A Belated Ending and Contact

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

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

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

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.

Elizabeth

“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.

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

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

The Weary Traveler

I am getting tired of traveling. My suitcase can’t seem to stay in order. The weather is cooling down and I recently realized I haven’t packed enough warm clothes for these last three weeks. I’m tired of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and our van stinks. Yup, it really stinks. We bought air freshener and it still has a strange odor that just lingers.

And yet, as we meet new people and join a new congregation my spirits lift, my energy rises and I get just as excited as I was during the first weeks of our travels. Our message of peace, of Shalom is important and I am still excited about our opportunity to be able to share this message with others, and to hear how God is working other people to bring God’s Kingdom to life.

I continue to find joy in the journey. Joy in the conversations we have as a group as we wrestle with questions of content and our message and of things we read. In the journey of faith I have been on this summer. In the hospitality we experience and in the wonderful people we meet. Joy in the opportunity to get our hands dirty and do some labor with our bodies as we did another day with Mennonite Disaster Service this week.

The challenges of this summer continue. I still wrestle with how to talk about my faith with confidence. I still struggle with how to share peacemaking as an expression of my faith and to invite others in the conversation.

While I’m tired of traveling, I’m not ready to put our message on a shelf with the end of our travels. I will continue to wrestle with how do I serve God authentically in a world that does everything it can to distract me.

Elizabeth

We got new Pics up!

Hello everyone. Just an update, that we are feeling healthy again, and our ready for a big weekend in Wayland, IA where we will be with three different congregations. Also, we realize that we have not been getting pics up in a timely fashion, but now for your viewing pleasure you can see in picures what the past 3 weeks have been like for us! (thanks to Matt, for taking the time to put em all up)

http://picasaweb.google.com/SeedsOfTheKingdom/

Beemer Mennonite, Freeman Academy, and a minor health crisis

Hello all,

This past weekend, the Seeds team was in Beemer, NE. It was another great time of meeting wonderful people, and having good conversations. I can't express how gracious and kind our hosts have been this summer, and it was more of the same in Beemer. Pastor Lewis Miller, gave us a taste of Beemer culture by taking us out to eat at the local Beemer cafe. It's a place to experience, and the food was so good. We also got to take in a Nebraska huskers football game on Saturday afternoon (another huge part of Nebraska culture.) Saturday evening we had a CPS/I-W seminar where 3 different men shared stories from their alternative service experience. Matt does a great job of leading this seminar, with his expertise knowledge and ability to recall random facts, and also is able to push the different men to think critically about their experience and how they were changed by it. Sunday morning, we had a joint Sunday School session between youth and adults, where we further explored the word shalom as God's holistic vision for peace (much more than just the absence of war, but includes peace with God, ourselves, others, and all of creation).

The Sunday morning service went good too. We have done this service at many of the churches, so it feels like we have a come a long way from the first couple Sundays! After another amazing potluck meal, I led an afternoon workshop on Anabaptist history, and it's relevance for us today as we talk about what the early Anabaptists believed.

We couldn't stay long in Beemer, sadly. We had to pack up quickly and head to Freeman, SD, where on Monday we led chapel at the Freeman Academy, and also talked in the high school Bible classes. Despite being really tired that day, we were glad to be able to get to the school.

Now we are ALL trying to re-coup from a last couple busy days. Unfortunately, we also are trying to recover from sickness that has plagued our team since early morning Tuesday, September 9th. Yes, there is small crisis right now. Last night, Matt, Elizabeth, and myself all got really sick, and today, while we are doing much better, are all still feeling it. At about 2:00 AM last night I was so sick that all I could think about doing was to call my mom (who is a nurse and was up at the time, because she works the night shift. ) Of course, with my luck, I didn't have cell phone service- thank you South Dakota! Anyways, a big thanks to Stacy and Jeremy Waltner, who have so kindly let us crash at their house while we try to re-coup!

The one thing about being sick is that it makes you even more grateful for good health- something I usually take for granted.

Til next time,

Randy

Omaha Zoo

As you can see there are no pictures attached to my post. You'll just have to check back later for those.

Anyway, the Seeds finally did something fun together that made them not talk about work for about 4 hours it was really exciting. We went to the Omaha Zoo.

Some highlights:
Matt deciding his favorite animals were the turtles and sloths. (see any trends?)
Jess screaming when Randy jumped out at her and touched her arm in the snake cave.
Elizabeth getting over-excited by the toad the size of a bowling ball. (ok, it was about half a bowling ball)

In any case, this is just a note to say we still are alive and kicking. Last weekend we joined the Yoked Fellowship of Zion Mennonite and Donnellson Presbyterian Churches. Saturday evening we hung out with the youth group and Sunday morning we led worship and Randy presented a bit on Anabaptist history after lunch. Thanks to Pastor Audrey Ratzlaff for her work organizing the weekend and for an awesome bulletin cover. We'll have to post this as a picture as well.

Mid-week we had the opportunity to stop in Omaha and visit with Northside Christian Fellowship. A really neat congregation in Omaha; small with exciting visions for their congregation and community. One member, Pat, owns Big Mama's. If you're ever in Omaha, make sure to make time and space in your belly to check her place out. http://www.bigmamaskitchen.com/

I guess I'll quit now. More next week!

Elizabeth

Goodbye, and a Trip to Oregon

I took my leave to join the Mennonites of the Pacific Northwest Conference following our appearance at Iowa Mennonite School a week ago. Before the Seed’s summer schedule was solidified it looked like we might be finishing up around the end of August so I accepted a volunteer position at Western Mennonite School as a dorm leader. The school year in Salem, Oregon begins at the beginning of September and as our Seeds of the Kingdom schedule began extending into September I knew that I’d have to be skipping out on the end portion of the trip.

Now, saddened that I don’t get to continue learning about our conference with the others for the remaining 5 or 6 weeks, I’m glad that they are able to continue and glad that I’ll be able to add input for our final project that will come together following the end of the Tour (now early October – see calendar).

Thank you Matt and Elizabeth for concocting this great idea and for following though on the hard work it took during busy times last year to write grant proposals, to contact conference leadership, and to arrange transportation. Thank you for donating your own time and money to a project that helped me learn about the importance of conferences and about their role in weaving together a varied response to our Mennonite history.

Thank you Randal H. Keener, for your enthusiasm for our midwestern conference! Your outside perspective helped me realize what we do have here in the Central Plains Mennonite Conference and also to see where growth as a body can still happen.

Jess, you did such a wonderful job of coordinating the upcoming stops, and helping add pep at just the right times that your presence was invaluable. I also appreciated your calm tone and dexterous words when our group ran into conflict or had to navigate different personality/organizational/preference types that made our summer tour an experiment in community living — something we may not prefer for our entire lives, but a lifestyle we now know we can certainly survive and something we all recognize help us grow in the fruits of the spirit: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control.

Thank you Shana Boshart for walking along side us and giving us room to struggle, to overcome and to learn on our own. At this time in life, when it’s easy to think we can figure it out by ourselves, it has been a good reminder for me that there is a huge group of loving supporters who want to see the youth of their conference succeed and grow into leaders themselves.

The list of others I’d like to thank could go on and on, but just know that if you have interacted with our group in small or large ways during the hot, corn growing months of Summer 2008, I extend my gratitude whole heartedly! Each of your donations of time, energy or something else where what made this trip possible and I feel honored to have been a participant.

It’s my hope that others could experience the trip we went on whether it’s online following our blog or as part of a future trip that has a similar mission.

Mark Gingerich

Your Kingdom come, on Earth as it is in Heaven

We have been traveling around the Central Plains Conference now for about 2 months, and we have about 1 month to go. Shortly put, it has been a really good experience so far of learning and sharing from so many people. As you can imagine, our team has been asking a lot of questions this summer through all of our conversations. One particularly interesting conversation that came up was about faith and politics. We didn’t end the discussion with a final answer, and we were all coming from different perspectives on the issue.

Personally, over the past two years I have been considering this issue more and more, and re-evaluating what I really believe on how faith and politics go together. Through this summer especially, and the message that we are talking about, I have come to believe that true change and true peace is never going to come through any kind of political or government structure, or presidential nominee. Now I confess, I (and the whole seeds team) are following the tightly contested presidential race, and find ourselves glued to the television during the DNC going on right now. Yet, I continually need to remind myself that as Christians, we believe that change and peace in this world comes first and foremost through a God that is reconciling all of creation back to right relationship.

As I look at the life of Jesus, and how he addressed the problems of his time, it is obvious that he didn’t resort to a top-down political power structure to bring change. In John 6:15 when Jews come to make Jesus King, (because he was the King they were looking for to finally bring them freedom from the Romans) Jesus refuses, and goes off by himself. Jesus was not going to be the kind of King, or political leader they were looking for. Rather, Jesus showed an upside-down way (from what society expected of him) to bring change, healing and hope to the world. Jesus became a lamb, a suffering servant on the cross.

I certainly don’t have all my questions answered as to how Christians should relate to politics. I don’t think it’s necessarily a black and white issue. However, I am convinced that if we think Barack Obama or John McCain are going to bring the change that this world needs, then sadly, we got it wrong. True change, true peace, is never going to come through any kind of human intelligence, reason, or organization, through a Democrat, or a Republican president. No, our peace in this world comes through a God of love, justice, and mercy that shows no allegiance to a specific nation state. I hope that as Christians, during this heated and emotional presidential race, we first remember who we are: We are the Church, and we have an exciting ministry right now: “Gods Kingdom, on earth as it is Heaven”

Randy

Barriers to Peace

What are the barriers for talking about peace in our congregations? We Seeds all started this summer with interesting perspectives and thoughts on this subject. Some of these thoughts have been affirmed by our observations; others have been changed, and new ones have been added. There are five barriers on my list right now that I would like to mention.

I must say that this list comes from conversations with many people. So dear friends if you read this and think, “hey I said that,” you probably did.

We talk about peace within the limited framework of the absence of violence and warfare. Too often we talk about and pray for peace as the absence of physical violence and warfare. This is just one slice of the pie. I worry that this limited emphasis has turned many people away from talking about peacemaking and working for peace because of a perceived connection to hippies and anti-Americanism. How do we teach our children to be people of peace if we do not present as a lifestyle? Sometimes our words and actions can be violent, without doing physical harm.

The presentation of peace doesn’t resonate with people. I see this as being closely tied to the first point. If folks aren’t on board with the anti-war movement, then peace, God’s encompassing vision for Shalom, is dismissed. As I visit and network with different peace groups, I’m generally the youngest one in the room. Often it’s the Baby boomer generation and older. Where are the younger folks? Why do I feel like I’m the only person under the age 45 going to these things? Are peace groups still lost in the way things were done in the 60’s? How do we reach and excite younger generations with God’s vision for peace and reconciliation?

The Biblical foundation is left out. Peace has been disassociated with faith because we’ve stopped talking about the connection to the Bible (I do this too). We assume the connection to the Bible is obvious, assume that everyone has made it, and then we act with passion. For those within our worshipping communities who are biblically grounded, the connection is lost unless are able to explain how our actions are related to the Scriptures.

Tradition. Peace is what we’ve always believed. Well, no longer. We can no longer feed the line: well this is the way we’ve always done it. It is not common knowledge among Christians that we are people of peace because Christ is our peace, and has brought us peace through the cross. If we want our children to learn this message, Christians/Mennonites can’t assume that osmosis will do the trick. If we want new people of faith to understand the connection between Jesus and peace, we have to talk about Jesus and who Jesus is and how Jesus taught peace. We are not people of peace because traditionally Mennonites have taken up nonresistance.

Peace is hard, being a peacemaker is hard; it is much easier to ignore the call. It’s hard to be a follower of Christ. There are many things in the world that compete with our faith: money, lack of time and energy, consumer goods. Being a peacemaker means we are children of God, it requires us to have patience for results we may never see in our lifetime. It means acting outside of traditional expectations. How can we communities of faith that encourage on another in this difficult-yet-rewarding lifestyle?

I raise these points because I wonder why I heard from some churches, peers, and youth that they are tired of talking about peace. I wonder, what kind of peace they are referring to? Do they really mean this, or are they reacting to the way we’ve talked about peace in the past? In God’s vision for Shalom, peace is related to my relationship with God-and we talk about that in our churches all the time. God’s peace is related to my relationship with myself; it affects my relationships with others; it affects my relationship with creation. Peace permeates the Gospel. What do we need to do to break down the walls between our congregations and within our congregations to become people of God’s peace?

Elizabeth

How I Can Keep from Singing

I am an insecure singer. My involvement in choir ended in 7^th grade and so did my ability to find notes without strong singers around me.

Insecure or not I do love singing. In the car when I’m alone, in my room when I’m alone and even with my guitar…when I’m alone. But around others I feel squeaky and I get quite embarrassed.

Now for some of you who know me, you will say, “but wait there are exceptions to these statements.” Well, yes there are. In Service Adventure I sang with my friends and fellow housemates. I even sang in front of the church. In college I sang with friends for a variety show. But, those are the exceptions, I guess until this summer.

In the churches we have visited we generally sing for/with them. Usually it is teaching them My Soul Cries Out, a song from Sing the Story. I sing with the Seeds and usually enjoy myself, but I finish with the haunting feeling that I have squeaked and squawked rather than made something beautiful.

Jess has been away the last few weeks leaving my voice as the sole female voice when we sing in congregations. This has been a challenge, but this last weekend I learned a valuable lesson during our visit to Templo Alabanza and Casa de Oracion.

Unlike so many of the Mennonite congregations of the conference, there are no Blue Hymnals in the churches. Singing is not four-part harmony, but it’s still a time to worship with energy and joy. Singing in these churches was for glory to God, not glory to our voices in harmony.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I love four-part singing. In fact, the only music Matt and I had at our wedding was the voices of our friends and family. But I need to remember when I feel like I’m squeaking and squawking; I should change my attitude and not let my dreams of four-part glorious harmony get in the way of making a joyful noise to the Lord.

Elizabeth

“A Sound Like the Rush of a Violent Wind”

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.
And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush
of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.
Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue
rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit
and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
Acts 2.1-4

This past weekend we were in Davenport, IA, with Casa de Oracion, and Moline, IL, with Templo Alabanza. We visited the Moline church in the morning, and the Davenport church in the evening. Each of these churches primarily speak Spanish, and for those of you who know us well, you know our Spanish language skills are weak (at best). Yet, after talking to the pastors of the churches, we decided that we would try and give Spanish sermons at each of the churches. Randy and I each composed something brief in English, then his friend Hugo translated the sermons for us (and also a prayer and introduction to the group for Elizabeth). A big thank you to him, it was no small task.

But translating the worship service into Spanish was only half the battle, because once it’s translated, we needed lots of help with our pronunciation. The days before Sunday we flooded our Spanish-speaking friends with phone calls and text messages as we sought help in pronunciation. As we prepared, the story of Pentecost took on new meaning for us, as we dropped hints to God about how convenient it would be if the Spirit came down and helped us out.

The Spirit of God was present, even though the gifting of tongues did not take place this morning. On Sunday, the Spirit was present in the members of the churches in their gracious responses towards us. Because of our lack of the gift of tongues, the more appropriate response to our services should have been from Acts 2.12-13, “All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?’ But others sneered and said, ‘They are filled with new wine.’” But no one did.

At each church, members came up afterwards and gave us big bear hugs (Randy almost was crushed by the surprisingly strong hug of a 70+ year old man), and they were very, very welcoming and accepting. Once again, we were overwhelmed by hospitality as each church stuffed us full of food and sincere thanks for our ministry. Once again we were humbled by the graciousness of our hosts, and at a loss for how to express our thanks.
All this, in spite of the face that we had just spent previous 75 minutes butchering their mother tongue.

We Fired Mark

After our chapel at Iowa Mennonite School (IMS) on Monday, August 18th, Seeds of the Kingdom officially fired Mark Gingerich from the team. Now, this had nothing to do with his performance or lack thereof, rather this was a pre-emptive strike. Since the beginning of the summer, we knew Mark would be leaving us to take a job at Western Mennonite School in Oregon after our chapel at IMS. So we developed the plan to fire him quick after the chapel, before he turned in his official resignation. This way, we could save face, and would not have to write reference letters for him in the near future.

Immediately after the students left after chapel, I raced over to Mark and tackled him, then shouted, “You’re fired!” in my best Donald Trump voice. He groaned in agony, in part because of my intense tackling skills (I did play 8-man football, after all), in part because we had pre-empted his plan to resign. “You can’t fire me, I quit!” Mark exclaimed.

“Too late,” I said as I hopped up and did my I-just-fired-Mark-dance. “You can’t quit, because we already fired you. And don’t even dream of asking us to write a letter of reference.”

Quickly after we fired Mark, Randy and Elizabeth offered to re-hire him for less than the $55 monthly stipend the Seeds have received this summer. “We’d love to re-hire you at a reduced rate of $30 a month,” offered Randy generously. Mark rejected Randy and Elizabeth’s benevolence, however, and chose to stick with his original plan of heading to Oregon.

Okay, so I made most of that story up. But really, Mark is leaving us to go West. This post is my twisted way of saying thank-you to Mark for all his work: on the website, helping us pull together content, and shaping the way we present our material, and a whole bunch of other things too innumerable to mention.

So thanks for all your work, Mark, and blessings as you head out to Oregon. And despite repeated claims to the contrary, yes, one of us will write you a letter of reference.
Matt, on behalf of the Seeds

Work of National Importance

This past weekend we worshipped with East Union and Lower Deer Creek Mennonite Churches, both of the rural Kalona, IA area. This was the first time the two churches had ever held a joint worship service. It was an exciting service to participate in, and kudos to Pastors Don Patterson and Jay Miiller (and all the behind the scenes people) who worked hard to pull it all together.

In the afternoon, we held another CPS story telling time. Five men participated in the service (Eldon Rhodes, Wally Fisher, Vurton Miller [sp?] Clayton White, and Mark Swartzendruber), and as I soon discovered, if everyone who had participated in CPS been present and willing to share in front of people, we probably would have been able to tell stories all day. The five that participated were full of stories, however, and provided a well-rounded description of the CPS program.

During World War I, it was not uncommon for conscientious objects to be beaten, starved, or imprisoned. In response to WWI experiences, Mennonite leaders helped develop the CPS program, and as I understand it, this sort of program was unprecedented in American history. Part of the understanding of this sort of program, is that the CO’s would also be performing work of national importance that would not be directly connected to the war effort. Sometimes this happened, as CO’s helped fight forest fires, worked in mental hospitals, or carried livestock across the ocean to war-ravaged Europe.

Other times, it was hard for the men to convince themselves that their jobs actually mattered. One of the East Union man reflected on his time at the Denison IA site, where the CPSers helped do soil conservation/terrace building. He commented that the men would move dirt and dig trenches no matter what the weather was; he remembered going out in January mornings when the temperature was –10 degrees. The only things they had to move the dirt were picks, shovels, and wheelbarrows. Often, had the CPSers possessed the right equipment, they would have been able to do the job in a couple of days. However, because there was nothing else to assign the CO’s, they did not have large implements to move dirt, so the jobs would take several months. One man from Mt. Lake referred to a certain section of land that the CO’s called “Hell’s Half Acre.” If they’d had big machinery, it would have taken then two days maximum. Since they didn’t, it took about three months. It didn’t help that every time they would make progress, it rained and washed sediment back in their trench, and they’d have to start over.

Another one of the East Union men had participated in medical experiments for the bulk of his CPS days. In North Carolina, Wally Fisher was part of a study that examined colds (like the sneezing, sniffling kind). He and the other CO’s were held in isolation (they were able to talk to each other through the windows, though), and in his words, their job was “every now and again they would spray a mist into the back of our throats, and then closely watch us and monitor our symptoms, how long it took to get sick, how long we were sick, those sorts of things.” Yes, that’s correct, for four months, his job, his work of national importance, was to get infected with colds. As he reflected on this experience, Wally noted, “And you know, they know about as much about colds now as they did back then.”

After this, he transferred to Philadelphia, and was part of a study that was trying to figure out how hepatitis was spread. I should note that this experiment did have an obvious connection to work of national importance; Philadelphia often had outbreaks of the disease, and in Italy, hepatitis caused as many casualties as battles. While in Philadelphia, Wally drank one gallon of contaminated water a day to confirm that unclean drinking water was the source of the disease, and then allow his blood to be drawn by really dull needles.

To summarize, Wally served his country by drinking one gallon of water contaminated with sewage.

Hearing these sorts of stories, where alternative service meant getting infected with colds or drinking contaminated water, makes me thankful for the wide variety of service options available to my generation: social work jobs, education jobs, nursing jobs through organizations like MCC, the Mission Network, EMM, or other non-Mennonite voluntary service organizations. How many more options my generation has than our grandparents’ generation! Yet, the majority of my generation will not even contemplate a year or two of voluntary service, perhaps because of careers, or schooling, because families and churches aren’t encouraging it…there are probably as many reasons as there are dead bugs on our van’s windshield.

Granted, there are other forms of service that do not involve institutions or moving. We can do service in our home communities. But what does it say about our faith, when we are not willing to even consider taking a few years of our lives to intentionally give to God? If some young men and women are willing to place themselves in combat situations because they believe it will serve their country, what more should Christians do to serve the kingdom of God?


Matt Troyer-Miller

Change of Framework

As I alluded to in my last entry, I have been experiencing a shift in how I talk about my faith. A change I did not expect coming into this summer, but one that I was aware in a sense needed to occur. Here’s some background.

I have framed my faith, my understanding of God and how I live out my faith in terms of discipleship. Maybe that means something different to everyone. But I have not traditionally conversed about faith in terms of my salvation because I don’t think it’s always a helpful way to start. Maybe I have been turned off by the doom and gloom of the way the salvation message has sometimes been portrayed. For me, discipleship means following the “Jesus Way,” and orienting myself to live that way out means acting for peace and justice. I guess when I speak of my faith, working for peace and justice is a central image.

Well, just as I see using the framework of salvation as unhelpful, others may find my peace and justice framework as unhelpful. I could be accused of not valuing salvation enough, or I am disregarded because I don’t use primarily salvation language. This is hard for me because I do value my relationship with Christ. And I believe that at the heart of a message of peace/Shalom is relationships; primarily my relationship with the Creator. I just think that to only emphasize salvation language gives an excuse to live only in that moment of salvation and forget that once we have accepted Jesus as Lord we are called to live in allegiance of another Kingdom. Not the one we belong to as US citizens, but the one we belong to as Christians.

So, this summer I have been challenged to connect with Christians who talk about their faith in different ways than I do. And I have been forced to think about the language I use and the framework I work from… and I’m creating a new framework.

As I mentioned, I think it’s important to look at peace/Shalom in the context of God in the Bible. At the heart of the story is God’s desire to be in right relationship with us, God’s people. We must accept God in Christ as Lord over all. This is the heart of the peace/Shalom message.

Then, as Christians, we examine how God is working in the Bible, and how God has worked through God’s people, and how Jesus teaches us to follow after him. To make this more clear, let’s look at some examples of God’s vision for shalom in the Bible. In Genesis 1 we have a picture of God’s vision, of Shalom. God’s creation lives together in relationship with each other, the land and with God. That’s the vision. Even after humans sin, we can look at the rest of the Old Testament as God not giving up on God’s people and working to call them back to that original vision. The New Testament tells us that Jesus came “preaching peace (Acts 10.36),” and Jesus points us back to the vision of shalom in Genesis.

As I learn more about who God is, it is clear to me that God wills the world to be different than it is today. Our relationship with Christ and the peace we have when we know Jesus as our peace (Eph 2.14) must transfer to other relationships. It must or we are not taking seriously the Gospel message.

I am finding that I value more and more my peace with God. From that relationship, from my time with God in prayer, I find the energy and the joy for sharing God’s vision for Shalom.

Peace with God leads to peace with ourselves, with other people, and with creation. This is not a list that you check off but the results of seeking to be in relationship with God. The Spirit transforms our lives and our relationships. Our lives embody the things that we seek in our relationship with God: healing, hope, caring, sharing, listening, learning and being open to what others have to teach us. And these qualities are not just for our friends, but for our “neighbors,” our “enemies,” and those we don’t know.

Elizabeth

An adequate thank you?

This is a little late, since it has to do with our Mountain Lake experience. I don’t have a particularly convincing excuse, other than to say it’s been a hectic couple of weeks.

In between Youth Escape ‘08 (August 2-4) and our visit to Manson, IA (Aug. 8-10), we took a little jaunt up to Mountain Lake, MN. Now before I go any farther, I heard someone from Mt. Lake say “It’s actually more of a hill and a pond, but they drained the pond back in 1910 anyways so it doesn’t really matter.” So all that to say, certain members of the Seeds group were expecting the rugged beauty of Northern Minnesota, which wasn’t the case, because the Mt. Lake economy is primarily agricultural and the geography matches.

This was the second time I’d led a Civilian Public Service (CPS) story-telling time. The first had been while in Shickley, and it was really interesting hearing and comparing the stories of the Shickley men with men from Mountain Lake. In Shickley (a former MC/Old Mennonite church, for those of you who are interested in that sort of history), alternative service was the expectation. There were one, maybe two men, who went into the military service as combatants. The rest either did CPS or noncombatant service, with the slight majority doing CPS. Some of this probably had to do with the MC model of structuring church life. The conference and the bishops tended to have more power in the churches, and because Shickley had a bishop located in the congregation, there was a very clear center of power. Shickley also had a fairly lenient draft board. The chairman of the draft board ran the grain elevator in Martland, where many Mennonite families would have taken their grain. He was very understanding and sympathetic, and for the most part the Mennonite conscientious objectors (CO’s) were treated respectfully. It also probably helped that Mennonites were a minority in the community, so the draft board did not have any problems filling its quota.

The Mountain Lake churches come from a GC (General Conference) background, and the GC’s placed more authority in the individual congregations. Because of this arrangement, this tended to allow for greater diversity of beliefs among GC churches, and the amount of CO’s varied greatly from church to church. This was the case in Mt Lake, where many Mennonite men joined the military, some were non-combatants, and others chose CPS. CPS was not the “norm” in Mt. Lake, and for the young men who chose it (Willard Friesen and Jake Dick), there was not broad-based church community support. From the way the men told their stories, it sounded like the churches took the “hands-off” approach towards young men from the congregation, with a slight push towards CPS.

I don’t intend to say that the CPS’ers received no support. That’s obviously not the case. But what I’m trying to say, and I think Jake and Willard would agree, is that the CPS’ers felt supported by pastors and family members, but not always by the “church,” as such. With so many men choosing military or non-combatant service, it was hard to speak and act unanimously as church in support of any of the three choices (CPS, noncombatant, or regular army).

Another interesting reflection would be on how the church response to World War II and alternative service sixty years ago has shaped congregational life and strengthened/weakened traditional Mennonite peace theology. That’s a conversation for another time.

Talking with CPS men has been one of the most rewarding things about this summer. Hearing their stories of sacrifice, it’s impossible not to be moved by their stories of sacrifice (Jake Dick says that when he left for CPS, this was the only time he ever saw his father cry). Unlike later service opportunities like PAX, I-W, or VS, CPS was unprecedented and unknown, and the people involved did not know what to expect. They were paid next to nothing, often unappreciated, sometimes heckled and harassed, and usually did menial manual labor. It’s been interesting, however, to hear from these men how CPS shaped them and prepared them for a lifetime of service to the church. Many of the CPS’ers I talked with have been involved with church service organizations or mission work their whole lives, and they can trace this to their CPS years.

I have two regrets about the CPS meetings. One, because the “Seeds” group is so busy this summer planning and organizing, I’ve really had to focus on the stories of the CPS men. This means that I’ve had little opportunity to hear from women of that generation, some of who did their own service, others who had to be separated from husbands for an extended amount of time. These stories are an important aspect of CPS, and one that I’ve been unable to work on.

My second regret also has to do with time and energy. The CPS men have been very open and honest and willing to share with their stories with me. I take notes, but I’m unable to record the interviews in any sort of systematic way. So I wonder if it’s even fair for me to be gathering these stories at all, because I’m not a trained historian, and at this point, I do not have the knowledge or the time this summer to synthesize and write these stories for a broader audience. I don’t feel like I’m doing justice to their stories by only leading a 75-minute session on a Sunday afternoon. Yes, it is something, and maybe better than nothing, but this generation has served the church for almost 90 years now…and is a 75-minute session really an adequate thank you? I don’t think so.

Well, anyways, if nothing else, I’ve learned to be more appreciative of my grandparents generation, the CPS generation, thankful for their years of leadership and service. And I hope our churches can express this to them, before they’re all gone.