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Windows Into Zion is the monthly newsletter of Zion Mennonite Church. The publishers are Dorothy Hartman, Julie Hottinger, Fern Nisly, and Myrna Piper. Return to the Newsletter Archives. May/June 2005 Please note that calendar information and the Worship Schedule are located on the Calendar page.
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Volume 10 |
Number 4
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May/June 2005
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Guess who’s coming to dinnerClay Showalter On the evening of Sunday, March 10, nearly 100 Zion members and regular attendees participated in a Guess Who's Coming to Supper event. In previous weeks, people had signed up to either host or be a guest in someone's home. The numbers of hosts and guests matched up remarkably well, allowing the special programs committee some freedom in choosing how to come up with varied groups of people. At church on the 10th all guests received an address and phone number of the home that they would be visiting. Some people could easily pick out where they were going, but for others this presented more of a challenge! Guests were instructed to arrive at their host's house at 6pm for the evening meal. I had the pleasure of being a guest in Steve and Carlene Lantz's home with the Rob and Celah Pence family, Joanna Souder, and Maude Lantz. Good conversation and great food provided all the entertainment we needed to have an enjoyable evening together. Thanks to all of those who participated in this event! We hope to learn from a few snags in the planning and hold an even more successful event in the near future! The following persons were participants in the event: Steve & Carlene Lantz Rob and Celah Pence Family Clay Showalter Joanna Souder Maude Lantz Tony and Stephanie Resto family Valerie Helbert Sarah Ulrich Emi Oda Caroline and Ellis Detweiler Bill and Michelle Baker Grant Stoltzfus’ Stuart and Helen Shank Clyde and Eunice Kratz Tim Schmoyer Eric and Peggy Brubaker Todd and Mandi Stoltzfus Jim Rush Larry and Marilyn Yoder Anna Dintaman Neil Fencer Ken and Judy Nafziger Jeremy, Diann and Simon Beach Bob and Brenda Fairweather Radell Schrock Herman and Gladys Ropp Ben and Sarah Bixler Paul and Eva Glanzer Ryan and Bethany Landgraff Rebekah and Daryl Brubaker Ron and Myrna Piper Benjamin and Barbara Risser Amy Rush Audrey Shenk Patty Baer Jenni Piper Ruth Alger Elwood and Joy Yoder J’aime Mims Megan Bontrager Eula Showalter Cora King Katie Derstine Olivia Hunsberger |
Congregational Leadership Team --Elwood Yoder Missions emerged as the main theme at the April CLT meeting. Aaron and Laura Kauffman talked to the Leadership Team about their vision to serve as missionaries in Colombia, South America. Aaron will serve as a teacher of English and other subjects at the Colegio Americano Menno, a school of about 500 students in grades 1-10. Laura will be involved in health education and work with parents at the school. Both will be involved with the ministries of La Mesa Mennonite Church, a vibrant congregation of about 130 members. The Kauffmans will serve with Mennonite Mission Network, starting in mid-September of 2005. They have established a Ministry Support Team at Zion and the congregation will soon learn more about the Kauffman's emerging vision for mission. At the same CLT meeting Larry Yoder brought a proposal from the Outreach Commission for a part-time staff person to do community outreach in the Daphna and Broadway area. This person would visit families living near the church, do follow-up contacts after such events as Vacation Bible School and the Daphna picnic, and develop new ways to connect our church with families and individuals living in the local community. Both mission proposals will now need input from the Stewardship Commission and then from the congregation. It is exciting to be a part of a congregation where the vision to be missional "around the world and across the street" is taken seriously. Building committee update Carlene Lantz The Building Committee has been busy working towards a final plan of a fellowship hall for congregational approval. We have heard many suggestions and comments about how to build a better fellowship hall to meet the needs of the Zion congregation and we truly appreciated them. They helped us define and refine the plans for what we feel will be a purposeful building. In expanding our options as to how the building will best fit into the Zion property, we did additional site planning with a surveyor, civil engineer, architect, and our contractor. We are eager to submit the plan to the congregation on May 15 for review. In addition, the Kitchen Committee is reviewing their plans for the kitchen and will be submitting them to a professional kitchen planner. The kitchen planner will be of great assistance in helping us determine layout and accessibility issues within the area. Our anticipation is building as we take another step closer to the reality of our new fellowship hall! We appreciate your prayers for wisdom and guidance as we continue to journey through this process. Discovery 2005 American Southwest Ben Bixler For four weeks this summer, six Zion attendees will be traveling across the country with an EMHS group on Discovery 2005 American Southwest. The Discovery trip promotes learning beyond the classroom, using the nation as a backdrop to study the sustainability of natural resources and relationships. Zion attendees participating in the trip are EMHS faculty Elwood Yoder, Radell Schrock, Ben Bixler, and Sarah Bixler, and students Jordan Lehman and Steven Stauffer. Ask us questions about the trip before we leave and especially after we return. You can also follow our travels at www.emhs.net/discovery. We would appreciate prayers for safe travels as we spread the message of who Mennonites are with those we meet along the way. Highlights of the trip include:
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Healthy Livin’ Monica Compagnari and Judy Nafziger For I am fearfully and wonderfully made……………..Psalm 139 Blood pressure, what is this important vital statistic that health care providers place so much emphasis on? Do we really need to know what our blood pressure is? What if it’s too high? Can I really do anything to change it and why does it matter? Blood pressure is the force of blood pushing against blood vessel walls. The heart pumps blood into the arteries (blood vessels), which carry the blood throughout the body. High blood pressure, also called hypertension, is dangerous because it makes the heart work harder to pump blood to the body. It also contributes to damage in the blood vessels often called hardening of the arteries or atherosclerosis. If left untreated, hypertension can eventually lead to stroke, heart failure, heart attack, kidney failure, and vision problems. The exact causes of hypertension are not known but there are some factors that may contribute to its development such as: genetics such as having family members with hypertension or being African American, obesity, lack of physical activity, too much salt in the diet, smoking, stress, being over 35, and too much alcohol consumption (greater than 2 drinks per day). Some of these factors cannot be changed but many of them are under our control. There are generally no signs or symptoms of hypertension so the only way to know if you have hypertension is to have your blood pressure checked. Hypertension is not diagnosed with one blood pressure reading, it must be elevated on 2 or more occasions. There are several categories of blood pressure, including:
Hypertension is typically treated by making changes in your lifestyle, and with drug therapy. Lifestyle changes include losing weight, stopping smoking, eating a healthy diet (such as the DASH diet, which includes lowering sodium but including daily servings of fruits, vegetables, and whole grain foods), and getting enough exercise, especially aerobic exercise. If your blood pressure is in the normal range, congratulations! Make any of the above mentioned lifestyle changes if needed and keep it there! If you are in the prehypertension stage, continue to have your blood pressure monitored on a regular basis and make lifestyle modifications as needed. If you are in the stage 1 or stage 2 hypertension categories please see your health care provider and in the meantime you can also work on any lifestyle changes that may be needed. The information in this article was taken directly from an article found at www.WebMD.com. Please see this website for further information. |
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Musings Katherine Donnelly Goins Let the fire fall The lovely little church of Our Lady of the Fields was decked in red. The rollicking minor sounds of Come Holy Spirit, Let the Fire Fall filled the sanctuary as the teenage confirmation candidates processed down the aisle wearing robes of red and white. The bishop, priests, and deacons sang with gusto, their priestly vestments embroidered with the Holy Spirit descending in tongues of fiery red and gold. I half expected to see Ruah, the Spirit, blow through the sanctuary on that glorious spring evening as I awaited the confirmation, in the Roman Catholic tradition, of my fifteen year-old niece, Abigail. What if the Spirit really came? Maybe we really were caught up in the Spirit in that whirlwind of red, white, and gold, and in the rhythmic percussion of the hymn. As I participated in Abigail’s confirmation liturgy, I sensed that perhaps my own children had missed something important. I thoroughly appreciate the Anabaptist tradition, with its emphasis on community and adult confession of faith, but this glorious celebration of the Holy Spirit was something they had not experienced. How does the Mennonite community embrace the coming of the Holy Spirit? In the New Testament, the apostles, the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, were “constantly devoting themselves to prayer” when the day of Pentecost, came. Something happened during the traditional harvest festival, some sort of tornado or mass visionary hysteria that shattered the believers’ perception. Drunken joy and loosened tongues, prayers of praise and release of inhibitions, relief from endless days and nights of grief: all erupted in the birth of the Christian church. The newness of Pentecost – wouldn’t it be wonderful to experience that in annual worship celebrations? To expect a fresh whirlwind of the Spirit every year that would blow away our staleness and rigidity, to look for this now, today, every year, and not two thousand years ago? To celebrate a belief that rings out: Behold, I make all things new. Maybe. Anything can happen if we dream, ask, and imagine. The love of God Zion Women’s Retreat - March 18-19, 2005 Marci Myers God’s love. We all have experienced it in some form or another and each have a different perspective of how it has shaped our lives. On March 18 and 19, twenty-seven of Zion’s women had the chance to focus on God’s love and hear each other’s thoughts and insights on this topic. Each participant left behind her normal routine on Friday afternoon and headed to Winchester to the Wingate Inn. Besides providing a nice meeting room for us, the hotel also offered a swimming pool, Jacuzzi, weight room and a fabulous continental breakfast. After settling into our rooms, the sound of worship music, provided by Celah Pence, drew us into our first session. The presence of God was felt as 27 women’s voices joined together in praise. Susan Stoltzfus followed with a welcome, prayer and instructions for the weekend. We were led into worship with Dawn Mast and Becky Brenneman who provided us with a time of devotion and Bible study. What was left of the evening was spent talking, playing games and using the hotel’s facilities. Some of us enjoyed getting to know or reacquainting ourselves with the “non-Zion” women in attendance – Rhonda Blough (Stephanie Resto’s mother), Mary Raber (Amy Shrock’s mother), and former Zion attenders, Donna Bentz and Kathy Risser. We were delighted to have them join us for the weekend! With sleepy eyes (but eager hearts!) we gathered once again on Saturday morning to soak in more of God’s presence through singing and devotions with Celah and Dawn. Following this time of worship we were invited to peer into the lives of Amy Shrock and Barb Risser as they shared their stories of God’s love. Amy shared from her soul as she spoke about experiencing God’s love through forgiveness. Sometimes God’s love can only fully be felt after one is able to forgive and let go of past hurts. Barb offered wisdom as she relayed her insights into experiencing God’s love through letting go. Often the things that we hold dearest to us are things that get in the way of our relationship with God. In letting go, we can more fully experience a relationship with Him. Our morning session ended by spending time in sharing and prayer with one another. Many stayed on to enjoy a pizza lunch. Along with those already mentioned, there were many people behind the scenes that helped to make the weekend possible: Rebecca Hess, Judy Nafziger, Mary Leaman, Susan Stoltzfus, & Marci Myers (planning committee), Diane Emswiler (consultant!), Kathy Alderfer & Brenda Fairweather (decoration committee). Thanks to each one! Being together with other sisters in Christ was enjoyable and refreshing for me that weekend. I felt God’s presence among us and pray that He will lead us as we prepare for another retreat next year. Answers and questions J. P. Alger Retha and I have recently been reading Revelation in our devotional time. It would be safe to say that there is a lot more that I do not understand than what I do. I understand that:
I do not understand:
I do not want to loose faith or appear sacrilegious. I just don’t see why a Revelation should be so unrevealing to me. A blessing is pronounced on those who read and hear the prophecy of the book. So I keep reading and ask for guidance to hear more clearly. |
From jeans to ‘missional’ The idea began over two years ago. The God Chicks small group asked themselves, “how can we be missional and support the vision of the Mennonite Church?” Since we're crafty women we decided to make a denim comforter that could be donated to one of the Mennonite organizations for an auction. We selected the VMRC auction since we had connections for that one. The work began at Women's Night Out. We gathered all our old denim jeans and started cutting squares. Work continued for about nine months till we finished in March. The work was fun since it was among friends. At the VMRC auction in March, we were happy to watch our comforter raise $160. How awesome! We now have plans to work on more comforters for the other auction. Have we inspired you to be missional too? We challenge you to find a way to be missional. If you have denim that could be used for our project drop it off by the women's sewing room Youth news Sarah Bixler The Zion MYF is ready to attend the Mennonite Youth Convention this July! Youth from Big Springs, Crossroads and Trissels Mennonite churches will also join our youth for this event. Held in Charlotte this year, the Mennonite youth convention is a highlight that offers worship, Bible study, practical faith application, service, socialization and recreational opportunities for our youth. Zion attendees are: Mark Brenneman, Jonathan Bryant, Sarah Gant, Erica Lehman, Jordan Lehman, Jessica Myers, Rachel Nafziger, Krissy Snader, Zachary Stoltzfus, Steven Stauffer, Danielle Weaver, Maria Yoder, Aaron Yutzy, Sarah Bixler, Matt Hunsberger, Jenni Piper and Clay Showalter. The Jr. MYF summer trip will occur June 23-25. Jr. MYF will spend one day at the Kings Dominion amusement park and volunteer one day at Williamsburg Christian Retreat Center. Dan Baker will be serving Zion this summer under the Ministry Inquiry Program through EMU. He will work with the MYF, Jr. MYF and Vacation Bible School, and will assist Clyde in various other areas of congregational life. |
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Coming Up May 4 Congregational meal, 5:30 p.m. 7 Men’s Breakfast, 7:15 a.m. Women’s & Girls’ Banquet at Lindale 5:30 p.m. 8 Mother’s Day 12 ZMWM 12 CLT 6:30 p.m. 15 Fellowship meal and congregational meeting 19 Christian Education Commission 6:30 a.m. 21 Men’s Breakfast, 7:15 a.m. Spiritual Renewal Weekend with John & Betty Drescher 29 Broadway High School Choir June 1 Congregational Meal 2 ZMWM, 8:30 9 CLT, 6:30 p.m. 19 Father’s Day 19-23 Vacation Bible School 20 Women’s Night Out 7:00; p.m. 23 Christian Education Commission, 6:30 .a.m. |
Alaska with the Buckwalters
Bob and Betty Lou Buckwalter It is a little over three months since making our home in Alaska. After the busy days and nights of packing and moving out of the dome home in Va., we appreciated arriving in Alaska in the dead of winter (Christmas Day) with its long, snow-hushed nights. We slept like two bears in hibernation for the first week or two. The sun rose around 10 a.m. and set close to 3 p.m. which provided naturally good sleeping conditions. In January, we got the house organized and ready for the Service Adventure (SA) participants, planned for the orientation week, and did various other preparatory things for getting the SA program underway. We also spent considerable time with Joe and Sera and their sweet baby, Noah. And then, the beginning of February, the SA participants came, and things came to life! Three young women entered our lives; women who love their independence, heavy metal rock “Christian” music, junk food and movies, and who bonded immediately like three peas in a pod! Well, definitely a cross-cultural experience for us laid back, blue-grass, out-doorsy, older types who love hiking and eating healthy foods of the earth. You couldn’t find two more different life styles than ours and theirs. But hey, that’s okay, that’s the challenge of living together as people of God and sharing a household with SA unit life goals. In the SA program, there are requirements such as taking turns leading household worship and learning components once a week, eating five dinners per week together, with each person taking a turn in cooking, sharing all household chores, and participating in the sponsoring church activities. Service job assignments are full time, so the participants are kept busy enough in their 10 ½ months here. We are very grateful that they take their service assignments seriously, like their jobs and the people they work with. The beginning of May, Bob will start a full time job with Cooperative Extension, doing forest monitoring. The University of Alaska has an English as a Second Language component which I am checking out, hoping to do some part-time tutoring in this summer. Prince of Peace is the only Mennonite church in Anchorage. Sunday services are held in a simply-designed, cedar-sided chapel at the Holy Spirit Retreat Center. It sits on a hill on the edge of the city with the front of the chapel made up of floor to ceiling windows from which one can see the connection of sky and sea, powerful snow-capped mountain ranges and the occasional soaring of bald eagles - which frees the soul to soar in worship. The Prince of Peace core group is mostly young families who initially came to Alaska to be SA unit leaders, and then decided to stay on and make Anchorage their home. In the past six months, from these families, four new babies were added to the church with two more on the way. Other church members/attendees come from workplace friendships and SA participants. The church takes very seriously its mission of sponsoring SA participants and does a great job of making them a part of the family. In late February, my (Betty Lou’s) mother living in a nursing home in Pa., suddenly became unresponsive, so I took the next plane out to be with her. We had no idea how long she would live, but God answered my prayer that I could get to her side before she died, allowing her to live more than a week after I got there. Mother surprised the medical personnel by becoming responsive the first night I was there, and we had some very wonderful communications then and in the following days. There would be long stretches in which she would become unresponsive again, like she was in a deep sleep, then she would reawaken, and I could express my love and appreciation for her yet another time. We sang, smiled, prayed, reminisced and cried together. It was an altogether wonderful closure, a week-long vigil of love with my mother that I am so grateful for. She passed away March 1. And now it is spring time in Alaska. We may have done our last cross country skiing this past weekend when our household drove out to Hatcher’s Pass in the towering Talkeetna Mountains where the snow was still piled in eight foot deep slathers. The sun now rises at 7 a.m. and sets at 9 p.m. We gain five minutes and 45 seconds of daylight each day until there will hardly be any night left. It becomes the “land of the midnight sun” throughout the summer in which you get two days worth of daylight in one day! Thanks to those of you who have kept in touch with emails, letters, and prayers. The good memories of days gone by at Zion will always be with us. Congratulations to:
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Please put news items for July/August in the Windows mailbox by June 26, or email: pipermr@aol.com. We appreciate all your comments, ideas, and submissions! Dorothy Hartman and Myrna Piper publish Windows Into Zion.
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