Mission Study Group Witnesses New Life in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam
By Brenda Wilkinson
Children in the Sem Sokha/Khnar Thmei UMC school, Siem Reap province, Cambodia.
Fellowship and enduring faith gained new meaning for participants in the February 2001 Mission Study Tour as they shared in the daily lives of hosts in three different countries in southeast Asia.
The study tour “Lands and People of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam,” was sponsored by the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries. Each year the board offers an opportunity for a diverse groups of United Methodists to experience in-depth travel and study in a selected region of the world. This year’s tour brought together 20 United Methodist clergy and lay persons from around the country for worship and study in a part of the world where Christianity is in its infancy.
One participant, Ken Jacquette of Ohio, spoke movingly of God’s presence in Cambodia. “Each day has been filled with the joy of what God is doing here, the vision of what He will yet do, and the growing faith, love, and hope of His people. With many Christians being less than three years in their faith, there is a great vibrancy and excitement. A large percentage of the pastors are young in both spiritual and physical age. May God continue to bless the church, the pastors, the missionaries, and all that is happening to further His reign in Cambodia."
Jenny Schroeder of Wisconsin described her awe that such strong faith exists in the face of challenges that the United Methodist Church in America has not had to overcome. “I was impressed with those we met who were born here, moved to the States and are now returning to share the Good News, she said. “Vietnamese have heard about Wesley and want to claim his identification.”
While there is a growing United Methodist presence in southeast Asia, the unrestricted freedom enjoyed in the United States and in some other countries is a fragile to non-existent commodity in parts of southeast Asia.
Study tour participant Lisa Beth Steigerwald of Texas observed, “In Cambodia we were free to ask questions and encourage the student pastors and church members to learn about the work of the Methodist Church in Cambodia. We felt their desire for hope and their joyous faith in God, but the country was so poor with need at every turn. In Vietnam the economy is obviously better, the people better fed, the fields better irrigated, livestock fatter, and roads better maintained. However, the church is more restricted. I worried that our very presence placed our hosts at risk. They humbled us with their great faith--so great as to make themselves vulnerable to the state.”
Steigerwald and the other participants will share their observations throughout their conferences and in annual Summer Schools of Christian Mission, sponsored by the Women’s Division of GBGM. She said she would want to do this in a way that honors the faith of the people she met. “Perhaps gentle, faithful prayer is the best way to do this, as I help teach others in the U.S. about the church--the body of Christ in Vietnam... I have never lived with anything but the freedom to vote as I choose, to worship where and when I choose, to live my life any way that I choose. Christians here have never experienced this privilege. Their faith makes me realize how little it is that I sacrifice for Christ.”
And that faith and hope must be nurtured, according to Ken Ehrmen of Ohio, who said, “Hope is when in the midst of uncertainty, one keeps making the effort. In all that we saw and experienced, I pray that we might be agents of hope.”
There was opportunity to see people going about their everyday chores. As the group left Hanoi, Nancy Myers of Illinois described how the view of people and fields where food is harvested made her pray for abundance. “We rode by rice paddies with people watering them; we saw people with hoes, and a man plowing with oxen. There were two couples using a water swing basket to pull water from a canal to the field. How interesting it is to see agriculture in its primitive state–so far removed from the way of farming in the U.S. with our expensive equipment. Feeding people around our world is the greatest need we have.”
Not everyone on the tour was seeing southeast Asia for the first time. Lu and Kady Herr-Yang were born in Laos and now live in Wisconsin. The Yangs were returning home for the first time in 25 years.
The region’s unique place in United States history as the site of one of the most unpopular wars ever fought by the American military also resonated with some participants. The Rev. Jim Markley of Pennsylvania served four years in southeast Asia with the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. He acknowledged feeling apprehensive about returning to an area that had been devastated by U.S. bombs during the war. Markley said he trusted that God would “show him wonderful and great things” during his return to the region.
A significant feature of the study tour ministry is its face-to-face dialogue and worship of Christians from the U.S. with people of the church from other cultures who encounter different challenges in their attempt to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
In the words of participant William Meekins Jr., of Ohio, “It is one thing to read about matters but another to walk where others have walked in the past. The study tour allowed me to journey with Lu and Kady as they returned home and evoked memories of my first trip to the Motherland ....I am thankful that I had this opportunity to witness the story of faith in southeast Asia. My goal, of course, is to share my enthusiasm and get persons, particularly those in my African American community, excited about mission work and building relationships in this part of the world.
Bill Harvey of Ohio summed up the experience in a final prayer saying,“Thank you, God, for this rich and varied experience. Help me to handle my feeling about the Genocide Museum and the Killings Fields. Harmless, helpless people, senselessly murdered--and much of the infrastructure senselessly destroyed. Help us to be aware of the suffering of your people around the world and know what we can do about it. Thank you for the Cambodian Christians and for the Good News of Christ that is bringing new life to the people in Southeast Asia...”
More Information:
- Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos: Lands and People, Mission Study for 2001-2002
- Global Connections: Cambodia
- Global Connections: Laos
- Global Connections: Vietnam