First Mennonite Church, Iowa City

Hello again, this time from the Kalona-Iowa City area. We’ve been spending the last week or so at Mark’s parents’ farm. They’ve been wonderful and generous as they’ve fed us, housed us, and even did our laundry for us! They’ve also provided helpful feedback for our service last Sunday at First Mennonite in Iowa City. Thank you to Noreen and Ken for your hospitality, you went above and beyond the call of duty.
We also saw and heard about the recent flooding in Iowa City. Sandbags were still present, some bridges were still closed, and on some buildings we could see the water marks above the doors. The rivers were still very high, but for the most part the flooding had abated. Apparently this flood was a 500-year flood, meaning it happens every 500 years or so. However, Iowa Citians joked that Des Moines had a 500-year flood in 1993, which was only fifteen years ago.
Because the flood was so present in the consciousness of Iowa City residents, we tied the worship service to these current events. Mark, Randy, and Elizabeth designed a visual that included a pile of sandbags and a pair of boots, and Mark mentioned the flooding in his sermon. This was Mark’s first time to preach in a congregational setting, but he did an excellent job. He had taken a Preaching class at AMBS last spring, and our group has definitely benefited from Mark’s experience in the class. He used Micah 4.1-4 as his primary text, and talked about how Jesus shows us the way to fulfill Micah’s vision.
I led the Sunday School hour, which actually ran closer to forty minutes. I started off by reviewing Mark’s sermon, and then used Acts 10 to reflect about how God is working for transformation, for peace, for reconciliation-for shalom-in our lives and in the world. After that, we heard stories from First Mennonite of when they participated or observed God’s shalom in action, and also a few stories where they felt like they had “dropped the ball.”
Metaphorically, of course. We were not playing “catch” during Sunday School.
Anyways, I think our first weekend went pretty well, although we have a lot of room for improvement. We’ll be tweaking things the rest of week as we prepare to lead worship with Sermon on the Mount Mennonite Church in Sioux Falls, SD. We’ll arrive in Sioux Falls on Thursday, after we’ve picked up Jess in Nebraska. We’re planning to camp for two nights at Lake Manawa, which I believe is just south of Council Bluffs, IA. That’s something I should figure out, since we’re leaving in three hours. Maybe I’ll go do that.

Matt Troyer-Miller