Mosaic Mennonites

Missional - Intercultural - Formational

Javier Marquez

What Can We Do?

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How the Shalom Fund Offered Help in Mexico

By Javier Márquez, Conference Communication Intern

There is a crisis happening in Mexico, due to COVID-19. Pastor Oscar Dominguez shared about the situation many people are facing today in Mexico and the work being done by Anabaptist churches to respond to the famine and economic insecurity that families are experiencing.  

A delighted woman in Mexico receives a food bag during COVID-19. Food was provided by Mennonite Churches in Mexico, Mosaic Mennonite Conference Shalom Funds, and Mennonite Central Committee.

In Mexico, the public data regarding the pandemic is being underreported. Data from private, non-profit institutions are showing much higher numbers than data from the Mexican government. Knowing this, the brothers and sisters of the Conference of Evangelical Anabaptist Mennonite Churches of Mexico (CIEAMM) began to take measures of mutual collaboration with the aim of surviving the imminent period of scarcity that was approaching like a wave on their coast.  

Pastor Oscar said, in addition to a time of challenges, it was a moment that allowed them to discover the talents of different people in the churches that are oriented to mutual care and service.  

The first weeks of the pandemic were a period of transition for the churches in Mexico when each one needed to adapt to new technologies, utilize others’ resources, and face their limitations. 

“If the virus didn’t kill them, hunger would kill them. It was important for the church to ask itself how to help and find ways to do it.” – Pastor Oscar Domínguez

Each church started looking for ways to help out by giving baskets of donated food, contacting food banks, and sharing leftover food with other families. In Pastor Oscar´s church, they coordinated monitoring situations among the members of the congregation to determine needs, as some lost jobs, others had more mouths to feed, and some were single parents.  

  “The important thing was to share with love, to take care of each other, but also to share
with those who have the least.  People who are not even part of our churches but are part
of the community need help. We listen –without   any type of religious proselytizing. It
has always been a matter of genuine generosity, an explicit action of love.” – Pastor Oscar
Dominguez.

Members of Mennonite Churches in Mexico give and receive food during the pandemic. Mosaic Mennonite Conference Shalom Funds were used to support this work.

Pastor Oscar highlights that everything has been maintained, thanks to the generosity of church members and donations. Two of these donations, of great worth, were the donation of the Shalom Fund from Mosaic Mennonite Conference and the donation of food pantries by Mennonite Central Committee (MCC). Pastor Oscar told the story of Sister Adela, a senior citizen in a wheelchair, who upon receiving a food pantry, sent him a photo of herself with her grandchildren as a thank you.   

“The eyes of those children when they received the bag full of food … how they looked at and contemplated every little thing in the basket… they said to the grandmother, “We are rich,’”  reported Pastor Oscar, as he himself makes an effort not to cry. 

Pastor Oscar also shared about a blind man for whom Sister Eloida, an elderly woman and widow, prepared a box of food with what little she had in her pantry. She asked the blind man to go collect the food, but on the way his cane broke. Faced with this new challenge, another act of generosity was awakened by the members of the church; they bought him a new cane. 

Backpacks for the Border

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by Javier Marquez, intercultural communication associate, with Emily Ralph Servant

On the night of October 18, 2019, a group of adults and children worked for several hours at the Material Resource Center, a part of Mennonite Central Committee’s ministry in Harleysville, PA. The objective of the project was to put together kits of basic supplies that will be delivered to migrants who crossed the border from Mexico. Members of Franconia Conference contributed the helping hands and gave resources to make the project a reality: 370 kits were packed that night, and the rest of the $20,000 donated by the conference (via churches, individuals and a matching grant) will be sent to MCC Central States to purchase additional supplies.

The kits consisted of a set of useful products such as towels, notebooks, pens, water, and other basic necessities for people who have recently been released from migrant detention camps.  Although simple, these kits represent a direct and tangible way to contribute to the needs of immigrants who enter the United States looking for a new home.

The work on the 19th was an example of solidarity and mutual help.  Thanks to 20 volunteers from three southeast Pennsylvania churches (Indonesian Light Church, and Philadelphia Praise Center, Plains Mennonite Church), the kits were efficiently packed in a large collection of green backpacks and were ready in time to be sent from Harleysville to be distributed through MCC Central States.

Each of these churches, in addition to belonging to Franconia Conference, is a community that includes many first- and second-generation immigrants. Although these immigrants come from different places on the map, such as Indonesia and Mexico, they each have left behind what is familiar to embark on a trip, marked by difficulties and uncertainty.  In understanding and solidarity, they gathered to fill backpacks as people who are aware of the pain and joy of migration.

The children were encouraged to share which countries they were from and they diligently helped for the almost-two-hours that the work took. After the backpacks were filled, the workers gathered together to join in a prayer led by Pastor Hendy Stevan Matahelemual of Indonesian Light Center.  They prayed specifically for those who would receive the kit and in general for each person who undertakes the trip and who seeks a place that guarantees their rights and, even, saves their lives.

Learning to be a Peacemaker

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(leer en español)

by Jennifer Svetlik, Salford congregation

Javier Márquez, IVEP’er serving with Franconia Conference

“One of my greatest dreams is to learn how I can be a peacemaker. But before I go to the peace academy, the best way for me to learn is from other communities. I want to learn about their pain, their happiness, dreams, frustrations, and concerns. So I want to learn about you,” says Javier Márquez, an intercultural communication associate with Franconia Conference this year. 

Javier is a member of Mennonite Central Committee’s International Volunteer Exchange Program (IVEP). His placement is to work with the Conference communication team and record immigrant stories. IVEP is a yearlong volunteer work and cultural exchange opportunity for young adults.  

“I have been considering this opportunity with IVEP for a long time. I am so excited to have this amazing work,” Javier shares. 

Celebrating his sister’s birthday with two of his four siblings and his parents at their apartment in Bogotá.

Javier grew up in his ancestral home of Suacha, a city in the center of Colombia. He now lives in Bogotá, the capital. He has four siblings and his family is large, “like most Latin families,” Javier says. He is part of Teusaquillo Mennonite Church in Bogotá, and he is proud of his community because they take very seriously the call to be peacemakers.

Javier has also taken this call seriously; he refused Colombia’s obligatory military conscription for young men, and in doing so entered a two year legal process. With the support of the Mennonite church in Colombia and the nonprofit organization Justapaz, Javier finally won his case as a conscientious objector. “I believe that the nonviolent path of Jesus goes beyond refusing to be a part of wars and violence but also to work for peace with passion and commitment,” Javier reflects. 

Four years ago with friends and the support of the Mennonite church and Justapaz, Javier began an activism project about becoming a conscientious objector. The group is now called CoNova and is comprised of many different kinds of young people: students, writers, nurses, DJs, lawyers, psychologists, and more. 

Javier dancing salsa with Evie, an IVEPer from Canada at Orientation in Akron.

“Colombia is the land of coffee, salsa and Vallenato music, orchids and emeralds, traditional dishes litke sancocho (soup), aguapanela (hot sugary drink), arepas (cheese and corn flour cake), ajiaco (chicken, potatoes, and corn on the cob) and bandeja paisa (fried pork belly, red beans, plantains, and more),” Javier says.  “And it is impossible not to mention that Colombia is the land of Love in the Time of Cholera (a classic novel by Gabriel García Márquez) and of Macondo (the fictional town in another famous work by García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude).”

Javier arrived in Pennsylvania in mid-August and is living in South Philadelphia. Each morning he drinks Colombian coffee and tries to read a poem in English to learn new words. He is still learning what a typical day will look like; so far he has tried to always listen with intense focus and open his eyes to everything around him so that he can understand the different ways of doing things here. 

“I have learned that the streets are too similar here; I say this jokingly because I have gotten lost twice. Never in my life have I learned so many new words, but at the same time, I’ve never been so quiet. I have learned a lot,” Javier shares. 

Javier has been visiting immigrant churches such as Centro de Alabanza, Philadelphia Praise Center, and Indonesian Light, to connect with people and write about their immigrant stories. He hopes to meet others who dance salsa, as he loves to do. When he returns to Colombia after his time with IVEP, Javier would like to work in community-oriented journalism.