New MCC staff gather from a patchwork of cultures

In a decades-old rhythm, each year new Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) leaders and staff converge on the MCC campus in the small town of Akron, Pennsylvania, to prepare for assignments.

Half a century ago, in 1974, that meant new workers would travel from U.S. states like Indiana or Washington, or Canadian provinces such as Ontario or Manitoba – then scatter to serve across the globe or throughout Canada and the U.S.

Today, though, the face of orientation is far more global.

In 2024, MCC orientation participants were from a total of 32 countries, including Canada and the U.S.

Think of a worker from Colombia overseeing a young adult program in Cambodia, or one from Bangladesh coordinating MCC’s programs in Burundi. One couple from Uganda prepares to lead MCC’s work in South Sudan; another from Guatemala moves into a leadership role in Bolivia.

Add in a host of staff serving in their home countries – from Haiti to Ethiopia to India. And MCC now has at least one orientation a year that is entirely virtual, a nod to how difficult it can be to get visas to the U.S. or to leave responsibilities at home.

That’s a lot of change.

But this year – as in 1974 – MCC’s emerging leaders continue to gather, learn, then scatter out to the corners of the globe united by a common mission: Serving in the name of Christ.

“Our love to Christ is expressed in serving others,” shared Ann Schmidt in 1974 as she began an assignment in Germany working with Mennonites coming from Russia.

That’s exactly the ethos that Ron Ratzlaff had absorbed from his Mennonite Brethren church and community in British Columbia. But in 1974, a year out of university and recently married, “I thought it was time to get a job in the tech world and make big money.”

His wife Martha had other ideas: Why don’t we consider volunteering with MCC, she asked. He made what he thought was a safe bet. They’d apply, he told her, but he had to be able to work in his field, computer science. What were the chances?

By August of 1974, though, he and Martha were posing on the lawn of MCC’s campus in Akron, Pennsylvania, for orientation photos before heading to Nigeria with the Teachers Abroad Program.

There, Ron served as a lecturer in computer science and he was assigned the task of developing a “technology strategic plan for the university.” He did the research which included visiting a number of UK universities to develop the plan. On its approval, he helped to build the technological capacity of the university. This computer center played a key role in training Nigerian programmers so they could teach others.

Orientation, he remembers, set the stage for the young couple to not only teach their skills to others, but to live out their belief in service, “to act as Jesus followers and share our faith,” as he puts it.

In the decades that followed, he engaged in a technology career which took Martha and Ron to multiple cities in Canada as well as Boston, Massachusetts. He and Martha remembered how enriching and rewarding their time with MCC had been – so much so that, after retiring, Ron worked at MCC British Columbia, and following that they served together as MCC representatives in Kenya from 2008 to 2013. 

Whether through his work as part of a global group of young Anabaptist leaders for Mennonite World Conference or his year in the U.S. through MCC’s 2018-2019 International Volunteer Exchange Program (IVEP), Oscar Suárez, who is from Ibagué, Colombia, has prized the chance to connect across cultures and to live out his Anabaptist faith.

So when a friend pointed out an MCC opening for an international facilitator to serve in Cambodia with the Seek program, a young adult program focused on service, discipleship training and cross-cultural sharing, Oscar was intrigued but not quite ready to act.

Then, in April 2024, at a meeting of IVEP alumni in Bogotá, Colombia’s capital city, memories of his time with MCC and MWC – of crossing cultures, of being part of a global team – came rushing back.

“Being able to connect with people with different languages, with different faith traditions, I wanted this again,” he says.

Before the meeting ended, he had pulled out his phone and pushed send on an initial application for the MCC position.

He moved to Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital, in August, relishing the work of digging into Anabaptist theology and exploring ideas with the Seek team for learning and reflection. “I’m learning a lot,” he says.

That learning continued with MCC orientation in Akron in October, a deep dive into the organization. But the moment that moved him the most was when the group visited a nearby Material Resources Center, seeing cartons of MCC canned meat and hearing how meat was going out to places like Ukraine.

In Ibagué, his mom had helped with a project reaching out to displaced people. He’d seen those cans and knew the difference they could make.

Tears filled his eyes as he thought of those who would receive the meat. Not only would they have something to eat. “They will feel the love of God,” he says, “from people they don’t know.” He was struck by the work of the volunteers who had helped to can it, and of those across the world risking their lives to give it out.

“I was praying at that moment and saying, ‘Thank you God. This is where I want to be.’”

MCC is where John Bhattacharjee, of Kolkata, India, has chosen to be for the last 25 years. “I see that God is working in MCC,” he says.

Opting for Christian service over the corporate world, John was 22 when he was hired as an assistant to MCC India’s chief accountant. Funding from MCC had helped him pay for a diploma program in computer science. “How MCC has assisted me, I want to give more back to MCC in every way possible,” he says.

He went on to work with MCC in financial services and the education sector, as a project officer and program associate, and in information technology, including a three-year stint with the IT team in Akron.

“Whatever was thrown out to me, I grabbed it and tried to do my best,” he remembers. 

He and his wife Deepti Bhattacharjee were named as MCC representatives in India in 2021 – the first staff from India to be named to that position in some 80 years of MCC presence in the country. “I love engaging new challenges,” he says.

Being on a global team is part of what draws people to MCC and keeps them engaged.

“We’ve just found it really very fulfilling to be part of international teams supporting partners to help vulnerable people improve their lives,” says Anne Marie Stoner-Eby.

She and her husband Scott Stoner-Eby left their home in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, a decade ago to serve with MCC, first in Rwanda and Burundi, and then in Kenya and Tanzania. This summer, they became area directors for MCC’s work in Europe and the Middle East.

Scott stresses that one of the first words that people often use when describing MCC culture or MCC workers is humility – and a deep respect for partners and participants in projects MCC is supporting.

Even as MCC is growing, and as resources for projects increase, “I feel like the values and the ways MCC wants to work are ones that I also hold.” 

He prizes the commitment of MCC to supporting and building the capacity of partners and people in the communities where they work. “It’s helping people to improve their own lives.”

That emphasis – long a part of the DNA of MCC’s work – comes through clearly, even for those who are new to MCC.

Take Chris and Rebecca Alvarez, of Winnipeg, Manitoba. Looking for a way to put his master’s degree in international development and globalization from the University of Ottawa into action, they spotted an opening for MCC representatives in Guatemala and El Salvador.

He felt that the position brought together the skills he’d been learning, his education and his family background. While he was born in Canada, his dad’s side of the family is from El Salvador and his mom is from Chile.

“We have two young girls,” Chris says. “We want to introduce them to their culture, their language and give them the gift of their worldview being expanded. Even at 2 and 4, how can we set them on a path to doing justice and loving mercy?”

With MCC, Rebecca notes, she quickly realized she would not be the one building initiatives or capacity by herself. “But I’m supporting organizations who are,” she says. “That’s what really excites me.”

And that’s a trajectory that MCC workers have been living out over decades, stressed Chris.

In Akron, in between sessions, Chris – whose undergraduate degree from Canadian Mennonite University is in theology – said his thoughts kept turning to the generations and generations of people, like Tamar and others, whose lineage eventually led to Jesus. Did they know how significant their family line would be?

Maybe, Chris says, the work that he and Rebecca do won’t be world-shifting, but through time what may grow from the seeds they and others have planted?

“Those who come before us and those who come after us, all of us are just contributing to this genealogy of work that I hope will one day bring us to see Jesus again.”