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Blaine Detwiler, Lakeview

This summer, we at Lakeview decided to do something we had never done in our 50 year history as a congregation. We decided not to meet together. For one Sunday in June we decided not meet at our meetinghouse. While there have been times when snow made this decision for us, this time we made the decision not to meet. Therefore, on Sunday morning, June 28th, I posted a note on our front door that read: “We are ‘not in the house’ today.”

Where the inspiration to do a “Church Day Out” came from we are not entirely sure.

Gilberto Flores (former Mennonite Church USA denominational minister) may have had something to do with it. At our 2007 Franconia Conference Assembly Gilberto told us the chairs in our meetinghouses ought to face the doors because that is where the church “goes.” He told us that when he showed up to church on his first Sunday at first assignment as a pastor no one was there to hear him preach. Church members were in the streets and he had to go there to find his congregation. I think Gilberto is an undercover agent of the Holy Spirit.

Jeff Wright is another culprit. Hired by Franconia Conference as a consultant for the Vision and Finance Plan Team meetings, he kept pulling his devotional material from the book of Acts. In the book of Acts the church is constantly on the move…and it began to seem as though we were not moving much. I think Jeff may be an instigator of the Holy Spirit.

And then there is Krista Ehst who kept sending us these Post-Christendom reports from her internship in East London. In her blog she wrote that her church took one Sunday a month, one Sunday every month, to be “helping about” and “connecting with” the neighborhood. I think of Krista as a Holy Spirit spy. So let the record show that on June 28, 2009 Lakeview Mennonite Church did not meet.

However a group did gather at the gazebo in the center of New Milford. From there they dispersed in “twos” walking about, praying silently with their eyes open.

Another group traveled to our local skilled nursing facility in Susquehanna to sing and pray and visit. One resident excused his usual Sunday ride with his family and stayed for worship with our visiting group. Another resident wondered if the group will come again.

A young mother with a theory decided to take her family, with three small children, to visit Harford Village Apartments. She was correct, seniors “perk up” when the energy of small children arrives.

After discovering that a local woman who is losing the use of her hands needed some firewood cut into very small pieces, a group of four men went to the woods with chainsaws and donuts. They piled two pick-up truck-sized loads of small pieces next to her door.

A woman prepared a meal and took it to her reclusive neighbor. In our area there are people who simply will not come out. Whether it be fear, hurt, poverty or the accumulation of loneliness and sadness, hermit-types seldom come out of their houses. This woman took a meal to the hard-of-hearing John and yelled conversation with him for two hours.

Another family escorted an elderly woman to her church.

Another woman, who admitted to being pushed far outside of her comfort zone, asked the most challenging woman she knew out to lunch.

A group of Lakeview people decided to fast for the entire day and send off the money they saved on meals to the Worm Project. One man, who fasted from Saturday evening through Monday morning said, “I still have the choice of when to begin and break my fast…but those going hungry are denied even that choice…so with my choices, I am well off.”

These are the stories, the report, from our “Church Day Out” at Lakeview.

We admit these are baby steps in our understanding of mission in the kingdom. Jesus once said the kingdom of God is like yeast in a loaf of bread. I think what we have learned so far is that you do have to add the yeast!

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Noel Santiago, Blooming Glen

Like the change of seasons, ministry happens at different temperatures throughout the year. However, unlike the cycle of seasons, we can’t always know what to expect at any given moment. While we can expect it to be cold in winter, there are winters that are milder than others. Even more amazing is that on any given day the temperature during the winter season could rise to 83 degrees as it did on December 6, 2001. I remember this because our youngest son was born December 3rd. We brought him home that day and took a picture of the family in front of our home with all of us in short sleeves and shorts.

While we might enjoy these breaks in the midst of cold or heat, we might also wonder what this unusually warm weather pattern means.

Ministry also runs these types of patterns and extremes. When the life of ministry runs at a spring-like temperatures of 72 degrees, life is good! Then, we experience that extraordinary moment in time where the temperature doesn’t quite line up with where it should be. It gets too hot or too cold and we wonder what’s going on.

This year Franconia Conference has experienced very good weather and some days where we all wondered, “What is going on?” There’s been a shift in the questions we have been hearing. Earlier in the year it was “what does conference do?” Now the question seems to be “where is conference going?”

In part, it seems this first question was connected to the emerging, but not yet clear, oversight pattern after the change in the Conference Minister structure. While the first signs of our new oversight platform have begun to emerge and grow with LEADership Ministers and advisors getting into place, we’ve shifted to a team-based approach to oversight that includes lay leadership. This is a significant shift in oversight work.

This summer’s biannual Mennonite Church USA convention at Columbus provided great experiences for many; but some of us experienced anxiety, pain, and frustration. There was a great diversity of thought, opinion, and belief expressed. A group advocating for inclusion of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender (GLBT) persons into the Mennonite Church known as “PinkMennos,” organized themselves to be a presence at the proceedings in Columbus. For the most part the week went along fine. Then something happened that people experienced in very different ways.

The resolutions started pouring in regarding membership and the inclusion of all persons regardless of sexual-orientation. Many experienced this as a mounting storm with thunder, lightening, and hail pouring out. Others experienced it as a clearing of the storm clouds with bright sunny skies being revealed. The resolutions committee decided to put both sides of these perspectives aside and create a new resolution passed by the delegate body—On following Christ and growing together as communities even in conflict.

After convention, young leaders from within our own congregations penned an Open Letter to Franconia Conference inviting signatures from persons who are part of our congregations and schools, ages 15-29, calling for continued dialogue around this topic and for more openness in our congregations. Again, some experience this as storm clouds, others as clearing skies.

All of this, no doubt coupled with other things such as the economic downturn, loss of jobs, eroding financial security, and changing relationships have created even more stress and pressure. Out of the uncertainties facing us it seems the question of where Franconia Conference is going has emerged.

Without going into many details here, let me simply say that Franconia Conference leaders will continue to follow the vision, mission and financial plan the delegate body has discerned as God’s call to us. Our primary mission will continue to be focused on: “Equipping Leaders to Empower Others to Embrace God’s Mission” in the world. This means that our primary energies, resources, personnel, and focus will remain singularly focused around this mission. While not disattending to the concerns, anxieties, pain, and frustration that are present in our midst, we believe that the primary call is to remain focused on the good work that has been started.

We are committed to and act in accordance to the Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective as our theological underpinning and belief in all we do. We are committed to participating with Mennonite Church USA in the follow up of the resolutions from the Columbus gathering as well. Therefore, I offer the following for your consideration and discernment…

In any discussion surrounding this topic, we invite you to not begin with membership and who is in or out. Instead, can we enter into a conversation that is first and foremost centered around our commitment to following Christ? What does that mean for our day and age? When people are following Christ authentically and holistically, what does that look like? What are the beliefs we have in common and where do we differ? These types of questions might indeed help all of us reexamine and recommit again to the understandings that have shaped and formed us while offering a deeper possibility into the future without compromising the Gospel.

As the seasons and temperatures continue to fluctuate and change, may this season of ministry find us being healthy and growing leaders, disciples and congregations so that God’s healing and hope flow through us to the world.

“To everything there is a season, and a time for every matter or purpose under heaven.” (Ecclesiastes 3:1)

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John L. Ruth, Salford

As a freshman at Eastern Mennonite College in 1950, I was too immature, and too preoccupied with a girlfriend, to pay much attention when Goshen College Professor Harold Bender came to lecture. I didn’t know he thought that our Franconia Conference “customs and traditions” had “preserved…more nearly the ancient Mennonite forms of worship, doctrine, and church government than any other American district.”

I did get serious a half-year after first hearing Bender when at the age of 20 I was zapped, by casting lots, with an ordination for a mission station at Conshohocken, just outside of Philadelphia. A week later, to my joy, my girlfriend agreed to marry me. Dropping out of college, I got a job at the Mennonite-sponsored Herald Bookstore on Main Street, Souderton. There I found a book by Harold Bender and bought a copy of History of the Mennonites of the Franconia Conference by John C. Wenger. I was intrigued with his take on the meetings of the Franconia Conference, where only ordained men voted.

He wrote that the sessions were “not intended to be inspirational,” but to consider “the problems, needs, and difficulties with which the several congregations are confronted.” I saw that myself, starting at conference 13 years after the Wenger book had appeared. I had to agree that “little is done” at conference to start “constructive projects for the future.” Instead, “If there is any one thing which impresses a visitor…it is the grave concern there manifested lest the church become entangled with the world.”

I had sensed myself that we had a valid tradition of unusually practical obedience to Christ. But was it the whole Gospel? Not according to my experience in mission outreach in Conshohocken, or lively discussions with fellow-student Tony Campolo in our philosophy classes at Eastern Baptist College. Were we Mennonites more concerned with defending the faith than sharing it?

Happily, when I got a copy of what would become known as Bender’s Anabaptist Vision address, I found the threefold banner it lifted – discipleship, mutuality and love – very inspiring. Since those days, Bender’s vision of what our heritage has to offer has not only stood the test of time, but is relevant to the new situations the old conference mentality didn’t address. That is why Chris Nickels, Sandy Drescher-Lehman and Dennis Edwards, in the last three issues of Intersections, could apply the triple motifs to their own work. Discipleship (following Jesus), community (Bender’s old-fashioned word was brotherhood) and love (peace), is indeed how our heritage teaches us to do church.

This is not a trivial or marginal or obsolete vision. Emergent church leader Greg Boyd from Minneapolis spoke at a meeting of Mennonite leaders in Columbus, Ohio, saying that the power of what we call the Anabaptist Vision gave him “goose bumps.” You Mennonites, he testified, have by heritage a vision as current as tomorrow. “People are waking up to the truth that the Kingdom of God looks like Jesus and that the heart of Christianity is simply imitating him.” Chalk one up for “discipleship.”

Boyd continued, “Millions are waking up to the truth that followers of Jesus are called to love the unlovable, serve the oppressed, live in solidarity with the poor, proclaim Good News to the lost and be willing to lay down our lives for our enemies.” Whoa! Non-Mennonites discovering what Bender called “love and nonresistance”? Boyd added, “Multitudes are waking up to the truth that the distinctive mark of the Kingdom is the complete rejection of all hatred and violence.” We have something “distinctive?”

Then comes a real kicker. These multitudes are looking for somebody to share “tribal identity and historical rooting.” In fact, “A central feature of their outlook is ‘the longing to live in a story that is bigger than oneself,’ in other words, “a tradition they can align with.” Looking at our Mennonite fellowship, that sense of a covenant community over time is what gave him goose bumps. “You have this treasure,” he told his Mennonite audience. “Are you going to share it?”

The sometimes tattered “banner over us” as Mennonites bears the noble triple motif: Discipleship, community and love. These are not the invention of Harold Bender, but the practical embodiment of the Kingdom. Let that threefold ensign wave!

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Stephen Kriss, Philadelphia Praise Center

It’s an easy flight from Philadelphia to Atlanta, less than two hours with frequent flights between the City of Brotherly Love and Delta Airlines’ main hub at Hartsfield Airport. However, upon landing, I was jarred to remember that I wasn’t in Pennsylvania anymore. Accents are different. Tea is sweeter. Stories of racial justice and struggle surface rapidly in the midst of conversation.

Atlanta is a new city, built as a railroad hub, largely grown up after the Civil War. It’s a sprawling city, seemingly too bustling for a plan. I’ve been in this capital of the New South a few times—for the Olympics, to eat at Hard Rock Café, to walk around in hip and pricey Buckhead, to engage the story of the Civil Rights struggle at the Martin Luther King Center.

This visit was different, I came to Atlanta on assignment—to become acquainted with what’s set to become Franconia Conference’s newest congregation—Atlanta Revival Center, tucked in a business park in the northwest suburbs. Atlanta Revival is part of an emerging network of Indonesian Anabaptist congregations. It’s a church of about 80 people, most of whom came to Atlanta following the political, religious and economic turbulence that jettisoned many Indonesian Christians toward life in the United States to seek peace and prosperity through religious and political asylum.

It’s a long stretch to imagine that the Swiss/German immigrant and farmer foreparents of our Conference would have imagined we’d be here in this glistening and ambling metropolitan area. However, we’re following the path of pursuing Franconia Conference’s people as they move out into the world, up Germantown Pike, up the Skippack Creek, up the Northeast Extension. This is different now though as Indonesian immigrants have migrated mostly to the big cities of the East Coast and are now grafting their future into our long history of migration and settling.

Atlanta Revival Center is a vibrant and committed congregation. Worship is energetic and similar to other Indonesian Christian congregations. Prayer is sincere. Music is passionate and movement is carefully choreographed. Worship flows with ease. There is prayer for persons in the congregation, prayer for local and global situations, recognition of economic struggle. The congregation’s expenditures and receipts are posted on the wall monthly. Worship is a commingling of Bahasa Indonesian and English. The congregation wants to connect with Franconia Conference because of other connections with the Indonesian Anabaptist community in Philadelphia. The church is socio-economically diverse including entrepreneurs, professionals who work at Emory University, persons working in the distribution hubs of Atlanta, and those who work at Chinese restaurants

However, one uniqueness about Atlanta Revival is their commitment to being together. The Sunday morning I visited along with Pastor Ertell Whigham and Beny Krisbianto from Nations Worship Center in Philadelphia, we met again for teaching at 11:30pm in the midst of a driving rainstorm. I led the equipping conversation and we nibbled on a small scale Chinese buffet. I returned back from worship around 2am.

The next day, Pastor Ertell and Beny met with a second offshoot group within the congregation. This group meets at midnight on Mondays. It’s intended to work around the schedule of those persons who work second shift. It proved too taxing to do these services on Sunday nights. The group includes persons who have recently converted from Islam and many who are natives of the island of Sulawesi where Christian/Muslim conflict has been intense over the last decade.

It’s a privilege to introduce this congregation briefly, to begin to build the connections between communities that will be essential to our life together as a conference as we spread up and down the coast, from Vermont to Atlanta, following Christ as we follow our relationships with each other, to bring forth a glimpse of God’s reign together.

Pending the blessing of the delegates at this year’s conference assembly, Atlanta Revival Center will become the largest Mennonite Church USA congregation in Georgia. And the history of our connection as we spread from and through Philadelphia, as immigrants and exiles will continue and manifest once again. May God’s peace and grace be upon us.

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Sheldon Good, Salford

Many of my college friends have worked their same respective summer jobs for years. Though I worked for the same company through four years of high school, I have considered my summer arrangements quite varied.

But I came to a striking realization this summer: I have been a Franconia Conference intern for four straight summers. Most interns serve somewhere, process their experience, and move on. For me, after four years, I’m still serving, processing, and only beginning to move on.

All I’ve done every summer since my first year at Goshen College is work as a Franconia Conference intern. I mean this in the best way possible. My work has varied, though my title as an intern has not. Some would say I’m an internship addict. Maybe I am. But through what other organization could I gain such diverse experience?

I road-tripped through numerous cities including Philadelphia; Washington, D.C.; Pittsburgh; New York City; Bethany, Ver.; New Haven, Conn.; Goshen, Ind.; Minneapolis; Des Moines, Iowa.

I sat at the desk of Peter Jennings and Charles Gibson (the closest I will likely get to my childhood dream of becoming a television news anchor).

I served meals and listened to stories from homeless persons in downtown Toronto

I sloshed through the rain with Anglican brothers and sisters in England, and spent more time getting to than being in Northern Ireland.

I heard prayers in Spanish and Arabic as I visited Ancient Andalusian mosques, synagogues, and cathedrals.

I sipped sugary mint tea with fellow interns along the southern coast of Spain and deserts of Morocco; and I sipped cafe con leche with a Bergey brother in Barcelona.

I commuted through traffic, toll booths, and potholes, from my house in Telford to ASSETS Montco in Norristown almost every day for eight weeks during summer 2008.

I worshipped with an emerging congregation of Indonesian immigrants at a house church in Western Pennsylvania

I revisited my roots with trips to the historic Germantown Mennonite Church; and the Mennonite Heritage Center in Harleysville, a place I had never been, even though I knowingly pass by it every Sunday on my way from Telford to Salford Mennonite Church.

I agonized through the pains of a sore back, wrists, and rear-end after countless hours in front of my computer at home and at the conference office in Souderton.

I spent more time in Philadelphia than along the Route 113 corridor.

I caught glimpses of God through these experiences (and many others which go unnamed), a testimony to the work of the Holy Spirit.

I have been part of four different groups of interns, but none as cosmopolitan as the summer 2009 crew. This summer, we spoke English, Spanish, Indonesian, and Burmese. We served from South Philly, up the Northeast Extension to the suburbs, and out Interstate 80 to Goshen and Denver. The females outnumbered the males for the first time in my interning career.

Some interns have completed one year of college, while others will soon hold graduate degrees. Some are considering what it means to be Mennonite, while others are considering how to explain what it means to be Mennonite. Our vocational aspirations vary as well, though we have all confirmed the possibility of ministry.

Though initial forecasts were down, Franconia Conference supported 18 young adult interns this summer, which matches the same record-setting number from summer 2008. We are the summer 2009 class of interns. We caught glimpses of God. At times, we wondered where God was. Hear our voices:

Jordan Delp…I was out for a walk and felt that I should walk up a street. I turned the corner, and saw what looked like a man sitting on a chair on his porch. I figured I would go talk to him. As I approached, it became clear that the person was a woman. She was on the phone. I walked past the house, crossed the street, and turned around. As I loitered, unsure of what to do, she finished her conversation and called out to me, beginning a very wisdom-filled conversation that was exactly what I needed. Two days later, I returned to this woman. The previous day, she had told me to soul-search and ask God for direction, because I told her that I was confused about important things (heaven, God’s will, integrity). I returned with a general idea, but sure it wasn’t what she was looking for. It didn’t matter, she was under the influence of something and had trouble stringing sentences together. As I left, I think she yelled to me that I’m a “lost soul.”

Bianca Prunes…I saw God in one child in the camp whose name is Lee. Lee consistently got into fights. At one point is was daily; he saw any chance to fight. Then one day, an argument broke out, and Lee just turned away and said, “I dont want to fight you. Fighting is stupid.” Lee walked away from the fight. It was amazing. After that, Lee was the first to break up fights and inform counselors if one was starting. Total transformation. However, I didn’t see God when a young man in the neighborhood was shot and killed in a drive-by.

Yonathan Setiewan…While at PPC, God gave me the chance to help others and share my belief in Christ. I worked as a translator, in the church office, with the ESL ministry, and with immigration. I know I am following God. The love of God and a way to minister through it all, God fills me so full every time I serve people and the Lord. Living in a big city like Philadelphia felt so crowded to me. I cannot think and live in a big city. In Indonesia I grew up in a suburb. And now I go to a small college. I feel more comfortable and see God in the small town rather than in the big city.

Danilo Sanchez…I was asked to help with the Community Outreach program on Thursday nights. I soon learned that not many kids are interested in coming during the summer. One night I was surprised to have about eight or ten kids. Things quickly got out of hand. They rode their bikes in the gym, went into the kitchen, and beat up on each other. They didn’t feel like listening to me and thought they could take over the place. It was a challenge for me to establish authority and control. I felt abandoned being the only one there, but I did my best to remain calm. I was glad to have help come later but left that night wondering if I was really cut out for youth ministry. It had been a long week, and I felt very overwhelmed and helpless. Afterward, I went to the prayer room. I needed to be filled with the Holy Spirit again and find rest in God. It felt good to be wrapped in his arms and be reminded that I don’t have to rely on my own strength, but can accomplish all things by his power.

Crystal Zook…I saw God in the people of the church. In the little boy who would give me a thumbs up and say “chido” (cool) when I asked how he was doing. In my host family who let me share their house for two months. In the many conversations we had with the ladies of our English class. In the blending of languages and cultures in Philadelphia Praise Center. In all the members of the church who accepted me as part of the family, and graciously helped me when I forgot my Indonesian and Spanish. In all the smiling faces at church on Sunday morning and throughout the week, even though their lives are much harder than mine. In working with other interns and seeing how we changed over the summer as we got to know each other better. I saw God in each and every person I interacted with this summer.

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Maria Byler

I have been hard pressed to find a clear and concise way of saying what I did for my Ministry Inquiry Program assignment.

I worked for the Mennonite church –– but I didn’t work in a church. I worked with a group of people of faith who care about recent immigrants and I worked with immigrants who are people of faith. I tried to help discover how Franconia Conference congregations can align their practices regarding immigrants with their values of welcoming the stranger and loving our neighbor as ourselves. And I tried to fit my own thoughts into the already buzzing conversations in this diverse and changing conference.

Though I can’t express the work I did in a few sentences, one theme keeps calling my attention: issues are more real to us when we live them or when people we know live them.

Here are some examples from my summer…

Part of my time was spent listening to stories of people of faith who are from other countries.

The people in our churches who have come here themselves from Mexico, Indonesia, China, India, El Salvador, the Congo can give those of us who were born in the U.S. a lot of insight. They have personal knowledge of values and customs that we can benefit from. Their stories of coming to the United States and experiences of the immigration process give our conference areas to act. I saw all of this happening this summer.

Through hearing these stories, I became friends with the tellers. Through our relationship, the stories became more significant to me. The excitement they bring and the problems they face have shaped what I care about.

One example in particular has affected me very much. I got to know one church family very well. I heard about the village in Mexico where they grew up, and the difficulties they faced that drove them to leave. I heard about their struggles with English, with immigration, and with paying their rent. That relationship is a huge part of why I care about immigration. It’s also a huge part of why I think personal experiences are important.

I also spent a lot of time hearing what experiences move those born in the United States to care about the issue of immigration. Some who are born in the U.S. see the issue through the teachings and stories of the Bible, which emphasize hospitality. Some want fairness for immigrants because of the experience of their ancestors – many Mennonites share a history of immigration in search of religious freedom, and feel they can personally identify. And others who are from the U.S. have relationships with immigrants as I did, hear their life experiences, and are moved.

We each have had different experiences, and we know different stories. Even the experiences we have move us to see issues differently.

What experiences have you had that have changed what you care about? What stories have you heard that have changed what you care about?

I thank God for the ways we are changed by the stories of our brothers and sisters, and I pray that our individual experiences shape us as a body to be more and more Christ-like.

Maria Byler served as a Ministry Inquiry Program participant this summer through Franconia Conference working on issues of immigration awareness and solidarity. Nearly half of Franconia Conference congregations are faced with issues of immigration and migration on a daily basis. She worked with a variety of initiatives based in Philadelphia and worshiped with Cento de Alabanza de Filadefia (Philadelphia Praise Center) who helped provide housing for her this summer.

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Blooming Glen

• Benjamin Bergey (Blooming Glen) spent his summer with his home congregation as part of his studies at Eastern Mennonite University. Bergey will enter his junior year at EMU as a double major in church music and vocal performance.

Church of the Overcomer

• Julianne McDonald (Church of the Overcomer) interned with the Church of the Overcomer this summer. McDonald will begin her sophomore year this fall at Cabrini College, where she studies business management and social work.

• Morgan Moore (Church of the Overcomer) was an Ministry Inquiry Program participant this summer with the Church of the Overcomer. This fall, Moore will be a senior elementary education major at Kutztown University.

First Mennonite of Denver

• Jordan Delp (Swamp) spent his summer at First Mennonite Church of Denver through the Ministry Inquiry Program. Delp will enter his fourth year at Goshen College, where he is an English education major.

Franconia Conference

• Sheldon Good (Salford) spent his fourth consecutive summer as a Franconia Conference intern. Good graduated in May from Goshen College with degrees in communication (public relations concentration) and business. He is currently an intern with Sojourners Magazine in Washington, D.C.

• Maria Byler (Benton Mennonite, Goshen, IN) interned this summer with Franconia Conference through the Ministry Inquiry Program. This fall, Byler began her senior year at Goshen College as a social work major.

New Hope Fellowship/Nueva Esperanza

• Claudia Esmerelda Sanchez (New Hope Fellowship/Nueva Esperanza) served for the second summer with New Hope Fellowship/Nueva Esperanza in Alexandria, Virginia through Mennonite Central Committee. Sanchez is a student in international relations at Northern Virginia Community College. She plans to attend George Mason University after graduation.

• Monica Solis (New Hope Fellowship/Nueva Esperanza) is a high school student who learned and served through Eastern Mennonite University’s LEAP365 program. This summer she traveled to New Orleans to learn of the effects of Hurricane Katrina on the community. During the school year she will participate in a mentorship and a service project next summer.

Oxford Circle

• Bianca Prunes (Oxford Circle) served at Oxford Circle this summer through the Mennonite Central Committee summer service program. Prunes will graduate next year from Carver High School of Engineering and Science.

• Annali Smucker (East Chestnut Street Mennonite, Akron, Pa.) interned this summer at the Oxford Circle congregation and Oxford Circle Christian Community Development Association through the Ministry Inquiry Program. Smucker will return to Goshen College this fall to finish her degrees in art and interdisciplinary studies (Bible and religion, history, and psychology).

Philadelphia Praise Center

• Evelyn Kurniadi (Philadelphia Praise Center) served at Philadelphia Praise Center this summer through Mennonite Central Committee. Kurniadi is a graduate student at Philadelphia Biblical University.

• Yonathan Setiawan (Kudus/Central Java/Indonesia, Muria Indonesia/GKMI) was an Ministry Inquiry Program participant at Philadelphia Praise Center this summer. Setiawan will begin his senior year this fall at Bluffton University, where he studies youth ministry.

• Crystal Zook (James Street Mennonite, Lancaster, Pa.) interned this summer at Philadelphia Praise Center through the Ministry Inquiry Program. This fall, Zook will be a senior at Goshen College, where she is a double major in history and peace, justice, and conflict studies.

• Pa Yaw (Myanmar, Baptist) was an intern at Philadelphia Praise Center this summer. Yaw is a graduate student at Princeton Theological Seminary.

• Mun Pan (Myanmar, Baptist) interned at Philadelphia Praise Center this summer. Pan is a graduate student in theological studies at Princeton Theological Seminary.

Souderton

• Danilo Sanchez (Boyertown) interned for his second consecutive summer with Franconia Conference, this time with the Souderton congregation through the Ministry Inquiry Program. Sanchez will graduate in May 2010 from Eastern University with degrees in youth ministry and theology.

Walnut Hill

• Lauren Derstine (Blooming Glen) lived in Goshen, In. this summer as an intern with the Walnut Hill congregation. Derstine will remain in Goshen this fall as she begins her junior year at Goshen College as an American sign language interpreting major.

Zion

• Greg Yoder (Perkasie) was an intern at Zion Mennonite Church this summer through the Ministry Inquiry Program. Yoder graduated in May with a music education degree but will return to Goshen this fall to complete his student teaching.

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Peter Brubaker, Franconia

I met a friend named Samuel Loupe in Asuncion, Paraguay. The funny thing is that he is not from Asuncion, or from Paraguay, or even from South America. He does not speak conversational English, and he does not speak Spanish…so verbal communication between us was not very successful. He and I did not have any mutual friends, and had no particular reason to meet each other except for the fact that God put us in the same dormitory building during the week of “Congreso Mundial Menonita (Mennonite World Conference) 2009 en Asuncion, Paraguay.”

This is how I met him…

Each morning, everyone from the dormitory (called Comite Olimpico, it was normally used as a facility for various sports teams) would meander down to the dining hall for breakfast. It was most natural to sit with my group of American youth and young adult friends that I was traveling with, but I was there at the conference to meet new people. When this smiling African man pointed to the chair beside me and said something or another, I made sure to welcome him to the table, speaking in English or Spanish, and passing him some bread and jam. We spent a bit of time introducing ourselves and trying to figure out which language worked the best between us. This mostly consisted of showing each other our name tags, which had our country of origin and primary language, Samuel Loupe was from Congo-Brazzaville and spoke French.

Of course, it was about this time that I was starting to realize the full extent of my limited ability to communicate at this world conference, even though I am somewhat fluent in the Spanish language. I was thankful for an English-speaking Canadian that was able to fill me in on some of the history of the two Congo nations (The Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo), since he had been a missionary there for several years.

Samuel and I went through the week being friends on a mostly non-verbal basis, and I politely wrote down my email address in his little contact book even though, I hate to admit, I didn’t think we would ever write to each other. At the end of the week, as folks who stayed in El Comite Olimpico were saying goodbye, Samuel gave me a gift. I smiled and thanked him very much for the gift, saying that I was sorry I didn’t have anything to give him in return.

But as I came to full realization of what he had given me, I was left wondering what exactly it was, and, unfortunately, feeling slightly annoyed that I would have to carry this thing around in my baggage through all of the six remaining flights on my trip. I showed my friends, and nobody could figure out exactly what this wicker-basket-like-vase-thing-with-a-round-bottom was supposed to be used for. I started calling it my “useless vase.” I had even joked that I was going to leave it somewhere in Peru.

However, the closer and closer I got to home with it, and the more times I told people about my “useless vase” (since I often carried it in my hand rather than putting it in my luggage, where it might get crushed), the more I came to realize how much purpose this gift had really been given. This gift symbolized a connection that we have with our brothers and sisters in Christ that are scattered all over the world, with different skin color, different cultures, and different languages. Just because I can’t understand somebody does not mean that God does not speak to them, and it does not mean that we cannot be literal friends.

After being home in Pennsylvania for a few weeks, I was surprised to receive an email from Samuel! I am not exactly sure how, but we have been able to exchange a few emails in English since then, and I would like to pass on his prayer requests for his church in their fight against sexual violence, as well as their plans to build a new chapel.

“…I do the course of english and if God let, the day where we will be togather again, we will speak a lot in the lively voice..” – Samuel Loupe, in an email written to me.

May God continue to use the useless vase!

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Charlotte Rosenberger, Plains

A highlight of attending Mennonite World Conference in July was to observe firsthand the miracle of the Mennonites in Paraguay.

Months of reading the stories of Mennonite migrations to Paraguay (1927-1947) were etched in my heart and mind before this journey began. Up from the Rubble by Peter and Elfrieda Dyck and Garden in the Wilderness and Like a Mustard Seed by Edgar Stoesz told their stories–groups of refugees from Germany, Russia and Canada with journeys through war and hardships to the only country in the world that would take them– Paraguay. The hardships did not end when they arrived as immigrants in Paraguay. There was typhoid fever, war in the Chaco between Paraguay and Bolivia (1932-35), crop failures from drought, flooding, and grasshoppers.

How did they get through all this? Thousands emigrated back to Canada or Germany or East Paraguay– but most stayed. It was their strength of community and their faith in God that held them together and propelled them forward.

My husband, Henry, remembers as a young child in the 1950’s when some men from the colonies in Paraguay came to Franconia Conference as part of a North American tour to raise money. They needed money for credit to buy farm machinery to tame the “Green Hell”, as the landlocked Chaco wilderness of western Paraguay was nicknamed. They sat at his parents kitchen table, telling their stories.

Now we are privileged to see this miracle with our own eyes. Our Tour ‘Magination bus with Edgar Stoesz as our storyteller traveled west from Asunción, 250 miles on the Trans Chaco highway (which Mennonite Pax participants helped build in the 1960’s), to spend two days in the colonies of Menno and Fernheim and the indigenous village of Yalve Sanga. The landscape is barren and dusty with bottle trees and scrub brush. It is winter. They have had a drought this past season with a poor crop yield.

We attended a Mennonite Brethren joint church service in Filadelphia on Sunday evening, in German, Spanish and indigenous languages. We were told it was the first time they had such a service. We visited schools, museums, a craft expo, retirement community, hospitals, dairy, peanut processing and storage, co-op store––institutions that would look good in our communities.

When the first Mennonite settlers arrived in the Chaco, they weren’t told that indigenous peoples lived there. They learned to know and work with the indigenous tribes, who had no concept of land ownership. Today, indigenous people own land, have their own co-op, schools and hospital, though many work in the colonies. Each ethnic group has preserved their own culture and language in their churches. At first glance, it seemed like segregated communities. We learned, however, that the German people valued their language and culture and felt equally strongly about preserving indigenous language and culture.

The “co-op” in each colony owns the land, builds and runs the institutions, provides health care and community infrastructure. It is the current day example of the early church in Acts. For example, the hospital at Kilometer 81, a thank you gift to Paraguay for giving them a home when there was nowhere else to go, is world renowned in the treatment of leprosy. The facility is funded by the co-op and staffed by many volunteers from the colony providing largely free services.

Planning for this Mennonite World Conference brought together in new ways the eight conferences that participated (German, Spanish, Indigenous). The combined choir of German, Spanish and Indigenous members sang together on the last evening illustrating this coming together in a beautiful way.

The communion service shared together on the last evening brought Anabaptist believers from around the world together with tears of joy. We are brothers and sisters together in Jesus Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit.

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