Mosaic Mennonites

Missional - Intercultural - Formational

Articles

Celebrating our African-American Culture

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Charlene Smalls, minister at Ripple (Allentown, PA), is passionate about educating our African American community of its rich history and rich roots. Her passion is heightened now, in this time of grief and trauma due to COVID-19, our inability to gather with family and friends in community, and racial unrest and injustice. She invites all of us to awaken to the needs of the Black community and work together to address those needs.

“Awaken my brothers and sisters to the rich roots and culture of the Black men and women that you sit with, mostly in silence. Embrace us as a people, a culture, and a community,” Smalls said. “Sit with your heart rather than just speaking from your education and your book learning and look at the picture. You can not speak to an issue that you haven’t lived.”  

From December 26 to January 1, Smalls shared about Kwanzaa, a weeklong celebration of African and African American culture, with her congregation. “I heard about diversity, diversity, diversity when I came into the conference. I learned about the Mennonite faith, accepted it, and celebrated it as my faith,” said Smalls. “Kwanzaa celebrates and affirms black people. I invite you to learn and celebrate our culture, accomplishments, and principles with us in the same spirit that I celebrate with you.”  

Yvonne Platts, of Nueva Vida Norristown (PA) New Life, has been celebrating Kwanzaa for many years. Because of COVID-19, she went online to share the principles. She hopes that people can see and embrace the beauty, strength, and gifts of Black people.  

Minister Charlene Smalls and Yvonne Platts posted videos of their Kwanzaa celebrations on Facebook. Learn more about Kwanzaa through these videos that our sisters recorded with commitment, love, and passion.  

“Kwanzaa offers a new dialogue on Black culture, about our positive contributions to the world, and not just the negative stigma of race,” says Dr. Adam Clark, associate professor of theology, Xavier University. “The beauty of Kwanzaa is it doesn’t start Black history from slavery,” explains Clark. “It actually starts us as inventors of civilizations.”

Kwanzaa, comes from the Swahili phrase, “matunda ya kwanza,” or “first fruits of harvest.”  It is celebrated annually, December 26 through January 1. 

The seven principles (nguzo saba) of Kwanzaa include: 

  • Unity (umoja)  – To strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation, and race. Unity in Christ – Ephesians 4:1-6;11-13
  • Self-determination (kujichagulia): To define, name, create, and speak for ourselves.  Take Hold of the Prize – Philippians 3:12-17
  • Collective work and responsibility (ujima): To build and maintain community; to make our brothers and sisters’ problems our problems, and to solve them together.  Working Together – I Thessalonians 5:12-18
  • Cooperative economics (ujamaa):  To build and maintain our own businesses and profit together from them.  Community Harvest – 2 Corinthians 9:10-15
  • Purpose (nia): Our collective vocation is one that builds and develops our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.  Caring for One Another – Hebrews 13:1-7
  • Creativity (kuumba): To always do as much as we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.  Sharing Our Gifts – 1 Corinthians 12:1-11
  • Faith (imani):  To believe fully in our parents, teachers, leaders, people, and the righteousness and victory of our struggle. Faith, Love and Understanding – Ephesians 1:15-25

The primary symbols of Kwanzaa are the seven candles, candle holder, unity cup, placemat, crops, corn, and gifts. A key custom during Kwanzaa is the daily lighting of the Kinara, the candle holder. The black candle symbolizes the people themselves, the red candles are for the struggle or blood shed in the past, and the green candles represent the Earth or the abundance of future possibilities.

Encouraging Discipleship

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Doylestown (PA) Mennonite Church’s theme for 2021 is “Look instead for what God can do,” based on John 9. Pastor Randy Heacock shared the words of encouragement he wrote last week to his congregation, in response to the attack on the Capitol in Washington, DC. 

January 7, 2021 

I found it difficult to sleep last night. Yesterday was perhaps the most disturbing day in my life as a citizen of the United States. I was too young to really feel the impact of the Kennedy assassination as well as that of Dr. Martin Luther King.  September 11, 2001 was certainly a low point. 

I do not want to relive the details of yesterday, but to see a political protest, led by our elected president, turn violent, disrupt the work of our congress, and threaten the safety of our nation’s capital causes me to be afraid, outraged, and disappointed. If not entirely, it was predominantly led by people who share my skin color and probably some who would claim to share my faith. 

As I prayed, my mind went to our newly introduced theme for 2021, “Look instead for what God can do.”  I am more convinced than ever of our need to both learn and practice this very thing.  Just yesterday I wrote these words of encouragement to my congregation:   

January 6, 2021 

For the remainder of this month, I invite us to practice focusing on those things that are worthy of praise. Perhaps the first place to start is to stop listening to and giving our attention to things that are not worthy of praise. Last I checked radios, televisions, computers, cell phones, and all electronic devices have “off” buttons.  

I suggest we begin the discipline of either turning such things off or at least changing the channel/source when they report things that are not worthy of praise. We will do well to turn off any source such as news feeds, radio personalities, political pundits, or even Christian media, which do not encourage trust in God and love for others. 

What if we assessed the sources we daily tune in to by Paul’s test of being pure, honorable, commendable, and worthy of praise?  Are we willing to turn such things off?  Are we even aware how much of what we take in on a daily basis is not commendable, not pure, and not worthy of praise.  

In order to prepare our hearts and minds to look instead for what God can do, let us  take the first step by making room for those things that are worthy of praise.   It is not a matter of letting the two compete or discerning which side has more to offer but rather what it is that we give our energy and time. 

May we be surprised what God can do in us when we turn off those sources that are not worthy?

Please join me in praying that we, as the people of God, will learn to look instead for what God can do.  May we be diligent to turn off all sources that are not pure or worthy of praise. May we guard our own thoughts and conversations to focus on that which is pure, commendable, true, and worthy of praise.

Let us humble ourselves so that we can see what God can do!

Pastor Randy

Conference Related Ministries (CRM) Profile: Healthy Niños Honduras

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The main focus of Healthy Niños Honduras is to help children and families that are suffering from malnutrition in Honduras. Healthy Niños Honduras (HNH) is a continuation of the work of promoting community health that the MAMA Project began in Honduras over 30 years ago.  

Healthy Niños brings medical brigades to poor, rural communities in Honduras. Photo provided by Healthy Niños Honduras.

Malnutrition is one of the main problems in developing countries, affecting mostly children under five years of age, compromising their immune system and leading them to infectious diseases or death in many cases. Many malnourished children grow up with physical or mental disabilities that forever limit their potential. 

Healthy Niños runs a nutrition center in Honduras. We use a very inexpensive technology program where children and families can recover from malnutrition in 1-3 months with medical care, good hygiene, nutritious food, and safe water. It’s an act of showing the love of Jesus through meeting basic needs and giving children the chance at surviving and thriving.

Malnourished children and families go to the Healthy Niños Center to recuperate and learn about healthy and living. Photo provided by Healthy Niños Honduras.

Every year, HNH sends ten or more mission teams to work in the remote areas of Honduras. Through the groups, Healthy Niños is able to provide 15,000 medical consultations in 65 communities. We also provide concrete floors and water filtration systems to families. We distribute 1.5 million deworming medications and more than 500,000 prenatal vitamins, thanks to our partners, The Worm Project and Vitamin Angels. 

The mission teams offer first-hand experience as the team members can see the reality of the families in Honduras, work with them, and help them to break the malnutrition cycle. Healthy Niños is in constant contact with the communities providing them education and help for better living conditions.

Due to COVID-19 and the recent hurricanes that devastated much of Honduras, we have been unable to send teams in the past ten months. However, our Honduran staff has been busy distributing food to the communities in need. More than 6,000 people received food through HNH. The Honduran staff is ready to carry on the medical and dental brigades as well.

Providing water filtration systems and concrete floors to families prevents the cycle of intestinal parasites and malnutrition. Photo provided by Healthy Niños Honduras.

We are also able to restart the warehouse construction project in Honduras. This building will be 3,000 square feet in size and will help us with all of our Honduran operations. The completed warehouse will give us the ability to store and distribute food and materials more easily to the communities in need.

We are grateful for the opportunities to continue to serve the people in Honduras by providing hope and love, in Jesus’s name. Thank you for the partnership with Mosaic Conference.

Prayer Requests:

  • For financial support: our specific need currently is for the warehouse project that has a matching donor up to $200,000.
  • For opportunity to provide assistance to communities in the greatest need.
  • For families, that they will continue to work at improving their home and health to make a better future for their children

A Mosaic Reflection on the Siege of the Capitol Building

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As people who seek to be formed into the image of Jesus, we acknowledge that we have often idolized our nation, our government, and even democracy itself.  Our cries of “How could this happen here?” make clear our tendencies to consider ourselves better than others, which does not reflect the mind of Christ.

For the sin of American exceptionalism, we repent.  We stand in solidarity with sisters and brothers around the world who live with political upheaval and violence every day.

As people committed to mutual transformation through intercultural relationships, we acknowledge the racism that fueled yesterday’s rally and siege of the Capitol.  We grieve the continued power that white racial narratives hold over us as a nation and, particularly, as followers of Jesus.

For the sin of white supremacy, we repent.  We recommit to pursuing biblical justice and right relatedness in our lives, communities, and country so that all people may experience God’s abundant life.

As people called to join Jesus in healing what has been broken in our relationships, neighborhoods, and the world, we acknowledge that too many of us find our identity in our national citizenship or political party. At the same time, others of us are quick to look the other way in the face of evil in order to maintain a superficial peace that harms rather than heals.

For the sin of complicity, we repent. We accept our identity as the Body of Jesus–the way, the truth, and the life—as we join God’s work of making all things new.

Strangers at the manger scene: Seeking truth then and now

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This year I have kept the wise men on the other side of the living room through Advent and Christmas. I have moved them closer to the nativity set as Epiphany approached. They reached their spots near the manger on January 6.

The wise men journey across the living room, to the manger scene in the background. Photo provided by Steve Kriss.

The wise men often seem like overdressed extras in the manger scene. Their gifts are seemingly impractical, likely pawned to pay for the escape to Egypt. Yet they are essential to the story of Jesus for us.

The wise men were spiritual seekers and culturally different. They looked for and read signs in the sky. They were somehow ready for our Messiah king, born as a baby.  Their commitment to seeking the truth was so high that they walked for days to a small town in Palestine.  They didn’t let human understanding, privilege, or power stand in the way of seeking out the truth that God had revealed.  

This week we mark Epiphany or Three Kings Day. I’m fascinated by the character of the wise ones, seeking and finding. They are a holy disruption and exemplars of faithful pursuit. Their visit triggers the state apparatus and forewarns Mary and Joseph of the coming killing of the innocents. They are people who read the signs of the times and pursue the truth of the Christ. 

And I want to be like them.

In last week’s ING podcast, sponsored by Mosaic Conference through MennoMedia, Dr. Soong-Chan Rah highlights the difference between possessing truth and pursuing truth. In pursuing truth, Dr. Rah points out that we continue the journey of discipleship and truth-seeking. In that pursuit, we are shaped and reshaped by our encounters with Jesus. This means a vibrant ongoing relationship with Christ that is anything but boring. This pursuit challenges, reforms, and also embraces us.

We are in a time when truth is frequently contested. Admittedly, there is much to mistrust in the principles and powers at work around us.  However, like the wise ones of old, we must be smart as serpents and innocent as doves in our navigation.  Despite, and maybe even because of the cultural complexities around us, we are called to remain undaunted in our pursuit of truth. We are especially called to be vigilant in the pursuit of truth that is incarnate in Christ, born of Mary, who lived, died, and was resurrected.   

This year I’m leaving my manger set out longer, through the marking of MLK Day and past the presidential inauguration, to honor the pursuit of truth. It will also allow the wise ones, who were across the living room all Advent, to linger a bit longer at the creche scene.  I’ll leave it out as a reminder to me, to make their journey and holy pursuit my own.  

I imagine they hugged loved ones and said, 
“We’ll be back soon.” 
And when loved ones said,
“Don’t leave,”
“It’s risky,”
“You don’t even know what you’re chasing,”
I imagine they put lips to foreheads and said, 
“There is a light in the darkness. I must chase that.” . . .⠀⠀⠀

—from Epiphany Poetry by Sarah Are

Conference Related Ministries (CRM) Profile: Peaceful Living

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Peaceful Living is a faith-based, nonprofit organization that identifies and seeks to engage the gifts of adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. We believe that all individuals deserve to live with a sense of “belonging” within a faith and overall community where they can express their talents, interests, and capabilities.

Peaceful Living individuals serve in the community, such as delivering Meals on Wheels. Photo provided by Peaceful Living.

With careful planning, individual attention, and ongoing education of our staff, we provide services to over 200 families through three programs in a manner in which participants feel loved, respected, and valued in their community. The three programs are: 

• Day Programs: Provides our individuals a program during the workday. 
• Family Services: Provides our individuals home and community-based support. 
• Residential Services: Provides our individuals residential care in 12 family-style community homes. 

Peaceful Living’s Residential Program provides individuals with personalized care in community homes. Photo provided by Peaceful Living.

Peaceful Living is a conference-related ministry of Mosaic Mennonite Conference, a sponsored agency of Mennonite Health Services, and is committed to living its Anabaptist values and beliefs. 

For information on how you can support our mission of creating belonging, including volunteer opportunities, contact info@peacefulliving.org. 

Prayer requests from Peaceful Living

  • That the people whom Peaceful Living serves would experience true belonging in a welcoming community.
  • For protection from the COVID-19 virus.
  • That Peaceful Living would continue to thrive as they seek to serve more people.
  • For strength and good health for our dedicated Direct Care Professionals as they provide essential services and loving support every day.

I Feel as if God Has Given Me a New Name

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“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” says Juliet in William Shakespeare’s, Romeo and Juliet.

Names have meaning because they reveal our identity. Why does the right name matter? Can changing names change your identity? Confucius once said, “The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their proper name.”

In 1967, in Indonesia, the country where I was born, the government suggested all people of Chinese-Indonesian descent change their name to an Indonesian name. Though officially just a suggestion, in reality it was a type of forced assimilation, intended to eliminate ethnic Chinese identity.

Most Indonesian Chinese families have two names even today — one for themselves and their family and another for government identification purposes.

My parents named me Hendy after my grandfathers, Hendrik and Eddy, typically European names. My last name comes from an Ambonesse name, which is my ethnic origin from my father’s side.

There was a time when I was ashamed of my last name. I never used it; it felt too ethnic and different, not as common as Indonesian and European names. Instead I used my middle name, Stevan, which is more European and culturally acceptable.

After I studied more about intercultural work, I felt a need to get in touch with my family name again. I felt that I had a revelation to use my last name. I believe my name has a story, and I want to know more about it.

Cultural assimilation occurs in all parts of the world. But unity is not uniformity. Uniqueness is not division.

Although the dominant culture pressures us to conform, I believe God created us uniquely. We don’t need to conform to any dominant culture but be transformed into God’s image. I believe God is against cultural homogeneity and ethnocentrism. No culture or ethnicity is better than another. We are equally broken and equally beautiful.

God scattered the people who built the tower of Babel because they wanted to make a society in their own image, governed by their own standards. They were proud of it and wanted to make a name for themselves.

It takes the work of Jesus on the cross to redeem the fallen nature of human beings. It takes the power of the Holy Spirit to enable us to communicate cross-culturally.

In the Old Testament we see the changing of names for the purpose of cultural assimilation. Hananiah, Mishael and Azaria had to change their Hebrew names to Chaldean names: Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. In the New Testament it was common for a Jew to have two names, one Hebrew and one Greek. In fact, the Apostle Paul never changed his name: Saul was a Hebrew name; Paul was a Greek name.

As I prepared this article I did some research on the meaning of my last name. Previously I didn’t know what Matahelemual meant. It was not easy to find the answer. I had to check with relatives who know the Ambonesse language. Finally, I got a verifiable answer: Matahelemual means Open Door. I’m grateful to know that, and I feel as if God has given me a new name.

There are names given by humans and names given by God. The name given by God is the name that will lead us to God’s promises. God changed Abram’s name to Abraham, Sarai’s to Sarah, Jacob’s to Israel and Simon’s to Peter. Through those names God gave new beginnings, new hopes, new blessings. A name is a prayer. What’s in your name?

A version of this article first appeared in “Anabaptist World” on December 15, 2020.

A Year-end Request

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As we end 2020, please consider a year-end gift to the Shalom Fund. Your gift will multiply blessings of mutual aid and witness to some of the most vulnerable communities in our conference and our ministries. 

Dr. Herman Sagastume, Executive Director of Healthy Niños Honduras, a conference-related Ministry (CRM), shares, “With COVID, things have been very difficult for the remote communities in Honduras. Last month, two hurricanes hit Honduras causing destruction not seen before and affecting around 2 million people.” 

“Thousands and thousands of families are sleeping on the floor in temporary shelters, becoming more vulnerable to COVID due to the lack of social distancing, masks, and personal hygiene,” explains Dr. Sagastume. “Shalom Funds will help us enormously to continue assisting the families with meals, medicines, water, mattresses, and other necessities.” 

Gifts from the Shalom Fund have already touched thousands of lives. Join our conference goal to raise $200,000 to support congregations and ministries across Mosaic Conference in this difficult time.  Your contribution, given in faith, hope and love, is multiplied in communities nearby and around the world through our shared witness together. 

To learn more about the Shalom Fund or to donate, click here.