Nov. 10, 2008 issue
Visitors to celebrate new era in Vietnam
By Aimee Siebert For Mennonite Weekly ReviewWhen Betsy Headrick McCrae returns to Vietnam this month, she will celebrate the change that has come to the Vietnamese Mennonite community since she served there 10 years ago.
The Vietnamese government officially recognized the Mennonite denomination in October 2007.
Now, Vietnamese Mennonites “can publicly be who they are,” McCrae said. “They’re a partner in the world.”
McCrae is a member of a delegation from Mennonite World Conference that will attend the Official Organizing Conference of the Mennonite Church of Vietnam Nov. 15-17.
The delegation comprises seven individuals who represent Mennonites from five continents.
McCrae, who represents North America, said the delegation “serves as an incarnation of the prayers and support from all around the world that hold up the Mennonite Church of Vietnam as it begins a new era as a light shining brightly for all to see.”
McCrae, pastor of Glennon Heights Mennonite Church, Lakewood, Colo., and her husband, Bruce, served in Vietnam as country representatives for Mennonite Central Committee.
They met in Congo (then Zaire), where she served with MCC and he with Habitat for Humanity. Together with their daughters, they moved to Hanoi, Vietnam, where they served from 1993 to 1998.
At that time it was illegal to proselytize or to do church-related activities. As MCC representatives, “we were openly Christian ourselves, but we didn’t work directly with the church,” McCrae said.
Instead, MCC and McCrae witnessed through their actions. MCC workers, with the help of Vietnamese colleagues, taught English, helped with rural community development, physical therapy and handicraft initiatives.
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