During a recent visit Pastor Alfredo Navea of the Tabernacle of Christ Church in Viña del Mar, Chile learned of the canning process many EuroAmerican Franconia Conference congregation members use to preserve harvests of seasonal garden fruits and vegetables. Navea was visiting Pastor Charles Ness, Perkiomenville, and his wife, Janet, at the time and told them, “You must come to Chile and teach us how to do this so we can preserve the fruit we have in the summer for use in the winter.”
In mid-February this year Charles and Janet, Merv and Lois Zook, also from the Perkiomenville congregation, and John Kulp and his family, Franconia congregation, will do just that. The group will spend seven days in Viña del Mar teaching members of Tabernacle of Christ how to can and preserve the abundance of summer fruits during what is late summer in the southern hemisphere. This project will help the members of Tabernacle of Christ and other Chileans meet their winter food needs, especially in the mountain areas of Chile where food shortages are common in winter months.
“We believe that this is a unique way to use a process that many of us learned from our parents and take for granted to bless others in need,” notes Pastor Charles Ness. “This cross cultural exchange is another expression of being Partners in Mission.”
Tabernacle of Christ congregation and a network of churches in the Viña del Mar area are Franconia Conference Partners in Mission and have a thriving relationship with the Perkiomenville, Boyertown and Whitehall congregations.
In order to fund this initiative the team is hoping to raise support from across Franconia Conference communities. Donations will provide canning supplies, jars, lids and help cover the costs of airfare for the team.
If you would like to make a donation toward this initiative please send a check to Perkiomenville Mennonite Church marked “Chile Canning Project” at the following address:
Perkiomenville Mennonite Church
PO Box 59
Perkiomenville PA 18074
For more information contact Charles Ness at 215-234-4011 or perkmc@verizon.net
Donated funds beyond what is needed for the canning project will go toward the $50,000 needed to finish Tabernacle of Christ Church’s building construction.
Franconia Mennonite Conference Prayer Focus - Week of February 1 - 7, 2009 Mennonite Church USA Executive Director Search: All congregations and individuals are asked to pray for wisdom and the guidance and power of the Holy Spirit in the process and for the person who will be called to serve. Indian Creek Foundation: Ask God to bless the clients and staff of Indian Creek Foundation as they seek to live out God’s will and create a world where all of God’s children can live together in community.
Be a part of the Chile Canning Project! Members from two Franconia Conference congregations will be visiting Tabernacle of Christ Church in Vina del Mar, Chile (a Franconia Conference Partner in Mission) on February 15 – 23 to assist with canning local fruits for off season use. This is a new concept that has potential for assisting the people of Chile with their food needs, especially in combating food shortages during winter months. Merv and Lois Zook and Charles and Janet Ness from Perkiomenville, along with John, Ruthann, Rochelle, and Josh Kulp from Franconia will be part of the trip. Your support can help provide canners, jars, lids, and airfare. To be part of the project, send donations marked for Chile canning project to: Perkiomenville Mennonite Church, P.O. Box 59, Perkiomenville, PA 18074. Contact 215-234-4011 or perkmc@verizon.net for more information.
Christopher Dock’s annual Arts Day is scheduled for Saturday, February 14 at 7 p.m. The theme for this year is “Fusion,” with students preparing stage, art, and culinary performances. Dock parents are also welcome to attend the school day performance on Friday, February 13. Call the office at 215-362-2675 for more information.
Women of All Ages are invited to a women’s retreat on Saturday, February 21 from 8:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at Deep Run Mennonite Church East. Guest speaker is Julie Henning, adopted daughter of Pearl S. Buck. Julie will take you on a journey from her Amerasian roots, to her life with the famous author, and finally, into the family of God. Complimentary continental breakfast and a light lunch will be served. Please register by Saturday, February 14 by calling 215-766-8380 or emailing dre@deepruneast.org.
Everyone is invited to a Spaghetti Dinner at Bally Mennonite Church on Saturday, February 28 from 4:30 – 7:00 p.m. Donations will be received to provide funds for the Bally Community Preschool.
Attention Worship Leaders, Singers, Band Members and Tech Team Members! Worship Summit 2009 is coming to Hope Valley Community Church in Red Hill, PA on Saturday, March 7 from 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. You’re invited to join thousands of worship teams across the nation for the 2009 Worship Summit Simulcast by Integrity Worship and CCN. Be challenged to go deeper in your heart for worship. Learn practical ideas to make your worship service more effective! Early bird price is $69 per person if registered by February 2; after February 2 price is $89 per person. Group rates are available for 10 or more people at $49 per person. For tickets and information call 215-234-4045. Don’t forget about the Friday night concert- Night of Worship- on March 6 at 7:30 p.m. There is no cost for the Friday night concert, but tickets are required and available at Hope Valley Community Church, Finland Mennonite Church, and the Word FM.
Thank you for your prayer support of Mennonite education. The Mennonite Education Agency has posted new Prayers for Faith and Learning for the month of February at www.MennoniteEducation.org/PRAYERS.
PENNY POWER! Spare change can lead to global change. Coins and larger donations are collected and taken to annual MCC Relief Sales. Mennonite and Brethren in Christ churches have adopted Penny Power as a great intergenerational activity, collecting coins year-round. Look for a Penny Power bottle at your church or go to www.pennypower.org to learn more.
Job Opportunities
Christopher Dock’s Athletic Department is in need of a JV baseball coach, assistant varsity softball coach, and a track and field coach for jumps and pole vault for the spring season. Interested persons should contact Tim Ehst, Athletic Director, by e-mail at tmehst@dockhs.org
Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) is preparing to ship blankets and other relief supplies to the Gaza Strip despite Israeli restrictions on humanitarian aid to the war-torn region.
Israel is preventing most humanitarian aid from entering Gaza in the aftermath of a 23-day war against Palestinian militants, according to Daryl Byler, an MCC regional representative for Jordan, Iran, Iraq and Palestine.
MCC is joining other relief organizations in calling for Israel to lift restrictions on aid to Gaza, where basic supplies are scarce and about 4,000 homes were destroyed by Israeli bombardments. More than 1,300 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed in the conflict, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Byler is optimistic that MCC’s shipment of 3,910 blankets and 1,260 relief kits will be allowed into Gaza when it arrives in a month.
“I think we’re not far away from the doors being opened a little more,” Byler said. “But I know that there’s a fairly high level of frustration today because we are indeed almost a week into the cease-fire and it’s still quite difficult to get things in.”
The war exacerbated the economic hardships facing the 1.5 million people of the Gaza Strip. Israel has blockaded the densely populated territory, allowing few supplies in or out, since the Palestinian group Hamas took control in June 2007.
During the war, MCC provided $45,000 U.S. to help three Palestinian organizations distribute basic supplies to people in need in the Gaza Strip. MCC workers in Jerusalem maintained regular phone contact with staff members of MCC partner organizations in the Gaza Strip, Byler said.
“As much as the money that MCC sent, those phone calls were really valued,” Byler said. “Often the reports were, ‘The building next to our office was just shelled,’ or ‘My neighbor’s house was just destroyed,’ or ‘One of my relatives was killed in the shelling last night.’”
Including shipments, the monetary value of MCC’s aid to the Gaza Strip in 2008 and 2009 is about $345,000 U.S.
Byler, who lives in Amman, Jordan, fasted for 17 days during the war as a spiritual discipline and a protest against the violence. While he fasted, Byler wrote letters appealing for peace to Prime Minister Olmert of Israel, President Bush and then-President-elect Obama and posted some of them on his blog. Dozens of people in North America and elsewhere contacted Byler to say that they too were fasting for peace, including the leader of an Israeli organization, Rabbis for Human Rights.
Byler also wrote an open letter to the Christian church in which he called for Christians to take responsibility for contributing to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. He described both how anti-Semitism has historically led Christians to victimize Jews and how a theology of Christian Zionism has led Christians to be uncritically supportive of the Israeli government.
“It was very difficult in these last three weeks for either Israeli officials or Hamas officials to in any way acknowledge their own responsibility for the ways that they have contributed to the conflict,” Byler said. “To find our way through this, somebody’s going to have to stand up and start taking responsibility for the contributions we’ve made to it.”
A Call to Prayer
Congregations, Partners in Mission, and Conference Related Ministries: We are part of a body and want to support each other in prayer. What would be your prayer request of one or two sentences for the upcoming year of 2009 to share with your brothers and sisters throughout the conference? Each week the prayer requests of one or two congregations, PIMs or CRMs will be shared with congregations through bulletin announcements and on www.franconiaconference.org. Please forward your requests to Sandy Landes, Franconia Conference prayer ministry coordinator, at slandes@franconiaconference.org or 215-723-5513, ext. 121. We look forward to how God will use our prayers to empower us to embrace God’s mission.
Hammond Organ available
Is your church or organization interested in receiving the donation of a free Hammond Organ? The Hammond Model A-100 electric organ includes drawbars, 2 manuals, full pedals (mahogany) and a Leslie Tone Cabinet Model 251. Also included are the original papers from the purchase and information manuals. The organ should be picked up by the first week in March. Please contact Harold and Ferne Alderfer if you are interested at 215-256-9287 or haroldferne@hotmail.com.
In February DreamSeeker Books will release a memoir of a father’s life, legacy and death, entitled Long After I’m Gone, by Deborah Good of West Philadelphia Mennonite Fellowship. A recent Cascadia Publishing House news release described the book as follows:
In this unique and compelling memoir, the voice of a well-loved father intertwines with that of his twenty-four-year-old daughter, as he fights the ravages of a cancer that eventually takes his life.
Deborah Good was living in Philadelphia,when her life was hit suddenly with terrible news. Her father’s CT scans showed multiple spots of cancer. Deborah moved back in with her parents, Betty and Nelson Good, in Washington, D.C., and as Nelson approached death, spent hours sitting with him while he reflected back on the interlocking pieces of his unconventional job life. Nelson was neither a saint nor a celebrity and, by many measures, was a rather ordinary person, yet he lived with a humble integrity and a commitment to others that touched many.
From his spot on a padded green recliner, Nelson told the stories of seven projects, communities, and organizations he had cared about: a neighborhood community center, an experiential education program for college students (Washington Community Scholars Center of Eastern Mennonite University), an alternative day school for foster children, a retreat center, a house church, a historic building restoration and a unique house renovation.
After Deborah listened, took notes, and tape-recorded their conversations, she added her own reflections. The resulting memoir is a unique intertwining of a father’s history-telling with a daughter’s personal journey of remembrance, loss and grief.
Deborah Good is a writer, editor and, currently, a student and research assistant at Temple University, where she is pursuing a Master of Social Work. Her short essays and poetry have appeared in What Mennonites Are Thinking 2002 (Good Books), Crossroads, The Other Side and Dreamseeker Magazine.
Franconia Mennonite Conference invites you to pray for congregations, partners in mission and conference related ministries each week through a weekly prayer focus. The prayer focus for the week of January 25 is Living Branches Communities. The Board, staff and residents of the Living Branches Communities (Souderton Mennonite Homes and Dock Woods Community) pray for God’s continued blessing on the joining of their ministries, and ongoing guidance as they work together to enhance the lives of older adults and families.
A prospective student Open House at Penn View Christian School is scheduled for Wednesday, February 4 at 8:30 a.m. Please join us for coffee and conversation as well as tours for interested families with children in Early Childhood through 8th grade. Please contact Sandra Harrell, Director of Admissions, at 215-723-1196 ext 1196 or email sharrell@pennview.org to register. For more info, visit our website at www.pennview.org.
All are welcome to Evening Song and Prayer in the Taizé tradition at Perkasie Mennonite Church on Sunday, February 8, from 7 - 8 p.m. Using music from the Taizé community in France, as well as hymns of the church, we gather in a candlelit atmosphere for scripture, song, silence and prayers for our world, communities and loved ones.
Several Open House dates are coming up at Quakertown Christian School’s Preschool and Main Campuses. Come and experience classes in the morning sessions or come at 7 p.m. to meet the teachers and hear about QCS. Please call 215-536-6970 or visit www.quakertownchristian.org for more information on the following open house dates: Preschool Campus (143 Rocky Ridge Road, Quakertown): Monday, January 26, 7:00 p.m. and Wednesday, February 18, 9:30 – 11:00 a.m. Main Campus for Grades K – 12 (50 East Paletown Road, Quakertown): Monday, January 26, 7:00 p.m. and Tuesday, February 10, 9:00 a.m. – noon
All are invited to Bally Mennonite Church for a Pancake Breakfast on Saturday, February 21 from 7 – 11 a.m. Donations will be received. Proceeds from the breakfast will provide funds for the Bally Community Center.
NEW WINE/NEW WINESKINS: RESHAPING MCC FOR THE 21st CENTURY is a process to engage all MCC stakeholders in discerning God’s direction by creating a common vision and revised structure for MCC. The new website now features a monthly theme, a new “Question of the Month”, and The “Grapevine” Blog. The goal is to generate discussion through the Question of the Month, so everyone is encouraged to visit the site at the beginning of EACH month to see what question is posted. What better way to gather as many voices as possible to help guide MCC in the months to come? Get involved! Go to mcc.org/newwineskins/.
Mennonite Church USA Executive Leadership announces the appointment of LaVern Yutzy of Lititz, Pa., as a consultant on churchwide operations and alignment. Yutzy began in the role Jan. 8.
Yutzy will be responsible to help the denomination to live within its means, eliminate duplication and achieve its goals. He will be called to identify ways of integrating churchwide priorities into the programs and practices of the entire churchwide system as well as propose ways for simplifying the system.
“We are hopeful that LaVern’s work in this role will work to set the stage for further transformation of identity, purpose and organization for Mennonite Church USA,” said executive director Jim Schrag.
The hiring is connected to a February 2008 Executive Board statement that declared “our vision and call to engage in God’s purposes in the world is not adequately supported by our present relationships, behaviors and organization.” Later in 2008, the Executive Board outlined several approaches it would take to strengthen the churchwide system. Some of those areas already have been implemented while a proposed plan for one board of directors for the entire denomination has been deferred.
A June 2008 plan called for the hiring of a chief operations officer who would be responsible for working across the system to improve its effectiveness. Initially, board members and Executive Leadership staff envisioned this to be a full-time, long-term staff person.
However, in light of impending transitions for key leadership roles — namely executive director Jim Schrag and associate executive director Ron Byler — staff felt it would be best to hire a consultant who would be responsible for ensuring forward movement as well as lay a foundation for new leaders to work from once those transitions are completed. The consultant assignment will be part time and last between 10 and 12 months until a new executive director is in place for the denomination and can make decisions about long-term staffing needs.
“LaVern’s leadership experience in complex organizations and organizational dynamics will serve the church well. He brings a demonstrated capacity to listen to many voices and synthesize the key themes,” said Mennonite Publishing Network board chair Phil Bontrager. “His willingness to share his gifts will serve the church well as we seek to better align priorities and focus our efforts across the multiple dimensions of Mennonite Church USA.”
“I am thankful that someone with LaVern’s experience, knowledge and wisdom has accepted this call. His love, commitment and passion for the church are gifts that we will all benefit from,” said Carlos Romero, executive director for Mennonite Education Agency. “I am looking forward to this opportunity to work with LaVern, finding ways in which we can better serve Mennonite Church USA.”
As current board chair for MMA, Yutzy is quite familiar with the process and the need for a serious examination of Mennonite Church USA’s systems and structures. His memo of agreement outlines specific guidelines for addressing any conflicts of interest that may arise while working in the consultant role.
Yutzy served as CEO of Philhaven, a faith-based provider of behavioral health services in south central Pennsylvania that is a part of Mennonite Health Services Alliance, from 1991 to 2008. He started working with the organization 13 years earlier as a clinical social worker and spent time in other roles before taking on the chief position. He has experience directing strategic planning processes, providing leadership training and consulting with area conferences, non-profit organizations and boards of directors. In other consultant work, Yutzy has offered board development, executive coaching, and governance and structure revisions.
Yutzy has a master of science in health administration degree from the Medical College of Virginia/Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Va., and a master of social work degree from The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. He earned his bachelor of arts degree in sociology from Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Va., in 1970 and an associate of arts degree from Hesston (Kan.) College in 1968.
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During a recent visit Pastor Alfredo Navea of the Tabernacle of Christ Church in Viña del Mar, Chile learned of the canning process many EuroAmerican Franconia Conference congregation members use to preserve harvests of seasonal garden fruits and vegetables. Navea was visiting Pastor Charles Ness, Perkiomenville, and his wife, Janet, at the time and told them, “You must come to Chile and teach us how to do this so we can preserve the fruit we have in the summer for use in the winter.”
Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) is preparing to ship blankets and other relief supplies to the Gaza Strip despite Israeli restrictions on humanitarian aid to the war-torn region.
Deborah Good is a writer, editor and, currently, a student and research assistant at Temple University, where she is pursuing a Master of Social Work. Her short essays and poetry have appeared in What Mennonites Are Thinking 2002 (Good Books), Crossroads, The Other Side and Dreamseeker Magazine.
Mennonite Church USA Executive Leadership announces the appointment of LaVern Yutzy of Lititz, Pa., as a consultant on churchwide operations and alignment. Yutzy began in the role Jan. 8.