Wyse, Curt (d. 2004)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 2005 May 30 p. 1, 2

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Iowa farmer left legacy in Ecuador's mountains

By Lynda Hollinger-Janzen
Mennonite Mission Network

CEBADAS, Ecuador — On a brilliantly sunlit Andean mountainside in March, God's people remembered Curt Wyse, a hog farmer from Wayland, Iowa.

Dark heads bowed over red ponchos, and paler fists clenched with emotion in jeans pockets as Quichua Christians and North American Mennonites gathered on the freshly poured foundation of the new Ñukanchik Yachay school.

Wyse's life and eath helped the Quichua expand a dream of crating a positive school experience for their children. Part of the money that purchased the land for the school came from Wyse's memorial gifts.

Wyse died of cancer in November. One of his last wishes was that his wife and children would visit Ecuador, as he had less than a year before his death.

Daughter Kelsey Wyse, a junior at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Va., is the first family member to fulfill her father's wish.

She represented her family at the memorial service and building project, where grief and joy blended in worship.

"I can still see this giant of a guy in typical Andean dress, smiling down on the children as they danced around him and clung to his legs," said mark Boshart, who visited Ecuador with Curt Wyse in January 2004. Boshart and Wyse were cousins, friends and farming partners.

The visit to Ecuador changed Wyse's life, Boshart said.

"He fell in love with the people of Cebadas and realized that each of us can make an impact for good in the lives of others," Boshart said. "His story is about North Americans learning from their South American brothers and sisters."

This year three fellowship teams of more than a dozen participants each worked on the new building.

In February, a team arrived from Ohio. Two teams followed in March from Central Plains Mennonite Conference, which began the mission partnership in Ecuador with Mennonite Mission Network and the Colombian Mennonite Church in the late 1990s.

As Mennonites from North America and Columbia rubbed sweating shoulders with the families of the schoolchildren, a dram of well-lit classrooms, recreational spaces and an enclosed cafeteria began to take shape.

The Ñukanchik Yachay school, whose name means "wisdom of the people," strives to find educational models that are consistent with Quichua cultural values. In 1999, the school debuted with 15 preschool children. Since then, a grade has been added each year to accommodate the students as they progressed academically.

Today, 125 students attend the Ñukanchik Yachay school, whose classes have been squeezed into a nearby church building until this year.

"We — the children, the teachers, the school board members, the local church that gave the school its start — were all very, very, very happy," said Steve Nafziger, who has served in Cebadas with his wife, Laura, since 2003.

Northwest Ohio Partners in Mission and mennonite Mission Network support the Nafzigers' ministry.

"On April 14, 2004, I talked to Curt when he stopped planting corn in the middle of the day. 'Mark," he said, 'something's not right,'" Boshart said.

Doctors told Wyse he had cancer.

"Neighbors and friends finished planting that crop," Boshart said. "They also harvested the best vrop Curt had ever seen."

Despite treatments, Wyse died last November.

"As I sat by his bedside, some of Curt's last words to me were, 'Mark, will you see that the kids and Jodi [Curt's wife] get to Ecuador?" Boshart said.

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Kelsey Wyse said the Ecuadorian people "went all out" for the memorial service.

"It was amazing to be in the place I'd heard so much about from my dad," she said. "I felt peace that we could be involved in their lives in this way.

"The difference between what we had and they had was huge, but in the end, I felt they were happier than we were. They made me aware that relationships with God and others are what are really important. They raise their children to enjoy life and beauty even though they have few material possessions."

Kelsey Wyse's reflections echoes her fathers' words to his church family.

Three weeks before his death, Curt Wyse told members of Bethel Mennonite Church of Wayland about the difference between his old self and his new, post-Ecuador, battling-cancer self. He also emphasized the importance of prayer and spiritual warfare.

"I have witnessed it many times during my illness," he said. "There is a constant struggle in the spiritual world over your soul." He encouraged his congregation to "strive to move forward spiritually with Christ."

Steve Nafziger paid tribute to Wyse.

"He left a legacy for all of us to remember, one which involves a love for his God, a love for his family and a love for a people and a place a world away — a small school in Cebadas, Ecuador," Nafziger said. "In his final days on Earth, he never had the school far from his heart.

"Curt was a man who loved and lived by the land — a farmer at heart — and it is appropriate that his memorial money has gone to purchasing land in Cebadas for the groundbreaking of the new school."