What is now Nueva Vida Norristown New Life (NVNNL) formed from one of the first mission outreaches of Franconia Conference in 1919. The conference would see two initiatives in Bridgeport and in Conshohocken come and go. Then there was the development of First Mennonite, predominately of Anglo ethnicity; Bethel Mennonite under African-American leadership; and Iglesia Menonita Hispana Fuentes de Salvación. These three congregations with a vision to be intercultural would join together in 1990 to become Nueva Vida Norristown New Life.
The Missional Operations Grant that was received by NVNNL was to show the continued support of the conference to the work of God in Norristown. The grant added in providing for the 25th Anniversary Community Fiesta and Concert in July 2015.
With a tent perched in their parking lot, NVNNL hosted a couple hundred of present and former members, greatly enriched by their Norristown neighbors for gospel worship, led by acclaimed pianist James Crumbly, a concert with Crumbly and Friends and a pig roast and fiesta. The celebration was essentially an elaboration of what NVNNL does each month during the summer season, as Jim Williams, a long-time lay leader, “We canvass the neighborhood, hand out flyers inviting everyone to outdoor worship and a congregational meal.” As Marta Castillo, one of three pastors, remarked, “From the beginning it was in our DNA, first reaching out to Jewish, then African-American, then Spanish. And that day Pastor Beny from the Indonesian church in Philadelphia brought about two dozen folks, so it was more of a cultural mix than usual.”
Read more about the celebration here.
Listen here to John Ruth, historian, talking about the history of Nueva Vida Norristown New Life at the 2015 conference assembly.
As more and more young men and women return home from war, the Mennonite church is faced with more of those people entering their congregations. As a peace church should we not be working toward helping all people find peace, including our veterans returning home from war?
Salem Mennonite Church says they were being challenged by God “to watch, look, and listen…” then join in! As they did this, Pastor Bruce at Salem was invited to organize the volunteers for the Union Cemetery project, a Quakertown private non-profit cemetery, that ended up in disarray. The project would be a cemetery clean-up, beautification, and weed whacking project. Salem Mennonite Church envisioned an opportunity to engage local youth to assist in the project. The Missional Operations Grant (MOG) that Salem received assisted in the purchase of necessary materials for the clean-up project and aided in providing space for youth to build relationships with church members.
relationships with youth, local businesses, the community, and government leaders. It has lead to opportunities for the church to engage more deeply with their community.
The Lehigh Valley is home to some of Franconia Conference’s thriving congregations that operate on very limited funds. In order to aid those congregations work in music ministry and with children and youth, Franconia Conference provided a Missional Operations Grant (MOG) to both 
adults! It is a great ‘problem’ to have, but it has continued to be a challenge for me as a pastor that is only to work 20 hours a week to navigate this and support our youth. When we dreamed about working with other small Anabaptist congregations several years ago, we still weren’t sure how we would financially be able to support anyone who could be a youth minister to our young people. We are so grateful for Danilo Sanchez’ work with the Lehigh Valley Youth. With the support of RIPPLE, WMC, Franconia’s Matching Grant, and MCC East Coast, we have been able to support Danilo for 
this missional experiment with the Lehigh Valley Youth. He is able to work with youth from RIPPLE, Vietnamese Gospel, WMC, and the broader Karen Community. He has also done volunteer work in the community to connect with kids outside the church. Urban youth ministry is very different from other youth ministry and we are learning together how to start a relational, intergenerational youth ministry from the ground up. It’s challenging and messy. It requires flexibility and contextualization. This is work and these are kids who would not be getting the attention, support, and pastoring without the support of MCC and Franconia Conference. We are grateful for this on-going commitment to support folks on the margins! And look forward to what God will do in year 3 of this experiment!”
