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