Mosaic Mennonites

Missional - Intercultural - Formational

missional

East Coast Activity Center Workshop

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Ron Smucker, October 24, 2010

The annual meeting of the MCC East Coast Material Resource Centers was hosted at the new facility of the Material Resource Center at Souderton on September 30 and October 1, The purpose of the workshop is to inform, inspire and challenge centers in their ongoing missions. Participants from the local center were joined by representatives from Cumberland Valley Relief Center, Puerto Rico, Buena Vista Sewing Center, Ephrata and Philadelphia Urban Presence.The program was opened with greetings from one of the co-founders of the MCC Material Resource Center of Harleysville, Norman Good. Following a devotional period, a tour of the new facility was conducted by Sharon Swartzentruber, Coordinator for the center.Participants were reminded of the global ministry and impact of MCC through presentations by MCC workers who have served in various places. Highlights included presentations by Daryl Yoder-Bontrager, Darrin Yoder, Ken Sensenig and Larry Guengerich. An historical perspective of the 70 year partnership of the Brethern in Christ Church and MCC was given by Curtis Book. A sense of the Urban Presence in Philadelphia was shared by Fred Kauffman.After sharing dinner together at a local restaurant, several members presented some MCC stories at the Souderton Mennonite Home.Friday included devotional time by Paul Godshall who summarized MCC work involvement in Indonesia. All of the centers were invited to share some news of interest along with their challenges. Lunch for both days was provided by local volunteers and overnight out of town visitors were hosted in homes in the community. Participants were inspired and affirmed as they left to return to their own mission.

Norristown congregation celebrates twenty years

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Norristown, PA—Nueva Vida Norristown New Life (NVNNL) Mennonite Church celebrates its 20th anniversary on Saturday and Sunday, July 17-18.

“Taste the Flavors of NVNNL” on Saturday, July 17, 4 – 7 p.m. features a gospel concert with James Crumbley of Tampa, Florida. Crumbly teaches Jazz Ensemble, Adult Voice Ensemble and Songwriting at the Patel Conservatory, which is a part of The Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center in Tampa, Florida. He also serves as Music Director for the Youth Theater Company ensemble, and chairs the music department at Middleton High School where he teaches chorus and orchestra.

An intercultural meal, featuring cultural delicacies from the 15 cultures and countries of origin represented in the congregation, will also be served. Donations for the meal and concert will be received.

An outdoor celebration worship service will be held on Sunday, July 18, 10:45 a.m. James Crumbley and the bilingual NVNNL worship team and pastoral team will lead worship. A special offering for the congregation’s multi-faceted capital campaign, Enlarging Our Place in God’s World, will be received.

In July 1990, Nueva Vida Norristown New Life was formed by the joining together of three “legacy” Mennonite congregations in town—Fuente de Salvación, Bethel and First. First Mennonite Church was started in 1917 by Franconia Mennonite Conference as its first mission. First Mennonite began Bethel across town as a sister congregation in 1959. After several years of sharing First Mennonite’s building, Fuente joined the Franconia Conference in 1985.

“We’d been meeting together once a year for worship and fellowship meals. On one of those occasions in 1988, God showed us, “This is my church–why are you worshiping in three different locations?” said Pastor Ertell Whigham, former pastor of Bethel. “We realized that if we wanted to be a witness in Norristown, we needed to be one multi-lingual and intercultural congregation.”

NVNNL purchased the building of the Bethany United Methodist congregation at Swede and East Marshall Street. The ministry teams, Church Council, Elders and Pastoral Team represent the ethnic diversity present in the congregation and community. Pastor Whigham, Pastor Marta Beidler Castillo and Pastor Angel Tamayo comprise the current Pastoral Team; all are associate pastors in a shared leadership arrangement.

The congregation’s presence in the Norristown community is realized through five summer outdoor worship services, Precious Life Learning Center, The Benefit Bank, ASSETS Montco micro-enterprise training, Center 4 Youth, and through the congregation’s involvement with the Hospitality Center, Crossroads Gift and Thrift Store, and the Norristown Ministerium.

The church is located at 3 and 25 East Marshall Street, Norristown. For information regarding the anniversary events or the congregation, contact the church office at 484-322-0442, nnl3@juno.com or www.norristownnewlife.com.

MCC’s Haiti response continues with medical teams, engineers and food aid

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by Marla Pierson Lester

Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) medical teams and structural engineers are providing immediate assistance in Haiti now, and distributions of food and relief supplies are ongoing even as MCC plans the next steps in its multiyear response to the Jan. 12 earthquake.

A five-person MCC medical team from Canada is serving in Port-au-Prince March 7 to 20. A three-person medical team from the United States will be in Haiti from March 21 to April 3.

Short-term teams of structural engineers that began arriving in January have examined more than 250 buildings, and MCC is seeking additional engineers who are interested in serving in Haiti this spring.

MCC continues to provide rations of rice, beans, cooking oil, canned meat and spaghetti to nine communities, reaching at least 6,000 people who have been forced from home by the earthquake. It is likely that food is also being given to additional relatives and friends, echoing the strong emphasis on sharing in Haitian culture.

MCC is also providing materials for bamboo and cement-base showers for people living in camps of displaced people. Those living in the camps had identified the need for a private space to wash, especially for women, said Betty Kasdorf, MCC’s Food, Disaster and Material Resources program manager.

MCC relief kits, tarps for shelter, comforters and flat sheets are being distributed as soon as they arrive in Haiti, and additional shipments are on their way to Haiti. Because of expected Haitian government changes that might slow items coming through customs after April, MCC is striving to ship all its initial emergency material aid in the next three to four weeks.

An MCC assessment team visited dozens of people, including MCC partners and government officials, from Feb. 21 to March 6 – hearing from each the enormity of the tasks before them.

MCC’s response will not only address the needs of people within Port-au-Prince, said Ron Flaming, MCC’s director of international programs, but will also include significant efforts to improve the livelihoods and prospects of people who have moved to rural areas.

The assessment team recommends that MCC can meet significant needs in areas including shelter and housing, economic development, food security, education, peace-building and advocacy, health and trauma healing.

“What struck me most is the complexity of the situation,” stressed Kasdorf, who recently visited Haiti as part of the assessment team. “The whole country is affected by this.”

The assessment team found that while food was being distributed within Port-au-Prince, many rural areas had not yet received any assistance and were struggling to share limited food with new arrivals.

Kasdorf said the group heard from nonprofit organizations, from MCC partners and from government officials that what is needed now is for relief, government services, education and jobs to be made more widely available throughout the country.

The scope of this effort will be far greater than rebuilding in a single geographic location.

“It’s a massive, complex humanitarian disaster,” Flaming said. “Right now people are still focused on trying to clean up, on figuring out how to survive today, tomorrow and for the next few months.”

Even as MCC’s response in Haiti continues, planning for the next five years is also well underway, says Flaming. Longer-term planning includes determining which communities to focus on and top priorities. He noted that in MCC’s response to the 2004 Asian tsunami, some projects that had the most lasting impact were not planned until a full year after the tsunami hit.

Paramount in all MCC efforts will be listening to the voices of Haitian people and partners and providing tools to help Haitians recover from the quake and build up their own communities, said Kasdorf.

To learn more about MCC’s response to the Haiti earthquake, go to mcc.org/haitiearthquake.

Marla Pierson Lester is publications and website content editor for MCC.

After the earthquake: Working to bring healing and hope to Haiti

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Jessica Walter, Ambler

In the weeks and months following the massive earthquake sustained by Haiti in January, Franconia Conference continues to collect funds to assist the Grace Assembly Network congregations in the rebuilding and reconstruction following the Haiti earthquake.

In the days following the earthquake, communication with key Grace Assembly Network leader, Pastor Lesly Bertrand, was limited, but phone calls and a visit form Mennonite Central Committee staff assured the conference of his and his family’s well-being.

Many also waited anxiously for word from the 27 member team from Souderton (Pa.) Mennonite Church who traveled to Haiti for a week long service trip with the Water for Life program located in Passe bois d’orme and the Tree of Life program in La Baleine, Haiti. The team was escorted to safety after the intial earthquake and, in the days that followed, was able to provide some medical relief in a small makeshift refugee village in Cote de Fer. The team returned to Pennsylvania safely on January 18, after an only a few days extension.

“I will never forget arriving in Port-au-Prince before the earthquake and going through the city,” reflected Christopher Dock Mennonite High School senior, Jordan Miller, during a sharing time at Souderton Mennonite. “When the earthquake struck on Tuesday, we had no idea of the magnitude of the situation. It never really hit me until we went back through Port-au-Prince and saw the same places. The destruction was terrible and it was hard to see the fairness of the earthquake happening to an already poor nation. Many of the Haitians in Passe bois d’orme were still praising God with the same vigor after the earthquake, which was really impacting. Their relationship with God was amazing and it gave me a new sense of how to worship. I like to think I have faith in God, but you never really know until it is put to the test, like it was for the Haitians who had lost family and friends, and had little reason to keep on praising God. They did anyway.”

Pastors Aaron Durso and Curt Malizzi from the Hopewell Network of Churches set out to Port-au-Prince on January 22 to learn more about the earthquake’s effects on Grace Assembly Network’s congregations and ministries. Franconia Conference sent a satellite phone with the pastors, to be delivered to Pastor Lesly to help establish more regular contact. The phone was intended to empower Pastor Lesly in his work and ministry by opening doors for conversation that would allow movement of goods and lifting of spirits as the recovery continues in Port-au-Prince.

From Curt Malizzi . . . “On Saturday, January 23, we toured the site of the Grace Assembly Network orphanage and found the building to be perfectly preserved, but the perimeter security walls had two large sections fallen down and some additional walls leaning.”

To our surprise, as we arrived at the orphanage, a truck of donated food supplies arrived from the Mennonite congregations of the Dominican Republic coordinated through Mennonite Central Committee (MCC). There was much joy in the area and a first food distribution was held for the area people.”

The well at the orphanage keeps running every day to supply water to around 2,000 people. The orphanage is in the Bellanton area which is about 18km northeast of Port au Prince. In the Bellanton area I estimate that about 25% (1 of every 4) of the houses have been demolished or seriously damaged by the earthquake. The Bellanton church building and school suffered much damage, but the Christian believers showed they are staying strong in the Lord with a wonderful celebration of praise on Sunday morning attended by us and the MCC delegation. Thanks to Franconia Conference, a satellite phone was temporarily provided for Pastor Lesly to maintain outside the nation contacts until the cell phone towers began working again.”

The immediate needs are to help reconstruct the security walls and reoccupy the orphanage, then to reconstruct some of the church buildings and pastors’ houses. We appreciate and thoughts and prayers for the people of Haiti and especially the 1,500 people of the Grace Assemblies churches in Haiti.”

Mennonite Central Committee continues to partner with Grace Assembly to bring healing and hope to Haiti. Another shipment of canned meat was distributed by Grace Assembly Network through MCC in early February.

Congregations and individuals from across Franconia Conference continue to be involved in providing relief and support to Haiti.

Franconia Conference gathered funding to support Dr. James Conrad, of Blooming Glen Mennonite Church, in joining a medical team to Haiti coordinated by Virginia Mennonite Missions and MCC. The Souderton congregation has raised support for Haiti through collecting offerings, four person (or larger) tents, relief kits and bedding for MCC and holding a benefit concert on March 20th.

The earthquake halted the distribution of 3.1 million deworming pills delivered to Haiti by the Worm Project but the pills are now being administered again. During this time of limited clean water and food resources parasite removal is crucial. The Worm Project is now preparing to ship three million more pills to Haiti.

MCC continues to post regular updates on their relief efforts in Haiti, including their work with Grace Assembly Network. To get the most updated information visit www.mcc.org.

Franconia Conference continues to actively solicit contributions toward the ministry of Grace Assembly Network in this critical time for our brothers and sisters in Haiti.

To everything there is a season: Long-term director retires and microenterprise program ends

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Lora Steiner

ASSETS Montco, based in Norristown, Pa., began in the fall of 1996 as a project of Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA) after a recognition that MEDA’s global work in developing small businesses could have a domestic impact. A pilot project began in Lancaster, Pa. in 1993. Currently, there are 19 ASSETS organizations in North America.

ASSETS is a “13-week business training for anyone who wants to start or expand their own business,” explains Jim Williams, founding executive director. The course meets two nights per week and covers everything from legal aspects and accounting to marketing and hiring employees.

Volunteer instructors help students ask questions about logistics—“Should I rent space or buy?” for example—and look at the core skills they need. Fees are based on a sliding scale, allowing everyone from home child care providers to doctors opening a practice to be a part. Persons with low to moderate income receive scholarships.

Ultimately, the goal is that each student will leave with a viable business plan.

Through 42 class cycles offered in English and Spanish, ASSETS Montco has helped start or expand more than 200 businesses, many of which are home-based. Most of the businesses —ranging from furniture restoration to lawn care to a resume writing service—are located in Norristown and across Montgomery County.

Williams sees a marked growth and transformation in students as they go through the course. ASSETS’ mission is economic development—giving skills and assistance to small business owners—but at the same time, ASSETS is very involved in community and personal development.

Tom Bishop, who served for several years on the board, says it was the ministry aspect that drew him to ASSETS. He saw it strengthening not only the entrepreneurs who participated but also the local community. Bishop also noticed that sometimes the program helped in a different way: some of those who’d planned to start a business would learn enough to realize they didn’t want to start a business, after all, and it stopped them before they started.

Bishop says the course was empowering, especially for those who hadn’t finished high school or accomplished major achievements in their lives.

“One thing I seemed to observe in everybody who went through that class,” he says, “was a really profound impact on their self-esteem.”

“Rather than just being another charity that gave away stuff, it was trying to build a skill in people so they could be more self-sufficient, not dependent, says Bishop. “ Jim [Williams] always referred to it as ‘a hand-up, not a hand-out.’”

Former board member Chad Lacher of the Souderton congregation says that in addition to being a big help to the students, “on a personal level it has helped crystallize the confidence that they can be successful.”

Peter Giesbrecht, a graduate of ASSETS, began his own remodeling business after the class and now has two employees. He says though he knew several business owners in his home congregation, Blooming Glen Mennonite Church, one of the most valuable parts of the program was the opportunity to network and build connections.

“You think about starting a business but you really don’t understand what all goes into it. It’s not easy. You need people who help you along the way.”

Williams says that seeing how individuals grow and transform has been one of the most rewarding parts of his work.

“You see people grow personally and you see them strengthen the local communities by the contributions that they’re able to make, providing needed goods and services in underserved communities.”

One ASSETS graduate, for example, started a mini-market within walking distance of many homes in an area of Norristown where convenience or grocery stores do not exist.

Another graduate, who had already been in business for many years, says he wished the program had been around before he ever opened his doors.

Lacher joined the board because of his own experience in the business world, and the desire to invite others on that journey. He says that many people don’t always understand what nonprofit organizations like ASSETS do and how they relate to the community. ASSETS, he says, is about sustainability, and generating long-term jobs that don’t rely on outside money.

Lacher affirmed the time and energy that Williams and his wife, Sharon, have given to ASSETS, as well as the ministry and Christian witness they’ve brought to ASSETS and the broader community.

“[Jim] was willing to step out and begin the organization on a shoestring financially but also without knowing exactly where the resources were coming from,” said Lacher. “He and Sharon, his wife, were willing to take that step of faith. And he’s had to continue to live in faith with this organization over its life.”

Lacher says that as the state funding that helped run the program has dwindled, many people have worked diligently on and off the board to keep ASSETS alive, and he hopes that the work will someday continue in one form or another.

“There’s still a sense that the mission and ministry of ASSETS are not done . . . It’s not at the moment, it doesn’t mean it won’t be in the future.”

“The irony is not lost on us. While solutions to the economic downturn have focused on job creation and business loans, microenterprise/small business training is not valued as an essential part of the solution. Who will create new jobs, if not new businesses?” said Williams. “Microenterprises and small businesses provide self-employment and jobs; they are the backbone of the local economy. Why is it that when times are hard, programs that empower the poor are hit the hardest?”

Williams, who will retire after the last class graduates on June 17, says he’ll find plenty to keep him busy after he leaves ASSETS Montco, with “ten thousand things to do, and not nearly enough time to do everything.”

Financial support is needed to support ASSETS’ last class, which starts March 25. Registration is also open. For more information, contact the ASSETS office at 610-275-3520; assetsmontco@bee.net.

Reflections from Mexico City: CIEAMM celebrates fifty years

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J. Mark and Emma Frederick

From Emma . . .On a November Sunday morning, J. Mark and I sat in an auditorium in the center of Mexico City surrounded by brothers and sisters, many of whom we hadn’t seen for a long time. It is seven years since we left Mexico. We’ve been back a few times and have been in contact with many of them now and then. But in this setting whole families gathered together and it felt like a family reunion. The children I taught in Sunday School are teenagers and I had to concentrate on their faces to recognize them. The teenagers are now adults and leaders in the church. Young couples have reached middle age, and some gray hairs have snuck in among the black ones. A few more wrinkles tell me that years have passed.

Mexicans are very relational people and I saw the same warmth I always remembered as we greeted one another and rejoiced in God’s goodness to us. The worship of God together was energetic to say the least. Booming voices now and then behind us shouted out ”Gloria a Dios!” or “Aleluya!” There was no doubting that these people were there to celebrate. As they called out the names of churches and their people stood up, everyone cheered. We felt at home!

The day before, we joined pastors and lay leaders as we spent a day reflecting on the struggles of the past, identifying where they are now and looking toward the future. Many questions were asked about what it means in their present reality to be Anabaptist Mennonites in Mexico. Young pastors and leaders, who had been teenagers when we left, now led out with vision and energy with a new wave of enthusiasm demonstrating their hope for the future.

We rejoiced as they glorified Jesus and spoke of new initiatives to reach out to youth and families. There is no doubt that they have encountered Jesus in new ways and God’s Spirit has been working among them. The seeds that had been planted 50 years ago in such an imperfect way were bearing fruit, and God is building the church. All along the way and throughout the years God’s Spirit has been there and Jesus has walked with them to create a new sense of community in that huge metropolitan reality. Much diversity among them and the many difficult realities of the city, such as the distances between the churches, all add to the challenges that face them. We were impressed, however, with the maturity of leadership that is in place to face these challenges and experience the growth of the Kingdom of God in the metropolitan area of Mexico City and Puebla.

From J. Mark . . .We want to thank Swamp Mennonite Church and Franconia Conference for making it possible to attend the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Conferencia de Iglesias Evangélicas Anabautistas Menonitas de México (CIEAMM). We were also pleased to represent both Franconia Conference as well as Mennonite Mission Network in gatherings that took place.

We come back with the certainty that God’s kingdom purposes are being worked out in the Mennonite congreagtions of CIEAMM because of the faithfulness of our brothers and sisters. To God be the glory!

A familiar irony: Coaxed to leave the path of security

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Arnold Derstine, Franconia

My call to ministry has similarities to my first experience with a high ropes course as a young adult leader nearly 15 years ago. My great fear of heights kept my feet firmly planted on the ground as one risk-taker after another shimmied up the tree to accept the challenge. I was content and quite comfortable in my role as “encourager,” coaxing others on from the safety and security of the solid ground below. Yet in spite of the overwhelming sense of panic and fear that gripped me to think about trying it myself, there was a still small voice deep within me calling and inviting me to step out and do it. After relentless prodding by the group I reluctantly stepped into the harness and cautiously shimmied up the tree. Somehow perched high above the ground desperately clinging to anything I could hold onto I was able to see with more clarity. It was clear that I prefer to be in control and that I tend to choose the pathway to comfort and security. However, as I cautiously eased my grip it also became clear there is greater freedom, life, adventure and potential when learning to trust God by surrendering my control.My journey in ministry began innocently enough as I accepted a three year term on our congregation’s Mission Commission in 1992. I was immediately given the task of being the point person in developing a relationship with our sister church in Puebla, Mexico. Within six months I was making my first of many trips to Puebla. In the following years my world view was challenged, expanded and reshaped by my interaction and relationships with our brothers and sisters from Mexico. I became increasingly dissatisfied with the “me generation” values that influenced my life and I began to more fully open myself to God’s leading and direction. Yet even this new openness did not prepare me for where God was leading.In the fall of 1996 our church leadership began to discuss the idea of sending a family from Franconia to Puebla as a next step in our sister church relationship. Although I felt a sense of God’s call the very first time I heard the idea I resisted by tightening my grip. My excuses for not considering a move to Puebla seemed valid and logical. Neither my wife nor I spoke any Spanish. I lacked training and formal education. I thoroughly enjoyed my occupation and had invested nearly 15 years with the same company. Our stage of life as parents with young children seemed to suggest this just wasn’t the right time. Truth be told, when I honestly allowed myself to process the possibility of pulling up roots from all that was familiar for the uncertainty and unknown of Mexico it seemed more terrifying than the experience with the ropes course several years earlier. Yet at the same time, with familiar irony, there was another voice deep within me encouraging and calling me to loosen my grip.After months of prayer, discernment and seeking counsel we came to believe it was God calling us to let go and set out on a new journey in Mexico. Mexico was a place of growth, learning, exploring and having our gifts affirmed. Our faith was both stretched and strengthened as we learned to minister and be ministered to in a new context. As God graciously transformed our lives we were blessed to see other lives powerfully transformed as well. Many times throughout our eight years in Mexico God would again invite me to surrender my control and more fully trust in God’s grace and goodness.In the fall of 2005 we returned to Franconia for a time of discernment, feeling God had released us from our ministry in Mexico, but not yet knowing what was next. With much prayer and counsel from trusted leaders and our discernment team we accepted our current assignment at Franconia Mennonite Church where I serve as an Associate Pastor with a focus on Mission and Outreach. Today I get excited about ministries like Celebrate Recovery and our Spanish outreach which open doors for the church to share God’s love with our wider community. I’m convinced there are many people outside our church walls who long to know Jesus and desire to be part of a life-changing community of faith. Yet I suspect that these persons too have fears and insecurities that keep them holding tightly to what seems most familiar and comfortable. So I continue to think of myself as an encourager coaxing others on in this journey of faith. However, I too continue to learn as I go. I’m learning that God’s love and God’s path often call me to let go of the comforts and familiarity I seek so that his blessing can flow through me. I’m learning that God is still encouraging me to loosen my grip. But I’m also discovering that in the process there is greater freedom, life and potential that God always meant for us to enjoy.