Conference News

by 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.

Ranck 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.

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

The 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.

Farm 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.

by 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.

I 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.