New Exchange Program Aims
to Create Global Network
by Ferne Burkhardt
Liesa Unger enjoys working with youth and young adults. “I want to support and challenge them to use their gifts,” she said in an interview at the Thomashof Mennonite retreat center in Karlsruhe, Germany. As the first director of the new YAMEN! program, she will have that opportunity.
YAMEN! (Young Anabaptist Mennonite Exchange Network!) is a joint Mennonite World Conference and Mennonite Central Committee program to facilitate church-to-church youth and young adult exchanges and gift-sharing. Pakisa Tshimika, MWC staff person who will supervise the program, sees a global network of Anabaptist-related young people as “one of the roads” in building a world communion.
For one year, young participants will use their gifts in the congregation that receives them. On their return, they will share what they learned during their exchange year with the sending congregation for at least three months, noted Unger.
Besides a spirit of optimism, Unger brings a rich background of training and experience to her new job. She was born in Russia and moved to the Palatinate with her family at age 10. She now lives in Karlsruhe with her husband Wilhelm, pastor of the Thomashof Mennonite Church.
“I always wanted to do voluntary service, but I decided to get professional training and experience first,” she said. Trained as a social worker, she worked for a non-profit agency among the Umsiedler in Germany and eastern Europe. “The day I got a permanent contract, I applied for voluntary service. I was afraid I would lose my vision,” she explained.
As an MCC volunteer, she worked in the inner city of Winnipeg, Manitoba (Canada) from 1990-92. For the past eight years she has directed Christliche Dienst, the German Mennonite voluntary service organization, working with young adults and visiting partnership organizations in Germany, North America, and Israel.
Unger and Tshimika will develop an application, screening, and orientation process for young participants and the churches who will host them and provide jobs. They hope to place five young people the first year, 10 in the second, and 15 in the third year.
Ferne Burkhardt, Petersburg, Ontario, Canada, is MWC News Editor.
