Don Voth's recollection of the stories he and Leland Good shared at Alan’s Memorial Service, May 12, 2018

            Leland and I (Don) were introduced by Clair Hochstetler and invited to two chairs at the front.  We came up and actually stood, each with a piece of paper from which to read, and I had a small book with me.  Since Mr. Heinz Plato had just read a passage from the Bible in German, I started by saying something like “Since we are dealing with language, I’d like to tell you about one little puzzle.  In German the word “ich,” means “I or me.”  In the Ede language, which we learned in Banmethuot, Vietnam, the same word means “you.”

            Then I began to read the little dialogue we had prepared in the Ede language, but Lee suggested that we tell our stories first.  So I suggested that he tell his story about Alan.

            Leland told about how “we” had tricked Alan.  Alan depended heavily on his glasses, so one time while he was taking a shower “we” took his glasses and hid them.  When Alan finished the shower he reached for the glasses, and they weren’t there.  And, of course, his vision was such that he really couldn’t look for them effectively.

            Then I told my story.  I told just a bit about how the construction for which Alan was responsible was done at the leprosy hospital, in very primitive circumstances, getting sand from a river in our Dodge 4 x 4, and the timber from a tree in the nearby jungle.  Still, in just a little more than a year the two wards were finished, and Alan was transferred to the coastal city of Nhatrang to supervise construction of a residence, warehouse, and a clinic building for a hospital the MCC was establishing with the Evangelical Church of Vietnam.   For that the lumber was also cut in the jungle nearby the leprosy hospital and hauled down to Nhatrang with our 1938 5 ton Citroen truck.  He completed the residence and warehouse and had begun work on the clinic when there was a delay in funding and he was transferred to Korea, so the remaining work was supervised by a Vietnamese contractor.

            Then, many years later, in 1997, Alan and I visited the Nhatrang hospital site and reconnected with it, which was, now, being operated as a Rehabilitation Hospital by the Provincial government.  That led to a series of workcamps we organized with the Vietnam YMCA, in which we built several additional buildings there; all the while the original clinic building Alan had designed and started remains and is still being used. Alan was able to see it when he accompanied me on a workcamp there in 2006.

            There are two main points to this story.  First, the many times I have visited there since 1997 up until 2014, I have always been shown that original clinic building and usually I’ve been told that “we simply can’t build like this anymore, it was built so well.”  Second, on one of the early workcamps, perhaps 2006 when Alan joined us, we found that the Vietnamese had apparently never figured out exactly how the windows worked.  You see, they are American style with panes that slide up and down; Vietnamese windows are always hinged like shutters.  After all of the years and many coats of paint, it wasn’t easy to get them moving again, but we did.  Finally, I was back four years ago in 2014.  I was again shown the building with emphasis about how sound the building still is and that it is still being used, even though the Provincial government has provided funds for a fine, new, 3 story building just across the yard.

Then Lee and I had our little dialogue using the Ede language, as follows:

Lee:  Si ngă, swaih asei mlei mơ? (Hello, how are you?)

Don:  Swaih mơh, bi ih? (I’m fine, and you?)

Lee:  Ya do hdruom hră ih mao anan? (What is that book that you have?)

Don: Hdruom hră anei jing sa kdrêc hlăm Hdruôm Hră Klei Aê Diê Blu, leh anăn Y Mathiơ cih.  (This book is a part of the Bible, the book written by Matthew).

Lee:  Ya ih sorang ngă mbit hong hdruom Hră Klei Aê Diê anei?  (What are you going to do with this Bible book?)

Don:  Kao sorang dlang hlam anei kdrêc nam, dua pan truh ko pluh tlao.  (I shall read from it chapter six, nine to thirteen.)

Lee:  Ya klei mao hlam kdrec anan?  (What is found in that part?)

Don:  Hlam anan mao klei wah lac ko Yang Jesu brei ko bing kna ñu brei di ñu wah lac nanao.  (In this part there is the Lord’s Prayer which Jesus gave to his disciples, to pray always.)

Lee:  Sonan, brei ih dlang he, brei ko jih jang mnuih tinei sorang dui hmu.  (Okay, so go ahead and read so all of the people here can hear.)

Don in Ede, Lee in English, reading Matthew six, nine to thirteen

Ơ Ama hmei dôk hlăm adiê ơi.  (Oh, our Father who resides in Heaven.)

Brei anăn ih mpu bi jăk.  (May your name be praised.)

Brei buôn ala mtao ih bi truh. ( May your kingdom arrive.)

Brei klei ih ciăng sơrăng jing.  (May what you will be done.)

Ti lăn ala mse si hlăm adiê. (On the earth as well as in heaven.)

Brei kơ hmei mnơng bơng huă bi djăp kơ grăp hruê.  (Give us the food enough for every day.

Pap brei kơ klei soh hmei, Forgiveness give for our sins.)

Mse si hmei pap brei kơ mnuih bi msoh kơ hmei leh; (As we forgive those who have sinned against us.)

Đăm atăt ba hmei hlăm klei mplư ôh.  Don’t lead us into temptation.

Biădah be mtliah hmei kơ klei soh jhat.  But deliver us from bad sin.

Kơyuadah buôn ala mtao, klei myang, leh ană klei guh kơang pioh kơ ih nanao nanao hlong lar, Amen.   Because heaven, power and glory belongs to You forever and ever.  Amen

 Later, during an “open sharing” session, I told another story.

            Alan and I had already both been transferred away from the leprosy hospital  at Banmethuot; Alan to Nhatrang and I to Saigon, when both of us made a weekend visit back up to Banmethuot.  We knew about some ancient Cham (Hindu) remains hidden away in the jungle near the Loatian border not far from the hospital. We decided that on Sunday we would take the motor cycle that Alan and Lee owned together to try to find it, Alan driving and me riding on the back.

            We came to the last village and inquired about the site and how to get there.  We were told that there was going to be a team of some kind of researchers going out by elephant “soon.”  Well, we knew what “soon” meant, so we got as much information as we could and headed out to try to find the site ourselves. We crossed at least one stream and were trying to make our way when there no longer was any kind of discernable trail, just some jeep tracks.  Then the first thing happened; the throttle cable broke off of the handle.  However, Alan was able to simply pull the cable by hand, and, although very inconvenient, that worked.  After driving a bit more, not having found anything, as it was starting to get dark the second thing broke.  This time it was the clutch cable.  But we could still ride.  Whenever we stopped Alan could get the cycle shifted into neutral.  Then I would push him to get started, once moving Alan could shift into first gear, and I could jump on.  Then, although it wasn’t easy, Alan was able to shift gears, so we continued on our way home.

            We finally got out of the jungle, through the last village, and out on a reasonably decent dirt road.  By now it was pretty dark.  Then the cycle’s light began to dim and, soon after that, the engine began to miss fire, and, in just a bit, it stopped completely.  And, of course, it would not start.  So, what to do?  We decided to park the cycle alongside the road and walk, not really having any idea how long we would be walking there in the dark before reaching something or someone.  But, fortunately, we didn’t have to walk very long when we saw some little lights alongside the road; and there was a camp of road workers in a little thatch shack with several bamboo bunk beds.  They invited us in, gave us each a cooked banana and some of that bitter Vietnamese tea, and let us sleep on two of the bunks which were empty.  They told us that there would be a truck with road workers coming along early in the morning, and, sure enough, at around 5:30 the truck showed up, let us get on, and so we got into the town of Banmethuot.  A little after getting to town we ran into Leland, who was out looking for us.  Unfortunately, both Alan and I had to leave that day, so we left the cycle out there on the road for Lee to pick up and get repaired.

Bob Gerber and a colleague were on their way by boat returning home from Korea and made a stop in Vietnam to see Alan.  Of course Alan knew they were coming, so he had arranged to drive our 1938 5 ton Citroen truck to Saigon from Banmethuot so as to get some construction supplies, as well as to meet them in Saigon.  So the two of them traveled the 300+ kilometer road, which is narrow but paved, up to Banmethuot with Alan, and then back down again with him on the truck after their brief visit.

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Additional recollections Don shared about Alan by text: