Vietnam Mission Initiative

The General Board of Global Ministries began work in Vietnam in 1998 when a team traveled to visit Vietnamese Christians and learn about their lives and ministry.

The Revs. U and K Van To are United Methodist Vietnamese-American pastors who feel a strong pull to their homeland and its people. They returned to Vietnam in 2002 to help bring the church alive.

Vietnam Volunteer Possibilities:
Vietnam is open for teams to help in educational programs.

Missionaries
Ut To
The Rev. Ut To is a missionary with the Board of Global Ministries of The United Methodist Church assigned to Southeast Asia along with his wife, the Rev. Karen Vo-To, also a GBGM missionary.

Ut trains Christian leaders in developing new congregations and nurturing Christians in the region. “I believe that through my teaching and example, I will prepare students for their future work as preachers, teachers, and pastors,” he says, “and through my witness many new congregations will be established.” Ut has served in Southeast Asia since 2002.

Reflecting on the experiences that led his to this assignment, Ut says he worked to nurture Christian groups in Southeast Asia that wished to be United Methodist while he chaired the Vietnamese National Caucus in the U.S. from 1997-2001. He also visited Southeast Asia several times to explore the possibility of establishing congregations there. “When I returned from our first mission trip to Southeast Asia, I believed that God wanted me to go to the region to be a missionary,” he recalls.

An ordained elder of the Detroit Annual Conference, Ut served ten years as associate director of the Vietnamese United Methodist Ministry of the Michigan Area before he was commissioned as a GBGM missionary. During that period, he also served on the Detroit Conference Board of Ordained Ministry and the Board of Global Ministry. 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.

Ut holds a BRE degree in pastoral studies from Tyndale University College and an MDiv degree from Ontario Theological Seminary, both in Toronto. He completed his DMin degree at San Francisco Theological Seminary in San Anselmo, CA, and a PhD from Capella University in Minneapolis, MN.

Ut and Karen have two adult children, An To and David To. David has served as youth pastor of Chapel Hill UMC in Farmers Branch, TX, since 2004.

Make an online donation to: Ut To #14175Z.
Additional Information:
Missionary Support Code: 14175Z
Last update: 7/08

Karen Vo-To
The Rev. Karen Vo-To is a missionary with the Board of Global Ministries of The United Methodist Church assigned to Southeast Asia, along with her husband, Rev. Ut To, also a BGM missionary.

Karen trains Christian leaders her work focuses on recruiting women to study for pastoral ministry. She works with a women's support group to encourage them to “reach their full potential in Jesus Christ; to promote fellowship among women at the national level; to provide vehicles of communication for women, listening to and offering solutions for the women's needs; and to present the whole gospel to the whole person,” she says.

Rev. Vo-To also serves as coordinator for the Women's Ministry. She 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 umemployed and food for the hungry." Serving in Southeast Asia since 2002, Karen is also involved in church planting.

An ordained elder in the Detroit Annual Conference, Karen served four years as an associate pastor at Cass Community UMC 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.

Attending Emmanuel Bible College in Kitchener, Canada, Karen earned a BRE degree in pastoral studies. She earned her MDiv from Methodist Theological School in Ohio.
Karen and Ut have two adult children, An To and David To. David has served as youth pastor with Chapel Hill UMC in Farmers Branch, TX, since 2004.

Make an online donation to: Karen Vo-To #14174Z.
Additional Information:
Missionary Support Code: 14174Z
Last update: 7/08