My Dad was “Talking” to Me Recently

Meeting a Mentor of Dad’s

I was intrigued to visit friends at East Chestnut Street Mennonite Church (Lancaster, Pa.) on May 12, 2024. The speaker for the morning was a man named Don Sensenig, who I know my Dad and Mom met in Vietnam in 1967, amidst the heat of that terrible war.

Don was just a young man at the time, probably in his mid to late 20s, responding to what he felt was a call to serve through Eastern Mennonite Missions in Vietnam from 1963 to 1973. Dad and Mom were “young” too, considering. Dad was just 50 and Mom was a youthful 43. My oldest daughter’s age now!

Mom and Dad took an opportunity to travel around the world, first landing in Amsterdam, for a church gathering that happens once-every-five-years in the Mennonite churches of the world. From Amsterdam they traveled to Paris where a couple who had visited us in the U.S. hosted them, and took them to see the sights in that part of France. From there Mom and Dad went to the Holy Lands and other countries (India, Thailand) where they wanted to meet various missionaries they had supported. They also visited Saigon, Vietnam where bombs and shots were firing through the nights.

This is where Mom and Dad met Don Sensenig, who was moved to live in Vietnam during those difficult years as a way of showing the Vietnamese people that not all Americans were there killing people. (My brother-in-law, in fact, was a U.S. medic who was touched and weighed down with the plight of the children in Vietnam who were sometimes used as bombs themselves.)

Dad brought home his experiences the best he could, speaking in churches, to organizations, to farmers at local meetings, to friends, to his family. He was not a preacher but a committed deacon in the church who cared deeply about poverty around the world. My Dad was so impressed at that time to learn that some volunteers were doing their best to help others in a very difficult situation and horrible war. He loved sharing those stories with us as children and older grandchildren.

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But back to this mentor. I was fascinated to hear that after Don Sensenig’s father died an early death, his mother Elta, married Orie Miller an extraordinary man. One of Orie’s uncles was Moses P. Miller, my grandfather’s father. For awhile Orie and Elta lived near where my Dad and Mom lived, south of Middlebury, Indiana (if you are trying to follow).

Orie was the spark for beginning many church organizations after World War 1 and 2. He constantly saw opportunities to help, such as MCC (Mennonite Central Committee) that organizes various kinds of relief, education (colleges such as Goshen and Eastern Mennonite), mission work, peacemaking, postwar reconstruction, mental health issues—the beginnings of many long-term Mennonite organizations. And surely part of the inspiration for the current Don Sensenig, now in his 80s, was to be very active and helpful in worldwide service as well. Today elderly Vietnamese refugees who came to the U.S. after the war was over sometimes need a translator for their medical care—someone who knows the very tricky/difficult Vietnamese language and English. Doctors and others know to call for Don’s language services.

Don told us about a very difficult night in Saigon when 50 or more people sought shelter from the Tet Offensive of 1968 … (a coordinated series of North Vietnamese attacks on more than 100 cities and outposts in South Vietnam. See History.com). Don and his wife Doris lived in a plain cement block house of two stories, and he still remembers that about 50 people headed into that house for overnight protection from the bombs and destruction. I doubt that anyone slept that night.

Sensenig has been a volunteer facilitator with the Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Center for Community Peacemaking. A reporter, Paul Souder, noted that since 2003, “Sensenig helped in 64 incidents to see that a victim and offender make things right between them. To make things right and bridge the divide between people is a theme that runs through Sensenig’s years of service. Don said it was challenging, to say the least, to “live in the middle of a conflict involving massive violence by our own country, while trying to grow into and live out a gospel of peace and nonviolence.” There he and his young family, along with Mennonite co-workers, were involved in church-building and relief service, marked by “deep fellowship, debate, prayer, sadness, and learning together. We are much enriched by our Vietnamese sisters and brothers who joined us on the journey.” For more, see Eastern Mennonite University news.

Don’s wife, Doris, who was also present at the church service on May 12, (Mother’s Day), shared in the above interview that “even more telling than these public roles are his behind-the-scenes activities – volunteering in preschool Sunday School classes; washing windows for church spring cleaning; taking service workers to and from the airport; helping mentally challenged people with paperwork, appointments, or other needs; washing the dishes each evening. These ‘smaller’ unpaid actions indicate a servant’s heart to me,” Doris said.

I happily shook Don’s hand as we left the service, and told him, just briefly, how much his testimony and witness meant for Dad in Vietnam in 1967.  

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I loved hearing this history from Don, Doris, and remembering the teachings Dad tried to etch into all of us. We thank Dad for being the amazing Dad he was in spite of only an 8^th grade education and working as a farmer most of his life. He served in World War 2 as a conscientious objector and worked in a mental hospital and road work in Glacier National Park in addition to other locations.

Vernon U. Miller, “Dad” died of natural causes in 2006 at the age of 89, but he became alive to me again on that Sunday and in the weeks since, remembering his passion and dedication to help needy people around the world, however he could—and however we today—are able.

A wonderful Father’s Day coming up for you somewhere in the heavens, Dad. Love, Melodie

For more on Dad’s story (and Mom’s) you can find or buy our family memoir here.

For more on the extraordinary life of Orie O. Miller, you can find a very complete history here.

What messages, experiences, or stories have stuck with you?

I’d love to hear comments!