Oct. 14, 2009

Mennonite congregation’s 45th anniversary of bombing honors God’s faithfulness

“Today we still pray for the people who bombed our church.” -Dave Weaver, Jr.

Margie R. Vaughn speaks during the open sharing session at Nanih Waiya Indian Mennonite Church Sept. 20. The congregation remembered God’s faithfulness during tragic bombings in the 1960s. (Photo/Roth)

PRESTON, Miss. - More than 120 people worshiped together Sept. 20 at Nanih Waiya Indian Mennonite Church near Philadelphia, Miss., to commemorate God’s faithfulness during tragic events of the 1960s. It had been 45 years since the first of three racially-motivated bombings to the same church facility. Two others occurred in 1966.

Lifting their voices in singing “This is the Day That the Lord Hath Made” and “How Great Thou Art,” both in English and the native Choctaw language, the congregation and guests looked back with forgiving hearts, grateful that no one was injured during any of the three violent acts.

This is Nanih Waiya’s story.

In the early 1960s Mennonites Nevin and Esther Bender from Greenwood, Del., were in ministry among the Choctaw people in Neshoba County. The Benders’ two daughters, Millie and Emma, with Emma’s husband, Glenn Myers, were assisting them.

At first the fledgling congregation met in homes.

In 1963 volunteers helped the congregation build the Nanih Waiya Mennonite Church building about a mile from the historic Indian mound by the same name. Nanih Waiya means “leaning hill” in Choctaw.

Then came midnight on Sept. 19, 1964, when the small cement church building exploded from dynamite. Glenn Myers, who attended the service, remembered coming home from a football game, getting a call about the bombing of the church and going to see it. The church was destroyed; part of the roof remained, held up by studs. Nevin Bender called family and church members, and together they tried to face what had happened.

The next day people from the community and others arrived to view the destruction. Plans were made to clean up the mess immediately, to salvage what they could and rebuild. Hatred and bitterness were absent on the part of the church community, according to those who were in the congregation at the time. Even though they were sad and couldn’t understand why this had happened, all were committed to the church. This would not stop their determination to be a church body.

Ken York, Hayward Bell and Dave Weaver, Jr., visit after the service at Nanih Waiya Indian Mennonite Church Sept. 20. (Photo/Roth)

Church members, local volunteers and Mennonite Disaster Service volunteers worked together to clean up and rebuild the church. Only 23 days after the bombing, the congregation met for the first time in the partially finished building. Fifty-nine people were there to celebrate the belief that love and hope are stronger than violence.

The group continued to meet and grow together in love and unity. They needed more room so they added to the building, again with the help of volunteers, including college students. A dedication was held in November 1965.

“It was quite a shock when on Feb. 19, 1966, the building was dynamited again,” Emma Myers said. “This happened soon after the youth group had a Valentine’s Day banquet in the building. Again the group rallied together to clean up and rebuild. This time it wasn’t completely destroyed so the annex was saved and with the help of volunteers, the building was rebuilt.”

Ten months after the second bombing, Dec. 23, 1966, the youth were caroling late at night.

“We were together in a church bus visiting the various homes of church members and singing Christmas carols. We planned to go back to the church for a party. There were food and drinks waiting for us there. When we returned to the church, we found a pile of rubble with the dust still settling,” remembers Dave Weaver, Jr., who was 17 at the time. “There was a strange feeling in the pit of my stomach.” He saw fear in the eyes of his friends. Most of the girls were crying.

Dorothy Thompson was one of the first Choctaw natives who attended Nanih Waiya Indian Mennonite Church as a child. Today she is part of the congregation. (Photo/Roth)

This time most of the annex was saved, but the main part of the church would have to be rebuilt.

“What words of comfort could the pastor give to the young people?” asked former pastor Glenn Myers, now of Philadelphia, Miss.

“They may have destroyed the church building, but not the church,” the young people said at the time.

During the service of remembrance, pastor Harvey Yoder invited the people to a time of sharing. Over and over again worshipers praised God for bringing the Mennonites to Nanih Waiya for “without them, there may not have been a church.” They thanked the broader Mennonite church whose members came from a distance to volunteer their time to rebuild not once, but three times.

About a half dozen people who were there the night of the December 1966 bombing spoke during the service of the shock they felt. “Who would do this?” was a repeated question. And while the community feels no hatred for the unknown perpetrators, another question remains: “Why?”

“Today we still pray for the people who bombed our church,” said Weaver, who lives now in Gulfport, Miss. “We pray that in these past 45 years they have had a change of heart and see the Light.”

Doug Herring, Louisville, Miss., who lived near the church in the 1960s and was invited to speak during the service about the church’s future, was a local volunteer who helped repair the roof after one of the bombings. He reminded the congregation that it is only when we genuinely love our enemies that we can truly forgive.

Emma Myers, Carol Roth, Dave Weaver and others contributed to this article.