Mosaic Mennonites

Missional - Intercultural - Formational

Blooming Glen Mennonite Church

Flooded Out, Welcomed In

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Editor’s Note: The last names of family members were not used for privacy reasons. 

In early September 2021, the rain from Hurricane Ida soaked the East Coast. In the area around Blooming Glen (PA) Mennonite Church, flash flooding caused widespread damage to homes and businesses. The Pennridge Ministerium of area churches worked together with social service agencies to try and help those that had been flooded out of their homes.

With affordable, short-term, local housing nearly non-existent, at first, many of the displaced families stayed in hotels, sometimes at a great distance from their home community. This solution caused great inconvenience and additional expenses related to job commutes, transporting children to school, and feeding their families (hotels do not have kitchens).

The church participated in an Interfaith Hospitality network in past years, and we have classrooms with an adjacent full bathroom. What could we offer in terms of temporary lodging in our building?

Working with the school district social worker, a family was identified that needed a temporary living space. And that’s how we met Noe and Margarita and their children, Noe (son), Neftaly, and Scarlett, who lived in our church building for nearly three months.

Margarita described the day their rental property got flooded. “Our house is ¼ mile from the creek, so at first, we didn’t think anything would happen when it started raining. We lived 17 years in that house and no floods! But the water kept rising!”

Daughter Neftaly added, “All of a sudden, the road into our house was covered with water. I told mom, we can’t get out!” Water covered the first floor of their house and all of the family’s furniture and bedding was lost.

They spent that first night without a home at their landlord’s house. Then they stayed with friends who opened their home to them. “It was ten people from two families living in a small space,” explained Noe. “We looked but couldn’t find anywhere to move and stay in the school district and near our jobs. Everything we looked at either cost too much or required a long lease.”

“All of a sudden, the road into our house was covered with water. I told mom, we can’t get out!”

After the leadership of Blooming Glen processed the possibility internally, they reached out to the Pennridge School social worker. “Then the school social worker connected us with Blooming Glen,” Noe continued. “I didn’t think that such a thing was possible, that there would be people that don’t even know us, yet would help us.”

With furniture contributions from Care & Share Thrift Shoppes, congregants, and other area churches, several adjacent classrooms were turned into bedrooms. Couches and a coffee table turned a classroom lobby into a living room. The family moved into their temporary home.

The family has joined the congregation for Sunday worship services and fellowship meals, and congregants have gotten to know the family as they’ve brought in evening meals to share together.

“It’s been a good experience living here,” Neftaly commented, “I have made new friends in the youth group.” Neftali has also been preparing to get her driver’s license, and like countless teenagers before her, has practiced driving in the big, empty church parking lot.

“I want to stay here and not move back to our house!” said 7-year-old Scarlett. “I am always excited to go to Sunday school to see my new friends. I took my first Bible to school and was reading it to my friends.”

(from left to right) Noe, Margarita, Scarlett, Noe, and Neftali at Thanksgiving Eve worship service at Blooming Glen Mennonite Church. Photo by Mike Ford.

It’s been a wonderful experience for all involved, and Blooming Glen is considering ongoing possibilities for providing short-term emergency housing.

“We have met lots of nice people here, and we’ve been grateful to receive help,” Margarita explained. “I didn’t think anyone would help us like that in our time of need. But we needed an apartment, and you provided it.”

Intentional and Insightful Fellowship

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In the light of the racially charged events of the past year, some members of Blooming Glen (PA) Mennonite Church studied Jemar Tisby’s book, How to Fight Racism: Courageous Christianity and the Journey Toward Racial Justice.  One of the ways Tisby suggests fighting racism is to visit with and learn from people of color.

Our book study group contacted Katie Gard, Development Director at Oxford Circle Christian Development Association (OCCDA), and asked if a group of us from Blooming Glen could listen and learn from our brothers and sisters of color, share a meal, and worship together. We wanted to embark on a learning trip. 

Members of Oxford Circle and Blooming Glen Mennonite Churches gather to talk and listen about race and prejudice on June 13, 2021. Photo provided by Mike Ford.

On June 13, twenty-one of us from Blooming Glen traveled to Oxford Circle (Philadelphia, PA) Mennonite Church. We spent hours listening, learning, and eating a delicious Colombian meal together. We engaged in intentional conversation to build understanding and gain a new perspective on the difficult topic of racism. We ended our visit by worshiping with the Oxford Circle congregation at their evening service.

Our experience was rich with opportunities to listen, learn, and grow and gave us lots to consider, such as …

  • Would you change your name to make your neighbors feel comfortable? You are a US citizen in the US, but your name is unfamiliar to the people around you. Would you change your name to one that sounds familiar to your environment? A person that we met at Oxford Circle changed their name for our comfort. How important is your name to your identity?
  • One Oxford Circle participant explained that as a child, they learned that there are three reasons why a white person would come into their community – to recruit kids to sell drugs, to use girls for sex, or to buy drugs. How distrustful and fearful of white people one might feel if those were your experiences? What messages or experiences inform our ideas about race? How can we help each other to put aside our fears?
  • If shots were fired in your neighborhood, would you call the police? If yes, how long would it take your local police to respond? For a person living near Oxford Circle, the police did not arrive until the next day. Is that your experience with the police?
  • If you were attacked and stabbed, how likely would it be that the police would interrogate your children? The police questioned a participant’s children, without an adult present, while they waited to be picked up from school and accused them of being part of the attack.  Further, the media misrepresented the facts about the attack. After this terrifying event, the victim reached out to offer forgiveness and reconciliation to the perpetrator’s family. Could you?

We learned how our brothers and sisters are following the way of Christ amidst persecution, prejudice, and violence.

Desiring to learn more about overcoming racism, 21 members from Blooming Glen Mennonite Church traveled to meet with members of Oxford Circle Mennonite Church in Philadelphia, PA. Photo provided by Mike Ford.

Together we courageously discussed the difficult topic of racism. Can Mosaic churches be beacons of Christ’s love amidst all of the division within us and around us? How can we take steps towards one another to build understanding and unity?

One Oxford Circle member shared, “I want you to love my color people as you love your neighbors, as you love yourself. If we loved each other as God asks us to do, we wouldn’t be having the issues we have in this world. Recognize and educate yourself. Spend quality time being part of the solution, and finally, PRAY.”

We are blessed with diversity in Mosaic Conference. Let us seek ways to build on the blessing of our diversity as we witness together.

Need a Hymnal?

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In the fall of 2020, MennoMedia released the latest Mennonite hymnal, Voices Together, commissioned by Mennonite Church USA and Mennonite Church Canada. “Hymnals are generational,” the planning team behind the new hymnal explain. “They reflect the rhythms of the Holy Spirit, moving among God’s people in a particular era. As worship rhythms develop new currents, the language of a recent generation needs to expand too.”

Voices Together succeeds Hymnal: A Worship Book (1992) and its two supplements, Sing the Journey (2005) and Sing the Story (2007).

The time between the release of an earlier songbook, The Mennonite Hymnal (1969), and the publication of Hymnal: A Worship Book was 23 years. The release of Voices Together in the fall of 2020 marked 28 years since the publication of Hymnal: A Worship Book.

  • Blooming Glen congregation spent one evening recently replacing all of their hymnals in their sanctuary. Photo by Betty Kulp.
  • Blooming Glen congregation spent one evening recently replacing all of their hymnals in their sanctuary. Photo by Betty Kulp.
  • Blooming Glen congregation spent one evening recently replacing all of their hymnals in their sanctuary. Photo by Betty Kulp.

Some Mosaic congregations have already purchased the new hymnal for use in worship.  A few weeks ago, Blooming Glen (PA) Mennonite Church replaced their old hymnals with Voices Together.  One of their Sunday School classes, The Christiannaires, took on the task and, with organized teamwork, were able to swap out the hymnals in one evening. 

If your congregation or organization could use copies of Hymnal: A Worship Book, Blooming Glen congregation would be happy to share their resources. Please contact Pastor Michael Bishop at Michael@bgmc.net for more information.

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.

Congregational Profile: Blooming Glen Mennonite Church

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by Mike Ford, Blooming Glen

Tree planting – photo by Brenda Shelly

Like many other eastern Pennsylvania Mennonite congregations in the 1700’s, Blooming Glen began as Mennonites migrated from Germantown to Montgomery and Bucks counties.  In 1753, a farmer donated space in a field and a small log meetinghouse was built, and Blooming Glen Mennonite Church began.  Today, we are a diverse congregation “on a journey with Jesus,” averaging 230 at worship on Sunday.

We’ve been blessed with a wonderful facility and land, and we want to grow in having the community use our facilities.  Currently, such varied groups as Girl Scouts, Hilltown Democratic Committee, National Association for Mental Illness, and Aerobic Rhythmics use our spaces.  Our outdoor pavilion and playground is often rented for family get-togethers and community events.

Junior high attending the Creation Festival – photo by Ben Moyer

Blooming Glen wants to be a Christ-like presence and blessing in our community.  The towns of Perkasie and Sellersville do annual community festivals, and we set up a booth at these events.  One of our congregants has made dozens of engaging and fun games that set up well in a park setting.  At these festivals, these games allow us to engage folks in play and conversation and build relationships and presence.

We also have some long-standing traditions.  We still have a few farmers in our congregation, and annually on the last Saturday in October, we host a Harvest Festival.  We host hundreds of folks on our property for food, games, hay wagon rides, kids’ play areas, and to see a combine harvest corn or soybeans.  The harvest is then sold and the proceeds used to support a hunger-related ministry or organization or to provide disaster relief.

Summer Bible School – photo by Jen Hunsberger

Like many, we love worshipping the Lord through music.  Blooming Glen is blessed to have children and adult choirs, open to any that want to participate in choral singing.  These choirs most often perform during Sunday worship, though we usually do a major choral production each year.  On December 15, 2019, 6:30 pm, all are invited to an audience participation sing-in Messiah concert in our sanctuary.

We also try to share the love of God beyond our community by staying active and aware of the bigger body of Christ and worldwide needs.  Our folks are supportive of Mennonite Central Committee and Mennonite Disaster Service, our youth typically do a week of summer service learning in a different setting, and we have annually sent teams to learn and work in Honduras with Healthy Ninos Honduras and other overseas locations.

Senior meal – photo by Jen Hunsberger

In the fall of 2019, we are working at a new model of team pastoral leadership, with Michael Bishop and Mike Ford co-pastoring, and a number of other staff making up the team.  We are in the midst of a September-December small group prayer initiative, with 3-4 person prayer teams meeting regularly to humbly seek God for direction for our congregation, for guidance as to what God is doing in our time and place, and how we can best join Him in his work.  Our leadership is also meeting regularly with a Forge America missional ministry group.

Pray that we:

  • would sense God’s specific leading and guidance for our congregation in this current season of group prayer
  • would grow in being a vital spiritual presence in our community
  • would relationally, lovingly represent Jesus daily among the individuals with whom we live, work, and play

Representing Jesus in West Virginia

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(leer en español)

by Andres Castillo

Micah Kratz and Nicole Gourley prepare a wall for siding at the home near Jenkinjones, WV. (Photo by Adriana Santiago, posted on MCC SWAP Facebook page)

It took three days to dig the ditch that would divert water away from Gary, West Virginia homeowner Lucretia Ford’s house, but it was worth every second. “It wasn’t fun even though we tried to make it fun,” Bally (PA) congregation’s Jim Longacre admits. “In the same way, serving God sometimes isn’t fun and can be hard work, but in the end is very rewarding.”

The reward for the hard work comes in the form of relationships with those the SWAP volunteers come to help. Congregations haven’t been just serving Appalachian people through SWAP (Sharing With Appalachian People), but mutually sharing gifts with them.

An organization of the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), SWAP has endeavored to make houses safer, warmer, and drier for the Appalachian community in the United States for over 30 years. In the summer of 2018, groups from Bally and Blooming Glen (PA) congregations both served at SWAP’s West Virginia location. There, they experienced the one-week service program that emphasizes relationships as much as fixing houses.

The homeowner in Gary, WV poses with volunteers from Blooming Glen who are working on her home repairs. (Photo by Mike Ford, posted on MCC SWAP Facebook page)

For a long time, the West Virginia SWAP ministry typically rented and did not own permanent property. Following SWAP’s move from Elkhorn to Kimball, however, Houston United Methodist Church offered them the opportunity to purchase their own facility. After experiencing this ministry firsthand, both Bally and Blooming Glen stepped in to help. “When we learned of the opportunity extended to SWAP to purchase this residence, it struck us that maybe we could assist them with it,” Bally’s youth leader Mike Gehman says. Since then, members of both congregations, especially youth, have raised funds so that SWAP can purchase the house.

Mike Gehman and Zoe Longacre prepare soffet for installation. (Courtesy of MCC SWAP Facebook page)

In addition to housing volunteers, the facility will provide more flexibility for SWAP and send a positive message to the community. “By putting this anchor down, it says that we intend to be here with roots that can’t be uprooted,” SWAP’s location coordinator Lee Martin states. The people of Appalachia are important to SWAP, he adds. Every time SWAP and the community members share meals and stories, they touch each others’ lives. They strive to “blow judgmental thoughts [of Appalachian residents] out of the water,” share about Jesus, and build strong relationships with the members of the community.

During one of Bally’s work days, one of their youth, Zack, went missing for some time. He wasn’t escaping the work but was inside talking to Ford. By the end of the day, she had “basically labeled him her adopted grandson,” says Longacre.

Volunteers from Bally gather around homeowner Lucretia Ford as she tells stories after dinner at the SWAP house. (MCC SWAP Facebook page)

“If you have the opportunity to sit down and talk with a homeowner, that isn’t taking you away from your work. That is your work,” says Martin. “The work acts as a venue to build relationships.” This philosophy is one reason the two congregations were moved to work together to help SWAP purchase their new facility.

MCC’s mission to spread “relief, development, and peace in the name of Christ,” as described by Martin, lives on through ministries like SWAP and those who support them. “As odd as it sounds,” he says, “representing Jesus is our job.”

Partnerships Embodying Christ’s Way of Redemptive Peace

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by Mary Nitzsche, Associate Executive Minister

The slogan, “Doing together what we cannot do alone,” was put into action on Friday evening, September 28, when three Franconia Conference congregations partnered in mission to assemble relief kits. After hearing about Mennonite Central Committee’s (MCC) plea to send 10,000 relief kits around the world this year, Blooming Glen Mennonite Church invited Deep Run East Mennonite Church and Perkasie Mennonite Church to join them in collecting money to purchase supplies and assemble the relief kits. Initially, the hope was to donate enough money to assemble 300 kits, but more than $9,000 was contributed, enough to buy supplies for 610 kits.

Approximately 90 people of all ages, ranging from 3 to over 80 years old, gathered to share a meal and fellowship around tables. Following the meal, each table group relocated to another table to assemble kits which included rolling and tying over 2,000 towels, packaging shampoo in plastic bags, placing an MCC sticker on the bucket, or securing the bucket lids. After nearly 1 ½ hours of this multi-generational, cooperative, “worker bee” effort, 610 buckets were loaded into trailers. The evening ended with a group picture and prayer of blessing that these kits share God’s compassion, healing, and hope to people suffering the devastation of disaster or war.

Throughout the Franconia Conference website we are reminded of partnerships that span the globe providing opportunities to learn and share resources to embody and extend Christ’s way of redemptive peace. The relief kit partnership prompted me to explore how other Franconia Conference congregations are pooling money, skills, or resources to worship together, host community forums or events, or provide ministry in their communities. Many of these events are multi-generational, cross cultural, or cross denominational, reflecting the expansiveness of God’s way of peace. Some of these local partnerships have been highlighted in Intersectings articles over the past year. Others I learned about recently and will briefly describe.

Several congregations partnered with organizations and people in their broader communities to foster awareness and understanding, promote justice, and take action to address issues. Garden Chapel partnered with their community in Morris County, New Jersey, to host a forum on opioids and addiction providing education and prevention strategies for addressing the problem. Salem, Rocky Ridge, and Swamp Mennonite congregations are partnering with community non-profit organizations and the Quakertown Borough to address the opioid crisis in their community. A meeting place is provided for adults and “directionless” youth to build relationships and engage in meaningful activities. Perkasie Mennonite partnered with trained conflict facilitators to host a community event encouraging civil and respectful conversations about gun policies.

Participants from Blooming Glen, Deep Run East and Perkasie gather together, after assembling over 600 MCC relief kits.

Other congregations planned celebrations and invited the community to participate. Plains Mennonite and Evangelical Center for Revival hosted a community Fourth of July Commemoration to celebrate and embrace diversity. Methacton Mennonite hosted a block party featuring a variety of food and music along a local dance/drum group. Ripple Church uses the sanctuary space of the St. Stephens Lutheran Community Center for worship services and shares several activities with the Christ Lutheran congregation. These activities include a Pesto Festival at the end of the summer using basil from their community garden, and a “Trunk or Treat” event in October to pass out treats from car trunks to the neighborhood children. Ripple also partners with Whitehall Mennonite to provide a Summer Bible School in the park.

Salford Mennonite and Advent Lutheran have partnered in sharing a community garden and providing food to those in their community; hosting educational events on anti-racism and other issues; worshipping together at an annual Thanksgiving service and taking an offering to support local and global ministry.

Several congregations planned joint worship services and opportunities for fellowship this summer. Nations Worship Center traveled to Deep Run East for worship and an intercultural fellowship meal. Centro de Alabanza and Towamencin Mennonite met for a joint baptism service followed by an intercultural fellowship meal. Our California congregations annually gather for worship, fellowship, and resourcing.

Some partnership stories have yet to be told, imagined, or planned. May these brief stories continue to encourage local and global opportunities to learn and share resources in our communities and beyond as we seek to embody and extend Christ’s way of redemptive peace.

An Interfaith Creation Care Journey

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by Mike Ford, Associate Pastor of Youth, Blooming Glen Mennonite Church

Philly group send-off

This past month, PA Interfaith Power and Light (PA IPL) organized two groups totaling 18 bicyclists to ride from Philadelphia and State College, PA to Washington, DC. Our cause was to gather as an interfaith group to travel to our nation’s capital to meet with our legislators, to make a moral case for long term environmental care and clean energy legislation.  Riding bikes helped create relationships within the diverse groups, as well as demonstrate to our legislators our commitment to care for the environment in our travel.  Three pastors with ties to Franconia Mennonite Conference participated in Philadelphia to DC ride, including myself, Mike Ford from Blooming Glenn Mennonite, Conference Youth Minister John Stoltzfus, and former Associate Pastor at Salford, now Campus Pastor at 3rd Way Collective at Penn State, Ben Wideman.

Philly group in DC

Ben, who rode in the past with the State College group, initiated this riding group from eastern Pennsylvania.  In addition to the three Mennonite pastors, our Philadelphia group consisted of two Jewish rabbis and a SAG (Support and Gear) wagon driven by a Unitarian Universalist minister.  Sharing with each other about our faith traditions was fascinating and enlightening.  Daily discussion and daybreak rituals mixed Christian prayer, poetry, Jewish blessings, song, scripture, and the blowing of the shofar (ram’s horn).  Particularly with our Jewish friends, we found an amazing amount of commonality in the history of our people and their persecution and migration around the world. 

Fixing a flat

Rabbi Nathan Martin summed up the trip well in commenting, “It just seemed to me like a really powerful statement, to bring different people of faith together to do something positive by getting on their bikes, by connecting with faith communities along the way and then bringing their voice to the halls of Congress and making their concerns known about climate change.”

People from various faith communities supported us along the way.  Lodging, meals, and hospitality were provided by a UCC minister’s family, a Presbyterian church, the House of Peace (Baltimore), a Jewish synagogue, and an elderly Quaker couple.  Part of the purpose of our ride was to fundraise to support the work of PA IPL, and over $15,000 was donated.

Meeting with Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick

The ride took us from the oil refineries of South Philadelphia to beautiful countryside, challenging hills, and busy city streets.  The State College crew rode 200 miles over 5 days, while the Philadelphia contingent tallied 180 miles in 3 days.  Our final day was spent off the bikes on Capitol Hill, meeting with Pennsylvania Senators and Representatives to encourage them to work on bipartisan efforts and existing bills that take a long term look at creation care and stewardship through greater support for renewable, clean energy sources.

The trip stirred in all of us a deeper desire to inspire and educate others to heed God’s directive to be good stewards of our common home.  You can read more about the trip here.