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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. Please note that calendar information and the Worship Schedule are located on the Calendar page.
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Volume 11 |
Number 2
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January/February 2006
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That's not my jobThis is a story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Everybody. There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that, because it was Everybody's job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn't do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have. -Author Unknown: submitted by Martha Whissen Quotes submitted by Barbara Risser: You can give without loving, but you can't love without giving. Watch your thoughts, they become words. Watch your words, they become actions. Watch your actions, they become habits. Watch your habits, they become character. Watch your character, it becomes your destiny. -Frank Outlaw Any faucet can turn the water on, but after a few years only a good faucet will turn it off. The same thing applies to human tongues. -Ecclesiastics 5:6 Don't let your mouth lead you. Temper is what gets most of us into trouble. Pride is what keeps us there. |
Zion in 2006 --Elwood Yoder, CLT chairman You can discover Zion’s vision for 2006 by examining the proposed financial mission, reviewing what the ministry commissions are doing, and hearing what leaders are hoping for in the coming months. Stewardship Commission has outlined a new budget for 2006 that includes spending priorities for a local Outreach Minister, mission partnerships with the Kauffmans and Dintamans, increased spending on Christian education at EMHS, and funding for the work of the ministry commissions. The proposed budget for 2006 represents an 18% increase over 2005. Congregational members are invited to review this spending plan at the January 29 business meeting, to be held at the church after a fellowship meal at 1:00 PM. Zion’s five ministry commissions seek to empower God’s people to experience and share Christ’s healing and hope. At a leadership retreat in early December 2005, members of the commissions reviewed their goals and outlined spending priorities for 2006. It was a joint work session that included the Congregational Leadership Team and commission members. Seven key ministry initiatives flow from the general vision statement for Zion. Under each initiative are specific activities that shape the work of the commissions throughout the year. A complete outline of our congregational vision and mission statement is available for review on the Zion web site. A third way to discover Zion’s vision for 2006 is to listen to the hopes and dreams of the pastoral staff, the CLT, and Commission members. The overarching desire of CLT members is to create a missional attitude at Zion. This includes hiring an Outreach Minister in the coming year, possibly starting an alternative gospel music Saturday evening worship service, planning meaningful Sunday morning worship services with a variety of musical styles, and giving youth the option of attending EMHS by assisting families with the cost of tuition in grades 9-12. Prepare to learn a definition of the word “missional” in 2006 as Pastor Clyde speaks about it and as congregational priorities revolve around the call to minister across the street and around the world. May we be faithful to God’s call on our lives at Zion in 2006! Weekend with Jesse Buckwalter --Bob & Betty Lou Buckwalter We recently returned from a wonderful weekend at Bethel, Alaska, where Jesse has been living and working for a year as a commercial pilot. Bethel is a town of 6,000, mostly Yupik Eskimo, along the Bering Sea in western Alaska. There are no roads to Bethel. The roads in Bethel lead to the airport, and docks--air and sea being the only way in and out of town. Early Saturday morning after Jess picked us up at the airport, fed us a hearty breakfast at Yolanda's restaurant and delivered our luggage to his house, we got into our walking-in-cold-weather-gear (16 degrees F) and took the 1.5 hr walk to Jess's workplace at the airport, Craig Air's hangar/office. From the air, the countryside appears to be 2/3 water - the river and tributaries and thousands of lakes and sloughs. Our weekend was a cross-cultural experience. There were five main events: Saturday supper with Jess' housemates and friends, followed by the Yupik Eskimo Fiddle Dance, Sunday a.m. services at the Bethel Russian Orthodox Church, an afternoon visit to an outlying traditional Yupik village, and an evening of "Just Desserts" featuring local talent and desserts. The housemates, all bachelors, include another Jesse, Mitch, a co-pilot with Jess, and Marty, who specializes in something at the hospital. The other friends were Jill, Jess' special friend, an environmental consultant from Oregon; Megan, a teacher, and Heather, a speech pathologist from Vermont. Oh, and then there was Kevin from Bethel, a half-native musician who plays guitar and drums in the Z-bros band with Jess. The native Fiddle Dance happens several times a year. This one was a fund raiser for the school sports teams who need to buy plane tickets to participate in events with other schools. Almost everyone else in the school gym was native, Yupik Eskimo. A lot of Yupiks are real short and rotund without being obese. A number of the grandmas could have been models for the Cabbage Patch dolls, for those of you who remember them. Alaska, as you may know, was a colony of Russia till 1867 when Secretary of State Seward bought it for the US for about 2 cents per acre. Most of the towns in Alaska still have active Russian Orthodox churches. We decided to attend the Sunday morning Russian Orthodox service at Bethel. It turned out to be a full three-hour, and most of the time we were standing. Just Desserts was another fundraiser. It was sort of a talent show, with Jess and his band the Z-bros as the "best for last" feature on the program. Jesse played both his banjo and saxophone with the other guys on guitar, mandolin and percussion. The last and not least event was a 15 minute flight upriver to Akiachak, a Yupik village where Cindy Detrow, a Menno from Ohio is and has been a high school teacher for 3 or 4 years. She attends Prince of Peace Mennonite Church when she is in Anchorage. She gave us a good walking tour of the village, then a high tea at her house Yupik style. Flying into the village, we could see people all bundled up and out ice-fishing on the river....fish in the summer, fish in the winter....that's the food staple year around. On the flight back to Bethel, Jess flew towards the mountains about 15 minutes out of the way as he had heard that the migration of caribou from the mountains to the tundra had begun. Sure enough, we spotted huge herds of caribou - hundreds of them - which we buzzed. For that whole weekend, we really felt like we were somewhere else in the world, far away from a typical day. Jesse has adapted real well to life out on the tundra of western Alaska. Being with him was a pleasure, and being there was a refreshing change from city life and the responsibilities in Anchorage. Our days as unit leaders with Service Adventure are numbered here in Anchorage with the participants leaving Dec. 16. By the time you read this we may have seen some of you since we are planning to be in VA for Christmas and New Years, then off to Akron, Pa., for 3 1/2 months volunteering at 10,000 Villages. We hope to return to Alaska mid April, Lord willing. |
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Adult nonfiction books added to the Zion Library - November 2005
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Healthy Livin/ --Rob Pence Now that winter is here, there can be a tendency to feel “down” or “blue”. If you don’t experience this in the colder months, you are fortunate. Many people notice a let-down after the holidays. Those feelings of sadness or deflation have a fancy medical term these days called seasonal affective disorder (SAD). People say they can’t put their finger on why they feel as they do; they just know they are not themselves. It does not necessarily mean they have depression (this depends on the severity), but many of the same medications will help with SAD. We are not sure what causes SAD but some theories revolve around the winter months having less sunlight per day and/or people being confined inside more than in warmer months. No matter the cause, some ways to combat these feelings are:
Knowing when you are the most vulnerable for these feelings and planning something for those times may be helpful as well. If you notice that you are feeling down, or see another person struggling in this way, especially if it starts to affect normal daily activities, you may want to contact a health care professional or close friend. As a church community we are called to help one another in many ways and this includes mental health. The key is we are not in this journey alone. We are a family of believers working for the good of all. Unto others --Barbara Risser A weary, retired building contractor was traveling north on I-81 to his home in Ottawa Canada in January 1998. He had spent the last two weeks working at a children’s orphanage in Haiti with his church’s mission program. Traveling went well from Miami airport in his S-10 Chevy pickup until he reached the Mason-Dixon Line. Here his truck developed motor trouble. He tried to do his own mechanical work to no avail. State police referred him to our neighbor’s towing service. The pickup would have to stay there until repair parts were found. That night our neighbor fixed him a bed in the back of a station wagon he was repairing in his warm garage. That was fine after supper, but he needed to get to Harrisburg to catch an early Amtrak train in the morning. Unplanned, Ben stopped to talk to our neighbor friend as he sometimes does. When hearing of the stranger’s problem, Ben offered his services. “Let me make a phone call to my friend in Chambersburg. I may be able to find a ride to Harrisburg for you.” “I leave for work in Harrisburg at 4:45 a.m.,” the friend responded. “If you can be here with the passenger at that time, he can ride with me. My work is only a few blocks from the train station.” Five minutes after the alarm rang the next morning, our neighbor phoned to see if Ben was ready to make the connecting link with the driver in Chambersburg. Our neighbor wanted to make sure his unexpected ‘guest’ did not have to sleep in his garage another night. Next day a call from Ottawa informed us of the stranger’s appreciation for getting him home in just 18 hours. Only now he was not a stranger. He was a brother in Christ. He sent us a cassette of a choir in which his grown children were involved. Beautiful music! We were blessed for just being available when someone was in need. God’s perfect timing could not have been duplicated. Adult fiction books added to the Zion Library - November 2005
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Name that couple! --Dawn Mast Back by popular demand... the “Name that Couple” game! Just read the details of the dating, proposal and/or wedding of a couple at Zion and match the couple with their story. Please turn your answers into Dawn Mast via phone (896-4179) or e-mail (themast@juno.com) by Sunday, January 8th. There will be a prize given to the person who has correctly matched the most couples by January 8th. Have fun and happy guessing! 1) Jeremy and Diann Beach 2) Daryl and Marci Myers 3) Aaron and Laura Kauffman 4) Dale and Rebecca Hess 5) Todd and Mandi Stoltzfus 6) Mike and Sarah Piper 7) Rob and Celah Pence 8) Ken and Judy Nafziger ___A) Their first date was on a chilly December evening. Earlier in the day he had painstakingly washed his car. When he picked her up that evening he opened the passenger side door, helped her in, then shut the door. Or so he thought! The water from the car wash had frozen the latch for the door and she had to hold the very heavy door shut with all her might while they drove a few miles to pick up another car. ___B) He had a crush on her for two years before he finally asked her out. He began the first phone call by saying, "This may be the strangest phone call you ever get, but...." She had to look him up in the yearbook after she got off the phone. ___C) She said, “Yes!” to his proposal on Saturday evening, but he didn’t ask until Sunday morning. (He was in Kenya at the time so there was a time difference). ___D) They met their senior year at EMU through his roommate whom she was dating at the time. After dating for 1 year they got engaged and then married six months later. Her father, a minister, was to perform their wedding, but was admitted to the hospital just four days before the wedding. He needed surgery, so much to her dismay, they scrambled to try and find another minister to perform the ceremony. Meanwhile her father told the doctor he would not be having surgery as he needed to perform the wedding ceremony for his daughter. So, he left the hospital and was present for the rehearsal, rehearsal dinner and most importantly, the wedding. ___E) They met on their EMU cross-cultural, but couldn’t stand one another. Actually, they only spoke once during the entire three month trip! When they got back to EMU they worked on the same floor of the Campus Center and started talking one day at the copier. On their first date she got in the passenger seat of his car, sat on his sunglasses and broke them. When she went to the Dominican Republic on another cross cultural he flew down and proposed. ___F) They met on a blind date and went to Chili’s. He proposed at 8:00 in the morning just four days after September 11th. They got married in a non air-conditioned church on a spring day when it was 70 degrees. Just a few days later though it was a balmy 95 degrees. ___G) They first met during a service assignment. They met again eight years later because of another service assignment. Ten people joined them on their first date. On their wedding day the barefoot bride surprised the groom by singing to him. Five minutes after the outdoor ceremony was over it started pouring rain and didn’t stop for 24 hours. ___H) Met when they stood beside each other at an MSEC choir festival in high school. Fell in love on a Spring Break trip to Chicago. Spent nearly half of their dating years in separate countries. Decided not to get married at Zion because of the lack of air conditioning. |
The 5th Gospel Revelation Adult Winter Bible School is coming on Sunday evenings at 6:30 p.m., from January 22--March 5, 2006 (except February 5) Teacher Duane Yoder will explore the first century context in which Revelation was written, and how the risen Christ calls the suffering church to faithfulness and victory in the face of extreme persecution. Don't miss this opportunity to gain a new understanding of this fascinating but often misunderstood book. Matt Hunsberger and others will lead hymns from Sing the Journey each night before the Bible teaching. Adult Winter Bible School is free, and reservations are not needed. Child care will be provided for ages 0-7. For more information, contact Steve Carpenter, Virginia Mennonite Conference Coordinator, at 434-9727 or steve.carpenter@vmconf.corg. Sponsored by: VMC, Mission Endowment Fund, Park View Federal Credit Union, Eastern Mennonite School, Lindale Mennonite Church |
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The road less traveled --Barbara Risser We are fast becoming a fragmented society. Fast-paced, individualistic, goal-driven. Parents work at different jobs with little relation to family involvement. Children often do not understand the jobs in which their parents work. We have moved from farms where the whole family participated in regular chores to urban settings where even the garbage is picked up by stranger. In the many hours apart it is difficult to establish family times together. They have to be planned. Quality time doesn’t just happen. Balance seems to be the key to working at meaningful relationships. Balance is a discipline precisely because the act of giving up something is painful. In the end, losing balance is more painful than the giving up required to maintain a healthy equilibrium. Above my desk is a plaque with the word Balance that a friend engraved in wood for me as a reminder. Years ago I realized a need in my life to work at keeping an even keel in all things. I work at the spiritual, mental, emotional and physical balance. I do not always achieve success but I don’t give up trying. To negotiate the corners and curves that force themselves upon us, we must continually give up parts of ourselves. A personal faith must be developed or it’s no faith at all. It’s too easy to slide into the line of least resistance or the current ‘doing your own thing’ or ‘whatever feels good’ mentality. Self discipline is not the road most traveled! The only alternative is not to travel at all on the journey of life. The path to holiness lies through questioning our present priorities and disciplining self to achieve the best God has for us. The Christian life is no hand-me-down religion. True faith demands a relationship with Jesus Christ that disciplines self so Holy Spirit intervention is possible with fresh inspiration and direction. Are you taking the road less traveled? |
Musings --Katherine Donnelly Goins Sisters in Song The singing group of young women known as Shekinah gathers for its weekly rehearsal. The gathering reveals the essence of the group: This is no stuffy, business-like music rehearsal, but rather a laughing, caring, sharing, joking sisterly presence stitched together by the thread of music. “We laugh a lot,” one member told me. Another echoed her statement. “We had to extend our rehearsals to an hour and a half because we wasted so much time talking and laughing.” Founded by Katie Derstine in 2003, the group includes Joanna Souder and Anna Dintaman. Their repertoire is a cappella and spans a variety of styles, including classical, hymns, spirituals, African, and secular. Through music these young women give expression to voices from around the world, paying particular attention to the needs of women. When asked about the group’s name, Katie responded that shekinah was a word she first heard in high school. In her research she found that shekinah means the presence of God among the people, specifically the feminine aspect of God. This seemed to fit the group of female singers, and so they were christened. Shekinah is not a word we hear in church very often. While the actual term does not appear in the Old Testament, it is the feminine gender noun derived from the Hebrew verb shakhan, meaning “to dwell.” In the book of Exodus, shekinah is associated with the radiant light of God, especially in the pillar of cloud and pillar of fire that led the people through the wilderness. Author Karen Armstrong in A Short History of Myth, speaks of shekinah as “…the divine presence of God on earth…often imagined as a woman.” Theologian Elizabeth A. Johnson addresses the concept of shekinah in her book She Who Is: The Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourse. “It signifies no mere feminine dimension of God but God as She-Who-Dwells-Within…” “God as She-Who-Dwells-Within” “the feminine aspect of God” “the presence of God among the people” “radiant light” Eight young women laughing, talking, caring, singing, giving musical expression to voices from around the world: through them we catch a glimpse of She-who-dwells-among-us. Picture of Shekinah by Wayne Showalter: Amanda Maust, Andrea Kniss, Joanna Souder, Katie Derstine, Eve Knepp, and Jenny Hartwig (Matt Hunsberger on drum) |
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JANUARY Birthdays 1 Tony Brenneman, Betty Lou Buckwalter, Rob Pence 3 Sierra Fittry 5 Joe Vaccaro 6 Janet Rhodes 7 Jonathan Piper, Rachel Nafziger 9 Marci Myers 10 Audrey Shenk 11 Melissa Hottinger 12 Jim Henderson, Gerry Rush, Virginia Showalter 13 Eric Brubaker, Zachary Emswiler 14 Doug Alderfer, Wes Showalter 16 Cathy Fittry 18 Jessica Showalter 21 Fern Nisly 22 Stuart Fairweather, Justin Showalter 27 Noah Emswiler 28 Mandi Stoltzfus 31 Allen Showalter, Welby Showalter Anniversaries 3 Bill & Michele Baker (30th) FEBRUARY Birthdays 2 Diane Emswiler, Tom Sawyer 3 Dwayne Hartman 4 Radell Schrock, Kari Souder 5 Caleb Mast, Celah Pence, Dabney Vaccaro 10 Michael Stauffer, Tiffany Williams 11 Ruth Alger 12 Joann Henderson 14 Kathy Alderfer, Stephanie Resto 16 Becky Crider 17 Doug Nyce 19 Aaron Yutzy 23 Amy Shrock 26 Rebekah Compagnari, Martha Whissen 27 Peggy Brubaker, Marv Nisly Anniversaries 5 Larry & Carolyn Heine (41st) 15 Dale & Rebecca Hess (14th) 19 J. P. & Retha Alger (57th) Worship Schedule JANUARY 1 A Child of Hope (Luke 2:22-40) Clyde Kratz 8 Baptism: Doorway to Discipleship (Mark 1:4-11) Clyde Kratz 15 Come and See (John 1:43-51) Clyde Kratz 22 Repent and Believe the Good News (Mark 1:14-20) Penny Driediger 29 A New Teaching (Mark 1:21-28) Clyde Kratz FEBRUARY 5 Healing and Proclaiming (Mark 1:29-39) Clyde Kratz 12 You Can Be Made Whole (Mark 1:40-45) Clyde Kratz 19 Healing, Walking and Sins (Mark 2:1-12) Clyde Kratz Please put news items for March/April in the Windows mailbox by February 26, or email: pipermr@aol.com. We appreciate all your comments, ideas, and submissions! Dorothy Hartman and Myrna Piper publish Windows Into Zion. |
Upcoming Events
JANUARY 3 Worship Commission 7 p.m. 4 Jr MYF service project 5 Zion Mennonite Women’s Ministries 5 Christian Education morning meeting @ Daily Grind 3-5 Northern District Leadership Retreat 6-8 Winter Youth Retreat @ Williamsburg Christian Retreat Center 7 Christian Education breakfast 8-10 a.m 8 Pancake Breakfast 9 Northern District meeting 7 p.m. 10 Broadway Timberville Ministerial Association 12 noon 12 CLT 6:30 p.m. 13-14 Virginia Mennonite Conference Council meeting 16-19 EMS School Leadership Training 17 Jr MYF and MYF snow tubing 24 Pastoral Committee 9 a.m. 26 CARE Commission 7 p.m. 29 Fellowship meal; 1 p.m. Congregational business meeting 31 Jr MYF 7 p.m. make baked goods for fund raiser FEBRUARY 1 Stewardship Commission 6:30 a.m. 2 Zion Mennonite Women’s Ministries 4 Virginia Mennonite Conference Delegates session The Hand of God God's gentle hand it guiding, But it doesn't push or shove, Instead it clasps our human hands And leads with grace and love. We find within this hand of God A heavenly strength indeed, And as we follow, God provides For what we truly need. -Peggy Ferrell, Prayers and Poems |
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