Mission update from Janis Pyle
February 2004

Dear Mission Partners:

To keep in touch, this update features the latest overseas mission news on our Vietnam mission worker, India relationships, Mission Possible brochure, Global Mission Partnerships Annual Conference events, and a new addition to the family of Brazil staff.

Ministry of peace and reconciliation gains growing attention in Vietnam
A social worker by training, mission worker Grace Mishler, Goshen, Ind., is changing the status of persons with disabilities in Vietnam. Grace herself is legally blind. As she networks with people with disabilities and develops a social work curriculum to teach social awareness of people with disabilities, she is opening doors for those with disabilities to take a greater role in Vietnamese society. Grace's mature university-level program already has had far-reaching positive effects for them.

Grace Mishler with students in her “Social Awareness of People with Disabilities” course.

"This new mission venture seeks to promote healing of Vietnamese society and Vietnamese/ US relationships after 25 years of Church of the Brethren absence from Vietnam. We are thrilled that it has grown far beyond our initial expectations," said Mervin Keeney, executive director of Global Mission Partnerships. He added that this joint effort between the Church of the Brethren and Eastern Mennonite Missions is the first such partnership in recent memory.

In 2001 Grace began teaching English to staff in the social work department at National Vietnam University as a means of promoting post-war reconciliation between the United States and Vietnam. Soon her knowledge about working with the disabled and the fact that many persons in Vietnam are disabled from the war (most often from landmines) sharpened her focus. She was invited to develop and implement a course that would help integrate persons with disabilities into society.

Later this month, Keeney and Janis Pyle, coordinator for mission connections, will view firsthand the fruits of Grace's mission work. Over the past three years, Grace has helped build the disabilities education section of the social work department at National Vietnam University. The dean of sociology there, Tran Thi Kim Xuyen, writes: "[Grace] has successfully organized the course 'Social Awareness of People with Disabilities' in 2002 and 2003, which is the first time [this has been] done in Vietnam. A total of 320 third-year students [have] had opportunity to practice their social work skills through working directly with people with disabilities. Besides, the course enhances public awareness of people with disabilities and their needs."

Grace returned to Vietnam in December after spending the fall in the United States strengthening a support team, which includes both Church of the Brethren and Mennonite members. To support this mission effort contact: Church of the Brethren General Board, Finance Office, Attention: Grace Mishler-Vietnam, 1451 Dundee Ave, Elgin, Illinois, 60120-1694.

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