News

Celebrating a Shamrock Seder

April 2, 2013 by Emily Ralph Servant

by Lynne McMullan Allebach, Arise Community Outreach

What happens when you cross St. Patrick’s Day and a Jewish Passover Seder? Everyone who attended Arise in Harleysville on Sunday, March 17, found out as Robin Burstein, Executive Director of the Encore Experience of Harleysville, led the group through a “Shamrock Seder.”

Originally planned as a “Nacho Typical” Seder featuring a Southwestern flavor, the Seder evolved into a Shamrock Seder after Robin learned that St. Patrick, like the Israelites in Egypt, had been taken captive and lived as a slave for a number of years as a young man before escaping and returning to his family. Patrick’s story was a good lead into the beginning of the Seder.

Robin explained about the four glasses of wine (for us, grape juice) that are poured as part of the Seder to represent the four stages of the Exodus:

The first glass of wine represents freedom. We were instructed to break one of the matzos on the table. As the matzos was broken, we were invited to consider what may be “broken” in our world and what we could do as individuals and as a community to make the broken whole again. When had we felt like we were a slave to something? What had led us to great moments of liberation in our lives? Just as the Jews are called to remember their liberation from slavery in Egypt during the Passover Seder, we can look for those places in our lives where God has led us to freedom.

The second glass of wine represents deliverance. At this point in the Seder we were invited to prepare a sandwich to remember the bitterness of slavery in Egypt with maror (horseradish) mixed with the hope of the Promised Land represented by charoset (apples, nuts, and honey) served on the unleavened bread (matzos). We were led in a recounting of the ten plagues that beset the Egyptians because of Pharaoh’s refusal to let the Israelites go. This was done by dipping a finger in the wine and dripping a drop of wine, much like falling tears, onto our plates. Where can we see bitterness in our lives transformed by God’s deliverance today?

shamrock seder — Matzo bread at Arise’s Shamrock Seder.

At this point in the Seder a meal is served. The Seder is a meal of remembrance and we remembered St. Patrick as we enjoyed a baked potato bar. We were reminded that a potato famine in Ireland led to an exodus of many of its citizens. Hardships have been experienced by many different people groups; as we see the similarities in our own stories, we see that we are not that different from one another.

The meal was followed by the third glass of wine, which represents redemption. Before drinking, we were instructed to each eat a piece of the broken matzos known as the Afikomen. This was followed by a prayer of blessing and another question – how do we get in the habit of freely expressing gratitude?

Finally, the last glass of wine, representing release, was poured. A cup was also poured for the prophet Elijah. It is traditionally believed that he will come at Passover to herald the Messiah, so in anticipation, a door is opened to look for him and someone is sent to the door to invite him in. One of our group went to the door to look for Elijah and we all waited eagerly to see who might come in to join us. Despite the fact that Elijah did not come to our Seder, we still poured some of our own wine into his cup with our wish for the world in the coming year.

In the Seder we remembered the four stages of the Exodus – freedom, deliverance, redemption, and release. All of these promises are ours today through Christ, who celebrated the Seder with his disciples that very first Holy Week. His broken body is our matzo bread and his blood is the wine we drink in remembrance of our deliverance from our own Egypts.

Resurrected space brings new life in East Greenville

March 21, 2013 by Emily Ralph Servant

Project Haven — Scott Roth works on the East Greenville building with Tyler, Cory, and Darian, students from Upper Perk high school. Photo by Tyler Logan.

by Emily Ralph, eralphservant@mosaicmennonites.org

The moment that Scott Roth unlocked Peace Mennonite’s old building for the first time in September of 2012, he began to tear up. One of the high school students with him asked why he was so emotional. “I can’t believe this is actually happening,” he responded.

The journey to open what is now Project Haven, a community center in East Greenville (Pa.), had been long and circuitous. Roth, youth pastor of Eastern District Conference’s New Eden Fellowship, had been a part of UPPEN (Upper Perk Prayer & Evangelism Network) and the regional ministerium for years. In 2011, these groups faced a community crisis when a high school student committed suicide. Leaders from the groups met with reprentatives from Upper Perkiomen School District to find out how they could help.

The school district wanted an organization that could be connected with all the major players in the community: school, police, faith communities. And they needed this organization to provide an afterschool program, some sort of a community center that would not just entertain the students, but help to develop character and provide a calm in the storm of their lives.

Meanwhile, Franconia Conference’s Peace congregation decided to close. The members of the congregation, who had been active in their community, wanted the building to be used to continue God’s work in East Greenville. Even as they grieved the end of their congregation, they believed that new life would result. They chose to celebrate their last service together on Easter 2011, dreaming about what God would resurrect in their space.

Peace’s LEADership Minister, Jenifer Eriksen Morales, called a meeting of leaders from local congregations—some Mennonite and some from other denominations—to have a time of visioning together. The leaders met, prayed together, looked at the building, and dreamed about what God might want to do in that place. Seeds were planted and some of the pastors began to think about how their existing ministries might find a home in the old church building.

Even as the pastors were meeting and dreaming, Roth and team of leaders from New Eden were starting an afterschool program called Refuge at the Upper Perk high school. The space was not entirely conducive to the type of activities Roth wanted to do with the students and he continued to look around for a new space. After months of searching and uncertainty, Roth’s dream and the East Greenville building collided.

As soon as plans were finalized, Roth began working with a team of student volunteers from the high school to renovate the building. He formed an advisory team with leaders from his own church and Franconia Conference’s Finland and Perkiomenville congregations. Soon other dreamers began to show up with ideas: the local senior center asked to move into the building and use it weekday mornings when the students were still in school; members of the former congregation joined Roth with ideas of ways to rejuvenate their existing clothing ministry; a member of Family Worship Center organized a bar alternative to utilize the space on Friday and Saturday nights.
“It’s like in Ephesians where it talks about the different parts of the body working together,” Roth said. “If the body [of Christ] works together, we will achieve great things!”

In March—just in time for Easter—Project Haven will move into its new location: three blocks away from the local junior high school and five minutes from the senior high school. While the project still needs supplies like tables and chairs, volunteers for continuing renovation, and financial donations for their ongoing work, Roth is amazed at how God has brought together people and resources so that this dream could come to life.

The dream has come a long way since pastors were praying together about possibilities, Eriksen Morales observed. “I’m excited that the space is being repurposed,” she said with a big smile. “From the beginning, God has been continually ‘bringing into being’—it’s exciting to see what God is bringing into being in East Greenville!”

Finland invites community to drive-thru

March 19, 2013 by Emily Ralph Servant

by Rose Longacre, Finland

It was a cold morning this week when four members of our church, Finland Mennonite, gathered to set up a table making a free “drive-thru” coffee stand. As usual, we looked forward to seeing our “regulars” and we prayed for new cars to stop by. Our normal conversations about sugar or creamer were replaced this particular Wednesday by something much deeper as a woman from the community pulled in, not for coffee or donuts, but asking if we could pray with her. She had been to our drive-thru in months past but today she was in search of something more. We prayed for her and cried with her and marveled at how Jesus is able to work through us to bring comfort to others, even through donuts and coffee.

About 3 years ago, when the economy was tough, some of our members at Finland began pondering how our church could reach out to the community and let them know we cared. On Fachtsnachts Day, while I was on the phone with a friend, she drove by a church where they were handing out doughnuts at the red light. That event sparked a new idea: we could give out free cups of coffee!!!

In April 2010 we began our once-a-month drive thru coffee ministry. On the Sunday before, we put out a sign saying that there will be a free coffee drive thru from 6:30-8:00 am on the following Wednesday. Each month since that April, year round, on the third Wednesday of every month, we are outside with free coffee and donuts for all who drive thru during that time.

We have a list of our “regulars” who we know by name and how they take their coffee. One regular stops by just for a donut, while some bring their own cups to be filled. We have a team of four regular helpers to fill cups, add the cream/sugar, load up the bags and add the donut. Juice boxes are given to families with children.

Helpers are busy behind the scenes as well. The Boys & Girls Club have begun to decorate the bags, which often say, “Have a good day!” or “Smile, God loves you!” Some months we allow our guests to choose from homemade baked items made by congregational members.

In addition, businesses from the community have joined us in our outreach effort. A neighbor who made donuts for Yum Yum’s in Colmar for 40 years began donating two dozen donuts each month—he would come off of his night shift and deliver them to us for our event. After he became ill and passed away, Yum Yums honored his commitment to serving by continuing to donate 2 dozen donuts each month. One Village Coffee found out about our ministry and has also given us free coffee from time to time.

We average right around 20 individuals each month and almost always have a new one who has seen the sign but never stopped before. We look forward to seeing our regulars each month and catching up on their lives, their grandchildren, their vacations.

It has been a fun way to see who drives by our church and an opportunity to share the love of Christ with our community, invite people to events at our church, and help our neighbors to begin their day with a smile and a warm cup of free coffee.

Conference leaders join multicultural national gathering

March 7, 2013 by Emily Ralph Servant

Hope For The Future 2013 — Roy Williams, a Mennonite Education Agency board member and former Mennonite Church USA moderator; and Madeline Maldonado, associate pastor at Iglesia Evangélica Menonita Arca de Salvación in Fort Myers, Fla., and a Mennonite Mission Network board member, participate in small group discussions during the Hope for the Future II Conference. (Photo by Carol Roth.)

Racial/Ethnic leaders from Franconia and Eastern District Conferences joined Mennonite Church USA leaders from around the country at the “Hope … for the Future II: Persevering with Jesus” conference, January 25-27 in Leesburg, VA. According to the conference’s press release, the purpose for the event was to “encourage unity, celebrate the denomination’s multicultural progress, and begin outlining specific ways to help the entire church thrive as its membership rapidly becomes more diverse.”

Yvonne Platts, a leader in Nueva Vida Norristown New Life (Franconia) attended with Ertell Whigham, Franconia’s Executive Minister, Ron White, Eastern District’s moderator, and Noel Santiago, Franconia’s Minister for Spiritual Transformation. The conference had an atmosphere of solidarity, Platts reflected, even a lightness of spirit despite the heaviness of the topic and weariness of travel. “I am always moved by the gatherings that bring people of color together in a significant way,” she said. It was a “chance to celebrate just how far we’ve come as a people of faith in helping the church to live out its call.”

White was particularly struck by the call to unity, noting that “our future work as a multicultural group will only go as far as our unity will allow.” In order to experience and express that unity, leaders need to learn about and understand one another’s cultures, he added, which could be a challenge since the diversity within the church is great. “It has to start with how we best demonstrate that we care about each other,” he said.

The conference included recognition of the number of positions filled by leaders of color on the national level, including positions in the denomination as well as in Mennonite agencies. It is a sign of progress, observed Whigham. “We are positioned to speak into the culture while the culture may not necessarily embrace what we bring.” Meeting together with other leaders and sharing similar experiences was powerful, he said. It was a time of naming the difficulty of leading as a person of color in the midst of the dominant white culture, “not to beat up on our white brothers and sisters,” he said, “but describing a reality … they might not be aware of.”

Representation in positions of leadership is increasing, but is still not what it needs to be, noted Whigham. A number of young leaders at the conference—gifted, intelligent, visionary leaders—“said to us older folk, ‘Don’t give up—we commit ourselves to take the baton and keep moving forward, standing on your shoulders and continuing to engage,’” Whigham said. “That was hopeful.”

That raises the question of how current leaders are working to expand the leadership capacity in people of color within the Mennonite Church, White said. “Are we putting our young people of color in position to be our future leaders and how can we best equip them and create effective leadership among our cultures, and what can we do to support each other in this work?” he asked.

A highpoint in the conference was a sendoff blessing for John Powell, who recently retired after 23 years of anti-racism work with Mennonite Mission Agency. It was a bittersweet moment for Platts, knowing that “his work and that of others confronting the powers-that-be to look at systemic racism has gotten us this far and in the room together but there still exist huge … challenges to overcome.”

The future challenges could be overwhelming, but Platts remembers the words of one of the songs they sang together: “The journey is long.” Going forward, she said, she will hold onto those song lyrics and “pray for the wisdom, strength, and knowledge about how to best work with others to advance the kingdom of God in my church community and … conference.”

Read the press release from Mennonite Church USA, Mennonite Mission Agency, and Mennonite Education Agency, the conference’s sponsors.

Congregational leaders discuss Mennonite Education Plan

March 5, 2013 by Emily Ralph Servant

by Susan Gingerich, Christopher Dock Mennonite High School

Penn View Schoolwide Service Project 002 — Students from Penn View Christian School collect baby kits for MAMA Project. Penn View is a participating school in congregational Mennonite Education Plans.

Franconia and Eastern District conference leadership recently joined leaders from 10 congregations to discuss Mennonite education. This annual forum focuses on the Mennonite education support plan (MEP) that congregations provide for students of Quakertown Christian School, Penn View Christian School, Christopher Dock Mennonite High School, and Philadelphia Mennonite High School.

Attendees found this forum helpful as they shared successes, challenges, and opportunities related to mutual aid, accountability, mission, accessibility, and integrity for congregational support plans for students attending the three local Mennonite schools.

Several churches have committees that plan for and oversee the guidelines and financial status of the fund. The Mennonite Education Advocacy Team (MEAT) of Souderton congregation is one such special committee that was formed to advocate for Mennonite education at all levels and for the mission of MEP at Souderton. They have been successful in enhancing respect for informed and intentional choices in both Christian education and public school education. While MEAT looks after the financial piece for the church and families, they also remind the congregation of mutual aid, accountability, and accessibility in order to give the education plan integrity.

Table group discussions affirmed the Mennonite Education Plan as a missional opportunity for congregations to tend the well-being and spiritual development of young children and youth. Church representatives reported that not all congregants see MEP as missional, and a common challenge is meeting the MEP budget in this economic environment.

MEP is an opportunity for churches to invest in young people to raise faithful and radical followers of Christ. Attendees expressed a desire to validate families who choose to support public schools also.

In addition to a time of networking, the principal of each school shared stories of students whose lives are being impacted by MEP support. The schools plan to continue this annual forum to provide encouragement and to assist with programmatic challenges. Churches not involved with MEP that are interested in learning about a support plan may contact any of the participating schools’ principals.

Georgia Praise celebrates past, future on Lunar New Year

February 28, 2013 by Emily Ralph Servant

GPC 2nd Anniversary 2 — Members of Georgia Praise present the congregation’s children with traditional New Years gifts.

Georgia Praise Center celebrated its second anniversary on February 10 with worship, fellowship, and special performances. This year’s anniversary celebration coincided with the Lunar New Year. Conference executive minister Ertell Whigham and his wife Pat, Nueva Vida Norristown New Life congregation, drove to Atlanta to join Georgia Praise for the anniversary celebration. From the moment they walked in the door, they felt like part of the Georgia Praise family, Whigham said. “It was one of the most enriching, welcoming, and open church experiences I’ve had. It was an honor to be able to minister with them, to both give and receive a blessing.”

Whigham shared a message with the gathered congregation and presented them with a towel and a pitcher, which, he said, represented their baptism and their membership in the larger conference family; despite the geographic distance, he said, “we are a community together.”

Around 160 people gathered for the celebration including local pastors and members of the Indonesian community in Atlanta. Members of Georgia Praise performed vocally and through drama. Many wore traditional Chinese clothing in honor of the new year and celebrating their Chinese heritage. The majority of the congregation is of Chinese descent though their families most recently immigrated to the United States from Indonesia.

GPC 2nd Anniversary 1 — Ertell and Pat Whigham with Linda and Yunus Perkasa.

The atmosphere was one of joy and excitement, reflected Yunus Perkasa, pastor of Georgia Praise congregation. “We are so blessed to be part of the one big Franconia Conference family,” he said. “Throughout the past two years, we’ve learned to walk by faith and we have grown stronger in Christ. We believe that he will be guiding us for many years to come.”

Pastors walk through transformation together

February 27, 2013 by Emily Ralph Servant

Learning Community — Members of Salem, Rockhill, and Doylestown congregations pray for one another at their joint worship service on February 10.

by Emily Ralph, eralphservant@mosaicmennonites.org

When Larry Moyer, pastor of Rockhill congregation, was seriously injured after falling off of the roof of his home in 2011, Randy Heacock, pastor of Doylestown congregation, filled in to preach. Moyer’s recovery was long and difficult, but throughout the following year he was supported by Heacock and the other pastors in his Learning Community—Bruce Eglinton-Woods, pastor of Salem congregation, and Walter Sawatzky, a member of Plains.

“I valued the support of these pastors,” reflected Moyer, “the prayer support from their congregations, and Walter’s ongoing care of me personally and my family. Randy made personal visits to my home as I was not able to attend our monthly meetings and on one occasion, the group met at my house. I felt cared-for during my recovery journey.”

This care and prayer support is only one aspect of the Learning Community that these pastors formed in 2006 in response to conference encouragement to form pastoral support teams. They invited Sawatzky, who was a Conference Minister at that time, to join them for insight and encouragement.

This team of four has met monthly ever since, sharing their challenges and joys of ministry, introducing one another to new resources, and supporting one another with advice and prayer. “We wanted to meet together as we sensed our churches were on similar journeys and we wanted to share in mutual learning and encouragement,” Heacock remembered. “Though each of us are different and have our unique emphasis, we share a common vision for a future church that is about being real with who we are in Jesus Christ before one another.”

Small groups of like-minded pastors is not a new concept in Franconia Conference, Sawatzky observed; support, study, and prayer groups have existed in various forms for years. What has made this particular group successful has been both a commitment to one another and shared vision for what church could be. “They have organized their activities around their immediate shared concerns,” Sawatzky said. “[Then their activities] come out of relationship as these pastors have bonded as friends and in spiritual relationship with one another.”

Their congregations have also benefited from their relationship, both directly and through their growth as leaders, Eglinton-Woods said. “I have greater confidence and ability to lead transformation in our congregation as a result of being with other pastors who are doing the same thing. Continuing to teach, preach, encourage, and lead transformation in the face of comfortable Christianity has a cost but it has become an easier cost to bear [because of] being a part of this group.”

Soon after they formed their Learning Community, the group began working together to provide equipping events for their congregational leadership. These workshops eventually developed into joint worship services where the congregations met to share stories of transformation, including one in February in which the congregations worshiped, shared testimonies of God’s joy, and prayed for each other. This mutual prayer has always been a pivotal part of the pastors’ and congregations’ relationship, Heacock pointed out, because it keeps them from experiencing envy or from developing a sense of competition.

After six years, this Learning Community is still an important support for all three pastors—they rarely miss a meeting. “I look forward to them and receive encouragement, insight, and new life every time,” reflected Eglinton-Woods.

“I am grateful for our learning community,” added Heacock. “I believe God has brought us together…. Larry, Bruce, and Walter are men that are being transformed by and used by God. I am honored to walk and learn with them.”

Reading God’s word after 25 years

February 18, 2013 by Emily Ralph Servant

Tarun with his wife Suniti and daughter Tripti.

by Rebecca Hendricks and Karen Moyer, Rocky Ridge

January 19, 2013 was a day of celebration for a lifetime of work when a new translation of the New Testament in a people’s heart language was dedicated in Korba, India. The story of the connection between the translator, Tarun Gardia, and families and churches in Franconia Conference is a divine drama of God’s amazing leading to accomplish his purposes.

It began when Tarun Gardia came to the USA in 1987 to live with Wilbur and Becki Hendricks as participants in the Mennonite International Visitor Exchange Program (IVEP) which sought to promote international understanding (he was assigned as a classroom aide to Quakertown Christian School.)

While Tarun was here, Hendricks encouraged him to participate in a Bible memory program, which opened Tarun’s eyes to see that a real relationship with the God of creation involved his heart. He acknowledged the impact of this exercise, saying, “The Christian love there touched my heart and I gave my life to our Lord. They sent me to [a missions conference where] I heard a Wycliffe Bible Translator speak…. Later they took me to North Carolina to the JAARS Center (a partner in Bible translation). Visiting the Museum of Alphabets at JAARS was the key factor that finally led me to translation as God’s plan for my life. While visiting the museum, I went to the Indian language section where I saw a hand-written verse in my own Chhattisgarhi language pasted on the wall. I was told that the Bible needs to be translated in that language.”

Following his one-year IVEP assignment, Indian and American Christian friends found the necessary support for Tarun to attend seminary in South India and then linguistic study at the Wycliffe center in Singapore. Tarun then returned to the JAARS center in North Carolina, where he received computer training, a skill which would greatly reduce translation time. It was during this time that Rocky Ridge Mennonite Church (Quakertown, Pa.) commissioned him to do this translation and took on his full financial support. Following a language survey, he began actual translation work in 1996.

NTs being distributed at dedication — The Chhattisgarhi New Testaments are distributed.

We marvel at the journey God planned for Tarun, a boy from a small village in India who trained to be a teacher. God took this village school teacher out of his comfort zone to a foreign country where he lived with a family who loved God and then loved Tarun into God’s kingdom. Those years convinced Tarun that not only he, but millions of others, needed God’s Word in their language so that they could become children of God and share this exciting life of purpose and value.

In January, a delegation of four individuals from Rocky Ridge congregation journeyed to India to participate in the ceremony celebrating the completion of Tarun’s New Testament translation. The team flew to Raipur, a city of 1.3 million, where Tarun, his wife Suniti and daughter Tripti (18) live and worked on the translation. The Chhattisgarhi language in this region is the purest spoken form; there are 15 million Chhattisgarhi speakers in the whole state.

On Friday, January 18, the team and the Gardias traveled four hours by train to the town of Korba where the dedication was held with three hundred people in attendance. Entering the courtyard gates, we were overcome with emotion as we noticed the stacks of Bibles ready for blessing and distribution.

The program began with praise music and scripture songs in the Chhattisgarhi language led by several congregations’ worship choirs. Representatives from Wycliffe Bible Translation India and the team from Rocky Ridge honored Tarun and Todd Hendricks brought greetings from his parents, Wilbur and Becki.

Following the program, people flocked to the front to purchase copies of the New Testament. When Karen asked one young man why he was buying two Bibles, he replied, “I got one for myself and one for my older brother. All these years I have been reading the Bible in Hindi, but I want to tell others about God in a language they can comprehend. This will bring them strength.”

Pastor Ravi Baksh and Karen Moyer talk with a young man who purchased two New Testaments--one for himself and one for his brother. — John Kurian (Director-India, The Wycliffe Seed Company) and Karen Moyer talk with young man who purchased two New Testaments–one for himself and one for his brother.

That evening several of us sat with Tarun and asked questions about his journey to completing the New Testament. Tarun reflected, “ Sometimes I was discouraged as I was the only one working on the translation, but two of my uncles would encourage me quite often to keep on going.”

We were awed to experience God’s working in one man and his family’s life and their dedication to answer God’s call. Even when he was discouraged, he was committed to finishing the task, he said, because of his desire “for my people to be saved and have God’s word in their own language, to speak to their own heart.”

Rocky Ridge congregation invites your continued prayer for Tarun and his family in the next phase of their ministry as they seek ways of incorporating this “heart-language” translation into the daily lives of the Chhattisgarhi speakers. Check out Rocky Ridge’s Facebook photo album.

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