So we see that heeding God’s call can mean leaving home and all that is familiar. It can demand our accumulated wealth and security or dare us to place our blessings, even our lives, at risk. It can also mean simply living where we are but with an entirely new set of priorities. In every case, our particular vocation in God’s service arises from our response to the basic call to radical availability.–Gerritt Scott Dawson
The above quote illuminated the screen in the auditorium at Christopher Dock Mennonite High School on Thursday of Spiritual Life Week last month. I was attending mostly to support my friend, Lana Miller, who was leading the week. But as I read the quote and allowed its meaning to sink in, tears rose to my eyes.
It seemed to be the culmination of the stirrings that my recent experience as a chaperone with Eastern Mennonite Seminary’s LEAP program had ignited. While leading my group and experiencing Guatemala I learned to live in a way that valued relationship over task and inspired me to give God and the people of God the priority in my life. Finally, this re-prioritization I had been struggling to understand and manifest in my life made sense. I now understood that I was being inspired by God to learn to be “radically available” right where I am “but with an entirely new set of priorities.”
This issue of Intersections includes a series of stories with few common threads but all of them are inspiring stories of the people of Franconia Conference becoming “radically available” to wherever and whatever God calls them.
Emily Graber, Lauren Derstine, Brendon Derstine, and Larissa Landis all listened to the shoulder-tapping call to not only risk going away from home to ask tough questions about faith and find the answers, serve another community, and interact with new people but were also willing to serve and learn right where they were.
The congregations at Plains Mennonite Church, Oxford Circle Mennonite Church, and New Beginnings Community Church found ways to be radically available to God by making outreach in their communities a priority through creative summer programing.
West Philadelphia Mennonite Fellowship’s new pastor, Lorie Hershey, tells the story of continually saying “yes” to God’s call to dance with the Lord wherever he may lead. While Pastor Paulus of Plains Mennonite Church shares how his relationship with Christ has inspired a life of holy fear and faithful obedience.
Conference Related Ministries—Community Home Services,Penn View Christian School, and Camp Men-O-Lan—have all shared stories of staff, volunteers, and students who recognized Dawson’s assertion that, “In every case, our particular vocation in God’s service arises from our response to the basic call to radical availability.”
Community Home Services Executive Director Diane Tihansky highlights the radical service of CHS Nurse Aide, Lori Detweiler who has been working above and beyond her job to raise funds for low-income clients. Penn View Christian School’s 7th grade Science teacher, Harry Anselmo, found a fun way to not only provide a memorable lesson in science but also helped his students “deepen their appreciation for God’s creation while interacting with and engaging in discussions about the wonder of God’s unique design.” And Camp Men-O-Lan highlighted how Finland Mennonite Church’s youth were radically available to the camp this summer. They not only provided meaningful support to the camp and its campers but also grew in faith and confidence through their service.
Finally, this issue of Intersections provides the profile of this year’s Conference Assembly keynote speaker, Gilberto Flores, who never imagined that his work with the Mennonite church in Guatemala “would one day [lead him to] be called to work with churches in the United States.” I’d guess he never imagined that his radical availability would also help inspire my own radical availability to God when he volunteered to lead the LEAP Guatemala trip that I accompanied this past summer. Gilberto’s spirit and example while leading in our exploration of Guatemala–its churches, and its people inspired me to strive to see God and the world through his eyes.
These stories inspire us all to hear God’s invitation to radical availability, wherever we are.
When Gilberto Flores first began working with the Mennonite Church in Guatemala, he didn’t imagine that he would one day be called to work with churches in the United States.
“Walking with God as a pilgrim is always the most unpredictable way to get what is predictable,” says Gilberto, who will be the keynote speaker at this fall’s Conference Assembly Gathered.
Gilberto, who presently serves as a denominational minister for Mennonite Church USA (MCUSA), first began pastoring in his native Guatemala and eventually became the president of the Guatemalan Mennonite Church. He also served as the dean at Semilla, an Anabaptist seminary located in Guatemala City, before moving to the United States to help start a Mennonite congregation in San Antonio, Texas, in 1993. It was his work with the Texas congregation that led him to become more involved in the United States on a denominational level.
In 1996, the Commission on Home Ministries of the General Conference Mennonite Church invited Gilberto to serve as director for two prog-
rams, Hispanic Resource Ministries and Anabaptist Biblical Institute. When MCUSA was formed, he continued on as a denominational minister.
Gilberto’s work with MCUSA is two-fold: he works as the director for missional church advancement, and helps to connect MCUSA with other Mennonite agencies.
“My work is to be a connector,” says Gilberto, “to promote, stimulate, and inspire congregations and conferences, leadership and staff to become more open, aware, and engaged with the missional church identity.”
Gilberto’s passion for a missional and multicultural church will be the focus of his meditation for Assembly Gathered, to be held at Franconia Mennonite Church on Nov. 9-10. Gilberto will speak from the text of Acts 11:19-26 on the theme for this year, “Embracing God’s Mission.”
“I hope that what I will share will move people to see the conference and congregations with more openness and awareness of the challenges and the conflicts with a missional perspective,” says Gilberto.
“Gilberto brings a depth of wisdom, insight, and experience to his work as denominational minister,” says Conference Executive Minister Noel Santiago. “From his journey in Guatemala establishing, growing, and pastoring an Anabaptist congregation of 800-plus members, to engaging the powers with a persistent, prophetic word, Gilberto has experienced the joys and struggles of God’s people seeking to be missional in a variety of contexts. Gilberto’s theological training and formation, allows him to also bring a message that challenges us to consider anew the power behind the Anabaptist movement and history as a transformative vehicle not only for the church, but for the world.”
When Gilberto isn’t working, he enjoys carpentry, reading and spending time with his wife, children, and grandchildren. Gilberto and his wife, Rosa, are the parents of four adult children and the grandparents of three. They are members of First Mennonite Church in Newton, Kansas, and reside in nearby Hesston.
These images capture various aspects of historic re-enactments of Pennsylvania Dutch traditions from corn harvesting to weddings. Proceeds from the event went Mennonite Historians of Eastern Pennsylvannia, on October 8, 2007.
In the middle of July, I packed my bags and headed south to be an Orientation Leader for Eastern Mennonite Seminary’s LEAP program. LEAP, which stands for Learning, Exploring, and Participating, is a three week theological and cross-cultural exploration experience for high school students who have been recognized in their churches as rising leaders. The program guides students from urban, rural, and suburban backgrounds through a week of theological reflection focusing on where God is calling them and then sends them off to experience and witness how God is moving in another culture. This year the LEAP trips included Trinidad and Tobago, Mexico City, and Guatemala (my trip). As an Orientation Leader my job was to act as a chaperone, Resident Assistant, shepherd, guide, moral booster, encourager, friend, and Big Sister.
Just two weeks after I arrived in Virginia, including two long days of preparation and travel, I sat down to a home cooked meal at my new residence in Guatemala with a sigh of happy relief. We were here. We had successfully made it through a travel schedule that started at midnight (meaning leaders didn’t sleep much), three airports, an encounter with Pollo Campero (a well-known Guatemalan fast food restaurant), and a bumpy ride up to the camp where we would stay for the next five days. As we sat down to our meal I looked around the table and realized I was about to spend the next 11 days in Guatemala with some of the brightest and funniest young men and women I had ever met, a co-Orientation Leader whose company and perspective I enjoy, a pastor and her husband who are both thoughtful adults and hilarious big kids, and founding members of the Mennonite Church in Guatemala Gilberto and Rosa Flores. God had orchestrated a dream team for this trip and I was going to take Gilberto’s advice for our group to “enjoy the moment!”
As the days went on and we met moments of joy and moments of trial a theme began to arise among our small team; we all began to question. What is God doing in Guatemala? Where is God here? Where is God in my life? What would I say to someone who wants to know why they should be a Christian? What is God’s calling on my life? What is my purpose? How is this trip changing me? How is God moving even in places where it looks like God is not being honored? How can a people be so faithful in the midst of persecution and poverty? What are the motivations behind a church’s attempt to grow? How do others experience God’s calling? What are experiences with God and how can I recognize them? What are the parallels and the differences between the church in Guatemala and the United States? What does God have in store for the church in Guatemala?
I began to ask some of the same questions that the students on our trip were wrestling with too. One evening in the middle of our trip I sat down on the shore of Lake Petén Itzá with Gilberto and talked with him about the poverty in his native country as we watched women and men wash clothing and themselves in the lake as well as fill barrels for drinking water. As our conversation ended Gilberto went back to reading his newspaper and I sat silently reflecting that I had suddenly changed. I now had a new question that lingers with me: How can I go back to life as normal when I know more about the pain of this world and have allowed this experience to change me?
I am back here participating in my “normal” routine; I write blogs, edit articles, go to meetings, buy groceries, and hang out with friends but I am different. I think even more critically then I did before about where I spend my time and my money. I have found myself willing to sacrifice my hunger for adventure for a slower, more intentional life that values relationships over tasks. It is a focus to live in the moment being present right here, right now. (Click) to see photos.
So we see that heeding God’s call can mean leaving home and all that is familiar. It can demand our accumulated wealth and security or dare us to place our blessings, even our lives, at risk. It can also mean simply living where we are but with an entirely new set of priorities. In every case, our particular vocation in God’s service arises from our response to the basic call to radical availability.–Gerritt Scott Dawson
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Ken Burkholder, pastor at Deep Run East Mennonite Church near Perkasie, Pa, was ordained on September 16, 2007. Photos by Rachelle Trauger.
Nations Worship Center in South Philadelphia is a primarily Indonesian-speaking congregation with connections to Philadelphia Praise Center (website). Nations Worship has requested to join Franconia Conference at this year’s Conference Assembly.
The Philadelphia Praise Center hosted a Ramadan feast for the Indonesian Muslim community who were seeking a large facility in South Philadelphia on October 9, 2007.
Annual Apple Butter Frolic held at the Indian Creek Farm, nearly Harleysville, PA.
In the summer of 2007 Franconia Conference staff member Jessica Walter led a group of high school youth to Guatemala through Eastern Mennonite Seminary’s month long theological and cross-cultural encounter LEAP (Learning, Exploring, and Participating). The overall trip was led by Franconia Conference Assembly 2007 keynote speaker, Gilberto Flores and his wife Rosa. Also assisting in leading the trip was group pastor Lana Miller and Jessica’s co-Orientation Leader Jason Wagner, both of Harrisonburg, VA. Jessica traveled with the group of 9 students through Guatemala City, Antigua, Petén, and Cobán visiting multiple churches including two Mennonite congregations, the Mayan ruins of Tikal, staying at and painting a retreat center outside of Guatemala City, and hiking the Pacaya volcano which sports an active lava flow. During the entire program students reflected on their beliefs, the movement of the church in Guatemala, the movement of their home congregations, and how the cross-cultural experience was challenging and changing them. This photo gallery is a random assortment of the photos Jessica took while in Guatemala.
