Mosaic Mennonites

Missional - Intercultural - Formational

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What I’m Reading: Baseball, Dr. King, Missiology, and More

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by Jeff Wright, Leadership Minister

What passes for winter in southern California gives way to springtime by February.  As I write, it is 81°F in my home in Riverside, California and 28°F in Souderton, PA.  Pitchers and catchers have reported for spring training. Now is the perfect time to read a good book about baseball, Ballpark: Baseball in the American City. The author, Paul Goldberg, is a Pulitzer Prize–winning architecture critic, and he writes with a concise understatement about the intersections of the greatest sport ever created and the magic of urban architecture. Baseball is a game of pastures brought into the city. We Mennonites might have some missional concepts to learn from such an exercise.

For Black History Month, I re-read A Testament of Hope:  The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr. This time around, I have been particularly moved by Dr. King’s early writings and speeches.  In his 1958 essay, “An Experiment in Love,”  Dr King shapes a powerful theological reminder that Christian social justice begins with Agape – the ideal of sacrificial love. “Agape,” writes King, “ is a willingness to go to any length to restore community.” May we have ears to hear such a profoundly simple and difficult word.

I’m always on the lookout for new voices in urban missiology.  Sean Benesh is a Portland-based urban church planter and social entrepreneur whom I can’t get enough of.  It might be easy for us Mennonites to dismiss Benesh as far too evangelical or hipster for us but this would be a big mistake. Benesh’s latest two books, The New Cartographers: Helping Social Entrepreneurship Develop a Map for Local Church Ministry + Church Planting in the New Frontier and Intrepid: Navigating the Intersection of Social Entrepreneurship + Church Planting, are full of practical ideas for launching new expressions of the church that are sustaining and sustainable. Benesh says with a utility of words what I’ve been wishing to say about ministry for the past thirty years.

Unsettling Truths: The Ongoing, Dehumanizing Legacy of the Doctrine of Discovery is a powerful book that my small group is reading… and feeling the weight of its truth. Authors Mark Charles and Soong-Chan Rah remind me, as a thirteenth-generation  American immigrant from England, that the good news of the gospel often is first bad news for the way I’ve assumed the world works. This book has become a part of my penitential reflections during Lent.

Finally, I’m enjoying The Pietist Option: Hope for the Renewal of Christianity.  Postmodern Mennonites are not always comfortable with “pietism.” We tend to equate it with ignoring the world as it is, and assuming the world that is to come is not a healed version of this world. Early pietism was not so stained by quietism.  Indeed, Pietism had a profound impact on the Anabaptist movement in North America. Brethren in Christ Bishop Perry Engle said, “I like to think these bold and serious-minded believers [18th century Anabaptists in Pennsylvania] were ‘sweetened’ by their personal experience of a heartfelt and life-changing relationship with Christ.” As a lifelong  Anabaptist, no one has yet accused me of being “sweetened” in the Lord. But as I grow older, it seems a compliment worth seeking.

Seeing God in the "Image of a Stranger"

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by Jim Conrad, Blooming Glen congregation

In Holy Envy, Barbara Brown Taylor quotes Jonathan Sacks, who said, “The supreme religious challenge is to see God’s image in one who is not in our image.”

The 11 US volunteers who worked in Honduras the last week of January with Healthy Ninos. (Photo courtesy of Jim Conrad)

While in Honduras in January with Healthy Niños Honduras, I was privileged to experience God’s image in many ways as our team of 11 volunteers served five remote villages during our one-week stay. Four members of our team — Linda and Vernon Martin from Salford congregation (Harleysville, PA) and Glenda Bergey and myself from Blooming Glen (PA) congregation—were from Eastern District & Franconia Conference. 

Healthy Niños Honduras (HNH) began in 2017 as a continuation of the MAMA Project in Honduras. HNH is operated primarily by Honduran professionals who welcome teams of volunteers from the U.S. to aid the program in their mission of helping children and their families to fight malnutrition. 

To achieve this mission, medical and dental teams (as well as construction crews) travel to remote villages to aid those who have no access to clean water or adequate healthcare. The villagers receive visits from these brigades of workers and volunteers about every six months. An HNH team member connects with the village leader ahead of the brigade’s visit to be assured of safety and assess the specific needs for the brigade to effectively prepare. 

One of the many children who come to the Healthy Ninos clinic for healthcare. (Photo courtesy of Jim Conrad)

Some of the brigade pour concrete floors for a few village homes where only earthen floors had existed. Meanwhile, other brigade members distribute and demonstrate how water filtration units can be used by villagers to provide clean water. Medical and dental services are offered by the Honduran and U.S. medical team. Deworming medication and Vitamin A are given to everyone over two years of age. 

Some volunteers check patients’ vision and provide reading glasses. Other team members distribute gifts to each family, generously donated by individuals and businesses from the US. All children are evaluated for nutritional well-being. For those children needing further nutritional attention, the child and mother travel to HNH’s home base. There the mother receives education regarding nutrition while the child receives treatment. During their stay, children receive schooling, appropriate for each child’s age.

One of the visitors to the clinic, with Jim Conrad. (Photo courtesy of Jim Conrad)

During my week, I was able to see the faces and hear the voices of the village residents as they demonstrated deep appreciation for the care they received from the volunteers. Wishing to be seen, listened to, and examined with care was important for recipients as well as the caregiver during these “holy moments.” As a retired physician, I witnessed the image of God in many unfamiliar faces. I will cherish these images, etched in my memory, for years to come.

Many teams from within our conference have made this journey of caring in the past and many more will in the years to come. If you are interested in joining a team, visit to www.healthyninos.org.

From Baseball Cards to Conference Budgets

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By Jennifer Svetlik, Salford congregation

Conrad with wife Jo

When Conrad Martin was young, he loved collecting baseball cards. He was fascinated by the statistics recorded on the back of the cards. Conrad would keep ledgers of the stats from year to year, noting who had the most home runs or strikeouts and who won awards. His mother noticed this and suggested that he study accounting once he got to high school. 

Conrad’s mother was right; accounting was where Conrad’s skills were perfectly utilized. Later, he earned a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Eastern Mennonite University (Harrisonburg, VA), and a Master’s degree in Economic Development from Eastern University (St. Davids, PA). 

Now Conrad shares his gift for numbers with Eastern District & Franconia Conference, as the Director of Finance, a role he has had since 2001. He is responsible for the conference budget and assists church treasurers and congregational finance leaders. Conrad also has the role of Chief Operating Officer for FMC Properties (the property-holding company of the conference). 

 Conrad has worked for Mennonite organizations or Mennonite-owned businesses all his life. “It is my way of giving back to the church and serving with it,” says Conrad. “It keeps me connected with the work that God is doing through the church and his people.”

Conrad’s gifts in accounting and administration have taken him worldwide. In the late 1980s, he served as an accountant at a hospital in Shirati, Tanzania, with Eastern Mennonite Missions. In the early 1990s, Conrad served with Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) in Bangladesh for over four years. Three of those years he administered a job creation program in Dhaka. He later returned to Tanzania for four years in the late 1990s as a project manager at a microcredit facility with Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA). 

Conrad grew up in Greencastle, a small town in south-central Pennsylvania. “I come from a small, mostly white, mostly Christian community, so working in other countries with other cultures has given me a broader worldview,” says Conrad. “There are many things that other cultures, religions, and people can teach me.” 

Conrad’s work internationally as well as within the conference has given him many cross-cultural opportunities. “The more I learn about different people, the more I come to know the fullness of God and his creation,” reflects Conrad. “Interacting with people who look or act differently than the way I was raised has helped me to also understand how similar we are.” 

In the conference office, Conrad’s job allows him to do a wide variety of things in a day. He works with checks and deposits, payroll and insurance, property maintenance and rent receipts, month-end reports and yearly budgeting, government forms and investment management, and congregational tax-exemptions. “Any of these things can pop up on any given day,” shares Conrad, “so there is always something different to look forward to.”

From baseball cards to balancing million dollar conference budgets, Conrad has found ways to use his gifts to honor God. “It is rewarding to be able to use the gifts God has given me,” Conrad says. “It also gives me satisfaction when the auditors look at the conference books and give us a clean audit.”

Learning to be a Peacemaker

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(leer en español)

by Jennifer Svetlik, Salford congregation

Javier Márquez, IVEP’er serving with Franconia Conference

“One of my greatest dreams is to learn how I can be a peacemaker. But before I go to the peace academy, the best way for me to learn is from other communities. I want to learn about their pain, their happiness, dreams, frustrations, and concerns. So I want to learn about you,” says Javier Márquez, an intercultural communication associate with Franconia Conference this year. 

Javier is a member of Mennonite Central Committee’s International Volunteer Exchange Program (IVEP). His placement is to work with the Conference communication team and record immigrant stories. IVEP is a yearlong volunteer work and cultural exchange opportunity for young adults.  

“I have been considering this opportunity with IVEP for a long time. I am so excited to have this amazing work,” Javier shares. 

Celebrating his sister’s birthday with two of his four siblings and his parents at their apartment in Bogotá.

Javier grew up in his ancestral home of Suacha, a city in the center of Colombia. He now lives in Bogotá, the capital. He has four siblings and his family is large, “like most Latin families,” Javier says. He is part of Teusaquillo Mennonite Church in Bogotá, and he is proud of his community because they take very seriously the call to be peacemakers.

Javier has also taken this call seriously; he refused Colombia’s obligatory military conscription for young men, and in doing so entered a two year legal process. With the support of the Mennonite church in Colombia and the nonprofit organization Justapaz, Javier finally won his case as a conscientious objector. “I believe that the nonviolent path of Jesus goes beyond refusing to be a part of wars and violence but also to work for peace with passion and commitment,” Javier reflects. 

Four years ago with friends and the support of the Mennonite church and Justapaz, Javier began an activism project about becoming a conscientious objector. The group is now called CoNova and is comprised of many different kinds of young people: students, writers, nurses, DJs, lawyers, psychologists, and more. 

Javier dancing salsa with Evie, an IVEPer from Canada at Orientation in Akron.

“Colombia is the land of coffee, salsa and Vallenato music, orchids and emeralds, traditional dishes litke sancocho (soup), aguapanela (hot sugary drink), arepas (cheese and corn flour cake), ajiaco (chicken, potatoes, and corn on the cob) and bandeja paisa (fried pork belly, red beans, plantains, and more),” Javier says.  “And it is impossible not to mention that Colombia is the land of Love in the Time of Cholera (a classic novel by Gabriel García Márquez) and of Macondo (the fictional town in another famous work by García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude).”

Javier arrived in Pennsylvania in mid-August and is living in South Philadelphia. Each morning he drinks Colombian coffee and tries to read a poem in English to learn new words. He is still learning what a typical day will look like; so far he has tried to always listen with intense focus and open his eyes to everything around him so that he can understand the different ways of doing things here. 

“I have learned that the streets are too similar here; I say this jokingly because I have gotten lost twice. Never in my life have I learned so many new words, but at the same time, I’ve never been so quiet. I have learned a lot,” Javier shares. 

Javier has been visiting immigrant churches such as Centro de Alabanza, Philadelphia Praise Center, and Indonesian Light, to connect with people and write about their immigrant stories. He hopes to meet others who dance salsa, as he loves to do. When he returns to Colombia after his time with IVEP, Javier would like to work in community-oriented journalism.