Mosaic Mennonites

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Snow Sculpture Contest: Winter Fun with Biblical Application

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One of my favorite things about pastoring a small church is how deeply I get to be involved with all parts of church life. Last Wednesday, February 3,  I spent the morning studying Mark 1, the afternoon in Zoom calls,  and the evening building snow sculptures with our children and youth. 

Wednesday evening at 5:30, six Conference youth groups of all sizes gathered under the lights of the Souderton (PA) Mennonite Church parking lot for a Mosaic Conference Snow Sculpture Competition. Our mission was to reshape the mounds of plowed snow into works of creative genius. Each group labored for an hour and a half, figuring out what to make, finding ways to bind no-longer-sticky snow together, and heaving large amounts of snow onto (or off of) piles. 

  • Ambler team: snow monster, photo by Randy Martin.
  • Blooming Glen team: snow campfire and s’mores, photo by Terri Nyce
  • Deep Run East team: snow castle and dragon, photo by Terri Nyce.
  • Salford team: snow Sphinx, photo by Terri Nyce
  • Souderton team: church logo, photo by Terri Nyce
  • Zion team: dragon, photo by Terri Nyce.

Some of us poured water onto snowballs to stick the snow-person’s head to its body. Others used a hatchet to carve a monster’s face from a snow mound. I’m still not sure how Blooming Glen (PA) folks made their snow-hot-dogs stick together, but it earned them second place! As 7pm drew near, we whipped out the food coloring to bring out creations to life with color. 

When time was up, we plodded around the parking lot, admiring other groups’ work and trying to see who the builders were under snowsuits and masks. My group threw snowballs while we waited for the judges to announce the winners. 

We also discussed how snow sculpting might be a good sermon illustration for all working together in the body of Christ

We also discussed how snow sculpting might be a good sermon illustration for all working together in the body of Christ, even while the person working on the dragon’s tail cannot see or talk to the person working on the face. (This conversation really happened. I did not start it, and it was not just staged for this article.)

Congratulations are in order to the  Zion (Souderton, PA) Mennonite Church youth for their winning dragon, which earned them a pizza party. 

Zion’s snow sculpture, winners of the night. Photo by Terri Nyce.

Though we were a bit disappointed, Zion’s youth pastor, Jordan Luther, later said to me, “I hope our two reptilian creations can live together in harmony. If God made the Leviathan to sport in the waters, then may our creations live in peace in the great black sea that is the Souderton Mennonite Church parking lot.” I had to agree, that as Mennonite pastors, we probably have no choice but to hope for shalom among our snow creatures.

For pastors who have only ever pastored in the pandemic, the shared work of building snow creatures was probably the most fun I’ve ever had with our youth. And I hope that we will be talking about the rainbow beret our snow-person wore to battle the snow dragon for years to come. 

Conference Related Ministries (CRM) Profile: Indian Creek Foundation

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Elliot lives in one of Indian Creek Foundation’s residential homes and works at a local restaurant. Photo provided by Indian Creek Foundation.

For over 45 years, Indian Creek Foundation, a Conference Related Ministry (CRM),  has served Bucks (PA) county and Montgomery (PA) county  children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Throughout the years, the Foundation has grown into one of the premier service providers in the area.

Although it wasn’t incorporated until 1975, the Foundation’s roots trace back to 1958, when a boy with a developmental disability was born to a local family. It was important to them that their son would have a place to live and work when they were no longer able to care for him, so they turned to the community for help.

At about the same time, the Franconia Mennonite Conference established a committee as part of their mission called “Indian Creek Haven.”  The purpose of this mission was to provide outreach services to people with developmental disabilities who were living in the community.  It was this combination of one family’s search for answers and Franconia Mennonite Conference’s mission that began the development of the organization that today touches more than 1300 lives in Bucks and Montgomery counties.

The connection to Mennonite churches in the area helped Indian Creek Foundation carve out a set of values that serve as guiding principles for the work being performed. Values such as compassion, mutual respect, and meaningful relationships are the building blocks of the Foundation’s Philosophy of Care. This philosophy, which is instilled in each employee, is the essence of what happens at the Foundation each day.

Indian Creek residents celebrated some summer birthdays away from their house. Photo provided by Indian Creek Foundation.

Today, the Foundation continues to be guided by the core values that were developed more than 45 years ago. Though service delivery methods have changed over time, one thing remains true, the Foundation is dedicated to the people it provides services for. With an ever-growing staff, a committed Board of Directors, and the support of the community, the Foundation is poised to impact even more lives. Through our three primary service departments, Residential Services, Day/Vocational Service, and Behavioral Health Services, Indian Creek Foundation remains steadfast in its mission and focused on its future goals.

Although many of our volunteer opportunities have been suspended during the pandemic, we have still been working with local churches, organizations, and individuals to provide support to our 24 residential care homes.  Additionally, our volunteer committee for the upcoming Roll Stroll & Run event is preparing for our 30th annual event on June 19, 2021.  As restrictions hopefully loosen in the coming months, we will resume many of our other volunteer programs as well.  If you’re interested in serving, please contact Brett Wells at bwells@indcreek.org.

For now, we ask that you pray for our individuals and those who provide care for them.  This last year has been a challenging one for all of them.  Many of their routines have been disrupted and visits with family and friends have been limited. 

Masked up and ready for some fun. Some of the Indian Creek Day Services consumers enjoyed a day at the bowling alley. Photo provided by Indian Creek Foundation.

Chronicle of Two Hurricanes During a Trip to Honduras

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This article is translated to English by Andrés Castillo. Original article appears in Mosaic News En Español: Crónica de Dos Huracanes en un Viaje a Honduras por Javier Marquez

$500 from Mosaic 

The original plan was for Juan José Rivera to go back to Sarasota on November 20th, after three arduous, jam-packed weeks of work in Honduras. He’d been there for a few days, visiting Mennonite congregations, preaching and collaborating with the churches located around the city of San Pedro Sula. He carried a sum of money for basic necessities—$500—that the Mosaic Missions Committee had given him. But all plans would fall to the ground, or—more graphically described—destroyed, flooded, and erased by the hurricanes.

Tons of Water, Overflowing Currents

Pastor Juan José was visiting his native land accompanied by his wife, Elena. He had been living in the city of San Pedro Sula, in the house of members of one of the congregations he had plans to visit. Then, hurricane Iota came directly upon the city as an inferno measuring to the tons in water, with overflowing currents that made the roads disappear, creating lakes where there used to be soccer fields, and waterfalls where the hills of the city once were.

The rain wasn’t much more than a heavy downpour, but the real terror came from the wind, whose power uprooted trees and de-roofed houses. People were lost, and the turmoil was national, not only city-wide. Juan José and Elena had to seek refuge in a hotel when their host house flooded with water. They helped as much as they could, even trying to remove water from the house to rescue what was lost. At the end, they had to give up. On the way to refuge, in the street, they saw the way the people struggled unceasingly, their eyes defending themselves from the trauma of the present while trying to save their properties. Many yelled for people who wouldn’t be found, while others looked through the puddles for food, clothes, and even money. For Juan José it was frustrating to not be able to help, to watch, with his own eyes, people drowning in the currents of water that ran through the city.

An Out-of-Commission Airport

Many things were canceled, the plan was totally interrupted, but Juan José and Elena were daring more than ever to collaborate with the imminent torrent of necessity growing around them. Their mission there was to serve, although with a plan of activities defined, in that moment, after the untimely ruining of their timeline, they looked for a way to help the most they could. Also, the news that the airport was out of commission, making it impossible to return to the U.S., made it clear that there was more time for them to serve than was planned.

They traveled to the south of Honduras to the Choluteca region. There they collaborated in what they could, handing out meals, tending to the wounded—however much was needed. Many were left with nothing, and the pastor and his wife helped whoever they could. Pastor Juan José wrote a report afterwards with the specific names of those who were supposed to receive economic help from him. The original sum had doubled, leaving him to cover it with his own money at the time.

Children Rummaging through Trash, Asking for Money

One of his projects is the appropriation of a piece of arable land that he’s lent to rural dwellers in the region to work and live off of. All of this was lost, destroyed completely by the passing of the hurricanes. They now need double the help—help to restore the land, and help to work it. It was at one of these sites where pastor Juan José saw—in an event that surely duplicates itself in the entire country—children rummaging through the trash, asking for money, pulling adults by the arm, all with the same question on their lips:

– “Do you need any help with anything? Do you have any work for me?”

Finally, the pastor and his wife returned to their home in Sarasota on December 16th. The memory has remained in their hearts, just as it happened, since they left Honduras.

The Call: A Lifelong Journey with God

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I understand God’s call a bit differently than most people.  I have always felt the call to a life of service and never remember a time when I questioned that call as a goal for my life.  My wife, Sharon, and I often experienced this call together.  God’s call was the guiding force in my life’s trajectory, and I view this as simply my journey with God. 

My call has involved specific times of focus, but service in the name of Christ has been central to my life’s journey.  There were times we experienced God’s call in a sacred way as with our call to serve in Indonesia and other times when the call came through intellectual discussions with wise counselors as with the process of discerning our move to Bangladesh.

Photo provided by Conrad Swartzentruber.

I grew up in a Mennonite family with a father who pastored a mission church with the Conservative Mennonite Conference in Eastern Kentucky.  I only understood life in the context of ministry and service to others.  Our church building, Turners Creek Mennonite Church, was 50 feet from our house and the church community was all around us.  Much of my life happened in the church building.

I recall Dad’s words to me as a teenager as we discussed my life goals, “Conrad, whatever you decide to do in life, it’s good to help other people”.  Those simple words made sense to me.  Passages such as Matthew 25 and Micah 6:8 affirmed this simple call to serving and making a difference around me.

In 1982, Sharon and I answered the call to serve with the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) and spent 11 of the next 14 years in Bangladesh and Indonesia.  In 1997, my call involved stepping into Mennonite school leadership at Shalom Christian Academy in southeastern Pennsylvania.  Today I serve as Superintendent at Dock Mennonite Academy.  

A local congregation has always been an essential part of discerning and affirming our call.  We have been blessed to connect with congregations in several states and countries that have provided guidance and encouragement.  We have been involved at Plains Mennonite Church since 2009.  We have traveled to India several times to learn from and to resource pastors and their wives through the Peace Proclamation Ministries International.  We continue to support the work of MCC through events like the Pennsylvania Relief Sale.  Sharon’s work at the Material Resource Center directly benefits the ministry of MCC.

God’s call for me was always affirmed by a local congregation but was not formalized by ordination until this year.  In my school leadership role, I had prepared academically by completing a doctoral degree.   We recognized, however, my role in the Mennonite school was equally one of faith leadership.  Conversations with school and church leaders encouraged me in the direction of pursuing ordination.  The connection of our Mennonite schools and the Mennonite denomination is essential in preserving our mission and vision for our schools.  The role of a local church in the lives of our students is critical for encouragement, faithfulness, and accountability. 

In October 2020 we celebrated my ordination via a Zoom service.  This unique format due to COVID-19 allowed family and friends in many different places to join.  It felt symbolic of the community that has surrounded me and affirmed my call throughout this journey.  Sharon and I are grateful for the many people who have encouraged and challenged us.  We are always aware of God’s presence in our journey.  

Our call will continue.  We have much more to learn.  We want to continue our work of reconciliation.  We want to continue to walk humbly with our God!

Mennonite Church USA Assembly: Update

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Mennonite Church USA announced on January 27 that the biennial Delegate Assembly, which normally happens over several days, will be scaled back to one virtual session due to uncertainty over COVID-19.

Delegates will meet online from 1 to 3:30 p.m. EDT on July 10, 2021, after the regular events of MennoCon21, scheduled for July 6-10 in Cincinnati, OH.

A long-awaited decision on whether to retire the Mennonite Church USA Membership Guidelines is being postponed because delegates will not meet in person this summer.

The hybrid convention, with worship, fellowship and educational activities, will have both onsite and virtual options.

Photo from Mennonite Church USA

Giving Justly

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My family taught me through example to be generous with what I had and to share with those in need. The Church taught me to give a tithe of 10% of my income back to God. When I was younger, I remember reading the counsel that as your income increased, that you should seek to increase the percentage of your giving.  

When I read scriptures about Jesus’ conversation with the rich young ruler (Luke 18:18-29) and the descriptions of the early church’s economics in Acts 4:32-35, I am convinced that I am off the mark about money and wealth. 

In his book, “Who Will Be a Witness? Igniting Activism for God’s Justice, Love, and Deliverance,” Dr. Drew Hart expresses the need for the church to move “from a hyper-individualistic lens of wealth as an issue of rights and private property, to the viewpoint of early Christian leaders that nothing is solely yours to do with however you desired. Everything was from God and was to be shared.  People that hoard wealth and then give to the poor are not actually engaging in charity.” (p. 250, emphasis mine) 

That is the line that stuck with me. Most of the time, I give from my extra.  I keep back what I need or may need in the future.  I give from what I think I can live without.  

Hart continued:

We ought to participate in the new thing God is doing, and it cannot exclude our economic discipleship and our relationship to wealth and poverty.  There is significant dissonance between the American church and the thrust of biblical teaching on wealth and poverty, especially when we see that scriptural wisdom climaxes in the life and teachings of Jesus.  We will not find a faithful way of participating in God’s economy until we are converted from our internalized thinking, which is apathetic to poverty and triggered by any form of redistribution of resources.” (p.250)

How do I (and how do we) move towards giving “with an eye towards redistribution and not merely comfortable charity”?

Injustice has always allowed for unequal distribution of money and wealth.  Injustice and racism in the United States has benefitted white people economically.  This video by Phillip Roger Vischer (co-creator of Veggie Tales and What’s in the Bible, founder of Big Idea Productions and Jellyfish Labs) gives an excellent explanation of the ways that wealth has been unequally distributed over the years.  

When the rich young ruler heard Jesus’ word, he turned away from Jesus (Luke 18:23). But Zacchaeus does not. Instead, Zacchaeus stood up and said, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount” (Luke 19:8, NIV)  Zacchaeus gave money to the poor, but he also made reparations and made amends for the wrong he had done, by paying back money to those who had been wronged.

During our recent webinar with Dr. Hart, I asked, “What steps can we take to answer Jesus’ call to be radically faithful with our wealth?”  

Hart responded, “If you care about something, you will find ways to respond.”   

Lord Jesus, I care about your call to economic justice and discipleship.  Help me to find meaningful ways to respond and to be faithful!

A White Pastor on a Quest

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I am a white pastor of an all-white Mosaic congregation. I feel it is essential that I work at promoting racial justice, yet I really struggle to know how to do that. My congregation is trying to navigate how we can be involved in promoting racial justice in our community and nation. 

Screenshot from the Facebook Live interview with Dr. Drew Hart and the Mosaic Intercultural Ministry Team.

As a result, I joined the recent Facebook Live interview with Dr. Drew Hart and the Mosaic Intercultural Ministry Team in hopes that I might receive more guidance on integrating this valuable work with my ministry. 

Marta Castillo, Danilo Sanchez, and Hendy Matahelemual, staff members of the Intercultural Ministry Team, led a virtual interview on January 28 with Dr. Drew Hart about his newest book, “Who Will Be A Witness? Igniting Activism for God’s Justice, Love, and Deliverance.”

The conversation started with a question for Hart about economic apartheid. Economic apartheid looks into why people of color are disproportionately poorer in the US. Many people in the US culture believe that people are poor or rich due to how hard they work. However, this is not true. Hart explained how many US government programs for economic uplift in the 20th century were structured deliberately as government handouts for white people and discriminated against people of color.

Hart illustrated how the story of Zaccheus in Luke 19 provides an example of how both redistribution and reparations are necessary to alleviate poverty. In response to Jesus’ initiative in his life, Zaccheus promises to give half of what he has to the poor (redistribution) and to repay four times over anyone he has cheated (reparations). 

We are so immersed, suggested Hart, in our cultural assumptions about economics that our ears are deaf to the voice of Jesus on economic issues. We need to embrace “teaching the way of Jesus for our economic lives,” encouraged Hart. Our problem is not a lack of knowledge but a failure of will. “Certainly in the church we can do what Jesus wants us to,” emboldened Hart.

Another question asked Hart what he does when people accuse him of reading the Bible through a social justice lens. All through the Bible, Hart responded, God reveals God’s self as being deeply concerned about justice. Both the Exodus and the words of the prophets show that God is concerned to create justice. We also see Jesus’ concern and action for the deliverance of the poor and oppressed. The Bible is a book about justice. 

“There are basic themes in the Bible that if you don’t address them, something is deeply wrong,”  explained Hart. 

Hendy Matahelemual raised the issue of nationalism, describing nationalism as being a force in his native Indonesia as well as the US. In response, Hart talked about the myth of American exceptionalism – the idea that the US is different or better because of our form of government. 

Hart asked, “How should the church navigate the government?” As Mennonites, who have often seen governmental interaction as something to be minimized, this is crucial. Our interaction, encouraged Hart, should be focused on concern for the most vulnerable and promoting communal responsibility.

The conversations were very helpful in my ongoing quest to learn how I can lead my congregation to work for racial justice. To continue my pursuit, I am also going to be joining one of the Mosaic groups studying Hart’s book. I hope you will join me.

Creatively Using Grant Money for FL Youth

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by Laurie Oswald Robinson

Pandemic realities are shifting how Mennonite Mission Network (MMN) is partnering with others. This shift includes sharing $15,000 with Mosaic Conference to support its youth and young adult leadership development.

Mosaic Conference is using the support — the majority of a $20,000 grant MMN received to help form young leaders — to fund the new ministry of Mosaic youth coordinator Michelle Ramirez. She is overseeing Mosaic’s new Forming Youth Leaders program for Florida congregations, eight of which joined Mosaic during its November assembly.

Michelle Ramirez. Photo by Emily Ralph Servant.

Ramirez — who grew up in the Florida faith community, where she held other leadership positions prior to this new appointment — is now helping young people develop their gifts in their local context. She is a member of the Luz y Vida (Light and Life) congregation in Orlando.

“I love to hear each person’s unique story and work together to expand the kingdom of God,” Ramirez said. “I hope to help them see that if we work for God with all our hearts, God is with us every step of the way, no matter how hard things may seem.”

MMN’s Christian Service department periodically applies for grants through Forum for Theological Exploration. In 2020, they received $20,000. MMN has kept $5,000 for further engagement with the conference through shared training opportunities and future travel costs.

Conference leaders, including Executive Minister Stephen Kriss, felt the Spirit moving in this fine-tuning and reshaping. “I’m so grateful for the initiative of Mennonite Mission Network to partner to explore new and more focused ways of service and leadership development with our Florida congregations,” Kriss wrote in an email. 

“While this has been a challenge to launch amid a global pandemic, I appreciate Mission Network’s flexibility and responsiveness to the context and possibilities,” expressed Kriss. “Michelle brings care, passion and strong relational connections to help shape next-generation leaders for the sake of the church and the world, in the way of Christ’s peace.”

Editor’s Note: This is an abbreviated version of an article that originally appeared in Anabaptist World on January 15, 2021. To read the full version, click here.