. Unis and then practiced law. But in 1998, the Bartels volunteered again for overseas work, this time with two children, for a five-year assignment as country directors for MCC in Bolivia, in charge of a multinational staff of 70.

Barry Bartel

Why were the Bartels willing to set aside their local routines and responsibilities for international service? Barry mentioned the family members and friends who modeled for him and his wife the giving of service. Bethel College then built on that foundation with courses, campus guests and the strong sense of community, all of which placed a high value on service.

Puerto Rico: Cross-cultural perspectives are often provided by students who come to our campuses from other cultures and countries. Spanish-speaking Rigoberto Negron (Eastern Mennonite Seminary, 1995) brought to EMS the vigor of his Puerto Rican heritage and a new faith in Jesus Christ.

“Those years [at EMS] have been among the three best years of my life,” says Rigoberto, now pastor of Iglesia Menonita del Cordero in Brownsville, Texas.

His arrival preceded by one year the addition of another Puerto Rican native, José Ortiz, to the EMU/EMS faculty.

Rigoberto recalls trying to learn both English and Greek at the same time. He remembers when class members were put into small groups for discussion, and he struggled to understand what was being said in his group because of the English din in the room. He remembers a faculty member accommodating his slower reading of English by changing the reading assignment for him from number of pages to number of hours. He tells of the class on preaching in which he was permitted to deliver his first sermon in Spanish.

He speaks of appreciation for faculty members who not only taught him but supported him with pastoral counseling. Meanwhile, he could share with them what it meant for his parents and his own family to come to faith.

Rigoberto is now positioned to continue a cross-cultural ministry inasmuch as his church door is knocked on daily by people from Mexico and Central America, seeking sanctuary and solace.

Jordan: Reports such as these may lead to a question, “More precisely, how do transnational, transcultural perspectives get inside a student?” One answer is provided by Dana Graber Ladek (Goshen (Ind.) College, 1997), now living in Amman, Jordan.



Dana works as the Iraq displacement specialist for the International Organization for Migration. IOM tries to assist Iraqis who have been forced to flee their homes.

Dana Graber Ladek

“We assess their needs and provide emergency distributions of food, water and household items such as mattresses, blankets, kitchen sets and hygiene kits.” IOM also implements community assistance projects such as rehabilitating schools and health-care centers, digging wells and teaching skills such as sewing and computer literacy.

Last October, Dana was given the Decade of Student Leadership Award. “How did I end up assisting Iraqis 10 years after graduating from Goshen College?” she asked in her acceptance speech.

“My passion for humanitarian assistance was cultivated at Goshen College. At this small midwestern school, students truly learn to be global citizens. Like many of the people here today, I attended the Study Service Term. I spent a semester in Costa Rica, where I worked with children. I fell in love with working and living in a foreign country, learning the language and embracing the culture. What an opportunity! Few colleges provide such an experience for their students.

“This cross-cultural experience embodies Goshen College’s motto, ‘Culture for Service,’ and one can find it in the classrooms and campus in addition to overseas. The environment on campus encourages exploration and cultural understanding. While at Goshen, I remember dancing to salsa music in the dorms, eating rice and curry cooked by my Indian friends and exploring the culture of my own Mennonite heritage. I felt like I was part of a close-knit community not only on campus but one that extended globally. And professors bring their lifetime of experiences to the campus, where they take a personal interest in their students.

The environment on campus also fosters spiritual growth and encourages students to explore what their faith and beliefs mean to them.

“When I graduated from Goshen, the ‘Culture for Service’ motto stuck with me.”

Last year, the presidents of six institutions of Mennonite higher education said, “Mennonites are world Christians. Our campuses are transnational in scope and multicultural by conviction and presence. We believe great minds think differently and that encountering those differences prepares our students to serve the world community and boldly advocate for a Christian worldview.”

Reader Comments

Add Comments