Revs Ut To and Karen Vo To are missionary pastors serving in Vietnam. They are back in Michigan.
The Rev. Ut To and Rev. Karen Vo To are missionaries with the General Board of Global Ministries of The United Methodist Church assigned to Vietnam. Rev. Ut is the country director and mission superintendent. Rev. Karen serves as coordinator for the women’s ministry.
They will be in the Detroit Conference August 5-18 and Jackie Euper, Conference Secretary of Global Ministries, is working on their schedule. There are openings August 7-12, 15 and 16. Contact Jackie to arrange a visit to your congregation by Revs Ut and Karen. Phone Jackie Euper at 517-625-2920 or email [email protected].
Ut trains Christian leaders in developing new congregations and nurturing Christians in Vietnam. He incorporates Wesley’s model of class meetings or cell groups into the Vietnamese culture, tradition, and social settings of the country in his effort to establish new congregations.
An ordained elder of the Detroit Annual Conference, Ut served 10 years as associate director of the Vietnamese United Methodist Ministry of the Michigan Area before he was commissioned as a Global Ministries’ missionary. During that period, he also served on the Detroit Conference Board of Ordained Ministry and the Board of Global Ministries. In addition, he has served as vice president of Union College of California, and academic dean of Vietnamese Bible College in Europe, based in Germany.
Karen sees the objectives of her work as “serving the needs of battered women, victims of sexual abuse and harassment, the homeless, imprisoned women, and those who are struggling with substance abuse while providing job training to the unemployed and food for the hungry.” Serving in Vietnam since 2002, Karen also trains Christian leaders and her work focuses on recruiting women to study for pastoral ministry.
An ordained elder in the Detroit Annual Conference, Karen served four years as an associate pastor at Cass Community United Methodist Church in Detroit. During that time she served on the Commission on the Status and Role of Women and the Ethnic Local Church Concerns Committee. For four years, she was president of Vietnamese United Methodist Women on the national level.
Ten years ago there were half a dozen Methodist Churches in the Mekong Delta. Today, there are over 300 churches. The goal, articulated by Global Ministries Missionaries Ut and Karen To in “The Vision 20/20,” is to grow 1,000 more churches by the year 2020.
Last Updated on January 9, 2023