Mosaic Mennonites

Missional - Intercultural - Formational

Service

MCC U.S. Summer Service Program going strong

by Emily Ralph Servant

For years Keshia Kay Littlebear of Billings, Mont., was certain where her path would take her when she was older and the summers rolled around. She was going to be an MCC U.S. Summer Service worker.
From 2002 to 2005 she was just that – spending 10 weeks of her summers serving at White River Cheyenne Mennonite Church in Busby, Mont. She worked with recreational activities and as youth ministry coordinator.

Seeing God around every corner in South Philly

by Emily Ralph Servant

Last summer, Ardi Hermawan took MCC grocery bags, which are filled with non-perishable food and given to Anabaptist churches in Philadelphia to share in their communities, to the near-by Walgreen’s and handed them out to people who could use some food and appreciated talking to someone. It went well and so over spring break this year, Hermawan arranged to do it again with a group of his fellow students from Eastern Mennonite University (EMU) who came to Philadelphia to spend their week. Hermawan is part of Philadelphia Praise Center (PPC), a multi-ethnic congregation whose members speak Indonesian, English, and Spanish.

Paint a Piece of History!

by Emily Ralph Servant

The historic 1770 Germantown Mennonite Meetinghouse is a powerful symbol of the origins of the Mennonite experience in America and an important touchstone of the Anabaptist faith. Now cared for by the nonprofit Germantown Mennonite Historic Trust (a Conference Related Ministry of Franconia Conference), the Meetinghouse hosts hundreds of visitors each year, from school groups learning about early Mennonite history to genealogy enthusiasts and others generally interested in American colonial life. Others discover the Meetinghouse in the context of visiting Historic Germantown, learning for the first time of the Mennonites’ central role in early Pennsylvania and about the Mennonite influences contributing to America’s first written protest against slavery.
With a very small staff (less than one full time equivalent) and a modest budget, most of the grounds upkeep for this historic site is done by volunteers. On June 9-12, GMHT’s Paint a Piece of History! Work Week hosted 50 volunteers from all over the region who donated over 237 hours of labor to spruce up the Meetinghouse and grounds.

Body, mind, heart … and feet (To Mennonite Blog #6)

by Emily Ralph Servant

I choose to define Mennonite, the verb, with a ritual that is absent in my congregation. Therefore this post is also a call to re-examination, change, growth. To me, to Mennonite is to participate in foot washing.
I don’t pretend to have any scholarly knowledge on the John 13 story, but as a follower of Jesus, it moves me. Jesus knew he would soon be leaving the world. When he washed his disciples’ feet, he was at the point where he was giving conclusions, take-away messages. Something grand or violent might have been more memorable. But instead he did an everyday act of care, to demonstrate the completeness with which he loved his students – and to ask his students to love others as completely.