Dear Friends,
We have done a poor job of wrapping up this blog from our summer adventures. It seems our abrupt ending here is a picture of how our tour came to a close. As with any short-term mission adventure, it's hard not to be sidetracked in the last few weeks with what's coming next. Well, here we are in the middle of October and none of us have written any final remarks.
Matt and I have landed in Shickley and our things are slowly settling into place. While our summer tour has ended we are looking forward to visiting two congregations in Milford, Nebraska. It won't be the same without our teammates, but their influence will be lasting.
Thank you to all of you who remembered us in prayer, who encouraged us along the way and who helped us out financially. It was a good summer.
If you have any questions about further reflections of what we've done, feel free to contact us: seedsofthekingdom@gmail.com.
Elizabeth
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Friday, October 3, 2008
Time to Reflect
Well our days are numbered now, we've made our rounds and have ended up in Pennsylvania. Last night we had the opportunity to do some reflecting with my home congregation, University Mennonite in State College, PA and we'll spend our weekend with Randy's home church, Gingerich's Mennonite.
The highlight this week was having two opportunities (in Goshen and State College) to reflect on our experiences this summer. It is amazing to look back on our summer. We put on a lot of miles, met lots of people and have learned so much.
Personally this summer has challenged me to put my faith to words in ways I haven't done before. I don't think that our faith should all be about words, but for me, as I have had to speak what I believe and why I choose to live the way I do, it becomes more real. God has become more real to me in the life of our small community. My team mates, Jess, Mark, Matt and Randy, have challenged me and encouraged me to live into my faith in God in new ways.
I appreciate so much what the larger church community has to offer. As Christians we can find comfort, support, accountability and trust in our communities of faith. Churches/congregations are not perfect, but I'm convinced that we need them. We need the corporate worshiping community to strengthen the personal faith, even if we don't always agree on the fine print.
Elizabeth
The highlight this week was having two opportunities (in Goshen and State College) to reflect on our experiences this summer. It is amazing to look back on our summer. We put on a lot of miles, met lots of people and have learned so much.
Personally this summer has challenged me to put my faith to words in ways I haven't done before. I don't think that our faith should all be about words, but for me, as I have had to speak what I believe and why I choose to live the way I do, it becomes more real. God has become more real to me in the life of our small community. My team mates, Jess, Mark, Matt and Randy, have challenged me and encouraged me to live into my faith in God in new ways.
I appreciate so much what the larger church community has to offer. As Christians we can find comfort, support, accountability and trust in our communities of faith. Churches/congregations are not perfect, but I'm convinced that we need them. We need the corporate worshiping community to strengthen the personal faith, even if we don't always agree on the fine print.
Elizabeth
Saturday, September 27, 2008
This Past Week
This past week has been overwhelmingly full. On one hand, we have had a great time relaxing. On the other we have been stretched and pushed with new perspectives and lots of reflecting. Let me backtrack.
A week ago on Friday we had just left our temporary home in the upstairs apartment of Martha and Darvin Yoder and arrived in Des Moines, Iowa for a final retreat of sorts. We allowed ourselves a night in a Marriot in downtown Des Moines by way of Priceline bidding. It was great. We went out for supper, walked around downtown, stayed up late snacking and playing Rook, then Saturday Jess, Matt and I went to the biggest Farmer's Marked I have ever been to. Needless to say, it was a nice way to take a break before we kicked life into high gear for these last two weeks.
Saturday afternoon we went back to work, putting final touches on some workshops before we met up with Pastor Kent McDougal and his wife Julie of Christ Community Church, Des Moines. At their home we met representatives of Jess and Randy's host families and spent a good hour talking and sharing who we are and what we're up to.
Christ Community is a recent member of the Conference (the past seven years or so); they had been nondenominational and wanted to connect to the larger church. After much study and discernment: reading the works of Hauerwas, Yoder and other Mennonite authors, conversations with different Mennonite leaders, they decided to join. Even with all our flaws, the Mennonite Church was a good fit for them.
We had a good weekend with them, as we enjoyed fellowship and good conversation over and over again. This congregation has worked hard at creating a community and being involved in each others lives.
Our encounter with Christ Community stands out as one where it was very apparent how our stories/histories and experiences with the church have shaped the Seeds and the folks of Christ Community to be wrestling with different things. In many older Mennonite congregations we have visited, we have been challenging folks to think and talk about peace, and connect it to the way they have been living their lives. We have encouraged people to reflect theologically on their lives, and to name the peacemaking activities they are already doing because it's hard for them to talk about faith. On the other hand, Christ Community feels they are good at talking about peace and theology, but find it's easier to talk and harder to act. Please note here, this summary feel like quite the generalization.
The other thing that impressed me about our visit was the difference in worship style. Christ Community is liturgical, and I like it! It was a nice change. During our tour this summer we have off and on used the Anabaptist Prayer Book as a devotional, I have come to appreciate the repetition of the words, and in the same way, I found I a lot of meaning in the repetition of the liturgy, although I know first hand from friends that repetition isn't always meaningful when it's a style that you don't choose and you just grow up in.
In our conversations, we heard folks from Christ Community emphasize the importance of the Eucharist and the of the Trinity. Two things I can honestly say I haven't given much thought to. The Trinity conversations most caught my attention.
I remember in High School after track practice one day standing with a group of people. Some were self-proclaimed agnostic, another an atheist, there were a few Catholics and Lutherans and an Assembly of God and me. We were talking about the Trinity, and to my memory this was the first time I had ever had a conversation about the Three in One. I even had to go home and ask my dad what Mennonites thought about the Trinity, that's how unsure of myself I was. Anyway, this story is to demonstrate how little emphasis I really felt on the Trinity in my own church experience. At Christ Community as we were talking about Shalom/peace as being relational and shalom as being peace in our relationship with God, and in our relationship with ourselves, in our relationship with others and in our relationship with all of creation, one of the pastors noted that, "even before creation and before humans, there was peace." He commented that the relationship between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is an example for community and for peace. Again, I really liked this perspective. It got me thinking about the Trinity. Though I have no more written thoughts to share at this time.
We left Christ Community on Sunday afternoon and headed West together for the last time, West to Jess's home congregation of Wood River Mennonite Church, Nebraska.
We've spent all week at Jess's home, working on our final report, debriefing, cleaning out our stinky van, and getting ready for our last weekend church engagement as a team of four. On Wednesday we spend part of the afternoon with the Pastor of Wood River Mennonite (Darrell) at the local care home. We ate some popcorn and sang some songs together with the Alzheimer unit. Later in the evening we gathered with the youth group to share You're Called to be a Dirk. We had a great time; look for some newly posted pictures!
I guess I've written enough for now; more reflections to come. On Monday morning Randy, Matt and I will be heading to Goshen and on Tuesday evening, at 8pm we'll be doing some sharing and reflecting on the third floor of the Wyse building at Goshen College. Please come if you're in the area! Then we'll keep heading East.
Elizabeth
A week ago on Friday we had just left our temporary home in the upstairs apartment of Martha and Darvin Yoder and arrived in Des Moines, Iowa for a final retreat of sorts. We allowed ourselves a night in a Marriot in downtown Des Moines by way of Priceline bidding. It was great. We went out for supper, walked around downtown, stayed up late snacking and playing Rook, then Saturday Jess, Matt and I went to the biggest Farmer's Marked I have ever been to. Needless to say, it was a nice way to take a break before we kicked life into high gear for these last two weeks.
Saturday afternoon we went back to work, putting final touches on some workshops before we met up with Pastor Kent McDougal and his wife Julie of Christ Community Church, Des Moines. At their home we met representatives of Jess and Randy's host families and spent a good hour talking and sharing who we are and what we're up to.
Christ Community is a recent member of the Conference (the past seven years or so); they had been nondenominational and wanted to connect to the larger church. After much study and discernment: reading the works of Hauerwas, Yoder and other Mennonite authors, conversations with different Mennonite leaders, they decided to join. Even with all our flaws, the Mennonite Church was a good fit for them.
We had a good weekend with them, as we enjoyed fellowship and good conversation over and over again. This congregation has worked hard at creating a community and being involved in each others lives.
Our encounter with Christ Community stands out as one where it was very apparent how our stories/histories and experiences with the church have shaped the Seeds and the folks of Christ Community to be wrestling with different things. In many older Mennonite congregations we have visited, we have been challenging folks to think and talk about peace, and connect it to the way they have been living their lives. We have encouraged people to reflect theologically on their lives, and to name the peacemaking activities they are already doing because it's hard for them to talk about faith. On the other hand, Christ Community feels they are good at talking about peace and theology, but find it's easier to talk and harder to act. Please note here, this summary feel like quite the generalization.
The other thing that impressed me about our visit was the difference in worship style. Christ Community is liturgical, and I like it! It was a nice change. During our tour this summer we have off and on used the Anabaptist Prayer Book as a devotional, I have come to appreciate the repetition of the words, and in the same way, I found I a lot of meaning in the repetition of the liturgy, although I know first hand from friends that repetition isn't always meaningful when it's a style that you don't choose and you just grow up in.
In our conversations, we heard folks from Christ Community emphasize the importance of the Eucharist and the of the Trinity. Two things I can honestly say I haven't given much thought to. The Trinity conversations most caught my attention.
I remember in High School after track practice one day standing with a group of people. Some were self-proclaimed agnostic, another an atheist, there were a few Catholics and Lutherans and an Assembly of God and me. We were talking about the Trinity, and to my memory this was the first time I had ever had a conversation about the Three in One. I even had to go home and ask my dad what Mennonites thought about the Trinity, that's how unsure of myself I was. Anyway, this story is to demonstrate how little emphasis I really felt on the Trinity in my own church experience. At Christ Community as we were talking about Shalom/peace as being relational and shalom as being peace in our relationship with God, and in our relationship with ourselves, in our relationship with others and in our relationship with all of creation, one of the pastors noted that, "even before creation and before humans, there was peace." He commented that the relationship between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is an example for community and for peace. Again, I really liked this perspective. It got me thinking about the Trinity. Though I have no more written thoughts to share at this time.
We left Christ Community on Sunday afternoon and headed West together for the last time, West to Jess's home congregation of Wood River Mennonite Church, Nebraska.
We've spent all week at Jess's home, working on our final report, debriefing, cleaning out our stinky van, and getting ready for our last weekend church engagement as a team of four. On Wednesday we spend part of the afternoon with the Pastor of Wood River Mennonite (Darrell) at the local care home. We ate some popcorn and sang some songs together with the Alzheimer unit. Later in the evening we gathered with the youth group to share You're Called to be a Dirk. We had a great time; look for some newly posted pictures!
I guess I've written enough for now; more reflections to come. On Monday morning Randy, Matt and I will be heading to Goshen and on Tuesday evening, at 8pm we'll be doing some sharing and reflecting on the third floor of the Wyse building at Goshen College. Please come if you're in the area! Then we'll keep heading East.
Elizabeth
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Happy Nebraskans
This is what you will see when you return two Nebraskans back to their homeland.
This was taken at the beginning of September on our way to Omaha.
This was taken at the beginning of September on our way to Omaha.
Elizabeth
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
“How are you supposed to cross this durn thing?”
Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over
the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go
through the sea on dry ground.
Exodus 14.16
Several weeks ago we were with Zion Mennonite Church of Donnellson, IA. Now, I have many excuses for why this post is about three weeks late, and I can assure you that all of my excuses are very good ones. I’ll save those for another day and begin with a “Seeds” group observation: the Mississippi River is about twenty miles from Donnellson, and the Mississippi is a large river. (Editors note: This is actually a picture of the Cedar River. The Mississippi is about 1,000 times bigger)
Why make this seemingly obvious statement? Throughout this summer we have heard time after time again how hard it is to recruit pastors to move west of the Mississippi. We’ve heard this from Conference Pastors, laypeople, and congregational pastors-this struggle may be the one thing that the people of the Central Plains Conference speak about with a unified voice.
I think the “Seeds” group gravitated towards psychological explanations as we tried to understand why this was so. Churches in Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota, Montana, Minnesota…they’re just too geographically isolated. Or they’re too small and can’t afford a full-time salaried pastor. Or they’re too far away from educational and professional opportunities. Or it’s too depressing watching small towns die. Or God doesn’t call pastors to the Midwest. I don’t know. Name the reason-no matter how outrageous-and we probably discussed how it affects someone’s willingness to move west.
But after observing the Mississippi River: it’s might, it’s strength, it’s girth, I now finally understand why the Central Plains Conference has such a hard time getting pastors to move west of the Mississippi…it’s a really big river. And as the Seeds of the Kingdom stood on the banks of the mighty Mississippi and contemplated the sheer volume of water held within the banks, the scales fell from our eyes we suddenly could see.
“How are you supposed to cross this durn thing?”
It would be a bad idea to try and swim across it, let alone have your entire family swim across. Too risky. Walking on the water is out, for the obvious reason (can’t do it!)-and anyways, think of the disturbing messianic parallels. You could try lifting your staff and stretching out your hand over the river and parting it, although this hasn’t been pulled off successfully since Moses in Exodus 14. Besides, who carries a staff anymore?
Once you’ve tried all these options, you’d be left with one and only one other option. Which is, of course, covered wagon. Which is, of course, notoriously unreliable as far as fording the Mississippi goes. Your oxen won’t like the water, it’ll probably be too deep, and the water will rush so fast that you’ll capsize. I think most everyone will admit, however reluctantly, that a capsized covered wagon is not the optimal way to begin a pastorate.
Once we saw the river, we understood. We understood why it’s hard to move the family west of the Mississippi. It’s big, scary, and it’s so hard to find a good staff these days.
the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go
through the sea on dry ground.
Exodus 14.16
Several weeks ago we were with Zion Mennonite Church of Donnellson, IA. Now, I have many excuses for why this post is about three weeks late, and I can assure you that all of my excuses are very good ones. I’ll save those for another day and begin with a “Seeds” group observation: the Mississippi River is about twenty miles from Donnellson, and the Mississippi is a large river. (Editors note: This is actually a picture of the Cedar River. The Mississippi is about 1,000 times bigger)
Why make this seemingly obvious statement? Throughout this summer we have heard time after time again how hard it is to recruit pastors to move west of the Mississippi. We’ve heard this from Conference Pastors, laypeople, and congregational pastors-this struggle may be the one thing that the people of the Central Plains Conference speak about with a unified voice.
I think the “Seeds” group gravitated towards psychological explanations as we tried to understand why this was so. Churches in Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota, Montana, Minnesota…they’re just too geographically isolated. Or they’re too small and can’t afford a full-time salaried pastor. Or they’re too far away from educational and professional opportunities. Or it’s too depressing watching small towns die. Or God doesn’t call pastors to the Midwest. I don’t know. Name the reason-no matter how outrageous-and we probably discussed how it affects someone’s willingness to move west.
But after observing the Mississippi River: it’s might, it’s strength, it’s girth, I now finally understand why the Central Plains Conference has such a hard time getting pastors to move west of the Mississippi…it’s a really big river. And as the Seeds of the Kingdom stood on the banks of the mighty Mississippi and contemplated the sheer volume of water held within the banks, the scales fell from our eyes we suddenly could see.
“How are you supposed to cross this durn thing?”
It would be a bad idea to try and swim across it, let alone have your entire family swim across. Too risky. Walking on the water is out, for the obvious reason (can’t do it!)-and anyways, think of the disturbing messianic parallels. You could try lifting your staff and stretching out your hand over the river and parting it, although this hasn’t been pulled off successfully since Moses in Exodus 14. Besides, who carries a staff anymore?
Once you’ve tried all these options, you’d be left with one and only one other option. Which is, of course, covered wagon. Which is, of course, notoriously unreliable as far as fording the Mississippi goes. Your oxen won’t like the water, it’ll probably be too deep, and the water will rush so fast that you’ll capsize. I think most everyone will admit, however reluctantly, that a capsized covered wagon is not the optimal way to begin a pastorate.
Once we saw the river, we understood. We understood why it’s hard to move the family west of the Mississippi. It’s big, scary, and it’s so hard to find a good staff these days.
Matt Troyer-Miller
Beemer I-W and CPS Highlights (9/6/08)
In Beemer, I interviewed four men, but only three were able to participate in our Saturday evening story-telling time. Two men did CPS, and two did I-W service.
If I get my act together, I’m going to try and type up a summary of each of the story-telling sessions I led this summer. I’m not going to make any promises, because it’s going to be a busy three weeks ahead of us as we try to finish strong and then close down the summer. But I’ll give it the “old college try.”
Jim Troyer, CPS (right)
Jim grew up on a farm in Shickley, NE (yes, in case you’re wondering, Jim is my great-uncle, and grew up on the same farm I would fifty years later). When he started CPS in Hill City, SD, this was the first time he had ever been around a lot of people. He was used to the solitary work of farming. A big shock was the communal latrine, which was like a big outhouse. It was a row of toilets that emptied in the same hole in the ground. Jim said that for the first month or so, he waited until nighttime to use the bathroom.
For the first year of CPS, CPS’ers weren’t paid. After that, they received a whopping $4.65/mo (I believe this was from the church, not the government…) Near the end of the term in Camino, CA, Jim worked for a local man. For four months. Every month, the man promised to pay Jim at the end of the month. It never happened though.
In SD, Jim stacked rocks to help build a dam. As I understood it, after the CPS’ers laid the rock, they scooped gravel around the rocks, and would unload ten train cars (by shovel and wheel barrow) of gravel in a day.
The camp in SD had been a former CCC camp (Civilian Conservation Corp-a New Deal program designed by the Roosevelt Administration to provide employment and jumpstart the economy) that was converted into a CPS camp. The barracks held several long rows of beds, with a large stove in the middle of the building. If you were too near the stove, you were hot all night. If you were too far away, you were cold all night. You had two options: hot or cold. Snow would often blow in the barracks through cracks in the walls. Jim preferred to be hot.
While in SD, Jim’s grandpa died. There were several other Shickley men in the SD camp at the time: Les Troyer (his brother) Wayne Kempf, and Vernon Kennel (his first cousins). When the news of Grandpa Troyer’s death reached the camp, the four men went to the government supervisor to request a leave of absence, but the supervisor did not believe they were cousins. “Do you really expect me to believe this? You all have different last names!” he argued. Eventually they were able to leave, and barely made it home in time for the funeral.
Earnest Kauffman, CPS
Earnest’s first camp was in Colorado Springs, CO. He started in the laundry, and then soon became a night watchman. As a night watchman, he took occasional walks to look around the camp, and then he returned back to the office to play Monopoly.
Although he was short on money during his time in CPS, he never regretted choosing alternative service.
The end of his term was in Mercer County, PA, where he worked for the government testing dairy cattle. He had a book for each dairy, with information on each cow and it’s pedigree. He tested things like production quantity and butterfat content. He visited one farm a day for a month, then started the rotation over. He would stay in the farmer’s homes during the week, and then was able to live near his wife Lois on the weekends.
One weekend, Lois visited one of the farms where Earnest tested cattle. The house was not very clean, and she asked Earnest if there were bed bugs in the bed. Earnest responded, “If there were bed bugs, I’d know it by now.” So later that evening she went to bed before him, and immediately after she crawled into bed, she felt a bite. She turned on the light and flipped up the sheets and saw a bed bug. She killed it, and then saved the carcass until Earnest came to bed, because “I knew Earnest would never believe me unless I saved the dead bug to show him.”
Merle Oswald, I-W (middle)
Merle worked in Denver, Colorado as an ER orderly for most of his I-W time. He and several other Beemer men decided to volunteer, even though there was no war going on (between Korea and Vietnam) and CO’s weren’t being drafted. They all ended up in Denver, and shared an apartment for the first while. Eventually Rollie (see below) got married and moved out, so the Beemer men moved into an old house with six or seven other I-W guys. This was kind of a junky house. One of the guys had hurt himself and was walking through the house on crutches, and one time one of the crutches broke right through the floor. Not long afterwards, the city government condemned the house, and I-W guys had to find a new place.
As an ER orderly, Merle worked about 40 hour weeks. He liked working the night shift the best. Because he worked in the ER on the night shift, he saw all sorts of crazy things. He saw drunks, people who had been wounded in fights, and drunk people who had been wounded in fights. He also learned about racial tension between blacks, Hispanics, and whites. This was the first time he’d been exposed to race issues before.
Merle’s time in I-W was a valuable learning experience for him. I-W men were paid real wages, but they were also responsible for finding their own housing, food, transportation. Merle said this experience taught him how to manage money, do laundry, dishes, general housekeeping, and cook. He learned that this sort of stuff didn’t do itself, and he appreciated his mother in new ways.
Rollie Oswald, I-W (left)
Rollie went down to Denver with the same group of Beemer men. He grew up as a son of a Pastor, and the military was never an option. When he went to Denver, however, he very quickly needed to learn how to talk about his decision to be a Conscientious Objector. His time in I-W was a time where he learned to talk about his faith. Although people in the hospital became familiar with the work of CO’s and their reasons, he still often had to explain why he refused to go to war. He remembers one doctor in particular who was very interested in CO status, and became very supportive of Rollie’s stance.
Rollie worked as a medical orderly and an X-ray technician. In fact, after his I-W time ended, the hospital wanted Rollie to stay around so they could train him into a more skilled position. He said that if he hadn’t wanted to be a farmer so badly, he probably would still live in Denver.
Medical orderlies were expected to transport dead people to the morgue, which was attached to the hospital, but the orderlies needed to use a really small service elevator to access the morgue. One time a new I-W guy was being oriented to the position. Another I-W (we’ll call him Bob) guy convinced some of the other I-W guys to play a joke on this new guy. Bob laid down on the gurney and one of the other I-W guys placed a white sheet over Bob. The other I-W guy explained to the newbie that he needed to take this cadaver to the morgue, the cadaver was a younger man who had died earlier that evening. Bob continued to lay very still, and waited until they were taking the cramped service elevator down to the morgue, and at that point sat up and yelled. Scared the poor guy half to death (Merle also remembered this story).
Rollie also observed first hand the tragedy of racial discrimination. There was a position open in the X-ray department. It was a supervisory position, one that involved a lot of training and supervising of new workers. A black man (Ralph) and a white man were the two front-runners, and the hospital leadership chose the white man. Rollie and the rest of the crew, the ones who knew these men the best, knew that this was a poor decision. Not only was Ralph more knowledgeable, competent, patient, and trustworthy, he also was a far better teacher. This incident really affected Rollie, and he thinks it was a big reason why he and his wife helped support Northside Christian Fellowship over the years, a primarily African-American Mennonite church in Omaha.
Matt Troyer-Miller
If I get my act together, I’m going to try and type up a summary of each of the story-telling sessions I led this summer. I’m not going to make any promises, because it’s going to be a busy three weeks ahead of us as we try to finish strong and then close down the summer. But I’ll give it the “old college try.”
Jim Troyer, CPS (right)
Jim grew up on a farm in Shickley, NE (yes, in case you’re wondering, Jim is my great-uncle, and grew up on the same farm I would fifty years later). When he started CPS in Hill City, SD, this was the first time he had ever been around a lot of people. He was used to the solitary work of farming. A big shock was the communal latrine, which was like a big outhouse. It was a row of toilets that emptied in the same hole in the ground. Jim said that for the first month or so, he waited until nighttime to use the bathroom.
For the first year of CPS, CPS’ers weren’t paid. After that, they received a whopping $4.65/mo (I believe this was from the church, not the government…) Near the end of the term in Camino, CA, Jim worked for a local man. For four months. Every month, the man promised to pay Jim at the end of the month. It never happened though.
In SD, Jim stacked rocks to help build a dam. As I understood it, after the CPS’ers laid the rock, they scooped gravel around the rocks, and would unload ten train cars (by shovel and wheel barrow) of gravel in a day.
The camp in SD had been a former CCC camp (Civilian Conservation Corp-a New Deal program designed by the Roosevelt Administration to provide employment and jumpstart the economy) that was converted into a CPS camp. The barracks held several long rows of beds, with a large stove in the middle of the building. If you were too near the stove, you were hot all night. If you were too far away, you were cold all night. You had two options: hot or cold. Snow would often blow in the barracks through cracks in the walls. Jim preferred to be hot.
While in SD, Jim’s grandpa died. There were several other Shickley men in the SD camp at the time: Les Troyer (his brother) Wayne Kempf, and Vernon Kennel (his first cousins). When the news of Grandpa Troyer’s death reached the camp, the four men went to the government supervisor to request a leave of absence, but the supervisor did not believe they were cousins. “Do you really expect me to believe this? You all have different last names!” he argued. Eventually they were able to leave, and barely made it home in time for the funeral.
Earnest Kauffman, CPS
Earnest’s first camp was in Colorado Springs, CO. He started in the laundry, and then soon became a night watchman. As a night watchman, he took occasional walks to look around the camp, and then he returned back to the office to play Monopoly.
Although he was short on money during his time in CPS, he never regretted choosing alternative service.
The end of his term was in Mercer County, PA, where he worked for the government testing dairy cattle. He had a book for each dairy, with information on each cow and it’s pedigree. He tested things like production quantity and butterfat content. He visited one farm a day for a month, then started the rotation over. He would stay in the farmer’s homes during the week, and then was able to live near his wife Lois on the weekends.
One weekend, Lois visited one of the farms where Earnest tested cattle. The house was not very clean, and she asked Earnest if there were bed bugs in the bed. Earnest responded, “If there were bed bugs, I’d know it by now.” So later that evening she went to bed before him, and immediately after she crawled into bed, she felt a bite. She turned on the light and flipped up the sheets and saw a bed bug. She killed it, and then saved the carcass until Earnest came to bed, because “I knew Earnest would never believe me unless I saved the dead bug to show him.”
Merle Oswald, I-W (middle)
Merle worked in Denver, Colorado as an ER orderly for most of his I-W time. He and several other Beemer men decided to volunteer, even though there was no war going on (between Korea and Vietnam) and CO’s weren’t being drafted. They all ended up in Denver, and shared an apartment for the first while. Eventually Rollie (see below) got married and moved out, so the Beemer men moved into an old house with six or seven other I-W guys. This was kind of a junky house. One of the guys had hurt himself and was walking through the house on crutches, and one time one of the crutches broke right through the floor. Not long afterwards, the city government condemned the house, and I-W guys had to find a new place.
As an ER orderly, Merle worked about 40 hour weeks. He liked working the night shift the best. Because he worked in the ER on the night shift, he saw all sorts of crazy things. He saw drunks, people who had been wounded in fights, and drunk people who had been wounded in fights. He also learned about racial tension between blacks, Hispanics, and whites. This was the first time he’d been exposed to race issues before.
Merle’s time in I-W was a valuable learning experience for him. I-W men were paid real wages, but they were also responsible for finding their own housing, food, transportation. Merle said this experience taught him how to manage money, do laundry, dishes, general housekeeping, and cook. He learned that this sort of stuff didn’t do itself, and he appreciated his mother in new ways.
Rollie Oswald, I-W (left)
Rollie went down to Denver with the same group of Beemer men. He grew up as a son of a Pastor, and the military was never an option. When he went to Denver, however, he very quickly needed to learn how to talk about his decision to be a Conscientious Objector. His time in I-W was a time where he learned to talk about his faith. Although people in the hospital became familiar with the work of CO’s and their reasons, he still often had to explain why he refused to go to war. He remembers one doctor in particular who was very interested in CO status, and became very supportive of Rollie’s stance.
Rollie worked as a medical orderly and an X-ray technician. In fact, after his I-W time ended, the hospital wanted Rollie to stay around so they could train him into a more skilled position. He said that if he hadn’t wanted to be a farmer so badly, he probably would still live in Denver.
Medical orderlies were expected to transport dead people to the morgue, which was attached to the hospital, but the orderlies needed to use a really small service elevator to access the morgue. One time a new I-W guy was being oriented to the position. Another I-W (we’ll call him Bob) guy convinced some of the other I-W guys to play a joke on this new guy. Bob laid down on the gurney and one of the other I-W guys placed a white sheet over Bob. The other I-W guy explained to the newbie that he needed to take this cadaver to the morgue, the cadaver was a younger man who had died earlier that evening. Bob continued to lay very still, and waited until they were taking the cramped service elevator down to the morgue, and at that point sat up and yelled. Scared the poor guy half to death (Merle also remembered this story).
Rollie also observed first hand the tragedy of racial discrimination. There was a position open in the X-ray department. It was a supervisory position, one that involved a lot of training and supervising of new workers. A black man (Ralph) and a white man were the two front-runners, and the hospital leadership chose the white man. Rollie and the rest of the crew, the ones who knew these men the best, knew that this was a poor decision. Not only was Ralph more knowledgeable, competent, patient, and trustworthy, he also was a far better teacher. This incident really affected Rollie, and he thinks it was a big reason why he and his wife helped support Northside Christian Fellowship over the years, a primarily African-American Mennonite church in Omaha.
Matt Troyer-Miller
When Jesus said, "love your enemies" he didn't mean kill them.
On Monday we spent the day at Freeman Academy in Freeman, South Dakota. Within 8 hours we taught four classes and lead the chapel service, so it was a very busy day.
We volunteered to teach for 30 to 40 minutes in each classroom, which challenged us to turn our hour youth session for youth groups into a shorter classroom teaching. We knew that the students at Freeman Academy would have Bible knowledge and an understanding of an Anabaptist approach to Christianity so we wanted to challenge them. They know about the Bible and they know what it means to be an Anabaptist and peacemaker but could they articulate what they believe about the Bible, peacemaking and Anabaptism when put into a situation that argued against their beliefs?
In each class we had three students volunteer, not knowing what they were getting into for our roll play exercise. As Elizabeth led the three volunteers into the hall I explained to the rest of the class that each volunteer was going to be put into a situation where they would be challenged to talk about their beliefs to a couple of co-workers (played by Matt and Randy). As each volunteer was directed into the classroom Matt and Randy welcomed them to their “first day of work”, and quickly questioned them about a bumper sticker that said, "When Jesus said, 'love your enemies' he didn't mean kill them." The student volunteer was abruptly challenged to state what they believe and why. They didn’t have time to put their thoughts together or sit down and think about it. At that moment they need to give an answer. Matt and Randy did a good job of pushing each volunteer out of their comfort zones.
It was a good exercise for the students. We found that many of the students were able to say whether they agreed or disagreed but it was hard for them to talk beyond that answer. Many were able to define pacifism but struggled to share their own opinions on the subject. Now I am sure that if they would have had longer to think about their beliefs about peace and Jesus and why it is important (or not important) they would have been able to say a lot more. We didn’t do the exercise to try and show them how much they don’t know; rather we wanted to challenge them to think about their own beliefs about the Gospel of Peace. Do they know what they believe and more importantly can they talk about their beliefs with others.
This is a challenge that we all need to be faced with more often. Many of us choose to live in comfort. Many of us choose to go to a church that closely agrees with our own theology and choose to create a community that share similar goals and beliefs. I am not saying that this is bad in moderation. But I do think that many Christians at least those who live in middle class America are not challenged to articulate their faith. We are too comfortable.
Jess Roth
We volunteered to teach for 30 to 40 minutes in each classroom, which challenged us to turn our hour youth session for youth groups into a shorter classroom teaching. We knew that the students at Freeman Academy would have Bible knowledge and an understanding of an Anabaptist approach to Christianity so we wanted to challenge them. They know about the Bible and they know what it means to be an Anabaptist and peacemaker but could they articulate what they believe about the Bible, peacemaking and Anabaptism when put into a situation that argued against their beliefs?
In each class we had three students volunteer, not knowing what they were getting into for our roll play exercise. As Elizabeth led the three volunteers into the hall I explained to the rest of the class that each volunteer was going to be put into a situation where they would be challenged to talk about their beliefs to a couple of co-workers (played by Matt and Randy). As each volunteer was directed into the classroom Matt and Randy welcomed them to their “first day of work”, and quickly questioned them about a bumper sticker that said, "When Jesus said, 'love your enemies' he didn't mean kill them." The student volunteer was abruptly challenged to state what they believe and why. They didn’t have time to put their thoughts together or sit down and think about it. At that moment they need to give an answer. Matt and Randy did a good job of pushing each volunteer out of their comfort zones.
It was a good exercise for the students. We found that many of the students were able to say whether they agreed or disagreed but it was hard for them to talk beyond that answer. Many were able to define pacifism but struggled to share their own opinions on the subject. Now I am sure that if they would have had longer to think about their beliefs about peace and Jesus and why it is important (or not important) they would have been able to say a lot more. We didn’t do the exercise to try and show them how much they don’t know; rather we wanted to challenge them to think about their own beliefs about the Gospel of Peace. Do they know what they believe and more importantly can they talk about their beliefs with others.
This is a challenge that we all need to be faced with more often. Many of us choose to live in comfort. Many of us choose to go to a church that closely agrees with our own theology and choose to create a community that share similar goals and beliefs. I am not saying that this is bad in moderation. But I do think that many Christians at least those who live in middle class America are not challenged to articulate their faith. We are too comfortable.
Jess Roth
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