Mosaic Mennonites

Missional - Intercultural - Formational

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Letter to Julia Where I Speak of the Unimaginable Marta Castillo and her Organic Ministry

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This article is translated to English by Andrés Castillo. Original article appears in Mosaic News En Español: Banda de Cinco Niños Hacen Travesuras, Hablan por Señas, Corren a Escondidas de Ana y Estudian en Computadores Carta a Julia Donde se Habla de la Inimaginable Marta Castillo y su Ministerio Orgánico by Javier Marquez

Dear Julia, 

The cold has not stopped, and you more than anyone knows that the cold creates bad music in my heart. I haven’t forgotten last winter, when we had the fortune of studying together in the city where you were born and that you love more than any other. Where we shared, apart from readings, a teapot to prepare your tea of aromatic plants, and heat up the water for the coffee that I prepared myself, refusing to use the coffee maker. 

As I promised you before leaving for the mission that you’ve given me, I’ll now begin to tell you through this letter of the findings of my surveying, which you have arranged for me during your kind and noble tutoring and discipleship.

After so much effort of long readings, serious reflections, and faithful service, your wise will has understood that the next thing to do is set out on this search of, as you have described it to me, “finding the deep parts of the heart of God in the people I meet and the actions I witness” on this research trip.

It hasn’t been long since I left the comfort of your tutorials, and I now have the joy of being able to tell you of my very first findings. I’ve seen God, in the sense that you’ve incited in me, as the result of a marvelous conversation with a woman who presented a few shards of her life to me—shards which have been more than enough to begin to better understand what “finding the deep parts of the heart of God in the people I meet and the actions I witness” means.

Luego de tanto esfuerzo de lecturas largas, reflexiones serias y servicio fiel, tu sabia voluntad ha entendido que lo siguiente es emprender esta búsqueda de, como bien me lo has descrito, “encontrar lo profundo del corazón de Dios en las personas o en los hechos que conozca en mi viaje de investigación”. 

Her married name is Marta Castillo. She lives in Norristown, a place in Pennsylvania that I wasn’t sure was a small city, or a large town. She has lived in this place for many years, where she married years back and raised two sons, Andrés and Daniel. Her husband is from Cali, Colombia, and his name is Julio. Similar to yours—a calendar name. 

However, she didn’t always live in Norristown. She is the daughter of two missionaries who brought her up and educated her in Indonesia. Already with only these short lines I am giving you a sheet of implicit information. A childhood in Indonesia, a country of islands and spiciness; the wife of a Colombian, people of coffee and music; plus the ingredient of her United States nationality, a people who you know better than I—but I rise to say about them that they are people with an admirable capacity of curiosity, and of a country with much geographical variety. Marta told me that ever since she was a child she always felt like part of a ministerial team, because her parents always involved her and her younger brother in their work of serving. 

She enjoyed this life of service so much that, when she learned that she would have to leave Indonesia, she wanted to travel to any other country that wasn’t her parents’ home country in order to be able to continue with her life of service. This didn’t happen, but as she herself commented in our conversation, “God always has his own plans.”

She studied to be a teacher and after graduating, she volunteered for three years to teach English to children with learning difficulties in Washington, D.C. This gave me an idea of her levels of patience. Afterwards, she was called to lead a youth program at Nueva Vida Norristown New Life (NVNNL—Norristown, PA), with the detail that when she arrived, she would be the only young person to lead in the program. Despite this small inconvenience, she remained at NVNNL, a place where she found an honest community that warmly received everyone, and that held its services in different languages, uniting multiple cultures. There, as you have surely begun to suspect with your shrewdness, she met Julio, who she married barely fourteen months after beginning to date. Love is more simple than what one figures.

At this moment our conversation was momentarily interrupted because the waitress brought us hot drinks and some sweet bread that we had ordered a few minutes before. Just then, I noticed a book that Marta had in her bag: Re-discipling the White Church. She noticed that I had turned my attention to her book, and she briefly told me that it contained reflections of a Christian man who had gone through many intercultural experiences, and in that way was able to talk to his brothers and sisters of white churches about what he learned.

At NVNNL, she helped in each corner of the camp. She carried out each task necessary, and one day was offered to be pastor. It was a calling that built up throughout the years. At first, it was a difficult thing for Julio. He wondered, “What does it mean to be the husband of a pastor?” Marta wanted his support, and after about a year, Julio heard God telling him that he couldn’t be an obstacle in the way of his wife’s calling, but rather the total opposite—her support.

In that way started her pastoral ministry that lasted 10 years—a period in her life where she learned something fundamental to her, the importance of sustaining her job as a pastor on the basis of relationships, walking alongside others, conversing with and accompanying people. When the time came when this stage of her life ended, confirmed by a dream of God, she found herself working with Mosaic conference, supporting three churches as Leadership Minister. Today she continues, and it seems that next year she will work with a total of eight. She is also a member of the intercultural team, a job that doesn’t seem easy. She says that working with people of different nationalities and cultures demands flexibility and humility.

Well, the afternoon passed very rapidly despite the cold. But, before I say goodbye to you I’ll share a few words from Marta that I’ve liked: 

  • “I’ve always liked challenges, my position is to always say yes to God. When one doesn’t feel prepared, or that he or she isn’t capable, God will provide.”
  • “At NVNNL I learned from the latino congregation to pray with more freedom. I feel more comfortable and free praying in Spanish than in my own language.”
  • “That feeling of never being completely prepared, but always ready.”

I hope to write to you soon about a new discovery on this trip. See you soon, Julia. Protect yourself from the cold and respond to me about your impressions of the first results of my mission. Apologies for the lengthy letter, as I know you’ve repeatedly told me that they’re not your favorite.

With care,
The one you only call by the nickname of the Curioso Impertinente (“the Curious Meddler”).

Faith and Life Gathering

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Mosaic Conference’s quarterly “Faith and Life gatherings” of pastors have been created to strengthen our relationships with one another, to discuss Scripture together, to hear each other’s stories, and to pray for one another. It is good church. 

This year our Faith and Life gatherings have focused on identity: gender and sexual identities, national and political identities, socio-economic identities, and life stage identities. Three of the four gatherings have been held remotely. Table groups are now Zoom break-out rooms. Scriptural texts, graphics, and charts appear on shared screens. Conversations happen in chat boxes. But we’ve found, to our great relief, that story-telling and prayer do not suffer from the distance. 

In preparation for the November 18 and 19 gathering, participants were asked to do some personal reflection in advance. Participants were invited to create a personal timeline showing the evolving stages of our ministry. The Faith and Life commission offered us some guiding questions to assist us in seeing our development in various ministry settings and roles. 

Two suggested scriptures, John 21:15-19 and 1 Peter 5:1-7, also guided us. Both passages draw on the image of a shepherd for a model of pastoral leadership, and both texts explicitly address the differences between young and old leaders. Because we are all working within the restrictions and unknowns of a pandemic, one of the texts seemed a fitting metaphor for all of us in these uncertain times: “When you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go” (John 21:18b, NIV).  

Faith and Life conversations take place within a covenant: to exercise humility when discussing Scripture, respect when listening to others, and honor the confidentiality of all stories shared. Again, that’s good church. 

But the agreement to not tell other people’s stories without permission can complicate sharing our learnings from these fruitful conversations. One story was too good not to share. With her permission to share, Pastor Sandy Drescher-Lehman (Methacton congregation in Norristown, PA) shared a story about her first inklings of her pastoral skills. 

Drescher-Lehman recalled one summer when she was a young teenager. J. Lorne Peachey, editor of WITH magazine and also her youth group leader, asked Drescher-Lehman and her friend Carmen to create a calendar of daily activities, to be published in WITH magazine. The purpose was for young Mennonites across the country to feel a sense of connection, knowing they were all doing the same thing on the same day. 

One of the calendar days, which happened to be a Sunday, Drescher-Lehman and her friend had designated everyone to wear their hair in braids. When they arrived at church, they found that all the women in their congregation, especially those who normally wore their hair pinned up in buns under their coverings, were wearing their hair down in braided pigtails.  

Drescher-Lehman reflected, “It was more formative for me than I knew at the time, in affirming my future of writing and leadership. I remembered the joy of their recognition of us that day.”

Most likely, J. Lorne Peachey had suggested to the women in their congregation to do what the girls had designated for that particular Sunday, but what Drescher-Lehman remembered was the affirmation she felt. Peachey was creative in the ways he drew out and affirmed leadership gifts and writing skills in young people. 

We were reminded during this gathering of 1 Peter 5a, which says, “You who are younger, submit yourselves to your elders. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another” (NIV).  Sometimes when all of us clothe ourselves in humility, it may be the elders who submit to the leadership of those who are younger.

Chaplain Carl Yusavitz Retires

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Photo Credit: theforgivenesslab.com

If you had asked Carl Yusavitz at age 25, where he would be in 50 years when he retired, he would have said, “Serving at the Vatican in Rome.”  He never would have guessed God had other plans for him. 

Instead, Yusavitz retired from Penn Foundation (Sellersville, PA), a conference-related ministry, on October 16, 2020, after 20 years as director of pastoral services and Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) supervisor.

Yusavitz studied at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, Italy after college.  He served the Catholic Church in active ministry as a priest for ten years before beginning graduate studies at the Rochester (NY) Institute of Technology.  After deciding not to return to ministry in the Catholic Church, he married his wife, Mary, and together they served with Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) in Sudan for three years.  Both of their children were born in Africa.  

Upon his return to the US, Yusavitz joined the Mennonite Church and served Germantown (PA) Mennonite Church as an associate pastor. He later trained for chaplaincy and as a clinical pastoral educator at the University of Pennsylvania.  Prior to Penn Foundation, he worked as a chaplain at Easton (PA) Hospital.  

In 2000, Yusavitz accepted the director of pastoral services position at Penn Foundation and started a unique Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) program that included pastoral care in a behavioral health setting.  This hands-on chaplain training requires 400 hours of supervised ministry.  It includes regular meetings with peers who offer support and additional perspective as each student considers how to fully engage with God and others in a pastoral role.  Yusavitz deeply impacted the lives and ministries of over 180 students in his CPE supervisor role at Penn Foundation, Easton Hospital, and Penn Health System.  

Yusavitz’s role over the past 20 years has been multi-faceted. In addition to leading the CPE program, he served Penn Foundation clients and staff as chaplain.  He offered annual spiritual care trainings for lay ministers in the community.  He resourced local faith communities on topics such as spirituality, mental health, and addictions. Yusavitz also provided oversight to the Grand View Hospital (Sellersville, PA) pastoral care program and was involved on the national level of the Association of Clinical Pastoral Education (ACPE), the certifying body for professional chaplains.  

During his time at Penn Foundation, Yusavitz joined the Anabaptist Chaplain group, started by Franconia Conference, to support its licensed chaplains.  In the early 1990s, Clayton Swartzentruber hosted and led the group in his home.  Later, Dave Derstine assumed leadership, followed by Charlotte Rosenberger, Walter Sawatzky, and then Gay Brunt Miller.  Mary Nitzsche, Mosaic associate executive minister, picked up the leadership in 2017. 

The Anabaptist Chaplain Group met virtually on October 8 to offer well wishes to Carl Yusavitz on his retirement. Photo by Sue Howes.

The group primarily supports area Mennonite chaplains but includes non-Anabaptist chaplains serving at Mennonite-affiliated organizations.  Participants include hospice, hospital, and prison chaplains.  About half of the group serve as chaplains to local continuing care retirement communities.  The group meets every six to eight weeks. 

At the October 8 meeting, the group took some time to honor Yusavitz’s years of ministry and the ways many have been blessed by his gifts and calling.  A majority of the group have had the opportunity to train under Yusavitz, through CPE, or work with him and appreciate his approachability, insights, and passion for pastoral care.  We are grateful that Yusavitz allowed God to lead him to us and the many ways he offered his gifts and passion for pastoral care to our community over the years.  

5 Ways to Beat the Virtual Slump for the Holidays

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I have a confession. As much as I feel blessed with the technology available for us to use in the midst of this pandemic, there has been more than one time when I think, “Not another Zoom meeting!” 

Zoom meetings are often tedious. People are less likely to get excited over a virtual gathering. But does it always have to be like that? I believe that God has challenged us this year to go out of our comfort zones. We need creative ways to celebrate the gift and be together safely.

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:2, ESV)

It’s time to break the stigma of virtual gatherings. Here are some creative ways to make your virtual fellowships more fun and meaningful during this holiday season:

1. Virtual Christmas Vacation

Before the meeting, ask the participants to find a picture of a place that they always wanted to visit. Encourage them to change their virtual background to be their dream vacation spot. (You can even dress up!) During the meeting, each person takes turns guessing “where” the others are. Alternatively, if you’re working with a large group, ask a few people to be a “tour guide” of their locations.

2. Christmas Ornament Challenge

Divide participants into teams and assign each team a breakout room via zoom to collaborate. Ask them to design the “perfect ornament” using the virtual whiteboard option.  By the end of the breakout session, ask them to save and present their ornaments to the larger group. If there is a crowd favorite, the host can print the design into an actual ornament and send it to everyone as a gift.

3. Angel Mails

Use an online gift exchange generator to randomly select an “angel” for each participant. Then, send your assigned recipient a handwritten letter, filled with encouraging words, scriptures, or affirmations for them specifically. Sign it anonymously and mail it to the recipient. Host a virtual gathering to talk about the letters. Each participant shares what they felt after reading the mail, and tries to guess who was their “angel.”

Alternatively, if you find someone who is having a hard time, you can just assign multiple angels for one person!

4. Learn A Christmas Song in Different Languages

Mosaic Conference has six different worshipping languages. Try learning a Christmas song in a language other than your own. You can have someone who speaks a different language join your meeting and teach your group a song that you’ve never heard before.

5. Virtual Interactive Story of Jesus’ Birth

Download or print the Mosaic-made advent family activity. Meeting virtually, each family takes turns to read a part of the story of Jesus’ birth.

Hopefully you’ve been inspired to be more creative with your virtual meetings during this Christmas season. Even though we will be celebrating a different kind of Christmas this year, I hope that the Spirit still keeps the gift alive in each and every one of us.

Conference Related Ministries (CRM) Profile: Spruce Lake & Pinebrook

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Born of Wind and Water

Staff member, Steve Landes (far right), and volunteers install goal nets for the new disc golf course at Pinebrook. Photo by Grace Nolt.

The wind blew, the rain came down, and the Pocono Mountains were drenched, receiving over 21 inches of rain.  It was the flood of 1955. God moved Norm Good and the people of Blooming Glen (PA) Mennonite Church to minister to the thousands who were affected by the storms.  

Seven years later Mr. Dalton, who owned the land that would become Spruce Lake, was approached by Mennonites interested in purchasing his property to start a children’s camp. Moved by the compassion of these men representing those who had given of themselves during the flood, he offered them an incredibly low price for 276 acres!  God moved and Spruce Lake was born.

Dedicated to Pointing People Toward Christ

The Church of South India from Seaford, NY, represents guests from multiple diverse cultures and backgrounds at Spruce Lake/Pinebrook. Photo by Grace Nolt.

Nearly 700 people came to the first open house in May 1963 and dedicated their new mountain sanctuary to the Lord for His work on July 4, 1963. 

God’s people, excited by the possibilities of pointing people toward Christ, threw themselves into the work of Spruce Lake.  And oh, God has blessed the work and ministry.  Facilities grew and programs expanded, growing from 98 campers in the summer of 1963 to serving over 43,000 annual guests and campers today. 

Recent Developments

In 2017, through the generous gifts of God’s people, God choreographed the purchase of Spruce Mountain, giving Spruce Lake a total 888 acres of beautiful woods and hiking trails. In June 2018, a new Youth Activity Center was completed, making Wilderness Camp a truly year-round youth ministry hub. And in October 2018, Spruce Lake acquired Pinebrook Bible Conference, near Stroudsburg, PA, to steward the programs and operations of this facility for “the Glory of God.”

Core Ministries Change Lives

Summer Wilderness Camp and Day Camps, plus winter Ignite Youth Weekends, reach into the lives of hundreds of children and youth every year with the Good News of Jesus Christ. Countless young people have accepted Christ at Wilderness Camp. 

“Ignite” Winter Youth Weekends at Spruce Lake’s youth activity center. Photo by Josh Reichart.

Outdoor Education helps school students and adults discover the wonders of creation and our awesome God who made it all. For many, it is the highlight of their school year.

Programmed Family Retreats & Events at Spruce Lake/Pinebrook support the entire family with biblically grounded speakers and worship leaders, with plenty of fun and relaxed time together.

Church & Community Groups bring thousands of people each year to hear God’s voice through hospitable staff and the peaceful beauty of woodlands and waterfalls. 

Here, people of all ages from varying backgrounds can feel the Lord’s presence, focus on their relationship with Him, and experience the diversity of Christians interacting as friends.

Opportunities to Serve and Volunteer

At Spruce Lake/Pinebrook, approximately 150 year-round full-time and part-time staff serve the body of Christ and our communities. Over the summer, about 100 additional staff help us fulfill our call to ministry every day. Each avenue of service is of genuine value to God. 

Spruce Lake/Pinebrook also depend on the generous service of volunteers all year long. Many individuals and groups help keep the ministry flourishing. Contact us to offer talents and time.

Prayer Requests

  • Wisdom and direction for the Franconia Mennonite Camp Association (FMCA) board members and staff as we continue to point people toward Christ
  • That the Lord would protect the ministry – our guests, staff and properties — from the COVID-19 virus. 
  • Bring the campers, families, couples, and individuals back soon to experience what God has for them at Pinebrook and Spruce Lake. 
  • That FMCA would continue to thrive as we seek to point people toward Christ.

Mosaic Conference Office Update

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A new location for the Mosaic Mennonite Conference offices will open on Monday, December 7 at 100 Longacre Center on the Dock Mennonite Academy, 1000 Forty Foot Road, in Lansdale, PA. We are happy to return to Dock in our new hospitable and friendly office space though some finishing touches will be yet to come in the next months.

We are grateful for this opportunity for ongoing collaboration at Dock and look forward to working, meeting, and hosting from the new office suite and meeting rooms.  

The office is staffed Monday to Friday from 9-3:30pm.  At this time though, most staff continue to work dispersed so please call ahead to schedule appointments.  The office will be closed for the holidays on December 24 and 25 as well as December 31 and January 1.  

The temporary office located in Hatfield, PA is now closed though the sign may remain onsite yet for a few weeks.  New signage has not yet arrived for our new space which is located just off the Detwiler Road entrance to the campus.  This new office location is across campus from our previous location at Rosenberger Center.   

  • Photo by Emily Ralph Servant
  • Photo by Emily Ralph Servant

Crops for Hunger

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In 2018 Deep Run East (Perkasie, PA) Mennonite Church started an initiative to encourage new ideas and vision for the use of our abundant resources. We were challenged to find new and innovative ways to serve God with our resources,  including our church buildings and grounds. I remembered an article I saved from the Mennonite Weekly Review, dated June 10, 2002.

A field of soybeans planted by Deep Run East congregation this past summer. (Photo provided by Kermit Yoder)

The article told how farmers in Minnesota donated the proceeds from their crops to the Food Resource Bank (now Growing Hope Globally.) Growing Hope Globally helps subsistence farmers grow their own food, earn an income, feed their families, and improve their livelihoods. Farmers in North America help farmers in need around the world in an effort to end world hunger. 

Our church is blessed with 40 tillable acres of land, so I suggested we consider a “Growing Project” with this resource of land.  In December 2019, the congregation affirmed the idea and responded by allocating existing funds and making contributions. Team leaders for the project,  Phil Nyce, Henry Rice, Mark Schmidt, and Kermit Yoder, began planning for the 2020 planting season. It was determined that soybeans would be our crop. Our fields were planted on May 27, 2020. 

Farmland owned by Deep Run East congregation (with the church in the background) grew crops to assist in fighting world hunger this year.

In April, just before we planted the soybeans, Joe Dise and his uncle, Dean Overholt, approached our team about wanting to help out families in need locally and through Crops for Hunger due to the pandemic. Their idea was to plant extra sweet corn to harvest and sell or give to local people in need. 

As a team we were all in. But with COVID-19, some of the initial ideas for distributing sweet corn were not feasible. A roadside stand seemed to be a safe way to distribute the sweet corn. We offered the corn without cost, free if you needed or for a donation to Crops for Hunger.  The sweet corn produced $1,333 for our Crops for Hunger project.

For years, Deep Run East has been providing support to programs in Honduras. Growing Hope Globally has a program in Honduras implemented by Mennonite Central Committee (MCC). One of our members, Joel Kempt, is on staff with MCC in Honduras and was directly involved in formulating the program. We decided to support this program with the proceeds of our sweet corn.

Mark Schmidt, of Deep Run East, working in the fields.

November 7 was finally the day that our soybeans were harvested. God blessed Bucks County, PA with a wonderful growing season, timely rain, and warm temperatures this year. The crop exceeded our goal. With a 62 bushel per acre average, we harvested 2,496 bushels of soybeans. We arranged for our crop to be purchased by Weaver’s Toasted Grains in New Holland PA. Church member, Dale Overholt, and his employer, PV Transport, generously hauled the crop to market. 

Nate Wilson, of Deep Run East, works with the soybean crops.

When we received the payment from Weaver’s Toasted Grains, the check was written for more than the agreed upon price.  The owners wanted to help out and generously contributed to the project as well. 

The total proceeds from the sale of the sweet corn and soybean crops totaled $33,499.79.  We are grateful for the many people who helped out with this project, through prayer, labor, materials, and money. We were blessed to have used our resources to help others utilize their land to feed their families and communities throughout the world. 

Working with Youth to Expand the Kingdom of God

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“I’ve always had a passion to work with youth in the church,” shares Michelle Ramírez, Youth Coordinator for churches in the Florida region for Mosaic Conference. “They are the next generation of leaders and I love to help them see that there is no better reward than to work for God by serving in your church.” 

Eight congregations in Florida joined Mosaic Conference during the November 2020 assembly. Ramírez recently began working in youth leadership cultivation with these congregations in this new, part-time role for the conference. 

Ramírez works with the conference’s youth formation team and oversees the Forming Youth Leaders program for the Florida congregations. This program focuses on reaching and mentoring the youth in these congregations to inspire and train them in how to be effective leaders in their congregations. “The program has just officially started so I am currently building a team of representatives in each congregation so that I can become better acquainted with the youth ministries already in place,” says Ramírez. 

The goal of the program that Ramírez oversees is to have youth active in leadership, in whatever ministry they choose to work in. “I’m most looking forward to working with youth from different congregations,” Ramírez reflects. “I love to hear each person’s unique story and work together to expand the Kingdom of God.”

Ramírez is a pastor’s kid and was raised in a church environment. As a youth she served in the translation ministry and the worship ministry. As a young adult, she became a leader of the youth in her congregation, a role in which she still serves. She is a member of Luz y Vida congregation in Orlando, FL which joined Mosaic Conference in November and where her father is the lead pastor.

Michelle Ramírez (back row, 2nd from left, with blue bandana) with youth from her church summer camp. (Photo provided by Michelle Ramírez)

“I know what it’s like to serve God because your parents make you, and what it’s like to serve God because you want to with your whole heart,” Ramírez shares about her childhood. She hopes to cultivate a sense of personal connection and motivation for the youth in owning and leading with their faith. “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!”

Ramírez graduated with a degree in computer engineering with a specialization in cyber security. Her primary work is as a certified autism teacher in a private school for children on the autism spectrum. 

Ramírez loves to learn languages. She currently knows five languages well enough to communicate clearly (English, Spanish, Portuguese, sign language, and Japanese), and in several, she is fluent. She is in the process of adding a sixth language, as she is learning Korean. “I find different languages to be so interesting,” Ramírez shares. “I like that communication between humans isn’t limited to just one language or culture.” 

In her free time, Ramírez likes to read fiction books and play video games with her mother. “My mom doesn’t know how to play, but she likes to watch me play and tells me what to do or where to go, even if I already know,” Ramírez says with a laugh.