from Tim and Suzanne Lind
October 7, 2025
Copy to: Ann Hershberger (MCC US Executive Director); Doug Luginbill (Central District Conference Minister) Eric Kurtz, MCC Great Lakes, Stop MCC Abuse
Subject: MCC/MAST (MCC Abuse Survivors Together) Conflict
Dear MCC Great Lakes and MCC US Board members,
Greetings from southwest Michigan. We are writing to you ahead of the October MCC board meetings, as a couple that has spent most of our working lives as MCC service workers and employees – in Africa and the US. We are active members of the Florence Church of the Brethren Mennonite in Constantine, Michigan, a member congregation of Central District Conference and Mennonite Church USA, and we are currently retired.
To say that we are deeply grateful for the global opportunities and relationships that service with MCC has given us would be an understatement. Our family has been molded and shaped by the varied associations we have been exposed to through our MCC assignments. It is because of our profound gratitude for the gifts we have received through MCC service that we are writing this letter of concern regarding MCC colleagues and others who have voiced the pain and harm they have experienced through conflict with MCC; conflict which led in many cases to contentious separations and terminations. This saddens us very much because we have so many friends on both sides.
We fully realize that conflicts are always complicated and have multiple “sides” or perspectives. But we believe that the onus is especially on MCC – as the party with vastly greater power in these conflicts – to do everything possible, with compassion and humility, to solicit and support outcomes that can be owned by all parties. If we don’t believe that is both possible and necessary, then we are indeed in trouble.
Specifically, we call on MCC to commit to a truly independent process, acceptable to both MCC and the former employees or service workers involved, to establish the facts of what transpired and to negotiate paths forward. This needs to be done with full transparency, shared decision making, and without explicit or implicit threat by either party. We understand that a third-party investigation has already been carried out, but unfortunately it did not meet the most basic requirement of being a process determined by both parties.
We understand that all those involved – including MCC, aggrieved workers, and many among MCC’s broad constituencies – are tiring of hearing about these concerns and wish for them to be resolved in a fair and compassionate way. We urge you, as those providing oversight to MCC, to take clear steps in this direction.
With care and respect,
Suzanne and Tim Lind
Three Rivers, Michigan