Mennonite Central Committee

Father and daughter benefitted from MCC exchange

Press Release, January 2001

Tulham Prabu, a Mennonite pastor, and his daughter, Debora, grew up differently - he as a Muslim, she as a Mennonite.

As dissimilar as their childhoods were, as young adult Christians they both participated in the International Volunteer Exchange Program (IVEP).

In the on-the-job training program sponsored by Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) for 19- to 30- year-olds, the Indonesians spent a year in the United States and Canada, he 1972 to 1973, she 1999 to 2000.

Like all IVEP participants, they lived with Mennonite families and trained in assignments related to their skills and interests.

But unlike some participants - who may return home hard-pressed to find someone to understand their cross-cultural experiences — Debora, 25, knew she'd have a captive audience with her father.

They could share memories of working in nursing homes with the elderly. Debora, a college graduate in vocal music, worked in the activities department in a Mennonite nursing home in Abbotsford, B.C.

Her father had worked as an orderly in nursing homes in Archbold, Ohio, and in Winnipeg, Man.

"[The elderly] would invite me to come their rooms, and I'd sing for them," Debora said. "Many of them were German people. And so our conversations were kind of funny, with them not being able to hear, and my Indonesian accent.

"But I learned a little bit of German, like 'guten morgen,' [good morning] or 'danke shˆn' [thank you]. And they'd ask me to sing to them in Indonesian.

"I'd try to sing songs that were familiar to them, that they knew in German or English, and they'd sing along."

Tulham - a pastor at the Mennonite congregation in the village of Welahan, where about 90 percent of the people are Muslim - said his work with the elderly prompted him to encourage Debora to do the same.

"I told her that if she really wanted to go into IVEP, she should try, and that she could help older people and get a good feeling from working with them," Tulham said.

Tulham grew up Muslim and accepted Christ in high school. He took a huge leap in converting from Islam to Christianity and yet another in leaving the East for the West for a year.

"I think it was a bridge-building time in North America, to be a part of the international brotherhood," he said.

His past work with the elderly has sparked a recent vision to build a nursing home on the church property, adjacent to a Muslim mosque only yards away. His congregation is discussing the possibility.

Crossing the global church bridge her father helped build has also inspired Debora's ministry. Upon her return in late summer, she joined the staff of the GKMI Anugerah church, a large Mennonite congregation in Jakarta, to work in music ministry.

MCC strongly encourages IVEP participants to work in their home communities for a year after the program, because they come to North America through a trainee visa. In 2000 to 2001, 64 people from 27 countries are IVEP trainees.

Debora teaches voice lessons to adults and began a children's choir in October. In the choir, she hopes to use what she learned in North American churches about encouraging children to express their gifts.

"The way children are raised here and in Canada is quite different," she said. "In Canada, they're encouraged to be brave, to sing out, to express themselves.

"But here, they are not expected to be creative, but to be quiet, to be polite, to do as they're told."

To start the choir, she faced some resistance from parents. They said they had tried a choir before, but it had failed.

But she persisted, and 26 children are rehearsing once a week for a Christmas program.

"Parents are really surprised that the children love it so much," she said.