Thank you for your excellent reporting on the diverse Anabaptist world. What prompts me to write is partly the excellent article on North Korea by Katerina Parsons from the Mennonite Central Committee Washington Office (Washington Witness, Dec. 23). Our interest is partly through our friendship with Doug Hostetter, recently of the MCC United Nations Office, and his amazing efforts with the North Korean U.N. mission, but also through our friendship with Steven and Joy Yoon, who have worked in North Korea for a dozen years. We have established a small Bruderhof community near where they live in Taebec, South Korea. Joy’s Yoon’s recent book, Discovering Joy, which describes living and serving in North Korea, is worth reading.
Another important reason for writing is to mention that this year is of great significance to both MCC and the Bruderhof, as both are celebrating 100-year anniversaries. Help from Orie Miller and MCC was crucial in arranging for the Bruderhof to relocate in 1940-41 to Paraguay from England, the only nation that would allow us in, with the same privileges as Mennonites. Without Miller’s help, one wonders what our movement’s fate would have been.
Martin Johnson
Ulster Park, N.Y.
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