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Read the articles online:

• Gathering around tables, sharing Christ’s body – Lora Steiner
• Inspired to connect and engage: Reminding us of who we are – Jessica Walter
• What keeps us apart: The power of strange – Blaine Detwiler
• Extraterritorial status: Building healthy relationships – Tim Moyer
• When enemies are brothers in Christ: The unsettling side of the Christmas truce – Richard Moyer
• Finding God’s will: An incomprehensible peace and a happy family – Yunus Perkasa
• A childhood goal realized: “I’ll work for Jesus all I can” – Wayne Nitzche
• A persistent call: Finally riding the wave – Timothy Moyer
• The work of the Material Resource Center: It takes many hands – Joanne Nice
• A common heritage: Anabaptist leaders cultivate relationships – Charles A. Ness

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Lora Steiner
for Franconia Conference

For more than 50 years, the churches of Franconia Mennonite Conference have sent missionaries and money to Mexico to plant new churches. This year, Mexico sent missionaries back.

Husband and wife Linker Sanchez and Luz Maria Vargas, of the Tierra Prometida congregation, were commissioned at this year’s conference assembly to work with the Spanish-speaking community in Gaithersburg, Md.

“The United States has sent missionaries for many years all over the world,” Sanchez told those gathered. “But as you know, God is now sending all the nations of the world to the United States—and we have come here to reach our countrymen in their language and culture.”

“We are from many different nations but we are all children of the same God,” said Vargas.

More than 200 people, including 130 delegates from conference congregations and related-ministries gathered around tables at Penn View Christian School cafeteria in Souderton, Pa., to worship together, discuss a variety of issues in the conference and celebrate newly credentialed leaders. The theme for the assembly was “Come to the Table: Embrace God in Us.”

Blaine Detwiler, conference moderator and pastor of Lakeview Mennonite Church, wrapped himself in a quilt to welcome participants on Friday night. Detwiler told of the quilt he and his wife had received as a wedding present, and how it had been used over the years.

“The beauty of a quilt is in its use,” he said, and suggested that this is also true of Christians.

Unlike previous years, there was not a sermon on Friday evening. Instead, Detwiler invited all to sit at tables and “see and hear the movement of Jesus in the faces around us.”

“There is no sermon, not in the traditional sense, because the sermon is going to be in the Anabaptist sense of community—how we are together with each other,” said Noel Santiago, executive conference minister. “And doing that in front of a watching world is how the Anabaptists understood the message. In a way, the message is us…It comes out of all of us, together.”

While those gathered did less business than in the past and spent more time learning from each other, some things did remain the same: several rooms were designated as prayer space, and “prayer ushers” were available to pray at any time during the assembly. Ongoing worship was held in the teacher’s lounge, and an indoor prayer labyrinth with a guided liturgy was set up for anyone wanting to meditate. Worship during the sessions was led by a band of young adult musicians from a variety of congregations.

Later Friday evening, as they sat around their tables, participants were invited to tell stories of how they had seen God acting and how they were embracing the mission in their churches.

A number of congregations have connections to Mexican churches and regularly send financial and physical support as well as visit each other.

Urban Byler, of Whitehall (Pa) Mennonite Church, noted that his congregation is sponsors a Karen Burmese refugee family. It has also supported Ripple, a gathering led by Tom and Carolyn Albright for those who don’t have and often don’t want to be involved in a traditional church.

Churches have been learning that to go out into the neighborhood and make disciples—and that crossing of language barriers, cultural assumptions and socioeconomic lines—can sometimes be uncomfortable or require flexibility.

John Ehst, pastor of Franconia Mennonite Church in Telford, Pa., shared that some of the recent converts in their Spanish-speaking gathering wanted a baptism by immersion, so the church held the service in the afternoon at a neighboring Grace Brethren church.

Several pastors said that while they often preach about following Jesus, sharing that love and joining the work of the Holy Spirit, it can be difficult to be missional and reach out as a congregation—especially for “cradle” or “legacy” Mennonites.

“The challenge we face is just talking about our faith,” said one pastor. “We’re good at doing things but not as much at verbalizing our faith.”

“One of the biggest challenges is that in this community,” said another pastor, “Mennonites hang out with Mennonites. They work for Mennonite businesses and go to Mennonite schools…it’s hard to get outside of that.”

In keeping with the theme of mission, part of Saturday was spent talking about an important inward focus of churches: the faith formation of children.

Mary Benner, pastor of youth and children at Souderton (Pa) Mennonite Church, said the goal is to help churches and church schools think about “how we help children and youth become radical followers of Jesus Christ—the Jesus of the Sermon on the Mount, the Jesus of perfect love.”

Benner, along with Marlene Frankenfield, conference youth minister, and Sharon Fransen, shared a framework for how families, churches and schools can work together to pass along the faith. The framework was developed in conjunction with regional Mennonite schools, but is intended to help any child whether or not he or she attends a Mennonite school.

“Passing on the faith to the next generation is one of the most important roles of the entire body of Christ,” said Benner. “We want [our children] to develop a costly compassion, and have empathy for a hurting world…We want them to know Jesus so they will keep their hearts soft.”

The Saturday morning session covered approval of the 2007 assembly minutes, an update on the Vision and Financial Plan and nominations for the gifts discernment process. Delegates voted unanimously to approve Randy Heacock, pastor of Doylestown (Pa) Mennonite Church, as assistant conference moderator and conference board vice chair.

It also included time to welcome newly credentialed leaders in Franconia Conference in the past year. Those licensed for ministry included Arnold Derstine, of the Franconia congregation; Eva Kratz, for prison ministry; Gay Brunt Miller, conference director of collaborative ministries; Jenifer Ericksen Morales, conference minister of transitional ministries; Timothy Moyer, Vincent Mennonite Church; Yunus Perkasa, Nations Worship Center; and Aldo Siahaan, Philadelphia Praise Center. The newly ordained John Brodnicki of Mennonite Bible Fellowship was recognized along with transfers of credentials for Dennis Edwards, Peace Fellowship (Washington, D.C.); Chris Nickels, Spring Mount; Mary Nitzsche, Blooming Glen; Wayne Nitzsche, Perkasie; Jim Ostlund, Blooming Glen; and Wayne Speigle, Bally Mennonite Church.

Throughout the gathering, there was a recognition that churches are working to minister in shifting contexts, and that the conference itself is becoming more diverse each year. Among conference churches, services are held not only in Spanish and Vietnamese, but also in Bahasa Indonesia. And while Mennonite conferences have historically been organized by geography, the web of relationships is taking the conference outside of those boundaries and conference staff are working with churches in Delaware, New Jersey, Arkansas, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.

Amidst shifts and changes in the church, said Noel Santiago, “We want to be proactive, not reactive.”

At the end of the final delegate session, participants who had come from all over the world paused to partake in the re-membering of the body of Christ, and shared communion.

Blaine Detwiler, Lakeview
detwiler@nep.net

Franconia Conference Moderator Blaine Detwiler has annotated these Seven Core Convictions in Intersections over the last year.

The Seventh of the Seven Core Convictions Global Mennonites Share: As a world-wide community of faith and life we transcend boundaries of nationality, race, class, gender and language. We seek to live in the world without conforming to the powers of evil, witnessing to God’s grace by serving others, caring for creation, and inviting all people to know Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord.

I first saw the man in this picture from a distance. I saw him walking across the parking lot of his church on this year’s Ukrainian Christmas morning, January 7. He wore a long black overcoat. As I drew closer I could see a long white beard covering his sober face. I passed him but did not offer to shake his hand.

Inside St. John the Baptist Ukrainian Orthodox Church he posed a rather mysterious figure. He never did take off his black trench coat. While others were seating themselves in padded pews he stood off by himself, silently. It was Christmas morning but he showed no signs of hurry or festivity. His leathery face bore a solemn expression as he stared at the iconostasis in the front and waited for the priest to begin.

Worshipping in the trench coat man’s church came with obstacles. Other than Teresa Marvin, who accompanied me that morning to Johnson City, NY, I knew no one else. Nor was there an effort by anyone to greet us. I felt isolated in the middle of a well dressed people. The missal in my hands was frustrating to follow. But I noticed the family next to me seemed to have their book memorized. They had an advantage.

Johnson City is a place with a history of settling Russian immigrants. They came to this area in the early 1900’s eager to find work in the local cigar and shoe factories. When the immigrants came they built churches like the ones in their old country…with golden onion domes that protrude from the city’s skyline. They brought with them their customs, clothing and language.

The Christmas liturgy in a Ukrainian Orthodox church goes on for several hours. It is both beautiful and hidden. The priest in his golden cassock is wafting the smell of incense near an icon of Mary and the infant Jesus. He speaks in Slavonic which I do not understand. The sounds of the songs from the choir are wonderful even though I do not know the words to sing along. I stand when everyone stands. I sit when those around me do. The black-coated man stands the entire time. He never sits down. I wonder if he is stubborn. Or pious. I have no way of knowing.

It is a strange power that keeps us separated. In church or in the street there come sights and smells and dress that to us are foreign. Ignorance also plays its part. Funny sounding words echo our way and we immediately suspect the mustache that utters them. So often, I think, it is the power of strange that keeps us apart.

I like the story in John 4 where Jesus begins talking with a Samaritan woman. I like the story because everything strange is firmly in place. Deep suspicion. Gender difference. Ethnic hatred. Faces askance. Even their religious centers are two mountains apart. There is no good reason to think anything more than a routine chore is about to quickly get done. And a hasty exit. Then Jesus begins to talk. His eyes search and meet the woman’s eyes. They share a drink of water and talk. And before long the power of strange between them begins to dissolve.

Franconia Conference’s David Landis is a spending time in Israel as a learner. One discovery he reports is the “everyday” places where Jesus hung out. The people Jesus talks with are as “everyday” as you and I in holey jeans. And His meeting places are rarely the high falutin’ worship centers we have come to build. But instead the places where Jesus goes are as common as a diner booth on a Tuesday afternoon at 2:38. In streets, in places like a laundromat, Jesus breaks down the strange.

The next time I attend St. John the Baptist Ukrainian Orthodox Church I hope I get another chance to see the black trench coat man. I want to meet him. To greet him. I want to look him in the eye and shake his hand. I will wait until the liturgy is over, I must, for I discovered the Orthodox are not chummy in church. But in the parking lot, afterwards, I will ask the man his name. I’ll bet he has never met a Mennonite.

Yunus Perkasa Tjeng, Nations Worship
yunusp2006@yahoo.com

I have been in architectural furniture design for almost 13 years. As Executive Director of a furniture factory I led over 700 employees. Since I submitted myself to serving God in January of 2000, God has blessed us.

My wife, Linda, and I have two kids, Yuvella and Yuvender and Linda was a good teacher. We eventually arrived at the place where we owned three businesses, a car, and our dream home. We had achieved the “Successful Dream.” Everything seemed perfect. But we knew God was calling us to something more.

We had been working in ministry in Indonesia for about eight years, ministering through churches and schools. After my last trip in August 2006 to the Haggai Institute in Maui, I felt God was calling us to minister in the United States. But I didn’t know how to start.

Praise the Lord! I have found God’s will involves having a close relationship with Him. A simple analogy is the child-parent relationship. A father communicates to his child what he desires the child do. This involves relationship. The child hears and understands the will of the parent like we hear and surrender to God. In prayer, we humbly ask God for direction and share with Him our desire to accomplish His will. This involves placing faith and trust in Him, knowing that He has a plan and purpose for our lives.

We surrendered to full-time missions in coming to the United States. We left our house, our family and all of our personal possessions to follow the calling of the Lord and rely on Him. There were limited preparations but unlimited opportunities to minister in Jesus Christ. We said, “Here I am, Lord, send me.”

Often times, when we find God’s will, we have an incomprehensible peace. Philippians 4:7 says, “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

I believe finding God’s will is not just a list of do’s and don’ts. It is placing faith and trust in God, giving our life over to Him and being conformed to His image. I have found my relationship and God’s calling.

I desire to serve God and others. I have a lot of brothers and sisters in the Philadelphia Mennonite community. We are a happy family.