Intersections

Greg Yoder, Perkasie
gjyoder@gmail.com

And so the adventure comes to a close. My time left in Cambodia is short. I guess the best word to sum it up is overwhelming.

Overwhelming because I have to start thinking about what I’m going to tell people when they ask me, “So how was Cambodia?” Because I have six weeks worth of experience that nobody really knows anything about. How do I talk about six weeks of my life, six weeks that are filled with pages upon pages of memories…people, places, events, food, problems, joys, the ins and outs of everyday life in the village. It’s a daunting task, one I’m beginning to pick away at with this reflection, and certainly a process that will continue for years.

Overwhelming because I come home to a family in the city that so obviously missed me and is glad to have me back and a mother who is heartbroken that I’m leaving again so soon. My language skills have really improved, which I wouldn’t have realized except that I can communicate with my family here with so much more ease than when I left. It feels like I could just be settling in for the long haul instead of packing my bags and saying my goodbyes.

Overwhelming because I’m saying goodbye to friends, family, food…but more than that. I’m saying goodbye to a city that I’ve grown to love, to a country that has introduced me to the world, shown me a piece of just how little I know about things. I’m not putting the Cambodian book away by any means, though I do need to finish the chapter I’m on and put it a way for a while. I hope to return, but I know it’s possible that I could be saying “goodbye forever.”

I want to share briefly about my life in the village. To give a picture of Kampong Phluk and what I experienced seems such an impossible task, but if I just start somewhere perhaps the words will come and the picture will take shape. I have a nephew. He is beautiful; brown skin, dark hair and eyes, painted finger and toenails, a beautiful smile though featuring teeth that look painfully diseased. Samadee is his name, but we all call him Dee. He runs around naked most of the time. He is five years old.

I love Samadee. He loved to play with me, especially when I was trying to read or write. He would come up to me and plop his naked bottom right down on my book, then he’d just look at me and smile. He loved being tossed onto my shoulder and spun around. He also loved a game that involved him trying different forms of bodily harm out on me and asking, “Does this hurt?”

I got lucky again. My host family experiences have been the most meaningful parts of all of Study Service Term. In Kampong Phluk I was once again adopted into the family, perhaps even to a greater extent than in Phnom Penh…but it’s too close to call so I won’t. I had two host sisters, one of whom was Samadee’s mother, a mother, and three “sisters” who were teachers at the school where we taught and lived with our family when school was in session.

I felt like a son in this family, doing chores (though not as often as I would have liked), singing and dancing with the fam, asking questions about where people were and when they’d be returning I can’t explain the feeling, but imagine that you’ve been adopted by a wonderful family and you almost forget you’ve been adopted.
One night my Kampong Phluk mother came out to the porch where I slept and found me looking at the stars. She asked me, “Do they have stars in America?” Yes, I replied. “Are they the same?” Yes. “Do they have a moon in America?” Yes, Ma. “The same?” Yes.

She sits for a little bit.

“Stars, the same. Moon, the same. There is only one sky.”

Yes, Ma. Only one sky; poetry in its simplest form. God speaks Khmer, I’ll tell you that much.

Greg Yoder participated in Goshen College’s initial Service Study Term in Cambodia this spring, along with Krista Ehst (Perkasie congregation) and Sheldon Good (Salford congregation). The term included stays with families in both urban and rural settings.Greg wrote this journal to share his thoughts back with friends and family in the States and graciously agreed to publication in Intersections.

Sheldon Good, Salford
sgood@mosaicmennonites.org

Over the past nine years, many Indonesian Christians have fled their home country due to ongoing religious persecution, seeking the comfort and security of political asylum in the United States. Thousands have settled in Southeastern Pennsylvania and southern California. Many have cultivated and developed Mennonite connections, while some remain on the verge of making a return flight across the Pacific.

Political asylum, or the right of asylum as it is often referred as, is the idea that persons who are persecuted in their native country may obtain legal protection from a foreign country. In the United States, the term “asylum seeker” refers to one who is seeking political asylum, while the term “asylee” is used for individuals who have officially been recognized.

Four Indonesians have recently been granted political asylum for one year in California, while one more is due to appear in a state appeals court. Franconia Conference and Pacific Southwest Mennonite Conference have both had a representative assisting with translation and religious representation, Aldo Siahaan, member of Philadelphia Praise Center (PPC), and Rina Kusuma, co-pastor of Gereja Kristen Injili Indonesia Zion congregation in Fullerton, CA.

Even though it is unknown where the asylees will settle, it was agreed that the legal proceedings would take place in California. Siahaan said that, “California is the only state where you have a decent chance — 80 percent — at political asylum.”

The four persons who passed their official interviews will be eligible for green cards after one year of asylum status. They will now most likely look for work in either southern California or Philadelphia, thanks in part to their connections to both respective Mennonite conferences, along with the significant Indonesian communities that already exist in both locations.

According to Kusuma, many Indonesians settle in southern California because that is where they have their asylum interviews. “There are a significant number of [Indonesians] in California, with around 20,000 in the city of San Gabriel and around 15,000 in San Bernardino County,” Kusuma said.

All five asylum seekers are ethnically Chinese Indonesian Christians who have fled persecution from indigenous Indonesian Muslims. Many Christians fled Indonesia from 1998-2001 and again in 2003 after sustained riots and violence forced them out of their homes, businesses, and churches. “Sometimes Muslims become jealous of the Christians’ [prominence] and successfulness,” Siahaan said.

Even though the last significant wave of Chinese immigrants to Indonesia occurred towards the beginning of the 20th century, many native Indonesians still do not accept them nor their religious perspectives. Siahaan said, “They think America is a Christian country. Since they hate America, they hate Christians.” Thus, they persecute Chinese Indonesian Christians for having these ties to western influence and culture. “The Indonesian church is growing very fast, and they are trying to stop the church from growing,” Siahaan said, adding that “government officials are mostly native Muslims.” This poses a direct dilemma between Christians and Muslims.

Siahaan and Kusuma were both present during the young asylum seekers’ official interviews. California state judicial officials interview asylum seekers on the areas of religion and immigration and also ask questions pertaining to ethnicity, political tendencies, and family orientation.

The man who was denied has asylum status has appealed the ruling and is preparing to appear in a California state appeals court. Siahaan has turned over his duties to the individual’s attorney. If he wins this case, he is granted asylum status equal to his friends. If he is denied, he must return to Indonesia or flee to another country.

According to Siahaan, being a refugee in America is preferable. “I would prefer to suffer here rather than in Indonesia,” Siahaan said, who immigrated to the United States in 1998.

Four Indonesians are now aslyees and will likely settle in Philadelphia or California finding work or going to school, while one of their friends may be left behind as he continues his struggle.

Cory Suter, Nueva Vida Norristown New Life
corysuter@gmail.com

A new movement is emerging that I believe is at the heart of what it means to be Mennonite. Embracing the values of community and stewardship, New Urbanism is a set of ideas that builds on our heritage and provide hope for our future. It may or may not be a suprise that Mennonite Central Committee’s humble Crossroad Gift & Thrift in Norristown, PA, is a model enterprise.

For decades, cheap energy, and new technologies have enabled a mass expansion of asphalt and large homes across our countryside. Fueled by a desire for increased personal space, many people have left close-knit urban/village communities to live in sprawling suburbs. Farm and woodland, once a plentiful wealth of renewable resources, is disappearing. To get from one place to another, we generally burn a rapidly depleting resource in an automobile, which is built out of numerous resources strip mined from the earth. These trends are not sustainable long-term, since we rely on our land and natural environment for life. Is there a way to be better stewards?

As Mennonites have known for centuries, quality of life is found in good relationships, not material resource consumption. Mennonites have a rich history of striving to live in community, simplicity and a caring partnership with the earth. To promote these same values, the new urbanism movement calls for walk-able communities where people can enjoy the convenience of shopping, work, school and an outdoor park within walking distance of home. In these classic neighborhoods, people are not dependent on automobiles for their mobility. The more intimate physical proximity enables richer relationships than when individuals are isolated in a car on their daily commutes.

Walkable neighborhoods typically have multi-use buildings where people live above the stores and offices where they or others work. This strategic way to use land is better stewardship than consuming acres of land to build houses with garages separated by roads from an office building with a parking lot.

Suburbs have some benefits such as, providing space for trees, gardens, and hobbies. However, if there are better ways to be stewards of the earth and create community, then Mennonites should be leaders. In some places, we already are. Located in a historic building, in the walkable old community of Norristown, Crossroad Gift & Thrift shares a building with a second floor residence. An informal survey shows that over 80% of Crossroad Gift & Thrift’s customers come to the store as pedestrians without an automobile. Nearby public bus, train, and trolley transportation
have aided this trend. Nevertheless, in true urbanism fashion, more than half of regular customers
live within walking distance of the store.

This intimate connection to place has enabled Crossroad Gift & Thrift to build a unique community.
Many customers stop by the store multiple times a week to catch up on local news, find out the latest bargain, or to have a friendly chat. The line between customer and volunteer often blurs as people in the neighborhood are excited to help make their ‘home’ store a nicer place. In fact, four of our most regular volunteers are non-Mennonite Norristown community residents.

To further embrace the ideals of new urbanism, Crossroad Gift & Thrift is committed to be a good steward of our resources. Our retail space is tiny by modern standards, but that hasn’t stopped us from diverting a truckload of merchandise per week from local landfills into ‘new’ homes. Our secret of success has been to charge low prices on quality items, which gives our customers the dignity of greater purchasing power and increases our weekly sales volume. As some successful retailers have also discovered, we believe that it helps more people and makes sound business sense to make a little profit off a lot of items rather than to make a big profit off a few sales.

A visit to one of Mennonite Central Committee’s examples of new urbanism is well worth the time. Crossroad Gift & Thrift is best experienced during community hours, 9:30am to 4:30pm, Monday through Saturday. We encourage the use of public transportation and walking, but will welcome anyone with a big smile.

Joy Sawatzky, Souderton
joy.sawatzky@verizon.net

As I reflect on my call to minister as a chaplain at Dock Meadows I have to admit my work as a chaplain did not begin so much as a call by God, but as an opportunity – a job opportunity. I have known for quite some time that my greater call is as a sacred storyteller and I have the privilege to be able to do that work. When the position as a chaplain came open at Dock Meadows I thought it might be a good place to try using story as a vehicle for pastoral care. Also, I already knew many of the residents there, I had completed a year of residency as a chaplain while still in South Florida, I also spent many years planning and leading worship in various settings, and besides – I was wanting to let go of some night shift work that I was working at the time. “Why not?” I asked myself and took the job.

I did not actively pursue being licensed immediately after I began the position. I had been licensed before, as a pastor of a Mennonite congregation in South Florida. I knew that licensing normally leads to ordination, and I was somewhat ambivalent about the thought of that. Again, nothing new for me, as I had been approved for ordination by the Southeast Mennonite Conference back in 1992 and had declined, not feeling ‘called’ at the time.

I take being called by God very seriously; as the compass of my life, actually. With the job at Dock Meadows I found myself facing the question of whether it was call or convenience that brought me there. Even more important to me, if I pursued being licensed and eventually ordination would that somehow work to limit the creative spirit and expressions of spirituality that I live by?

Then a funny thing happened on the way to my licensing interview. I began to become aware of what was happening in my everyday experiences at Dock Meadows. Amidst the memorial services and chapel services, the pastoral care and worship leading and planning, I was being extended a grace to be myself that was new to me. In fact, it seemed like the Dock Meadows residents not only excelled in accepting me for who I was – they expected and enjoyed it when I was my most creative self. In return, my attention to creative detail and continual offering of God’s grace and hope to them helped them to feel cared for in a way that they had known for some time. What a wonderful combination! The amazing thing for me was that I was experiencing healing in ways that I had not even known how to ask for, and found myself realizing that God had indeed called me to this place for this time. The catch was that it was not for what I could do for the residents, but what they could do for me. The mutual benefit has been an overall sense in the community of well-being and ‘belovedness’.

There are challenges, as there are with ministering in any community setting. The various expressions of faith provide plenty of opportunity to educate, to understand each other, and to lead in different ways to worship and celebrate God’s presence. There are those stuck in their limited ways of thinking and their life limiting behaviors that no amount of pastoral care will influence.

I continually work to find ways to expand the world for those living in the facility – providing opportunities for them to collect coins for Bridge of Hope BuxMont, gathering pennies for Mennonite Central Committee’s Penny Power collection, and reminding them that the world out there needs our prayers and awareness. Their generous spirits come through each time. Our chapels three times a week are called, ‘Sharing Hope’, to welcome the widest variety of people.

Somewhere along the way to my licensing interview I decided that I was in fact called. Providing for the spiritual life in a retirement community when done with your whole heart, in a way that respects the wisdom and life experiences gathered is not ‘ministry lite’ compared to ministry in a congregation. I am filled with extreme gratitude for the opportunity to have my life and gifts intersect with the lives and wisdom of those I work with regularly. I look forward to the next step of ordination with much anticipation and delight.

J. Fred Kauffman, West Philadelphia
jfk@mcc.org

In October 2004 four members of West Philadelphia Mennonite Fellowship (WPMF) met in the home of 70-year-old Miss June Jackson on the 5000 block of Beaumont Ave, three blocks from where we worship. On this block of twenty-three small row homes, ten were vacant and deteriorating. Miss June had called the meeting for neighbors to meet with WPMF and talk about the possibility of working together to rehab the vacant homes for sale to low income working families. Her first question was “How can we get this going?” At the end of the meeting she led a prayer for God’s guidance and blessing.

The idea for this project started “incubating” in the spring of 2004, when young adults at WPMF began discussing the rapid rise in housing prices in West Philadelphia. Middle and low income families were being priced out of the neighborhood. At the same time, on blocks nearby many homes were vacant and deteriorating. We saw these abandoned properties not just as eyesores and security problems, but as valuable assets if they could be rehabbed.

WPMF members met a Philadelphia City Council representative to learn about government subsidies or affordable housing, and we began having monthly meetings with residents. The residents turned out to be a far more complex mix than we had expected. They included: an Irish carpenter (who’s claim to be part of the IRA was far too believable), a retired German engineer, and two African American neighbors who grew up as kids on that block—one now a professional musician and the other a successful entrepreneur.

When we first met Miss June she told us that this block of Beaumont used to be one of the prettiest
in the area. What caused the deterioration? “Gangs in the 1970’s and crack in the 1980’s and 90’s.” she said. Once the block had run down, property values dropped to a point where owners simply abandoned structures when they moved out rather than trying to sell.

In 2005 we found incredible partners: the University of Pennsylvania law school offered free legal counsel, the community association, Cedar Park Neighbors, gave a matching grant for $1,800, and a project management firm gave us valuable direction in working with the City. In addition some WPMF members shared their skills in accounting, housing construction, Habitat for Humanity rehab work, and various aspects of urban real estate development. This mix birthed a new non-profit, “The Beaumont Initiative.” and received its 501(c)3 status in 2006.

As of May 2007, Philadelphia has committed two vacant properties on Beaumont Ave to the initiative: 5015 and 5019; one in fair condition, and one a total “gut rehab” job. When our architect came to begin the drawings, she pushed us to acquire 5017, the vacant property in between also in need of a total rehab. The Beaumont Initiative has reached agreement with the owner to purchase it as well. The initiative will have three properties in a row which will make for more efficient and better construction.

Our prayer is that this partnership with neighbors on Beaumont Avenue will be an example of God’s grace taking shape in visible ways to support and sustain a part of the neighborhood that has seen hard times.

(click the header to read all stories)

Read the articles online:

• A reflection on the journey: Called and calling into ministry -James Lapp
• God’s transforming calling-Noah Kolb
• Investing in people in Vermont’s Upper Valley– Brandon Bergey
• Struggling with suicide: Picking up the pieces, looking for the gift– Jennifer Smith
• Choosing a path toward pastoral ministry and joy-Mark Derstine
• “I love learning more every week.”– Mike Ford
• Following a call: From Vietnam to Phnom Penh to Allentown– Jessica Walter
• An intersection with God– Angela Moyer
• Seeking and finding God’s unfailing love– Brent Camilleri
• Ofelia García Hernandez: Leading as a compañera and a partner– David Landis

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