Ministry And Meditation: The Spiritual Journey Of Marchiene Vroon Rienstra -- By: Debra Rienstra

Journal: Priscilla Papers
Volume: PP 05:4 (Fall 1991)
Article: Ministry And Meditation: The Spiritual Journey Of Marchiene Vroon Rienstra
Author: Debra Rienstra


Ministry And Meditation:
The Spiritual Journey Of Marchiene Vroon Rienstra

Debra Rienstra

Marchiene faced a painful choice. She could remain Christian Reformed and continue to fight for women’s ordination—and be denied the opportunity to use her gifts. Or she could leave the denomination and follow her call elsewhere. After many weeks of prayer and struggle, she and her family concluded that her call was to be a woman in ministry.

This article is from a chapter in the book For Such a Time as This: Twenty-six Women of Vision and Faith Tell Their Stories, ed. Lillian Grissen. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1991. Reprinted by permission.

As the ship on which she was a passenger glided into New York harbor just before dawn one cool summer morning in 1955, Marchiene Vroon knew that the lady of freedom, with torch thrust proudly into the sky, was welcoming her to her own country. Marchiene was fourteen years old. Up until this time, Pakistan had been home to her. Born in Rangoon, Burma, in 1941, while her parents were traveling to their first missionary post in India, Marchiene until now had seen the United States only once.

For Marchiene, life in the States—specifically, in Grand Rapids, Michigan—brought both homesickness and excitement. She missed the beautiful dark-skinned people in brightly colored saris; the smells of curry, fragrant flowers, and citrus trees; the camel bells chiming softly as she fell asleep each night. But she was also excited about all that was foreign to her here.

One thing surprised her immediately: everyone she met at school and church identified strongly with the Christian Reformed Church. She knew, of course, that the CRC was her parents’ home denomination, but she had never met anyone else from this church before. With missionaries from many Christian denominations—Methodists, Church of the Brethren, Catholic, and others—Dr. Vroon had helped found the United Christian Hospital in Lahore. To Marchiene, her family and the other missionaries had simply been Christians in a sea of Muslims.

It was strange, she thought, that her new schoolmates in the States saw themselves as “Christian Reformed” rather than just as “Christian.” But she managed, with a bit of struggle, to adjust to this and many other “strange” things in her not-quite-home-land.

Three years after she arrived in the States, Marchiene graduated from Grand Rapids Christian High School, and in 1958 she entered Calvin College in Grand Rapids. Her parents went to Nigeria; her father was one of the first doctors sent to Nigeria by the Christian Reformed Church. During those years, Marchiene struggled with what God might be calling her to do.

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