Sat Night with Lower Deer Creek

Saturday night we participated in a young adult/youth gathering sponsored by Lower Deer Creek Mennonite Church, Kalona, Iowa. We were welcomed with hot dogs and lemonade and joined a group of about 25 in worship. After a nice set of music led by folks from Lower Deer Creek I led the group in a short teaching.

My words were influenced by a book I’m reading by Walter Brueggemann, Peace. In his book Brueggemann defines God’s vision for Shalom as “all of creation is one, every creature in community with every other, living in harmony and security toward the joy and wellbeing of every other creature.” I compared this description with that of the Isaiah vision of the lion and the lamb together (Isaiah 11:4-9). Essentially God has a vision for creation. This vision concerns more than our individual lives, but the lives of the community, the collective body of all of God’s creation. And too often that vision is not being acted out, as people of God we are tempted to live for ourselves and not for this collective vision. We value our orderly lives more than we value God’s vision of security and harmony. Of justice and of peace. We take for granted that homes are being foreclosed and families are left homeless. We take for granted that there are people in this country who work 40 hours a week and are not making a living wage. We take for granted that war is assumed to be the only answer for national security in the USA. These things are not normal and they are not part of God’s vision.

In spite of this, if we look and listen there is clear evidence that God is working for peace and for security and for justice and for harmony. And we can all take part of this vision when we chose to build relationships, and to call out things that are not normal and to live our lives with the realization of God’s Kingdom here and now.

We spent time sharing stories of people and communities who opened themselves to God working through them to bring Shalom. They were stories of communities working together, of newly formed relationships between those who disagree, and how working for Shalom is not always an easy thing to do.

Our evening concluded with more music and great fellowship. Thanks Lower Deer Creek!

Central Plains Mennonite Conference Highlights

This past weekend was great! A couple times during the Central Plains Mennonite Conference I thought to myself how much I wished there would be a thousand or two more attendees from our conference churches to take advantage of this fun, spiritually engaging, well planned event.
We had a GREAT speaker during our worship sessions, Michelle Hershberger, I learned some new songs from the worship band, and a there was long list of applicable workshops to choose from. I attended one workshop called Fostering Peace in the Family which looked at child rearing methods that help our children develop into strong, reassured young people that can make positive decisions and work with conflict in healthy ways. Thanks to all those who worked hard to put together such a good conference!
I also got to spend time with the youth and young adult attendees this weekend. The Seeds of the Kingdom who were able to attend (Jess, Randy, and I) agreed to present one of our workshops (Called to be a Dirk) for the youth. Jess did a great job of putting together the workshop and leading us through some challenges toward personal growth.
With Shana Boshart, the conference youth pastor, we led games and activities for the youth during the conference and even checked out some live music downtown during the 4 day event. Sunday morning we worshiped with First Mennonite Church of Lincoln and headed out, soon to begin our tour. In fact, this Saturday we'll be at a youth gathering organized by Lower Deer Creek church of south east Iowa.
Sunday morning (June 29th)Randy, Matt, Elizabeth and I will be at First Mennonite Church of Iowa City (my home congregation) where I'll bring the message and we will lead worship together.

Be sure to check out the next Scattered Seeds edited by Myrna Wenger for the "official" recap of the 2008 annual conference and thanks again for your prayers and support of this trip.


Mark

Central Plains Conference

This past weekend three of the five members from the Seeds of the Kingdom team attended the Central Plains Conference in Lincoln Nebraska. (Matt and Elizabeth were finishing up their Anabaptist history tour in Europe) It was a wonderful time of meeting members and leaders in the conference, getting to know some youth and young adults, and being challenged to an authentic faith that builds community through hospitality, humility and hope. The three day conference also had business meetings, workshops, and evening activities to fill out the time.

Our team was able to lead a workshop for youth called “Who Wants to be a Dirk?” As we told the story of Dirk Williams, we challenged the participants to live out a difficult but important commandment to love our enemies - something that will surely make us counter cultural to the society we live in. There were lots of other highlights as well. Whether it was Michele Hershberger’s challenging sermons in the worship services, the table talks that brought up difficult issues in the business meetings, or playing ultimate Frisbee with the youth Friday night.

Overall, a highlight was simply being able to meet so many different people from the Central Plains Conference. For me, being from Pennsylvania and a member of the Lancaster Conference, it was especially nice to be able to put a “face” on the Central Plains, and their members. I witnessed first hand just how hospitable and welcoming these people are. Im especially thinking of people like Kim and Sheila Eberspacher who welcomed us into their home for three nights, and the Burkey family who is donating their van to our team this summer so that we have a way to travel around. Finally, Im grateful to the many people I saw and conversed with at conference who I hope I can better get to know this summer as we make it to their home communities and churches. (Im already signed up for a 5 mile run with Dean, a youth from Montana!). To the Central Plains, thank you for welcoming us to your conference, and I am excited to fellowship more with you this coming summer.

Busy Lives

It took me about three hours to figure out how to make a new post for this blog. I'm not sure why technology is so hard for me sometimes. Maybe I'd be better if I spent more quality time with this computer and the Internet, since practice makes perfect.

Anyways, an update on plans for this summer. Elizabeth and I have moved everything out of Elkhart, and now are officially homeless. It's a little inaccurate to say we've moved everything out of Elkhart, since many of our things are in her aunt and uncle's attic. We no longer have an apartment there, however, and are preparing ourselves mentally for the transition from life in Elkhart to life in Shickley, Nebraska. Yes, it's true, somehow I've managed to convince Elizabeth it's a good idea to move to Shickley...far from all hills and trees. Elizabeth is from Pennsylvania, which is a completely different landscape than southeast Nebraska, as many of you know.

After Seeds of the Kingdom disbands at the end of September, Elizabeth and I will move to Shickley. Yes, we have a place to live. No, we don't have jobs yet. We'll see how things go. At this point, we plan to be there for three years living and working in Shickley, getting involved with Salem Mennonite Church, hanging out with my family, and doing some follow-up work with Central Plains Conference. We're not completely sure what form that will take, but Elizabeth and I anticipate we'll visit some of the same churches we visit this summer, continue building relationships, and keep encouraging churches to live out the gospel of peace. Elizabeth is also looking at Masters programs in Social Work within driving distance of Shickley, so she may start graduate school as well. After three years, we hope to have discerned more of our calling as Christians and what steps we should take to be better followers of Jesus. This could be graduate school, seminary, service with Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) or Mennonite Mission Network.

Eh, who knows. We'll make those decisions when the time comes. For now, we are busy planning for the summer (we still have a lot of things to do yet!), but we have a trip to Europe with Elizabeth's family first. Her dad received a grant for his sabbatical from University Mennonite Church (State College, PA), and part of the grant funded a trip to Europe for him and the entire family to study Mennonite History. We'll be gone June 10-24, and immediately after we return to the States we drive out to Kalona, Iowa and start our summer. Should be fun, and more than a little crazy.

As an added note, check out the June 23, 2008 edition of the Mennonite Weekly Review. Rumor is there will be an article about Seeds of the Kingdom...