B2—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, February 11, 1984
Farm Wife Opens Heart to Those in Need
BY JOYCE BUPP
Staff Correspondent
MEYERSTOWN - “Let love
shine through m everything you
do,” reads the script on a bright
red Valentine heart decorating
Grace Ziegler’s kitchen
refrigerator.
That message condenses in a
nutshell the life of this Lebanon
County dairy farm wife and
mother, whose love has brightened
the lives of countless friends and
strangers in need of a helping
hand.
As a teenager, growing up in a
foster home after her father’s
death and mother’s chronic illness,
Grace felt her life being directed
toward serving the church,
perhaps as a foreign missionary.
Then, through the ecumenical
Christian Endeavor youth
program, she met Victor, son of an
area dairy farm family. Thirty-one
years ago, they married and
became partners in the family
farm.
“So, that door closed,” says
Grace.
Two years after their marriage,
a plea went out from the NeffsvUle
Church of the Brethren home for
families to open their homes and
hearts to foster children.
With the special empathy of
having been a foster child herself,
Grace felt a need to respond to the
church’s call. The first of
numerous foster children that
would join the Ziegler family over
the years arrived.
Grace had found that the door to
mission work opened into her own
farmhouse. Eventually, paths
from all directions of need would
end there.
“I wasn’t active as a young
mother, outside of our home, but I
was active here at home,” em
phasizes Grace, who steadfastly
believes that, in as much as is
possible, a mother should be close
to her children when they are
small.
Like so many farm families, the
Ziegler brood milked, gathered
and packed eggs, and took picnics
to the hay field together. Always,
the foster children blended right
into the household, sharing the
same fun and helpmg with the
same chores.
Although occasionally she would
momentarily wonder if she really
needed one more person in the
house, that biblical admonishment
ange a grapevine
wreath she designed to decorate the farm home's door which
has opened to so many, lonely and seeking freedom.
to “love one another” would push
aside any fleeting doubts.
“What would happen if I were
the one in need?” Grace would ask
herself.
The capacious 20 rooms, of the
farmhouse were more than the
Ziegler family really needed for
their own living space. Responding
to a different kind of plea from the
community, the Zieglers became
the first family in the area to open
their home to foster care for the
elderly, through Cedar Haven, the
county’s facility for the aged.
For three years prior to the
Ziegler’s building their new farm
home, eight women and one man
joined the household. All were
capable of caring for their own
personal needs, but unable to
handle heavier responsibilities of
living alone, such as cleaning or
laundry.
Two years after Grace and
Victor moved into the new stone
rancher home, in 1970, another new
need came [mocking at the door.
Ugandan Ruler Idi Amin,
ousting Asians from his African
country in a reign of terror, sent
refugees seeking haven in safer
parts of the world.
Young Samsudin Pabani, his
father, mother and sister arrived
in Lebanon County, the first of
fifteen-to-date-refugee families
that the Ziegler’s have sponsored.
Pabani’s father, originally from
India, had been a wealthy mer
chant in Uganda. The family found
haven in a house provided by the
Zieglers, assisted by church
friends who pitched in to help
clean, provide furniture, and some
extra funds to help* the Pabanis
start over in a new country.
After getting “Sam” and his
family settled, Victor contacted
the Richland Shoe Factory and
located a job for the 17-year-old
refugee. After Sam had worked
only three days, the foreman
called Victor, asking if he could
find another six like his new hard
working employee.
“Sam’s been like a son to us,”
says Grace of the young’man who
struggled with a new culture, a
new job, then later lost both his
parents, and at tunes felt very
much alone.
But with the continued support,
counseling and love of the Zieglers,
Sam went on to study at Miller
sville, became a naturalized
citizen, married and is now em-
ployed at the Wilbur Chocolate
Factory. The Zieglers are still his
“family” and he stops by and calls
frequently.
At Christmas, the spacious farm
home became a sort of world-wide
community, with refugee families
returning to share the season with
their sponsors.
Nine of the 15 families lived in
the Ziegler home when they first
arrived in a beautifully-furnished
apartment in the basement,
decorated by Grace who enjoys
dabbling in interior design. Most of
the families still stay in close
contact, although they’ve settled
from Harrisburg to Easton, with
one Cambodian family established
in Virginia, living near friends
from their homeland.
“Just because we sponsored
them, we don’t ever want them to
feel tied here or forced to stay
close. It’s amazing how they locate
other refugee friends who’ve
settled in this country,” Grace
adds. Most of the families they’ve
sponsored have fled Vietnam.
Currently living in the house
nearby in Weavertown are Viet
nam refugees Vu Ngoc Hai, his
wife, Vu Thi Latin, and their four
children.
Hai and his two sons, now 9 and
11, fled Vietnam in 1981. He split
the family, feeling that a group of
six would never escape the
country, and with the “boat
people” was able to cross the
pirate-infested waters to safety.
(Turn to Page B 4)
Eagerly picking up words in their new English language, Hoa and Ha spend some time
while visiting the Zeiglers practicing with pen and paper.
Vi Thi Lahn and her daughters Hao, left, and Ha, have reason to smile after escaping
Vietnam in December to join the rest o( their family in Lebanon County. They are making
a new life under the sponsorship of the Richland Church of the Brethren, and committee
chairman, farm wife Grace Zeigler.
jugh in all you do” is the message of the
Valentine reminder on Grace Zeigler’s kitchen refrigerator.
wmesiead
c t/oips