Eastern Mennonite University’s 2019 alumni awardees were invited to speak at the Sunday Homecoming worship service in response to scripture from Isaiah 40 and 43 and again at a private luncheon with family and friends about their connection to EMU.
Following are excerpts from speeches by each awardee.
Wu Wei MDiv ’06, Distinguished Service Award
as delivered by Shen Yun, a pastor and seminary student from China
The book of Isaiah has much to say about my current situation. The wilderness seems impossible to move through, yet God is asking us to dream about the future and see the many possibilities … The history of the Christian church in China has seen many challenges. When I was a young boy growing up in Beijing, the churches were closed, Bibles were illegal and you could be punished for being a Christian. It was a dark time for believers…
It took many years but you can imagine the joy when in the early 1980s, churches began to open, our national seminary opened and I was one of the first students. The teachers were older pastors who had suffered a lot. Many of my classmates are senior pastors and leaders in the church today.
Sometimes I wish I could escape to Harrisonburg again and lead a simple quiet life, but this is not what God called for me to do. Please pray for me and all believers and churches that we will be faithful during this time and that we will be filled with hope…
After graduation, I was assigned to be a pastor at the largest church in downtown Beijing. The church had only been open for a few years. Most of the Christians were quite elderly. The church could not provide a home for me, so I slept on the cot in the room in the church. Even though it was very difficult, the love and strong faith of the elderly believers made a deep impression on me. Even though I was young, they loved and respected me because I had studied theology and was their pastor. At the time, we could not imagine our churches would grow and how many people would seek us us out. I soon became overwhelmed with the hundreds and then thousands of people coming to our church.
When I received the opportunity to come to Eastern Mennonite Seminary, I was ready to go and needed a break from my duties as pastor. There was so much I wanted to learn and see. Moving to the United States and completing my education was challenging, but the years I spent in the U.S. were a wonderful time for me.
After four years in Harrisonburg and five years of pastoring a small church in Kentucky, my wife and I returned to Beijing. It was wonderful to go back home, but it was a return to old challenges. I wanted to return to my work as a pastor but the government bureau that oversees religions asked that I become an overseer of all the churches in Beijing …
Last year, my life changed again, when I was asked to become the chair of our national organization. Now, instead of just churches of Beijing, I am working with churches all over the country. There are more than 60,000 churches and some 25 million believers, so the work is quite overwhelming. Yes, we have grown to many millions but we are still a very small minority in our country … This is not an easy time to be leader. But I am grateful for the many friends and strong support I feel. Sometimes I wish I could escape to Harrisonburg again and lead a simple quiet life, but this is not what God called for me to do. Please pray for me and all believers and churches that we will be faithful during this time and that we will be filled with hope…
At EMS I first understood about Anabaptists — the history, the theology, the suffering, the values. All of this has made a deep impression on me. I especially liked the emphasis on service to humanity: the belief that the pastor is someone who should serve another is something I should always feel and there I saw it lived out.
I am humbled and honored to be selected for the award. Thank you for thinking about a pastor from China and do pray for me, my family, my church in China. I try to live up to all I have learned and experienced.
Liza Heavener ’07, Outstanding Young Alumna
Each of us experiences periods of darkness in our lives when we may feel alone in the wilderness. Periods of darkness and despair at the state of our world and all the challenges we face. But through communities like NEXUS, communities like EMU, we are here to support each other and finding our own unique path as we listen to God’s calling in each of our lives.
By being a place that values community, EMU taught me how to navigate the world in a way that builds strong teams, strong organizations and strong movements for change.
From a young age, I was a bridge-builder, connecting people and building relationships. When reflecting on what EMU has meant to me in my life, I realize it was my turning point. It has been a place of lifelong relationships for me, friendships that will stand the test of the time and professors who were invested in me as a student and have remained in my life to this day. EMU was a safe haven for me and the place where I began to find my rhythm for the first time and to enjoy and even love learning. It was a community where I felt like I belonged.
I spent two semesters in Washington D.C. with the Washington Community Scholars Center and a full semester abroad on the Middle East cross cultural. I played on the field hockey team, led a number of student clubs on campus and sang in Ken Nafziger’s Chamber Choir. Each of these things were developing different life skills for me, lessons and experiences that I could only have received at EMU. I am proud to be an alum of this community that is doing so much to shape the leaders of tomorrow. EMU taught me academics that have served me well professionally. But by being a place that values community, EMU taught me how to navigate the world in a way that builds strong teams, strong organizations and strong movements for change.
In my current professional role at an organization called NEXUS. I wear many hats. I am helping to lead an organization of over 6,000 members from over 70 different countries. Our members hail from some of the most influential families in the world and we are focused on creating social impact in the world.
Of the many hats I wear throughout a typical day at the office, my favorite hat is that of bridgebuilder, where I get to connect a social entrepreneur with someone who can help accelerate their dreams and social impact. Or when a disaster strikes and I can help mobilize a response that will change lives. Early in September of this year, Hurricane Dorian hit the Bahamas. The effects were devastating, the worst hurricane the island has ever seen. And the Bahamian government and governments around the world failed the people there. Relief aid and evacuation were completely halted by the government in the first days because of burractactic roadblocks. That’s when calls started flooded my office. NEXUS members stepping up and saying ,“How can I help?”…
This is what can change the world. Passionate and activated communities of people. It is my greatest joy to build relationships that can help accelerate other people’s dreams and make a difference. And I am only able to do the work that I do today, because of EMU’s role in shaping my life. I am honored today to be recognized for my small contribution to create a better world and am humbled by this award.
Erik Kratz ’02, Alum of the Year
When I read Isaiah 43 about God making a new path through the wilderness and streams through the wasteland, it’s something that really resonated with me as I thought about my steps through my career coming up to this point to receiving this award. I don’t necessarily set out to make a new path, but I think when we are aligned with what is said in the Word and aligned with what Christ is leading us to do, a new path is made.
I’m not trying to make a new path, I’m trying to do the Lord’s will in my life. I am not gifted with the talent to sing like this group or play piano or lead a church in China or lead philanthropists around the world like Liza. I’ve been gifted to play a sport but if I stop at that, if I stop at just playing the sport, I’ve fallen short of the opportunity the Lord has given me to do. He’s made the paths for me.
I’ve been gifted to play a sport but if I stop at that, I’ve fallen short of the opportunity the Lord has given me. He’s made the paths for me.
When I was in high school, we went to Red Lake Canada, in the middle of winter, and if you know anything about Canada, it’s not warm. They had us cutting trees down in the middle of the woods for firewood or the rest of the year. Had somebody not come ahead of us to make the path, we would not have gone very far.
I think of everyone from the class of 1969, and congratulations on your 50th reunion, to the class that is graduating this year. You have cleared a path for us, yet at the same time, you may not see the paths that you create. As the Bible says in Joshua 1:9, Have I not commanded you? Do not be discouraged, be brave. Wherever you are I am with you. The Lord is with you. If you are in the Word and you want to do His will in your life, He is with you. He will make that path.
…You know being in the spotlight, you have people who watch you, but the difference is I have people who care from my time here at EMU and my family and friends, they watch and they care for me, for my wife and my family. They care about what happens to me. I know for a fact, I have teammates who played for large schools, with big time scholarships, who played on television even in college, and they have people that watch them but they don’t have people that care about them.
Here I know I have that and it’s something that throughout my wife and my journey in baseball, it’s been incredible. It’s been something that has been instrumental and paramount to the opportunities we’ve had, leading up to this opportunity to play in the Olympics hopefully and all the steps along the way … from coaches to aunts and uncles and parents who let us stay in their homes while I was in the minor leagues to my mother-in-law… It’s because of the EMU community, the things I learned here but also because of the people I met, those relationships have what us gotten us through, pushed us through and strengthened us.
Thank you for this award and congratulations to my fellow recipients.