News

GOSHEN, Ind. — A Franconia Conference native is participating in Goshen College’s Study-Service Term (SST) in Jamaica, with 14 other students during the summer semester. This is the first group that has American Sign Language (ASL) as its primary language into which students will be immersed.

Cody Felton, son of Jonathan and Rebecca Felton of Quakertown, is majoring in business. He is as 2005 graduate of Christopher Dock Mennonite High School and attends Perkasie Mennonite Church. He left for Jamaica on May 2 and will return to the United States on July 31. Assistant Professor of American Sign Language Sheila Yoder and Associate Professor of Communication Pat McFarlane are the group leaders.

To participate in this unit, students had to study ASL for at least two semesters. The unit is based in the capital of Kingston. All students will work in deaf schools throughout the country as the service component of the study abroad program, though this will occur during the first part of their semester abroad rather than in the last half as with most SST units.

After living at the school for six weeks, the students will return to Kingston to live with host families, engage in deeper study of ASL and learn about Jamaican Deaf culture. The Jamaica Association for the Deaf will assist with the education component of the program when the students are back in Kingston.

Director of International Education Tom Meyers believes that this is the first full semester academic ASL study abroad program in the country. He is not aware of any other colleges with such an offering which incorporates both study and service abroad, though some schools do offer several week mission trips with ASL as the primary language.

“We have a tradition of offering SST programs in all the languages we teach here. We now offer ASL, so it is a natural extension of that philosophy,” Meyers said. “Our students will learn about Jamaican culture, but also Jamaican Deaf culture.”

Jamaica is a Caribbean island with a rich culture of music, art and cuisine, influenced by its history and blend of ethnic traditions. Jamaica also hosted Goshen College SST units in the 1970s. Jamaica has Third World realities; despite the large tourist industry, most Jamaicans are fairly poor. The country has a 15.9 percent unemployment rate. In addition the country appears to have an unusually large population of Deaf people. According to the Jamaica Association for the Deaf, more than 300 children are diagnosed each year with a mild to moderate hearing loss. Although many developing countries have no schools for Deaf children to attend, Jamaica does have an infrastructure of Deaf schools. There are more than eight schools for the Deaf, most started by mission groups, in a country slightly smaller in size than Connecticut.

English is the primary spoken language in Jamaica, but the Deaf community signs with a Jamaican Sign Language which is different from, but is heavily influenced by ASL. Jamaica was colonized first by the Spanish in the 1400s, later by the British and gained independence in 1962.

Web updates and photos from the group are available from Goshen College’s SST Web site at: www.goshen.edu/asl.

Since the first SST units went to Costa Rica, Jamaica and Guadeloupe in 1968 and began one of the country’s pioneer international education programs, nearly 7,000 students and 230 faculty leaders have traveled to 20 countries; the college currently organizes SST units to study and serve in China, Dominican Republic, Germany, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Senegal, Perú, Jamaica and Nicaragua. The program’s uncommon combination of cultural education and service-
learning remains a core part of the general education program, and has earned citations for excellence from U.S.News & World Report, Peterson’s Study Abroad and Smart Parents Guide to College, the John Templeton Foundation and American Council on Education.

Editors: For more information about this release or to arrange an
interview, contact Goshen College News Bureau Director Jodi H.
Beyeler at (574) 535-7572 or jodihb@goshen.edu.

Photo taken from Goshen College

HARRISONBURG, Va. Mennonite Media — This is the true tale of two modern-day brothers, Ted Hughes and Frederick “Sonny” Hughes, two biblical brothers, Jacob and Esau, and how a Ted & Lee TheatreWorks production made something wonderful happen.

For five years, Ted Hughes lived with the memory of wounding his brother in a verbal exchange left unredeemed after Sonny’s death. He thought forgiveness was something he could neither receive from his brother nor allow himself.

Mennonite Media is cooperating with Ted & Lee TheatreWorks in a special Harrisonburg presentation May 18-19 of the same production which brought Ted Hughes reconciliation.

Hughes, 73, of Souderton, Pa., had a brother, Sonny, born in 1928 with cerebral palsy. This was a time when new parents in this situation were routinely told “just put your child in an institution. It will be for the best for all concerned.” Cerebral palsy is a neurological disorder which permanently affects body movement and muscle coordination caused by abnormalities in the parts of the brain that control muscle movements.

Ted Hughes was a clerk and department manager at the Provident Bookstore in Lancaster for more than 28 years; he is retired and now drives a school bus part-time.

“My brother never went to school, never learned to read, and it was very hard for him to speak and make himself understood,” Ted said. “Growing up with him, we learned how to understand him.”

But rather than accept the doctor’s advice, their mother, Vertelle, said “As long as I live, Sonny won’t be in an institution.”

Sonny learned to walk with difficulty, and contrary to predictions, he did learn to dress and feed himself. The family all helped take care of him. He learned all the Bible stories even though he couldn’t read. Undoubtedly he knew the familiar story of Jacob and Esau, classic conflicted brothers of Genesis.

After their mother died, Sonny went to live with a sister, Estelle Hayes, in Philadelphia. Then Sonny got prostate cancer and when it spread to the bone marrow, the family knew they needed to find other care for him. Ted and his wife, Lina, a registered nurse, took Sonny into their home in Souderton until suitable space in a nursing home opened.

But Sonny needed far more care than they ever realized.

“He had to be fed again, like a newborn baby,” Ted said carefully. “It was 24/7 care, which wears on you far more than what you think it does.”

The physical stamina and emotional coping took its toll. With prostate cancer, there is increased pressure in the bladder, and a man feels like he has to urinate all the time.

One night, after expending a lot of time and effort to get Sonny into bed, Sonny motioned to Ted that he had to urinate.

“When he did that, I don’t know why, but the first thing out of my mouth was, ‘Why on earth didn’t you tell us that before you got in bed,” Ted recalled with shame. “The tongue is like a two-edged sword. In an instant, the look on Sonny’s face said I had cut him and cut him deeply. It was no fault of his own; it was the disease doing this to him.

“After I said it,” he continued, “it felt like I had stabbed a helpless creature.”

Sonny spent about two months with Ted and Lina. When they were able to get him into a nursing home 12 miles away, Ted fed his brother lunch and dinner everyday, and Lina did Sonny’s laundry. This went on for about five months until Sonny died in 2002.

But the bedtime toileting incident hung in Ted’s mind, haunting him when he was awake and in his dreams when he slept.

“It ate at me and ate at me. But I never talked to anyone about it. I never even talked about it with my wife, who had been around when it happened,” Ted said.

Ted went to a retreat where he shared the incident with Souderton Mennonite Church’s pastor of worship and congregational care, Sandy Drescher-Lehman. “She opened up some doors that I wished she wouldn’t have opened,” Ted said. “It really irritated me, because what she was telling me was probably true.”

On March 16, Ted went to Ted & Lee’s “Live at Jacob’s Ladder” show at Souderton Mennonite Church. He laughed, listened, and applauded.

Then something happened.

In the last five minutes of the show, Ted Swartz and Lee Eshleman play biblical characters Jacob and Esau, who finally reunite and compare notes on their lives. Jacob says the gifts he sent ahead were to seek forgiveness for the long-ago bad blood between him and Esau.

Esau responds that Jacob couldn’t “buy” Esau’s forgiveness. “All you had to do was ask,” is Esau’s stunning line.

To Ted Hughes, the line felt like a last word from his brother.

Ted went home and stood in front of Sonny’s picture hanging on his wall, a photo that had haunted him. He talked to him and asked for his brother’s forgiveness.

“That may sound weird, I don’t really believe you can ‘communicate’ with dead people, but it was as if he was saying to me, ‘Why did you wait, because I forgave you that night when the words came out of your mouth.’” Ted noted that it is easy to give forgiveness, much harder and “very humbling to go and ask someone, ‘Will you forgive me?’”

But now Ted says he does feel forgiven. “I can walk past his picture now and look at him and feel like he is smiling at me. I am still struggling within myself asking, ‘Why did I do what I did?’ But that weight is off. I hope others will consider their need to be forgiven. I wasn’t going to that show for that to happen. But people should go with an open heart asking ‘what is this saying to me?’”

“Live at Jacob’s Ladder” originated with a single scene written and performed by Ted Swartz and Lee Eshleman in 2001 to accompany an address by Desmond Tutu. Singer-performer Ken Medema later wrote a companion song for a video entitled Bridge to Forgiveness (produced by Mennonite Media). Mennonite Media is presenting these two nights of shows as a benefit for their organization, best known for their award-winning documentaries, Fierce Goodbye and Shadow Voices. Mennonite Media’s documentary work began in 2001 with a program called Journey Toward Forgiveness.

Mennonite Mission Network has also commissioned an original new Ted & Lee show on mission titled “Eccentric Entermission” to be unveiled at the Mennonite Church USA General Assembly in San Jose, Calif., this summer.

For those in the Harrisonburg vicinity, more information on this event is available at http://store.mennomedia.org. For information on booking “Live at Jacob’s Ladder” visit www.tedandlee.com

Story taken from Mennonite Mission Network
Photographer: Sandy Drescher-Lehman
Original posting Thursday, May 10, 2007

Mennonite Disaster Service response begins from reports by MC USA and MDS

The Greensburg (KS) Mennonite Church building and parsonage was destroyed in a tornado that leveled 90% of the structures of Greensburg, Kansas, a town of 1,500 last Friday evening, May 4. The congregation is a member of Mennonite Church USA through its membership in South Central Conference. The church building was built in the early 1970s. The congregation celebrates their 75th anniversary in September. Jeffrey Blackburn is pastor of the congregation of 81 members.

Within hours four teams from Mennonite Disaster Service’s Kansas Unit were in the area doing cleanup. Kevin King, executive director of MDS, was on the scene Saturday, just hours after the storms hit. “It’s like something I haven’t seen before. It looks like a giant rake came through and raked the town away.” King was emotional as he described that in the town there didn’t seem to be any walls remaining. “Virtually not even a cluster of bricks left.”

Greensburg has a population of over 1500. Pastor Blackburn said that three-quarters of his 80 or so congregants live in the town of Greensburg, and so now at least three dozen of them are without homes. He added, “I knew MDS would show up, but I didn’t think it would be this fast.” Though their church building is gone, Blackburn said they have put up notices about meeting together on Sunday morning in nearby Haviland.

Mennonite Church USA Executive Leadership is collecting funds to assist the congregation in cooperation with the South Central Conference. You may send your check to Mennonite Church USA, Box 347, Newton, Kansas 67114. Earmark the check for Greensburg Mennonite Church. Or you can give by debit or credit card by going to www.MennoniteUSA.org and clicking on “give.” You’ll find the Greensburg Mennonite Church listed as a special project.

mennoniteusa.org
Photo provided by:mds.mennonite.net

Lora Steiner

When participants gathered in suburban Philadelphia, for the 2007 Emergent Conversation, they were surprised at how many Mennonites were a part of the group. For Jess Walter, who works with Franconia Mennonite Conference, the reason was obvious: a combination of her job, a personal interest in postmodernity and faith, and a desire to show hospitality were all motivated her to join the event.

“I told them,” said Walter, who helped to coordinate part of the gathering, “You were on our turf!” Most of Franconia Conference’s 41 member congregations are located in the Philadelphia region.

Nearly 150 people joined the conversation, held from April 16 to 18 on the campus of Eastern University and at a nearby church. Coordinated by Emergent Village, it’s referred to as a “conversation”—as opposed to a conference—as a way to set an informal tone and invite participation from all levels.

Emergent Village is about ten years old and best characterized, according to national coordinator Tony Jones, as a relational network of friends. Emergent Village is definitely not a denomination, says Jones, but rather focuses its work on bringing together those interested in the emerging church, as well as organizing conferences and publishing books.

Some of the Mennonites present at the gathering, like Tim Stair, were there as official representatives of their local conferences and of Mennonite Church USA (MC USA). Others, such as Mark Van Steenwyk of Minneapolis, Minn., came representing emerging Mennonite congregations.

Van Steenwyk’s church, Missio Dei, began nearly two-and-a-half years ago in the West Bank neighborhood of Minneapolis, an ethnically diverse area with a high level of poverty. A year after the church began, members began to explore how they could be more hospitable and present in the community around them. They also realized they wanted to be a part of a larger Anabaptist-minded community, and approached the Central Plains Conference about joining MC USA.

“We are very Anabaptistic at Missio Dei,” says Van Steenwyk. “We feel that we need to submit to some larger community so that we don’t get it into our heads that we’re doing this alone, or that we can simply pick and choose what we want to do as a group of ‘consumers.'”

Topher Maddox, who works at Spruce Lake Retreat in Candensis, Pennsylvania, has had a similar experience. His congregation, “NewStart,” grew out of what was Spruce Lake Fellowship. Within the last few years, though, as the area around Spruce Lake and the Poconos began to change rapidly, church members recognized the need to move out into the community.

“We felt the old structure and some of the traditions [of our church] need to be put to rest,” said Maddox, “In order to make a new, fresh start.”

For others, it was their first exposure to the emerging church movement. Hinke Loewen-Rudgers of Winnipeg, Manitoba, was a first-time participant who found the time to be both interesting and educational.

“It’s important for Mennonites to be in conversation [about] what it means to be Mennonite and Christian in our world today,” said Loewen-Rudgers, who works with Mennonite Church Canada. “It’s only in conversation and engagement with others that our own faith journey really makes a difference to the local and global community.”

Jess Walter agreed.

“If we are going to be missional Christians, our churches are going to be constantly emerging, constantly in the process of new formation and rethinking,” she said. Walter hopes that building relationships with others who are Anabaptist-oriented might help the Mennonite church learn more about itself. “Welcoming those outside of our heritage who align with our theology can help us to learn what is theology and what is ethnic about who we are as Mennonites and teach us about the unintentional walls our culture has created.”

Stair, who also came as a representative of Indiana-Michigan Conference, found that much of the theology he heard—such as an emphasis on love of enemy as central to the Gospel—is closely aligned with Anabaptist theology. Stair says he came partly because of his
commitments to the denomination, but also because out of personal interest.

“I think we’re living in a time where we need to find some different ways to be church,” he said.

While the theme of this year’s conversation was philosophy and theology, the event gave participants an opportunity to network and explore what they’ve learned in their own churches.

Van Steenwyk says he counts himself among a growing number of young Anabaptists who are anxious to both live and proclaim the Gospel of Jesus. “We want a Christianity centered around the Sermon on the Mount. The Mennonite Church has generations of thought, dialogue, and action that I desperately want to explore.”

“On the other hand,” he added, “I’d like to think that folks like me have something to contribute, as well. We have creative ways of thinking about [the nature of church] and mission—ways of embodying an Anabaptist ethic—that resonate with our emerging culture.”

Photo Caption: Heather Kropf of Pittsburgh performed at The Gryphon, a coffeehouse in St. David’s PA, in an event sponsored by Franconia Mennonite Conference concurrent with the Emergent Village Conversation.

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — From May 1 to July 1 2007, six young adult participants from Anabaptist communities in the United States and Canada will ride their bicycles from Phnom Penh, Cambodia — through Vietnam, Thailand, and Laos — to Chengdu, China. Touring participants of BikeMovement Asia (BMA) will connect with Anabaptist and other various Christian congregations, as well as individuals and communities affiliated and working with Anabaptist agencies. In the hopes of beginning to realize global community through intercultural engagement, they seek to understand the day to day realities of their hosts and observe the joys and challenges faced by the local churches of Southeast Asia. In this way, they will be able to grasp more fully the dynamic issues these communities deal with, along with the factors that shape their theology and mission. BMA ultimately seeks to realize the potential for global Anabaptist community-building through open and engaging conversation.

The cyclists, Neil Richer, Adele Liechty, Nick Loewen, Tim Showalter (USA), Jesse and Nicole Cober Bauman (Canada), will begin their journey by meeting with Phnom Penh Mennonite Church members from May 1-5, before riding to Ho Chi Minh City. They plan to then travel north to Vientiane, the capital of Laos, cross into Thailand to spend time in Ubon Province, cut back through north Vietnam with a stop in Hanoi, and then spend their last weeks cycling through Yunnan Province, visiting Anabaptist communities in Kunming and Nanchong (Sichuan Province), China.

The issues BMA hopes to explore and the relationships they strive to develop along the way are relavant to North American congregations. Questions such as ‘Who are North American Mennonites in the context of the global church community?’ and ‘Who/what is the Anabaptist community of Southeast Asia?’ are integral to any conversation about the role of a congregation or community within the global Anabaptist partnership. Questions such as these will allow the riders to gain a better understanding of Southeast Asian Anabaptism and culture.

BMA participants are committed to recording and creatively reporting on their experiences as they tour Southeast Asia. In this way, anyone can join in the conversation through BMA’s interactive website, Bikemovement.org. BMA also seeks to address issues of structural inequality, which make global opportunities available to some and not others, by financially supporting young adults from the global south — where the majority of the Anabaptist church is located. BMA is committed to raising funds in order for more of these young people to attend international Anabaptist gatherings, in the hopes of allowing for a more accurate representation of the global community. Donations to this global sharing fund, as well as to the operating costs of BMA, can be made on the BMA website.

Nicole Bauman and Sheldon Good, 3 May 2007

For more information or request permission for a photo, please contact Sheldon Good at scgood@mosaicmennonites.org or 215-723-8712.