Memories of long ago are easily ignited these
days through email listings and blog postings spawning a flurry of emails from
people we have not heard from or about for 20 or 30 years. Such is the case now
as a former colleague in Vietnam Christian Service sent a message that Paul
Longacre, one of our Mennonite colleagues and leaders during those years is dying from chronic lymphocytic leukemia
and has decided not to continue with hospitalizations and ongoing treatments. So he's set things up with hospice.
Viet Nam Christian Service existed between
1966-76, and Judy and I served
Lutheran World Relief as part of that team
between 1966-68.
Many of
us started our lives of service in that war zone so many years ago are now
reminiscing with Paul about his good a faithful service as he faces his final
journey in this life. It also is cause
to reflect on our own good or not so faithful journeys of service to the poor
and victims of war and oppression.
Paul and his first
wife, Doris Janzen Longacre ("More With Less Cookbook"), greeted many
of us very green volunteers and staff when we were deployed to Vietnam - at the center she hosted as our first home and
language center in Saigon. And Paul served as administrator of Mennonite Central
Committee and Vietnam Christian Service programs in Vietnam and later in Akron.,
PA.
Paul has spoken quite
candidly with friends that his days with us are numbered, though of course none
of us knows what that number is -- for him or for ourselves for that matter.
Even though you as a reader of this blog likely
don't know these people, I want to share a couple of comments:
Bill Herod, a Brethren volunteer who worked in Tam
Ky, a very dangerous area of Vietnam during the war and stayed on in Asia for
the rest of his career and is now retired in Cambodia - "So, I owe a great
deal to you, Paul. Your faith - including your faith in us! - and your
collegial support set many of us on paths and roads and up rivers and down
streams we could never have imagined and would never have dared to follow. Thank you and blessings on your journey."
Neil Brenden, who worked in Thailand for many years and still
lives there in retirement:
"Paul, Your ears must have been ringing the other day when Lance Woodruff
and I had lunch in downtown Bangkok – we are both long-timers here. We both
recently had read “Kill Anything That Moves” by Nick Turse and we wondered
together if we had done enough to change the dynamics of the war, which Turse
describes so well. His basic point is that there were enormous civilian
casualties during the “American War”, condoned by the highest levels of the
military command. This was the point that you made so articulately during an
“audience” with Billy Graham at Christmas in 1966. As the spokesperson for a
delegation from VNCS you noted that the American public hears much about the
fatalities among the US military but you encouraged him, as a leader of the
Christian Church, to also bear witness to the reality that it is the VN
civilian population that is suffering the most in this conflict. As I recall,
Dr. Graham did not respond, but one of the chaplains accompanying him shot back
with, “If you guys are so smart what do you think the US policy ought to be in
VN.” This was followed by, “Dr. Graham wants peace just as much as you do and
expressed that in his recent meeting with President Johnson.” And,
incredulously, “You should know that this is not the first place that napalm
has been used. It was first employed in Belgium in WW2.” You patiently listened
to this chaplain, who was apparently trying to “make grade” like the rest of
his colleagues, and repeated your basic point that it was the innocent
civilians who are absorbing most of the suffering in this war and you
encouraged him to bring this message back to the Christian community in the
USA."
I suppose many of us who
lived through the Viet Nam war years of the 1960s and 70s have some guilt
feelings that we were not courageous enough to speak out or do more. And still today, through the media, we daily
witness the terrible effects of war on civilians, many times children, now in
Afghanistan, Syria, and Gaza - the wars and cruelty continues generation after
generation.
I am thankful that there
are those of the next generation of relief volunteers, peacemakers and even
sometimes protesters, who carry on the good work of binding up wounds, giving
comfort and encouraging dialogue between "enemies" - We see this
witness, though not often enough of course, and need to look for ways to
support the peacemakers of this world, like those who have gone on ahead and
are now passing from the scene - like Paul Longacre.
The Peace of the Lord go
with you,
Jerry Aaker
Thanks for this!
ReplyDelete