Mosaic Mennonites

Missional - Intercultural - Formational

Franco Salvatori

Called to Hope

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After 20 years of pastoral service, is it surprising that the Salvatori family is answering the call to serve in the Dominican Republic as missionaries?  Most of our friends have answered emphatically, “No!”  Most people who know us well thought God might use us in intercultural ministry.

The Salvatori family: (L-R) Stacy, Talia, Franco, Micah (in back), and Anna. Photo provided by Stacy Salvatori of Salvatori Photography.

However, our ministry call story begins long before we met each other, as the legacy of serving others for the Gospel of Jesus Christ began in our families of origin.  

For Franco, his story started as a young boy when Jesus radically transformed his family.  His father, an alcoholic and addict, came home one day reporting a new faith in Jesus had changed him.  It would only be a few short years before his parents began working in the local church and eventually became the executive directors of a local mission.  

Stacy’s legacy of ministry runs even deeper.  Her maternal grandfather was a Methodist pastor in rural Kentucky, and her father’s family spent two generations in foreign missionary service in the Democratic Republic of Congo.  As a martyred missionary, her grandfather’s legacy sent all three of his children into full time mission service and Stacy’s parents still serve in the Democratic Republic of Congo as career missionaries. 

As a family, we have often prayed about opportunities to serve interculturally.  For years, God led us to serve in local churches and pastoral roles.  At this time, it is the training, education, and pastoral ministry experience that will be central to our role as missionaries. Bold Hope International has invited us to join their team in the Dominican Republic in three main areas:  Development, Pastoral Training, and Advocacy.  

Trains are used to transport sugarcane from the countryside to the central processing plant in La Romana, Dominican Republic. Photo provided by Stacy Salvatori of Salvatori Photography.

These three points of interest have led us to serve in the Dominican Republic:

  • There are migrant workers (primarily Hatians) who have found asylum in small sugarcane villages (bateys) that allow them to survive, but not thrive.  
  • Approximately 85% of pastors globally have never received any theological training.
  • We believe the good news of Jesus Christ overcomes this lack of resources and we want to be part of the solution.  

In the bateys, our family will work alongside the child sponsorship and educational initiatives to help bring hope in these villages.  We will work to strengthen and develop the pastoral networks to provide the training and resources that pastors and churches need to further the gospel.  And we will help partner individual bateys with churches and organizations in the Dominican Republic and abroad to offer long term investments and impact in these communities.  

Bateys are villages that house sugarcane workers.  This half-court basketball court serves as a central gathering point for the young people in this batey. Photo provided by Stacy Salvatori of Salvatori Photography.

We believe in the hopeful news that God offers humanity through Jesus.  We believe in the work of Bold Hope International.  And we believe God has been preparing us for this for a long time.  

We are excited about the opportunity God is calling our family to and ask you to partner with us in prayer. If you would like to offer financial support or become a partner organization in a batey, please visit our website at The Hopeful Endeavor.

Fall Ministerial Update

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Noah Kolb, for the Ministerial Committee

Ubaldo Rodriguez, left, is the newest member of the Ministerial Committee.

The Ministerial Committee met on September 5 and November 7. At our September meeting, we welcomed Ubaldo Rodriguez as a new member of the committee. We took action to approve Kristopher Wint, associate pastor of Finland congregation, for a two-year ministerial license toward ordination and accepted the ordination credentials of John Stoltzfus, conference youth minister and campus pastor at Christopher Dock Mennonite High School, from Illinois Conference.

At our November meeting, we approved Franco Salvatori, pastor of Rocky Ridge congregation, for a license toward ordination. The committee took action to change the ordination status of Dennis Detweiler and Bill Brunk from “active’ to “retired.” The policy to assist credentialed leaders with counseling expenses was reviewed and updated.  We invited LEADership Ministers and the Credentials Committee to join us in reviewing the policies that guide who we credential.

Introducing Rocky Ridge Mennonite Church

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This summer’s baptisms at Rocky Ridge.

Rocky Ridge is located about 2 miles southeast of Quakertown, PA. In the early1900’s the area around Rocky Ridge was known as the “woods over the ridge.”  Families living in the area were of many nationalities and most had little income.  In 1931, the first “cottage” meeting and Sunday School were held.  By 1949, a number of charter families had moved into the area and a new church building at 114 Rocky Ridge Road was built.

We have been an ethnically diverse congregation from the beginning, and have always had at the forefront a support of missions, missionaries, and short term mission experiences.

As we look towards the future, Rocky Ridge is currently trying to re-imagine what shape their missional DNA will take in the 21st century.

Vision Statement:  We are a community of people, bonded by faith in Jesus Christ, committed to being Shaped by God’s word, to Sharing our life with others, and to Sacrificing for God’s mission.

Franco Salvatori is the current Lead Pastor.  The church structure consists of Elders giving spiritual direction and a Leadership Council governance to church matters.

Quakertown Christian School was started in the basement of the church in September 1951.   (www.rockyridgechurch.org)

Update from the Ministerial Committee (April 2012)

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Update from Noah Kolb, Pastor of Ministerial Leadership, on behalf of the Ministerial Committee

Connie's ordination
Connie Detwiler was ordained at Lakeview Mennonite Church on May 6.

On April 4 the Ministerial Committee approved Connie Detwiler for ordination as co-pastor at Lakeview Mennonite Church. Her ordination was on May 6.

Rose Bender was approved for ordination on April 4 as the pastor of Whitehall Mennonite Church. Her ordination is being planned for May 27.

Franco Salvatori has been called by the Rocky Ridge Mennonite Church as their permanent pastor. He was installed on March 25.

Joyce Hunsberger was granted a license for Christian education and children’s ministries at Salford on April 29.

New Life Fellowship in Northern PA has closed. Phil Maenza who pastored the congregation for more than ten years works in the community. Since he is no longer the pastor of the congregation, his specific ministerial license will cease.

Called, affirmed, recognized: On believing and living accordingly

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Franco Salvatori, Rocky Ridge fsalvatori@gmail.com

When I was just a young kid my older brother and I shared a room. One night he asked me that great Campus Crusade question. “If you died tonight, would you go to heaven?” I shared with him my best understanding of God at the time—that he was like a big computer up in heaven, calculating everything I did. I almost pictured God weighing my life on a balance scale of good versus bad. If the good things I had done outweighed the bad then I had earned heaven. If the bad things came in heavy… well, you know the story. My brother took the time to explain that I could know where I would spend eternity, that all I had to do was accept Christ’s gift for me. Together, we traveled downstairs to my parent’s bedroom and I remember kneeling to pray and ask Jesus into my heart. This was only a few years after Christ had entered our family and made radical changes. My parents weren’t your average Christian family when I was born, my father was an alcoholic and my mom was just holding the family together. I was only four but I remember when life started changing in our home. One day after dad had taken a short “vacation”, he returned different. He was still a steel mill worker, but something was different. He smiled. That next year when it came time for me to start in school, my brother and I both went to a new school. My parents chose to send us to a Christian school to make sure that we grew up with a strong biblical foundation.

Life continued this way for about 3 years after my own personal experience with Christ, when another big change happened in our family. My parents sat us down to say that we were going to be moving because my 39year-old father was going to college. He felt called into ministry. It was this event in my family that displayed faith better than anything I had ever experienced. We packed up and moved, trusting God. Little did we know before the end of dad’s second semester, it wasn’t college he would be in, it was the hospital. Dad was diagnosed with a large tumor in his colon.

Besides my salvation experience, this event had the most profound effect on my spiritual journey. It was at this time in my life, when I could no longer walk in the shadow of the faith of my parents, that I had to determine whether or not I believed in a God who would “call” my parents to leave everything and then abandon them there. It was truly not a long journey, because of God’s people, and because of the truth of 2 Corinthians.

When we suffer, it gives us an opportunity to experience comfort from the God of all comfort. I quickly felt the care of many people that God brought around us, and the comfort of the God who brought us there. It was during this time that I felt the presence of God carrying not only me, but also my family, through this entire event. God eventually healed my father through surgeons and time, but without this suffering I have no idea what my spiritual life would look like today. I can truly say this journey was a start of a lifelong faith journey following the example I saw in my parents . . . believe and live your life accordingly.

During my high school years, there was little differentiation between my call to a fully surrendered lifestyle and to going into full-time ministry. As you have heard, I was privileged to be a part of a family where total abandon was modeled. When I continued to surrender more of myself to God’s will, God revealed in me a passion for serving and different gifts for ministry. As I began to think about career, God pursued me to pursue ministry. When I went to college, I entered full-time ministry to high school students, and I pursued this passion for the next eight years of my life.

From there, we followed God to Eastern Pennsylvania so that I could attend Biblical Seminary’s LEAD program. Through it all, God continues to be faithful to me, my family of origin, and the wonderful family with which God has blessed me along the way. God continues to use our family in ministry as we continually walk each leg of our journey being faithful to “believe and live accordingly.”