This article is from the EMU News Archive. Current EMU new is available at www.emu.edu/news

Ex-EMU Profs Wait To Get Out

by Brad Jenkins, Daily News-Record

Humanitarians with ties to Harrisonburg are among the thousands of Americans being evacuated from Lebanon as Israel and the militant Islamic group Hezbollah trade attacks in the region.

It is still unclear when the U.S. military will evacuate Ken and Kathryn Seitz, a husband-and-wife team stationed in Lebanon with Mennonite Central Committee, but it will be in the coming days, according to the Akron, Pa.-based group.

The couple are in the Lebanese capital of Beirut, which has been under heavy fire from Israeli forces since last week. Israelis say they are defending themselves after Hezbollah captured two of Israel’s soldiers in a cross-border raid on July 12.

The Seitzes, both graduates of Eastern Mennonite High School and teachers at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg from 1979 to 1986, were scheduled to return to the United States for a three-month furlough at the end of the month, said Larry Guengerich, a spokesman with the Mennonite group.

During their three-month furlough in Harrisonburg, the couple is scheduled to take training in trauma counseling at EMU, Guengerich said.

"That’s going to be needed more than ever before" if the couple returns to Beirut as scheduled in the fall, he said.

‘Our Hearts Are Here’

The Seitzes’ evacuation comes as the U.S. government attempts to help Americans who want to leave the region. At least 320 were shuttled out of Lebanon on Tuesday, the Associated Press reported. American officials say 1,000 more Americans will leave today. An estimated 25,000 Americans are in Lebanon, and about 8,000 reportedly want to leave, AP reported.

Ken Seitz, a graduate of EMU whose parents live west of Harrisonburg, and his wife decided to leave after Mennonite Central Committee’s consultations with Lebanese people they work with.

"Our hearts are here and we plan on returning," Ken Seitz said, according to an e-mail he sent to the Mennonite group. "Our hearts go out to these good people."

The Seitzes have been with Mennonite Central Committee since June 2004, and their service in Beirut continues through June 2009, said Guengerich. The couple coordinates humanitarian efforts in the country.

What’s Next?

For now, though, the Seitzes’ main task is getting out of Lebanon. Guengerich said the couple initially will be evacuated to Cyprus, a nearby island nation.

From there, Guengerich said, the couple will fly to the United States and eventually arrive in Harrisonburg.

Wherever they go, it will be calmer than in Beirut. In an online audio interview with Mennonite Central Committee on Friday, Ken Seitz described the situation in Beirut, at one point describing Lebanon as being "under siege."

Electricity is sporadic, lines at gas stations are long and the grocery store is "a madhouse," Seitz said. Food may run out eventually, he added.

Those who have lived in the region for a long time, though, seem prepared for the chaos, he said.

"People here say, ‘We’ve been through this before and we know how to do it,’" he said.

For the Seitzes, though, it’s an uncertain situation.

"The nighttime bombings have been the most severe," Ken Seitz said. "We’ll listen to the jets and wait for the booms."

Despite the chaos, he appears upbeat in the online interview.

"We are OK," he said. "It’s a different lifestyle. It tests one’s faith and one’s commitment, but we say to ourselves we knew it could easily go this way … to come to this part of the world."

And how does someone deal with that?

"By God’s grace," Seitz said in the interview, "and by His help."

— article by: Brad Jenkins, Daily News-Record; posted July 19, 2006