Vy Nguyen and his father were resettled in the U.S. from Vietnam by Disciples and Church World Service in 1990. Nguyen is now the assistant director for CWS's California/Southwest Region. Photo: Concordia College

By Eric Nance Woehler, DisciplesWorld contributing writer

(2/24/09) — The new assistant director for Church World Service’s California/Southwest Region brings notable professional credentials to the gig: ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Disciples Peace Fellow, University of Chicago divinity grad, former San Francisco Bay Area city coordinator for Lutheran Volunteer Corps.

But it’s Vy Nguyen’s personal background that might prove most valuable in his new position with the global, ecumenical organization.

Nguyen is one of the 6,188 Vietnamese refugees whom Disciples had helped resettle through 2008. During the Vietnam War, Nguyen’s dad befriended Robert Grimes, an American living in Vietnam at the time. The two remained in contact after Grimes returned to the United States. With assistance from Grimes' home congregation, East Dallas Christian Church, as well as Refugee and Immigration Ministries with Disciples Home Missions and Church World Service, the Nguyens resettled to the United States on July 5, 1990 — two days after the boy’s eighth birthday.

East Dallas Christian members helped the Nguyens put together a new life. They helped them find a garage apartment. They helped the father find a job with the YMCA. They eventually helped bring Vy’s mom and siblings to the United States, too. And they involved Vy in the church’s youth program.

“A whole lot of members took care of me, basically,” Nguyen said. “The church was the place where I started to ask and understand, What am I doing here?”

Byron and Yvonne Clark were two of the East Dallas Christian members who met the boy and his dad at the airport upon their arrival in the United States. Their involvement with the family began before even then, as they had worked through their Sunday school class to raise seed money for the refugees while they awaited departure from a United Nations camp in the Philippines. The Clarks remain in contact with Nguyen, now 26 years old.

“It’s been exciting to watch Vy’s progress,” Byron Clark said. “It’s interesting to see what you can do — what can come from your efforts.”

Byron Clark said that, early on, he saw “no indication” that Nguyen might one day enter ministry. Of course, neither did Nguyen himself. He had majored in religion at Texas Christian University and served as a Disciples Peace Fellow. And it was at TCU that Nguyen began to contemplate, “What the heck does all of this mean?” But it wasn’t until beginning seminary studies that Nguyen said his calling gathered specificity.Some watershed moments:

•    In 2005, Nguyen participated in a Week of Compassion trip to Bosnia, where he witnessed Church World Service’s efforts to resettle families displaced by that war. “That brought back a lot of memories and ignited some internal reflection,” he said.

•    Jennifer Riggs, director of Refugee and Immigration Ministries, contacted Nguyen after his first year at the University of Chicago and invited him for a visit to her office in Indianapolis. “She had all of my paperwork (from his resettlement to the United States from Vietnam). I had never seen this stuff before. It was like going back to Ellis Island for me.”

•    Nguyen in 2006 began attending Chicago’s First Vietnamese United Methodist Church. Interviews with different generations there informed Nguyen’s master’s thesis on the role of the church within the refugee community. “The church is how you hang on to a culture that is no longer there. It’s how you hold on to your past and memories and pass them on to your children. Religion helps you survive in a new life and a new land.”

Nguyen took the position with Lutheran Volunteer Corps out of seminary; he describes his experience there as “working at the intersection of faith and justice for a year and a half.” In November 2008, Church World Service interviewed him, but, before he would start his new job, Nguyen slipped in a vacation: his first return visit to Vietnam since fleeing with his father.

“When my dad and I left Vietnam, we had fled by boat at night. This time, my plane landed at nighttime — it was a very strange feeling,” he said. “I went back to the village where I grew up (Long Khanh in southeastern Vietnam) and met my grandmother and other relatives. I didn’t remember any of them, but they told me stories from when I was a kid — what it was like. That was really powerful.”

Two weeks later, Nguyen again was leaving Vietnam to kick off a new journey. Church World Service — formed in 1946 when American congregations joined forces to help rebuild communities and lives ravaged during World War II — works with partners to eradicate hunger and poverty and to promote peace and justice around the world through sustainable grassroots development, disaster relief, refugee assistance, education and advocacy. Nguyen said his role is sharing stories of that relief work with local faith communities and encouraging them to get and stay involved.

Riggs said Nguyen’s willingness to share his own story as a former refugee will “help bridge that gap between the need for funding and the real change those funds can bring to the lives of God’s children around the world.”

Added Nguyen: “Church World Service has again become a part of my life as they were when I first came 20 years ago, only this time I am joining them in their work to help others who are seeking refuge from violence, war, poverty, starvation, disease and oppression.”

 
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