Mary Sue was a colleague of ours in Vietnam in 1967 working as a nurse at the Evangelical hospital in Nha Trang during her service as a volunteer with the Church of the Brethren. Her devotional includes a story from her experience there, which she calls a "life changing experience". She, as well as many of us, had such life changing experiences during our time in Vietnam.
What we always remember about Mary Sue is that she accompanied us during Judy's labor and delivery of our first son, Bret - I remember it as a tense few days that ended in a great and happy relief. This joyful event of ours happened just before a very difficult time for Mary Sue; within a few days she received news that her father was seriously ill and she needed to make haste to travel home. At the same time as the staff of the hospital (mostly Mennonites) got news of Mary Sue's father, they were told of the death of a dear friend and fellow worker, Karl Kaufman, who had worked with them at the hospital. He had just left Vietnam after serving as a Mennonite volunteer for three years and planned to buy a motorcycle in Singapore and travel overland to Europe. Before he even was out of Singapore he had a tragic accident and died in that city.
Mary Sue refers to the book she later wrote which was a compilation of her journal entries during her time in Vietnam. One of her last journal entries was about Bret's birth... her last was about Karl's death.....
September 14, 1967
"Another week come and gone and where to? It has been a busy one for us. Judy Aaker, the wife of our VNCS (Vietnam Christian Service) program director had her first baby here yesterday. She had come from Saigon about two weeks ago to wait. Then last Sunday evening she began to have some contractions which continued through Monday and Tuesday. Tuesday night they got hard so the three of us - she, her husband and I - sat up all night timing them. Still no baby. So, on two hours of sleep, I went back to work. Finally, at 4:30 pm Wednesday, a seven pound, seven ounce boy appeared on the scene. Everyone was relieved that things went well."
Indeed, this was another life changing experience for us and we have always been thankful to Mary Sue and the other nurses for their accompaniment during that time.
Mary Sue left Vietnam in a hurry and she never came back. In the last page of her book she wrote this:
(Those of us who have gone through culture shock and reverse culture shock will identify with this)
In one short week's time I have been uprooted from one home and returned to another. Culture shock, in a milder form, assails me again. It will decrease, I am sure, as it did in Vietnam when I get caught up in the daily life of the culture and in working with people again. For then I will be reminded over and over, not of differences, but of similarities.
And for you, my friends, I pray that you may be as richly blessed in your place of service- whether home, shop, here or far away- as I was in those past eighteen months in Vietnam.
To which I say AMEN!
Mary Sue at the hospital in Nha Trang in 1967
Karl
Constructing a coffins for a patient who died without family present
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