Mosaic Mennonites

Missional - Intercultural - Formational

Intersections

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.”

Partners in mission: Gloria a Dios! Praying & praising from the mountaintop

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Sandy Landes, Doylestown

The title of this article reflected the words of our hearts, “Glory to God,” as a group returned from a journey to Mexico last fall. We truly experienced the glory of God in the worship, the teaching, the prayer times and the fellowship with Partner in Mission congregation, Iglesia de la Tierra Prometida (or informally Monte Maria) in Mexico City.

On September 9-13, 2010, a group from Franconia Conference traveled to Monte Maria, the church in Mexico City where Bob and Bonnie Stevenson serve. The group’s members, Don Brunk (Souderton Mennonite), Rick Kratz and Noel Santiago (Blooming Glen Mennonite), Jeanette Phillips (Hopewell Fellowship-Telford) and Steve and Sandy Landes (Doylestown Mennonite) traveled to Monte Maria to participate in the School of Ministry discipleship training held regularly for members of this large and growing congregation. This training is intense, held over a day or two, and involves worship, preaching and teaching on various topics related to living the Christian life: biblical studies and topical studies such as the life of Jesus, redemption and prayer. It was encouraging to see how engaged the students were with the classes as they listened attentively, took notes and shared their thoughts in discussions. Don Brunk and Noel Santiago taught two classes each and were warmly welcomed by the brothers and sisters of Monte Maria.

The focus of these classes is to build up the body of Christ to become strong in their faith and to grow in maturity. In addition to teaching, considerable time was spent each day in worship, seeking to know God through adoration and praise. One day at the end of worship the visiting pastor invited those to come forward who wanted to receive a touch from the Lord—as the woman who touched Jesus’ cloak and her bleeding stopped. As a visiting prayer team, we were invited to minister alongside of our brothers and sisters to persons who came forward, and we sensed God’s presence ministering through us and to us. Even though not all of us on the team spoke Spanish fluently, God helped us to transcend the language barrier through the bond of the Spirit and the willing translators in prayer and worship.

Other opportunities for service included Don Brunk preaching at an outdoor evangelistic service held on Sunday afternoon and a married couples’ Sunday school class that my husband and I led. Noel and Jeanette met with the leaders of their prayer teams for encouragement.

Hospitality and serving the Lord with gladness are two characteristics of the believers at Monte Maria. Every person is expected to serve in some kind of ministry capacity, whether it is as an usher, a member of the worship team, helping to maintain the facilities through cleaning or serving on their food-service team. We noticed and felt the joy that came through their service as we spent most of our time at the church and witnessed so many different gifts being used with gladness. It reminds me of Psalm 100:2, “Serve the Lord with glad-ness.”(NKJV). Julio, a young man of 16 years of age, was an example of the graciousness with which we were served. His attentiveness and ready smile were part of what made our daily meal at the church so enjoyable. We believe God will continue to use him for the kingdom because of his servant attitude. We were privileged to be blessed by their obvious joy in serving Jesus through simple acts of cleaning, cooking, worshiping, and teaching.
While we were there to minister and pray for the ministry of Monte Maria, we also enjoyed the time spent fellowshipping and sharing with Bob and Bonnie Stevenson. Their lives are full with the responsibilities of pastoring a large congregation, family life and nurturing their own walk with the Lord. Continue to uphold them in your prayers as God brings Bob and Bonnie and their children, Roberto and Rebecca, to your mind. The kingdom of God continues to flourish around the world, and we were so blessed as we witnessed the growth and joy in the church at Monte Maria.

Living Branches names pastoral care & service team

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Russ Mast
Russ.Mast@livingbranches.org

When visionary leaders from Franconia Mennonite Conference founded Souderton Mennonite Homes and Dock Woods Community, serving older adults and families in the name of Jesus was at the heart of their mission. When the Boards of these two ministries came together to form Living Branches in 2008, we again affirmed that the vision and vitality of our shared ministry is rooted in and guided by Jesus. “Recognizing the importance of our faith heritage to our mission, we wanted to ensure that pastoral care played a prominent role in Living Branches,” explains Edward Brubaker, President/CEO. “We also felt that service to others was core to our Anabaptist Christian identity.”

This past fall, Living Branches combined Pastoral Care and Volunteer Coordination across the three campuses to create a unified Pastoral Care and Service Team. After interaction with a number of good candidates, the Pastors, Volunteer Coordinator and Living Branches leadership unanimously decided to call Ray Hurst to serve as our first Director of Pastoral Care and Service. Ray leads a gifted new team, which includes Jim Derstine, Pastor at Dock Meadows (Zion Mennonite); Lorene Derstine, Pastor at Dock Woods (Plains); Mark Derstine, Pastor at Souderton Mennonite Homes (Blooming Glen); and Lynne Allebach, our Volunteer Coordinator (Methacton).

Ray brings more than 20 years of ministry, pastoral care and social service experience to Living Branches. He began his ministry in Kansas, where he served as Co-Pastor of Tabor Mennonite Church in Newton for 11 years. Ray then became Lead Pastor of Community Mennonite Church in Harrisonburg, Virginia, for a decade. Both were larger, multi-staff congregations. Ray moved to the Philadelphia area three years ago when his wife, Brenda, accepted a call to serve as Pastor of Frazer (Pa) Mennonite Church. Since moving to Pennsylvania, Ray has served autistic youth and adults living with mental illness. He also worked for a year as Executive Director of Good Samaritan Shelter in Phoenixville.
Ray earned a Master of Divinity Degree in Pastoral Counseling from Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Psychology from Trinity College. He is an avid gardener and is passionate about the Christian call to work for peace and justice.

“We have a strong interest in nurturing the ongoing faith development of older adults,” says Ray. “Our faith isn’t finalized when we reach a certain age; rather, we can always continue to mature in our faith journey.” Ray and his team are creating spaces to talk about questions of life and faith in the context of community. Ray recently started a column in a monthly resident newsletter titled “Roast Preacher” where he invites conversation with residents around an aspect of faith that he is pondering.

With these changes, the Dock Woods and Dock Meadows chaplains are now referred to as pastors, which had already been the tradition on the Souderton Mennonite Homes campus. As Ray explains, “For some, the term ‘chaplain’ can signify a shorter-term ministry to an individual. At Living Branches, however, we’re looking to form meaningful relationships for the balance of a person’s life, and we’re also tending to the wider faith community on all three campuses. We feel this new language embraces our Anabaptist heritage of faith in the context of community.”

Another way we’re embracing our Anabaptist approach to spirituality is including Volunteer Coordination in the Pastoral Care and Service Team. “Serving others is at the heart of the Gospel,” added Ray. “By including Volunteer Coordination in our vision for Pastoral Care, we are helping others connect more fully with service as a wonderful, life-giving spiritual discipline.”
In addition to engaging our residents, their families and staff members around issues of spirituality, our Pastoral Care and Service Team strives to be a resource for area pastors and coordinators of congregational health ministries. One way we do this is through annual Pastoral Care to Seniors seminars.

As Ray summarizes, “We are here to be expressions of Christ’s love, as we minister to the needs of the whole person—mind, body and spirit.”

Enough to leaven the loaf: Gospel hope rises in Allentown

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Samantha Lioi, Whitehall
samanthalioi@gmail.com

One story below our living room window, cars swish by on Hamilton Street, spraying the brown slush which fell as snow and sleet on the main drag into downtown Allentown. There old churches, old shops, more recent Egyptian bagel-makers and the new coffee and sandwich place stand side by side amidst economic depression, trying, like the rest of us, to keep in enough heat and enough joy to carry through a long winter. Most days the living room is filled with sunlight—the warmest room in the house—and knowing that I can accept this day that feels more like the gray northern Indiana winters I left to move here just three months ago.

Downstairs on the kitchen counter, sourdough starter is bubbling. Since taking up residence at Zumé (ZOO-may) House in November, I have started baking bread again. Zumé is the Greek word for “yeast” or “leaven” in the New Testament, and the verse for which our house is named is found in Luke 13:21: “[The kingdom of God . . .] is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.” As a household, we are hoping to be leaven in our neighborhood, our relationships, our city. With that in mind we have claimed three words to describe the house: faith, community, and transformation. We’re still fixing up the place, still imagining and asking God what and who we are becoming, so I will describe what has emerged so far as we continue our sometimes impatient waiting for the community dough to rise.

We are people of Christian faith.
We are followers of Jesus, disciples (students) expecting that learning to follow requires practice and ongoing learning, and apostles (those who are sent), just as we understand each of our sisters and brothers to be sent by Christ to partner with God in reconciliation. Our faith is shaped by
Mennonite Anabaptist understandings of the Gospel including simple living, peacemaking, and knowing and living the Scriptures as we discern together how that is enfleshed in our time and place.

We are a community.
Like many in the U.S. who share this vision, we are still learning what this means. We are keenly aware how deeply individualism is engraved in the grooves of our brains, the felt needs of our hearts and the raised silver numbers of our credit cards. Much of U.S. American culture thrives on our wanting and spending and self-isolating. As we learn to commit to one another in a common life, a foundation of our faithfulness to Jesus is to live in a way that counters
this individualism and carves new grooves in us, day by day. We have spoken about our desire to “submit to allowing ourselves to be challenged about how we spend our time and our money and being willing to make different choices based on encounters in community life. We know we are better disciples together, and we expect to be changed.

Transformation is the result.
Of course, this is only possible by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit of Christ, who is the original leaven. We are committed to encourage one another to expect that God’s Spirit is constantly working through the whole loaf—to continue in hope that God is making all things new—us, our neighborhood, our city, indeed all of creation.

In a way, we know exactly what this means. Like every other follower of Jesus, we are called to rely on God and expect our Creator to act in our daily lives and in the lives of our neighbors. We are to love these neighbors, pray for them, invite them into our home and visit them in theirs, share food, celebrate and grieve with them, invite them deeper into the self-giving love of God and into allegiance to Christ by the empowering of the Holy Spirit. It is also true that we have very little idea what this means. How and when do we do these things? How much time do we devote to prayer as a household? Whom do we invite to join us in prayer? What exactly do we offer our neighborhood (English classes, tutoring, Spanish classes, GED prep)? How do we choose among the many good possibilities and dreams for participating in God’s mission? What is the particular gift or charism of our house? When will we know this? For now, it’s just two of us, and thecharacter and gift of the community could bloom in any number of colors depending on who comes to join us. It’s energizing and hopeful to imagine this, and while we are inviting and waiting for others to come, it’s stretching and overwhelming to choose and focus right now, in the present, precisely what we’re committing to given who we are and what we bring.

Paul told the Ephesian church it was normal not to be able to put their finger on what and who they were becoming, for “your life is hidden with Christ in God.” Turns out, not knowing can nourish trust, and the Gospel’s full of small, ordinary, dark, daily goodness—the seed in the earth, the salt that brings flavor, the yeast invisibly working through the dough. Author Kathleen Norris in The Quotidian Mysteries: Laundry, Liturgy, and “Women’s Work” invites more respect for “dailiness”—for necessary daily tasks like cooking meals and doing laundry and doing the dishes—as the very place God meets us, day in, day out.* And what is Christian community if not sharing what is daily in our lives? It sounds like a simple idea, and at its root is deeply counter-cultural: “Give us today our bread for the day.” Give us enough for this day, and we will admit our utter impotence to ensure anything about tomorrow. Be with us today, and we will try to notice your presence in this day. We pour the flour, we knead the loaf, we let it be and let it rise. We discern our life together in daily glimpses, slowly. Trusting there’s enough for each day, God help us.

Zumé House is an initiative connected with Whitehall Mennonite Church where Samantha is associate pastor for worship and mission. The house represents a coming together of Franconia Conference-related ministries in Center City Allentown, building on generations of witness and mission in Pennsylvania’s third largest city.

The house is still under renovation and welcoming groups to help create a space that not only nourished the community of persons who lives there, but also the neighborhood. Contact Rose Bender at rosebender87@gmail.com.

View the photo album

Intersections Spring 2010

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Connecting our past to our future: Growing faith and community alongside food

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Sheldon C. Good, Salford
shelds3@gmail.com

In 1999, Kenny Chesney sang about why “she thinks my tractor’s sexy.” During the past decade, we’ve expanded Chesney’s claim – because now, farming is sexy.

Country music aside, Facebook, the Obama family, and Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution all contribute to the recent popularity of farming. For many people, life doesn’t involve dirty fingernails, overalls, and an almanac. But for an increasing number, farming is cool again (though some have always thought so). Whether or not one actually digs in the dirt, something about rediscovering the spiritual value of God’s abundant earth stimulates heart, mind, body, and soul.

Years ago, people worked the fields from dusk till dawn. Now the closest many get to dirt is by playing Farmville on Facebook (long ago, we played SimFarm). But Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign is bringing healthy, local food back, with plans to eradicate childhood obesity. She recently described her “mission as first lady” as creating ways for families to make “manageable changes that fit with their schedules, their budgets, and their needs and tastes.”

Like Obama, Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution TV series on ABC documents how a grassroots campaign to curb obesity starts with getting families excited about local farming. Though a classroom of first-graders can’t tell the difference between a tomato and a potato, they can all identify French fries. But days later, after a dose of the food revolution, the six-year olds can all identify an eggplant when they see one.

Part of the reason why our children can’t identify produce is because, over time, farming has become industrialized. As author Bill McKibben says, efficiency and growth have taken over our food system. “Our affluence isolates us ever more,” McKibben says in his book Deep Economy. “What ties are left to cut? We change religions, spouses, towns, professions with ease.” But at Living Hope Farm in Harleysville, Pa., my family is busy putting some of these ties back together.

I was recently led in an exercise to reclaim my personal heritage. I often think about my ancestral lineage in linear terms (birthdates, jobs, etc.) – data I basically memorized as an adolescent for my seemingly irrelevant school projects. However, I don’t usually consider how strands of my ancestral history are woven together, or how they intersect with other people’s strands. So as our country focuses on jobs, jobs, jobs – I too began reflecting on jobs, on the vocational history of my family.

From what I can gather, nearly all of my ancestors were farmers. Up until my grandparents, both sides of my family – whether living in Pennsylvania or Virginia – farmed small plots of land, which supplied them with much of their food and income. But then both of my grandfathers, Emory Good and Marvin Clemmer, traded in their tractors for automobiles and hit the road as businessmen. In 1947, Emory started a plumbing company. And after spending years selling produce and meat in Philadelphia, Marvin switched mid-course to join a direct-selling company. My extended family became successful entrepreneurs at the expense of being grounded in our backyards; we have benefited greatly.
So the generational story goes for many families living among the farmlands of Southeastern Pennsylvania and the Shenandoah Valley. As the “Greatest Generation” (my grandparents) left farming, “Baby Boomers” (my parents) were raised with new vocational possibilities, and Millenials (me) haven’t looked back. Over the years, many of us have enjoyed the benefits of grocery stores, agribusiness, and Sunday afternoon shopping.

Until now.

Farming activists come in all varieties: an ignoramus addict of Facebook’s Farmville game; a twinkle-eyed Obama supporter; a dedicated vegetarian; or something in between. No matter where one lives, this nation is noticeably rediscovering its farming roots. Because after 500 years of rushed technological innovation, people are noticing that we’re standing on what author Bill McKibben calls “the shard ridge between the human past and the posthuman future.” Living Hope Farm is here to help reverse this trend, by growing faith, food, and community.

Over the past few months at the farm, a greenhouse and hoop house have both been installed. Jill Landes, the lead farmer, is currently working alongside her full-time interns, planting for an 80-member CSA. In addition, they are also growing for two families in the Bridge of Hope Program and making connections with the Germantown area of Philadelphia. Several regular volunteers have even graciously contributed countless hours to this mission.

Though it certainly exists on Indian Creek Road in Harleysville, Living Hope Farm is more than an earthly phenomenon. The farm is an opportunity for people to put faith into action. Farming can be spiritual. It’s a chance to rediscover values of corporate faith, local food, and loving community. And for many of us, it’s an opportunity to realize what it means to be living testimonies to our ancestral heritage of farming and entrepreneurship.

Ultimately, the best farming (including at Living Hope Farm) shifts our economy – and our relationships – away from hyper-individuality and towards each other. McKibben says this way of living requires us to “reorient your personal compass” and “live with a stronger sense of community in mind.”

There’s interest in growing food, faith, and community, so let’s get involved. May we all consider what it means to reconnect with our food, our families, and our farms.

photos provided by Living Hope Farrn

Climbing on: A farewell of gratitude and hope

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Jessica Walter, Ambler
jessawalter@gmail.com

As I prepared to write this, my last editorial for Intersections, I decided I needed to look back at some of the writing I have done for Franconia Conference in my almost four years of work and ministry here.

I began the writing portion of my work with an article in the now retired MennoLife. I wrote about how my faith and calling journey had been like rock climbing. My journey was one of questions and confusion and while I would cry out for help on what my next move, or hold, should be I often wouldn’t listen to God’s answer. Taking the leap of faith to grab ahold of the opportunity to work at Franconia was a move toward listening for me, one I have been greatful for.

Since that first article and those first few months of work I have gained many valuable experiences and knowledge. Franconia Conference not only hired me to work with communication and leadership cultivation it also invested in my leadership. I could not have asked for a better place to explore my leadership gifts, develop useful skills and contribute to the equipping of other leaders both young and old. I have felt truly valued and respected despite my age.

And as I spent time here my journey, my rock climb, became less confusing and some questions were answered. I am leaving my post at Franconia Conference with a better sense of who God is calling me to be, answered questions or not.

It is fitting that this issue largely features stories of ministries that have begun to take root throughout the conference because though I am leaving my role at Franconia my roots in the larger conference community run deep.

So deep that I am about to begin work in two ministries connected to Franconia Conference. In June I will become both the manager of Care and Share Thrift Shoppes’ soon to be opened bookstore and an Outreach Minstry Enthusiast/Pastor of Ambler Mennontie Church.

Like the beginning harvest at Living Hope Farm I have been harvested from the soil here at Franconia Conference to be re-planted in the larger community.

Like Rose Bender, God has used many hands to help mold, shape and guide me over the last four years of my life. Interactions with pastoral leadership throughout the conference, visits to many congregations, representing conference and young adults to the larger Mennonite Church, and aid in exploring seminary education have all shaped the creativity, hospitality, and hope that informs my leadership.

Like Lorie Hershey couldn’t have imagined she would be an ordained minister ten years ago I couldn’t have imagined that I would become both a store manager and pastoral leader. And yet the opportunities I have gained from my term at conference have prepared me for these new roles.

During my time at Franconia Conference two passages in the New Testament have shaped my faith and calling journey. Matthew 22: 37-40 Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”

And Matthew 13: 31-32 Here is another illustration Jesus used: “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed planted in a field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but it becomes the largest of garden plants; it grows into a tree, and birds come and make nests in its branches.”

I leave Franconia Conference with the hope that we all will continue to invest in the leadership of young adults, to remember that its the small steps toward change and growth in our congregations that stick, to love God with all of ourselves and to let that love radiate out into love of ourselves and others and to plant the Kingdom of Heaven one mustard seed at a time.

Casting out all fear: In God’s hands

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Rose Bender, Whitehall
rosebender87@gmail.com

I was seven and afraid of hell. On the last night of a Billy Graham sponsored revival, in the gym of the public high school, I went forward to receive Christ. There I stood—a little person among all the big people. When they asked us to pray, I obediently closed my eyes and repeated the words. I felt a hand on my shoulder, and snuck a peek to see who was there. Although there were many around me, there was no one with me. Even at my young age, I knew that it was God himself who had placed his hand on my shoulder, alleviating my fears. Years later, reflecting on that event, I recognized its significance. With my limited understanding, I had chosen to follow God. But more importantly, my gracious and loving God had chosen me.

Since that day, I have often felt God’s hand on my shoulder—welcoming, encouraging, prodding, protecting, and guiding. God has many hands. I recall my mother telling me, “Rose, God has something special for you to do.” I remember a teacher questioning my college plans, asking me why I hadn’t considered going into full-time pastoral ministry. When I took a job at a school in Trenton, NJ, and settled in Langhorne, PA, my pastor encouraged me to ‘test out’ my calling by participating as a lay minister at the church. A co-worker invited me to attend an open house at a local seminary. And when I began attending Bethel Seminary of the East in 2000, God confirmed my call through many other hands.

After seminary, I was still timid about pastoring. I felt God directing me toward the Service Adventure program. I became a unit leader in Johnstown, PA, the only site with eight supporting churches. In my two years there, I received many opportunities to exercise my gifts through preaching and teaching. I served as lay pastor at First Mennonite of Johnstown, the unit’s ‘home church.’ There I was able to see Jesus in new ways. God’s hand touched me through the prayers of Joanne, a woman paralyzed since childhood. God’s hands washed mine through Sandy, a woman who was mentally and socially challenged. God spoke to me daily as I lived in community with young adults who saw the world differently than I did. God has many hands. As I matured in my faith, I experienced Jesus taking my hand in His, allowing me to participate in the work of ministry with him.

When the call came to serve as interim pastor at Stahl Mennonite Church in Johnstown, I was ready. And I knew, though the calling and responsibility seemed overwhelming—the work was in God’s hand. I could look back over my journey and see how faithfully the God-Who-Goes-Before had led me. During my first months in that pastorate, I had an accident where I severely burned both my hands. I learned anew the importance of community. I learned for the first time, the humility that comes from being dependent upon the hands of others. In times of doubt, the hand of Jesus comforted me; in times of need, God’s hand provided for me; in times of joy, the hand of the Spirit invited me to dance.

When my time at Stahl was nearing its end, I became aware of Whitehall Mennonite Church, north of Allentown, PA. Their unique story and diversity intrigued me. I was impressed by the practicality and authenticity of their faith. But choosing to take a part-time pastorate seemed risky. Again, God’s hand was upon me and led me forward. I am excited to partner with the congregation at Whitehall—to be the hands and feet of Jesus in the Lehigh Valley.

I am forty-one, and still afraid of lots of things. But I am called and chosen by a God whose perfect love casts out all fear. God’s hand is upon me; my hand is in His; I am one of God’s many hands.

photos provided by Rose Bender