About Worthington United Methodist Church

And I Remember.Personal Church Histories

Wayne and Jenny Schroeder

In 1962 Wayne had just completed his Ph.D. in education at Ohio State. He learned of a new partnership between the university and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), in which OSU had a contract to help India's education ministry to establish four leadership institutions that would essentially be regional colleges of education. Wayne was hired as a teacher-education specialist and later became a chief-of-party for the project. Originally conceived as a "two-year stint," the Schroeders' India adventure turned into seven life-changing years in an environment so different from their previous experience as to be almost indescribable. Jenny calls it "amazing."

One of the Schroeders' first priorities was to find a church home. And so they joined Centenary Methodist in New Delhi, a congregation comprised largely of English-speaking Indians, where they became advisors to the youth program. A couple of years later they transferred to an international congregation whose minister, Rev. Ernie Campbell, had been born in India of American parents. (Amazingly, he later retired to Ohio where, many years later, he performed the marriage ceremony for the Schroeders' older daughter, Ann.) Centenary Methodist Church rented space for worship in the New Delhi International Center, so its operation involved little bureaucracy. This translates into Sunday-School classes in such unlikely locales as the offices of the Ford Foundation, an open verandah, and the screened-in porches of members' homes.

Jenny enthusiastically recalls the live Nativity scenes that were held outdoors each Advent season. We're speaking here not only about living people but also of live animals of the (mostly) domesticated sort. Of course, the Schroeders participated! Jenny chuckles as she describes how Wayne "got on a camel and returned to the East." These events so impressed and inspired them that, upon their return to the States in 1969, they brought along a set of appropriate attire for all of the (human) participants in a live Nativity.

Much of this was significantly different from the Schroeders' earlier church experiences. Wayne had been reared in a Lutheran household at Wauseon, Ohio, and Jenny grew up in a Mennonite community of Bluffton. In India they learned that "education is not a classroom." Most classes were held outdoors, and the lack of a dedicated space for education seemed to enhance both teachers' and students' sense of reality and urgency about their lessons. Jenny and Wayne discovered how to be "creative, more flexible and more accepting" in order to engage children in the Gospel, insights that they brought back to the US and ultimately to Worthington United Methodist, where together they taught 5th/6th-grade Sunday School for several years. The Schroeders have had many opportunities to interact with adherents of other religions and customs. Wayne is especially impressed by the Islamic custom of sharing, and he tells two interconnected stories to illustrate this. One night he was crossing a desert with Indian colleagues when their 1935 Vauxhall broke down. Two members of the party walked to a nearby village, and they returned on a cycle with the needed repair parts. Grateful for this assistance, Wayne offered to pay for the use of the cycle. The owner replied, "No, sahib, you needed a cycle and I had one for you." Several years later, on a flight from Amman to Cairo, Wayne realized that most of his companions were Egyptian laborers. Preparatory to arrival all were required to fill out landing cards, for which task Wayne employed his trusty OSU pencil. Soon he realized that most other passengers were devoid of writing instruments, so Wayne reached into his attache case and retrieved many pencils and passed them around. Suddenly OSU pencils were everywhere. In the end, no pencil was returned. And Wayne understood: "You needed a pencil and I had one." Jenny's interest in the education of young children began in high school. In New Delhi, under the shade of a banyan tree, she volunteered at the the international preschool that their daughters, Ann and Kay, attended. When the family returned to central Ohio, Jenny and three of her friends started a preschool at Hilliard United Methodist. That preschool recently celebrated its 25th year, and the four founders were honored at a special worship service.

The Schroeders moved to Worthington late in 1973 and transferred their membership to WUMC early the following year. Since then they have served on numerous committees including Staff/Parish, Education, and Administrative Council. Both are ushers, captains of their respective teams. Wayne was chair of Trustees, and he has been active in the Campus Ministry Program both in the Columbus North District and for the West Ohio Conference.

Early on, Jenny became involved at our Creative Play Center and is now serving her third term as board chair. She credits the recent accomplishments of CPC to the expertise and dedication of Susan Porter, the center's director, and her staff. Jenny is passionate about the need for an improved playground. "Play is the work of children," she says. Of her several turns on the CPC board Jenny cites the center's accredited full-day kindergarten as an important accomplishment; and she applauds the infant-care program, which she describes as an outreach because its fees (though higher than those for the older children) do not cover all of its costs. Jenny's "short-list" of other significant gains of the past 28 years includes scholarships, greater parent participation, meeting state standards, and a revised handbook for parents.

Compared to life in India, "waste in the US is remarkable," Wayne notes. "Life in India is more elemental, closer to the harsh realities." Upon their return to the US the Schroeders experienced "a real smack in the face" from our habit of one-person-per-car and by "how much gets thrown out." And after all these years Jenny still reflects on seeing refugees from Tibet, especially the orphans who had lost one or both parents during the trek from their homeland, over the mountains, to a self-help center at Darjeeling. She believes that, as a result of living in a place such as India, "what you consider important goes through a real shake-up."

Wayne "officially" retired from the OSU faculty in 1988, but in fact he has continued to perform many of his previous duties as a part-time consultant. Jenny, who earned her own Ph.D. in 1978, is coordinator of academic advising in the College of Human Ecology at Ohio State.