NEWTON, Kan. (Mennonite Mission Network)—Norma Wiens’ life took her from the plains of Kansas to the mountains of India and back again.
Wiens, an eight-year mission worker to India with the Commission on Overseas Mission (a predecessor agency of Mennonite Mission Network), died Tuesday, Jan. 10, at Kidron Bethel Healthcare, after suffering from Alzheimer’s for nearly seven years. She was 78.
Norma was born June 7, 1933, to Otto and Ella (Sperling) Bachman. She met her husband, Dr. J. Wendell Wiens, while they were students at Bethel College in Newton. They were married a week after graduation on May 31, 1955, and moved to Kansas City, Kan., where they helped plant Rainbow Avenue Mennonite Church.
After 10 years in Kansas City, Norma and Wendell headed to the rural outpost of Jagdeeshpur, where Wendell worked as a surgeon at Sewa Bhawan Hospital.
Wendell said that Norma was a devoted mother and spouse who was so adept at organizing people around activities and causes that “she may even be attempting to organize the events in God’s presence.”
“She enjoyed association with the community and regional Mennonite Indian church,” Wiens said. “She’s always been an organizational person, and she loved both the local church and the sending bodies of the church.”
In India, Norma filled in as teacher, bookkeeper, Bible study leader, and translator and member of many committees, including the school board of Woodstock School, the boarding school her two children, Annelle and David, attended.
The two were the last American mission workers at the Sewa Bhawan Hospital, which was handed over to local leadership when they left in 1973.
Norma Wiens enjoyed relating with the wives of the Indian pastors. Wiens recalled a time when one of the women needed donated blood for a hysterectomy. Norma gladly gave a pint of her own.
Dr. Homer and Gredi Janzen, who now live in Steinbach, Manitoba, served in India at the same time as the Wienses. Gredi said Norma had a heart for raising up leadership from within her small community, one boy in particular who came from the poorest caste. Norma took him under her wing, she said, mentoring him in music and faith. He eventually graduated from the Yeotmal Biblical Seminary—something very rare for a young person from Jagdeeshpur—and into church leadership.
“She had a lot of energy and that was a gift,” Gredi said.
The couples remained in touch after their terms in India were over, hosting each other in their homes whenever possible.
Norma and Wendell moved to Moundridge, Kan., and then settled back in Newton after leaving India in 1973. They became members of Faith Mennonite Church, and she worked as a secretary for Western District Conference, and served as secretary and a member of the General Conference Mennonite Church board three times between 1980 and 2001.
She was also very active in peace advocacy. She helped found the Newton Area Peace Center (now Peace Connections) in 1982.
Wendell jokingly points out that Norma had a criminal record. She and other demonstrators were arrested after crossing onto the property at Wichita’s McConnell Air Force Base to protest the atomic weapons housed there.
Wiens was also part of a group of self-described “peaceniks” who held silent protests as the white trains carrying nuclear warheads passed through Kansas. When a train would pass, observers would place calls through a phone tree to others along the train’s route. When Norma received the call, she and others from the community would stand at the crossing in silent protest as the train passed through town.
Norma always had compassion for those who suffered. She was part of a group of people from Newton who helped Central American refugees find passage to Canada, sometimes housing them for months in her home.
She was active in the Newton Treble Clef, Newton Chorale, Western District Conference Women in Mission and Home Mission committees, the Kauffman Museum board, and volunteered at the child welfare organization Youthville.
She is survived by her husband, J. Wendell Wiens of Newton; daughter, Annelle, and her husband, Tom Claassen, of Salina; son, David Wiens, and his wife, Erin, of Tigard, Ore.; sister, Carolyn Voran, of North Newton; and a brother, Gene Bachman, of Moundridge. Norma also had four grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her parents and one sister, Kathleen Schroeder.
Memorials may be given to the Newton Treble Clef Club or Kidron Bethel building fund, in care of Faith Mennonite Church, 627 Northridge Rd., Newton, KS 67114.
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Mennonite Mission Network, the mission agency of Mennonite Church USA, leads, mobilizes and equips the church to participate in holistic witness to Jesus Christ in a broken world. Media may contact Andrew Clouse at andrewc@mmnworld.net, 574-523-3024 or 866-866-2872, ext. 23024.
