Mennonite Weekly Review

ELKHART, Ind. — Since they began their careers, Lois and Wayne Hochstetler have worked in the central United States to offer people support and encouragement — as a social worker and therapist and a pastor, respectively.

Wayne Hochstetler, Mary Raber and Lois Hochstetler play Scrabble in Odessa, Ukraine, where Raber is a mission worker. — Photo by MMN

With Mennonite Mission Network, their only change has been in location.

The Hochstetlers are worker care specialists based in London — a hub that allows them to easily and quickly get to workers in mission fields to encourage them, offer counseling, help with adjustments and provide listening ears.

Through travel, and technology that includes inexpensive Internet-based phone calls, they augment the worker support that exists at MMN’s U.S.-based offices.

The Hochstetlers began their assignment in early 2009.

“You can go back into the Bible and see instances of worker care,” said Deb Byler, director of worker care. “Paul talks about sending him Timothy. He needed support and a presence in person. Care has always been needed, but it has not always been recognized as needed.”

When workers do not receive support, breakdowns occur. In today’s mission fields, Byler said, workers are spread out, rarely working among other expatriates who might be able to provide cultural support.

The Hochstetlers wrote: “We are finding that our mission workers are extremely dedicated to their callings, that they are hardworking and uncomplaining… . They give much energy to understanding the language of cultures that are very different from those they grew up in.”

Lois Hochstetler said one mission worker asked them to bring with them a Scrabble game to play together in English — a respite from language learning.

“Isolation seems to be a common theme,” the couple wrote. “And they all serve on shoestring budgets in a time of a faltering economy.”

Byler said today’s world is not a stable place. Families change locations, schools and churches. Families struggle. Relationships end. The upheaval in society affects the mission field as well.

Lois Hochstetler said many workers avoid important aspects of self-care, fearing that their financial supporters could see those actions as being frivolous and not central to mission.

Lois Hochstetler served as executive director for Samaritan Counseling Center in Hutchinson, Kan., and as a counselor and clinical social worker before ending a decade of work as a mental health clinician at Twin Cities Behavioral Health in Normal, Ill., in January. At that time, Wayne Hochstetler ended a decade as conference minister for Illinois Mennonite Conference. During half of that time, he also served as a conference minister for Central District Conference. He has pastored four congregations in Colorado, Illinois and Kansas.