Mosaic Mennonites

Missional - Intercultural - Formational

Conference News

Seminar on Pastors and Congregations Addressing Pornography Together

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March 29 – 30, 2007
Sessions held at Souderton Mennonite Church

Register for the event by March 23, 2007 through email, phone, or at http://www.mosaicmennonites.org/index.php?P=120

bmh694.jpgEDC and FMC ministry teams have invited Brenda Martin Hurst, a professor of practical theology at Eastern Mennonite Seminary, to lead us in addressing the issue of pornography. Brenda led a workshop at the Mennonite Church USA Assembly in 2005 and wrote an article for The Mennonite addressing pornogrpahy. Since then she has spoken with other groups of leaders on this theme and has agreed to be with us March 29 and 30, 2007, for teaching and to raise personal and pastoral awareness.

The seminar will be divided into two parts. Both sessions will be held in the Fellowship Hall at Souderton Mennonite Church. We invite, [EDC encourages], and [FMC expects] credentialed leaders to attend both events. There will be .5 of Continuing Education credit available through these seminars.

Schedule:

March 29, 2007 ~ 7:00 – 9:00 p.m.
Lay leaders are particularly invited to attend. This session will provide an overview of the topic and raise consciousness on the challenges pornography presents within congregational life.

  • Worship led by Julie Prey-Harbaugh, FMC associate and James Lapp, FMC Senior Ministry Consultant
  • Presentation by Brenda Martin Hurst
  • A personal story of struggle with pornography
  • Response from pastors: Scott Benner, Zion Mennonite – Sandy Drescher-Lehman, Souderton Mennonite

March 30, 2007 ~ 9:00 a.m. – Noon
This session is designed for pastors, youth ministers, and chaplains.

  • Worship led by Julie Prey-Harbaugh and James Lapp
  • Presentation by Brenda Martin Hurst
    • Gender specific group interaction led by Brenda and Carl Yusavitz, Penn Foundation
    • Response and reflection on the next steps in growth and accountability led by: Warren Tyson, EDC Conference Minister and Ertell Whigham, FMC Director of Congregational Resourcing and Equipping

Register online | View the brochure PDF

Franconia Mennonite Church celebrates 15 year partnership with Iglesia Maranatha

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04.jpgArnold & Marlene Derstine, Franconia Mennonite Church

It’s hard to believe that 15 years have passed since our congregation first began to relate to our sister church in Puebla, Mexico. Little did we know that what began as an initiative of Franconia Mennonite Conference and the Conference of Mennonite Churches in Mexico would eventually become a thriving relationship between our two congregations.

Last week a group of 6 persons from our congregation (Pastor John Ehst, Bill Gotwals, Alex and McAllister Tellado, David Landis, Arnold and Marlene Derstine) attended the anniversary weekend of our sister church. This annual celebration of God’s faithfulness in the life of the church seemed an appropriate setting to also recognize and celebrate 15 years of walking beside each other as congregations. It was a time to both reminisce about the past as well as dream about the future.

Initial conversations with the Maranatha congregation began in 1992. In the spring of 1993, the first of many exchange visits took place. A team of four persons from Franconia went to work along side our Mexican brothers and sisters who had recently purchased a new property for the church. Over the years many from our congregation have been encouraged and blessed as the chorus, young adults, youth teams and mixed groups have had the privilege of visiting with Maranatha and participating in the life and ministry of their congregation. Throughout the years we have also been blessed to receive groups from Maranatha through which many significant relationships have been established.

02.jpgOur weekend together was a significant reminder of the many meaningful relationships that have developed and grown over the last 15 years. It was also a reminder that our relationship together actually began long before the sister relationship emerged.

Perhaps the most meaningful part of the Sunday morning celebration was giving thanks for and recognizing the dedication and service of faithful leaders both past and present. It was a blessing to have David and Shirley Yoder there with us. David and Shirley are the original church planters of Maranatha. The congregation was moved as David expressed the overwhelming joy he and Shirley experienced in coming back to the church for the first time in 35 years and witnessing God’s faithfulness in bringing forth fruit from the seeds that were sown.

Maranatha is indeed a congregation that has come a long way since the early 1960’s when David and Shirley used the living room of their home as a chapel for Sunday morning services and weekly bible studies. On this Sunday the auditorium was full of people and praise as we celebrated God’s faithfulness together through inspiring worship, prayer and hearing God’s word.

It was encouraging to reflect on how God has brought us together – two congregations with distinct cultures but the same vision and desire to be salt and light here on earth. Throughout the weekend we took time to think, dream and pray about our future together as partners in the Gospel. We look forward to how God will continue to use this relationship to further His kingdom.

posted from Franconia Sampler, A weekly newsletter of the Franconia Mennonite Church
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The Ripple Effect: How a Path Encounter is Leading to Better Health for 50,000 Children

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Elizabeth Stover and her husband (Preston) of Dock Woods Community were out walking on the path in the beautiful woods connected to the Community. Coming toward them was a young man with his small playful child. He was hanging on to his legs so it was a “conversational moment.” The young man (Insoo Lee) said that he was Korean and the youth pastor of a local Korean church in Landsale. Elizabeth invited them to their home for a dinner. Since she was a leader of a prayer group at Dock Community she also invited Insoo to come and speak to the prayer group.

At that meeting Insoo found out about the Worm Project and invited Claude Good and his wife (Alicia) to present the project to the young people of his church. They were met with overwhelming enthusiasm by the Korean young people in addition to the wonderful Korean food served by the group. Some of them wanted to take the contribution containers to their school classrooms to encourage their classmates to contribute as well.

That small group of enthusiastic young people was able to pull together $1,000.00 in a few months! The Worm Project is able to buy a de-worming pill for just $0.02 each when bought by the million. It is a mint-flavored, chewable pill that only has to be administered once every six months. That one pill can save enough food from the worms to help a child have, on average, an extra 10 lb.of food during those six months. So at $0.02 each, $1,000.00 will buy enough pills to treat 50,000 children! But it will be even more than that – Insoo says that the youth want to keep the contribution containers to continue raising funds for the very poor “wormy” children of the world!

Additional information: The Korean church, as of January 1, has moved to the Hatfield Church of the Brethren and has become one church in Christ as Grace/Hatfield Church of the Brethren. Now they have an English service at 10am and a Korean service at 11:30am.They are planning to provide bilingual service soon.

dscn4307.jpgPresentation of $1,000.00 from the Korean Youth Group to the Worm Project
First row from left to right:Yoon Kim, Julia Min, Esther Choi, Anna Kim.
Middle row: Insoo Lee, (Youth Pastor), Preston Stover, Grace Min (president of Grace Christian Church Youth Group), Claude Good, (Coordinator of the Worm Project), Alicia Good
Back row: Noel Santiago (Executive Minister), Elizabeth Stover, Michelle Kang.

Church seeks supplies to put together health kits

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mcc_kit.jpgby Christine Charnosky, The Reporter

01/22/2007

Plains Mennonite Church is always looking for ways to help others. Currently, the church is collecting items for health kits, which will go to women and children in refugee camps, according to Associate Pastor Dawn Ranck.

The church gives the kits to the Mennonite Central Committee and the agency forwards them to people in need, she said. The description of the health kits can be found at the agency’s Web site, www.mcc.org, which states the kits go to people in such countries as Bosnia, Haiti, Nicaragua, North Korea, Russia, Serbia and Ukraine.

The church is collecting the following items: one toothbrush, adult-size, left in wrapper; one squeeze-tube toothpaste, minimum six ounces, left in box; one bar of soap, four to five ounces left in wrapper; one fingernail clipper; and one dark-colored hand towel. Ranck said the items can be dropped off at the church in a plastic bag. The church then places the items into a cloth bag, which one of their congregant makes.

plainspole.jpgRanck said she heard a story about a person who came to the United States and years before had received a health kit. “The person still had the bag because it had become a symbol of hope for them,” she said. She and some church members toured the MCC warehouse in Ephrata, Lancaster County, last month.

“We helped check the kits,” she said. “Each kit has to have the same and right stuff.”
The Central Committee has the best track record of things that go to other countries because their overhead is low, she said.

The church has a different community service project every few months, Ranck said, including helping Manna on Main Street. The church has collected 20 to 30 kits so far and it’s not unusual for them to collect 100.

Items for the kits can be dropped off through the month of February at Plains Mennonite Church, located at 50 W. Orvilla Road in Hatfield Township. The church office is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday or items can be brought to the Sunday service, which begins at 10:15 a.m. The church can be reached at (215) 362-7640.

Conference natives part of first Goshen College SST to Cambodia

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GOSHEN, Ind. – Three Franconia Conference natives are participating
in the first Goshen (Ind.) College Study-Service Term (SST) unit to
Cambodia this spring. The group includes 24 students.

Krista Ehst, daughter of Tim and Sheryl Ehst of Bally, is majoring in
Bible and religion. She is a 2004 graduate of Christopher Dock
Mennonite High School and attends Perkasie Mennonite Church.

Sheldon Good, son of Don and Diane Good of Telford, is majoring in
communication and business. He is a 2005 graduate of Christopher Dock
Mennonite High School and attends Salford Mennonite Church.

Greg Yoder, son of Jerold and Beth Yoder of Perkasie, is majoring in
music. He is a 2005 graduate of Christopher Dock Mennonite High
School and attends Perkasie Mennonite Church.

The students left for Cambodia on Jan. 10 and will return to the
United States on April 10. They will spend the first six weeks in the
capital, Phnom Penh, studying the national language of Khmer and the
country’s culture at the Royal University of Phnom Penh. Students
will then be placed in service assignments around the country. The
capital is a mix of developed and developing areas, and though the
country has a dollar economy, it is one of the poorest countries in
the region, according to Tom Meyers, director of international
education at Goshen College. Students will live with host families
during the first and second half of the semester, many of whom will
be Buddhist, since 95 percent of the population follows that
religion. Groups from Goshen College will go to Cambodia every three
years.

Keith and Ann Graber Miller, with their children, Niles, Mia and
Simon, are leading the unit to Cambodia. Keith is professor of Bible,
religion and philosophy at Goshen College. They have previously led
SST units in the Dominican Republic, China, Cuba and Costa Rica.

Web updates and photos from the group are available from Goshen
College’s SST Web site at: www.goshen.edu/sst/cambodia07. Letters can
be directed to: Mennonite Central Committee, PO Box 481, #20 Street
475, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

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, more than 6,500 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 and Jamaica. 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.

FMC authors in DreamSeeker Magazine

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DreamSeeker Magazine, published by Cascadia Publishing House, was founded to link readers interested in attending to “voices from the soul” with Anabaptist-related writers committed to exploring from the heart, with passion, depth, and flair, their own visions and issues of the day.

The Winter 2007 issue includes a variety of Franconia Mennonite Conference authors:

  • Christie Benner – (Un)happy, in love
  • Renee Gehman – What if I knew when I was little and didn’t know anything
  • Deborah Good – Some thoughts on helping
  • Michael King – At the end of ethnic Mennonite life
  • Steve Kriss – Just another day in Paradise—or Philadelphia?
  • David Landis – Cultural agoraphobia: Why young postmodern Mennonites struggle to follow or lead

As Large As Palaces: Pennsylvania German Barns on display

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barnpr001.jpgThe Mennonite Heritage Center, 565 Yoder Road, Harleysville, announces a new exhibit As Large as Palaces: Pennsylvania German Barns. The exhibit focuses on the history, functions, and architecture of the beautiful nineteenth century Pennsylvania German barns in southeastern Pennsylvania. As Large as Palaces features a reconstruction of an original barn’s threshing floor and bents (or framing sections), along with a granary and a recreation of cow stable from the lower level of a barn. Vintage barn photographs and diagrams of barn architecture, as well as examples of 19th century farm tools and equipment show how barns were designed to house animals and provide for crop processing and storage. The exhibit will run until October 29, 2007.

As Large as Palaces takes it title from eighteenth century mapmaker Lewis Evans who commented about Pennsylvania farmsteads that “It is pretty to behold our back Settlements, where the barns are as large as pallaces, while the Owners live in log hutts; a sign tho’of thriving farmers.” The early European emigrants placed priority on barns because of their good animal husbandry – shelter was needed for animals and to store hay and grain for feed. Early barns in southeastern Pennsylvania during the settlement period were usually rough structures of logs and thatched roofs, but by the mid-eighteenth century, the Pennsylvania German barn had evolved into a substantial building of log or stone. As more and more acres came under cultivation and production increased, more storage was needed. By the mid-nineteenth century farmers built even larger barns, no longer of log, but of frame, brick and stone.

The unique style of Pennsylvania German barns was influenced by both practical needs and European traditions, particularly Swiss (Sweitzer) barns. Pennsylvania German barns are noted for their two-level post and beam architecture and for the earthen bank or barn bridge on the back-side of the building. The multi-level design was a practical design. The lower level was used to house animals. The upper level was used to store hay and straw in the mow and grain in an enclosed granary with room to accommodate grain threshing and unloading hay in the center bay. Feed from the top level could be easily thrown down to the stabled animals below. The barn bridge helped insulate the bottom level of the barn and allowed hay wagons to be driven into the upper level for unloading. Another identifying characteristic of a Pennsylvania barn was the forebay or overhang on the bottom side of the barn that shaded the stable area in summer and also provided protection in the winter.

barnpr002.jpgFarm life centered around the barn and family members spent many hours milking cows, feeding animals, assisting with calving, loading and unloading hay, and threshing grain. Throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, agriculture thrived, grew, and changed but the barn remained the hub of farm life. Increasing mechanization and sanitary standards brought more changes to farming in the twentieth century and barns were renovated to deal with the changing times. Stanchions and cement floors replaced wooden stables and earthen floors. Milking machines and farm machinery increased production and decreased some of the grueling hand labor but many people still have memories of going out to the barn to milk on an icy winter morning or of unloading hay in the heat of the summer.

Barns represented community life too. Barn raisings were an event for the entire community – men worked together to construct and put the barn framework in place and women provided a hearty meal for the laborers. Barns were also used for social functions – barn dances were an opportunity for Saturday evening fun. The hay mow was a place for children to explore on a Sunday afternoon or a retreat for solitary contemplation and prayer. Today the landscape of southeastern Pennsylvania is changing rapidly and Pennsylvania German barns are no longer a common sight. The barns that remain are a legacy to our communities – their architecture and building materials convey a sense of history, craftsmanship, and hard work.

The Mennonite Heritage Center invites individuals, groups, and children’s groups to visit the barn exhibit. Call 215.256.3020 ext. 114 for more information about scheduling a group visit. Special speakers and programs are also planned throughout the year. A “Farm and Garden Day” will be held on Saturday, April 28, 2007. Historian Alan Keyser will speak on “The Functions and Activities of a Nineteenth Century Barn” on May 17 at 7:30 pm. A day long tour of area barns is planned for June 16, 2007. Jeff Marshall, Heritage Conservancy (Doylestown, Pa.), barn preservation specialist, will speak on “Barn Architecture and Barn Preservations Options” on September 18, 2007 at 7:30 pm.

The Mennonite Heritage Center is located at 565 Yoder Road, Harleysville, Pa. Exhibit hours are Tues-Fri 10 am to 5 pm, Sat 10 am to 2 pm, Sun. 2 to 5 pm. For information on this and other events and exhibits, check the Mennonite Heritage Center web site: www.mhep.org, email: info@mhep.org, or call 215-256-3020.

New Year, New Building: Philadelphia Praise Center moves a few doors down

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img_0396.jpgby Rachel Howe

On the first Sunday of 2007, Philadelphia Praise Center (PPC) gathered for Sunday worship in a newly renovated building in South Philadelphia. The building was constructed at the turn of the 20th Century as a home for a Mission Brethren congregation but had most recently housed a Baptist congregation and catering business. Already on the first Sunday, the congregation filled the building’s first level to near capacity. The congregation reached record level attendances of 250 over the holiday season at its previous location, a few doors away.

The less than two-year old congregation purchased the building with the assistance of Mennonite Church USA’s Church Extension Services in early November. Renovations started immediately with a goal of worshiping in the new space for Christmas. However, the process took much sweat, prayer and teamwork and on Friday January 5 moving day arrived. The congregation was excited to pitch in and help to move from a leased facility on the same block of McKean Street. Some stayed to early morning hours to make sure all was just right for the first Sunday. The new building now gives more classrooms for Sunday school with a nursery for parents and young children.

Pastor Bastian Yosin spoke on this first Sunday about how this church building, needs to become a house of prayer, house of glory, house of communication and reconciliation and a house of change. PPC desires to reach every nation, every culture and every tribe in Philadelphia for the sake of the Gospel.

img_0425.jpgI am actually part of that prayer. I came to PPC in September of 2006 and immediately felt the presence of the Lord. The congregation welcomed me with open arms and has not let go. God’s passion is evident in everyone. It does not matter what language you speak. I have learned so much from sitting, listening and watching.

I am learning a new language and a new culture. This is what Christianity is all about–stepping out in faith not knowing what each day might bring but knowing that God will bring good things to pass. This new building is just the next step of many for us as congregation to reach the city of Philadelphia for the Glory of God. Congregational leader Melkie Tirtaspura said that the church is becoming known as a place where miracles happen among immigrants in South Philadelphia.

On February 11, PPC will celebrate its two-year anniversary. This is a time to celebrate where God has brought us from and where God will take us in the years to come

Rachel Howe is originally from Akron, Ohio, and relocated to Philadelphia this fall. A graduate of Valley Forge Christian College, she is living a dream within the caring community of PPC while falling in love with the City of Brotherly Love.