ELKHART, Indiana (Mennonite Mission Network) – Grace Haldeman Brackbill Hostetter said she believed that women should “follow their husbands and raise children." Yet, she explored new ways to engage in mission in Nigeria and played an important behind-the-scenes role in Mennonite radio ministry in North America.
Hostetter, 97, who died in Harrisonburg, Virginia, on Monday, Aug. 22, was among the first Mennonite Board of Missions workers to relate to African-Initiated Churches. She served in Lagos, Nigeria, with her husband, B. Charles, from 1970-1976. The Hostetters helped Church of the Lord Aladura develop a theological seminary. Grace taught classes in the seminary and in the Church of the Lord Secondary School. She also taught in a Pentecostal seminary.
Mission colleagues Alice and Willard Roth remember Hostetter’s spiritual maturity, and observed the deep respect that African co-workers showed her. “Grace shared prophetic insight among those with whom she ministered with cultural sensitivity and gentle courage,” Willard Roth said.
Grace was the second of five girls born to Ruth Haldeman and Milton G. Brackbill in Chester County, Pennsylvania, on Nov. 7, 1918. She attended Eastern Mennonite School in Harrisonburg, where she met B. Charles. They married on May 3, 1939, and moved to B. Charles’s hometown where he was ordained by lot in the Manheim (Pennsylvania) Mennonite Church.
In 1946, the Hostetters moved to Harrisonburg where they raised their eight children: Miriam (Walter King) of Hickory, North Carolina; Pat (Earl Martin) of Harrisonburg; Doug (Bobbie Smolow) of Valley Cottage, New York; Ron (Joanne Landes) of Pennsburg, Pennsylvania; Darrel (Sherill King) of Lancaster, Pennsylvania; Chuck (Joyce Moyer) of Newton, North Carolina; Phil (Gwen Landis) of Lancaster; and Rick (Joy Bachman) of Elkhart, Indiana.
Parenting filled Grace’s days as B. Charles finished college, served as Eastern Mennonite College pastor [now Eastern Mennonite University], and eventually became a permanent speaker on The Mennonite Hour, a radio program of music and Christian inspiration. Grace was an accomplished seamstress, took in boarders, and started a mothers’ club – a forum for women to discuss child-care and children’s health issues. She was also an avid reader and helped her husband edit his weekly radio sermons. Her listening ear and her open heart made her home a place of refuge for all who entered.
In retirement, the Hostetters moved to Hickory, North Carolina, but continued to accept short-term pastoral assignments. B. Charles died in 1997. Also preceding Grace in death were two sisters and brothers-in-law, Emily and John Shenk, and Betty and Kenneth Leasa, and a nephew, Varden Leasa. Surviving are two sisters and brothers-in-law: Miriam and Lowell Nissley of Sarasota, Florida, and Peggy and Michael Shenk of Harrisonburg. Hostetter is survived by her eight children and their spouses, 24 grandchildren, and 33 great-grandchildren.
A celebration of Hostetter’s life was held at Harrisonburg Mennonite Church on Aug. 27, followed by a memorial service at Mountain View Mennonite Church in Hickory on Aug. 29. Memorial contributions may be made to Mennonite Central Committee or Mennonite Mission Network.
