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.
Service
Seeing God around every corner in South Philly
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!
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)
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.
Young leaders build relationships with Mexico City churches
Rockhill Mennonite (Telford, Pa) youth pastor, Angela Moyer, had taken groups of high school youth to Mexico City to do mission work before, but this time was different…
Youth in the city: Rooted in the future
Young leaders retreat into Philadelphia for a new kind of leadership formation –Kayla Benner, Ambler Mennonite Church “I remember your genuine faith, for you share the faith that first filled […]
MCC grieves worker killed in Afghanistan
Cheryl Zehr Walker August 8, 2010 AKRON, Pa. – A Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) worker in Afghanistan, Glen D. Lapp of Lancaster, Pa., was killed this week in a shooting […]
Redefining success at the ‘Top of the World’
Bethsaba & Dale Nafziger www.topoftheworldcoffee.com I grew up in Vincent Mennonite Church, Spring City, Pa. I first went to Nepal, the land of Mt. Everest, under Mennonite Central Committee in […]
MCC’s Haiti response continues with medical teams, engineers and food aid
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 […]
A long distance out of the way: Decades of living life lead to a call to pastor
Donna Merow, Ambler Edward Albee wrote, “Sometimes it’s necessary to go a long distance out of the way in order to come back a short distance correctly.” This describes my […]
Reflection from MVS in DC: Unexpected and life-giving opportunities
Emily Derstine, Plains Upon arriving in Washington, D.C. to begin a year of Mennonite Voluntary Service (MVS), I had little idea what to expect. Sure, I had been to D.C. […]