Mountain boy becomes Mennonite pastor in Franklin Mennonite
Conference
by Laurie L. Oswald
Butch Neil, pastor at Shady Pine
Mennonite Church in Willow Hill, Pa., and his wife,
Freda, minister to people in Path Valley, about 30
miles from Chambersburg, Pa., the center of Franklin
Mennonite Conference. (Photo by Laurie Oswald)
WILLOW HILL, Pa. (MC USA) -- No one dreamed that a boy from
a feuding mountain family would one day become the peace-loving
pastor of Shady Pine Mennonite Church. Marlin (Butch) Neil
is fond of telling that story, for he was that boy.
In the late 1940s, Shady Pine invited Neil -- who belonged
to a clan of what he describes as a drinking and feuding people
-- to vacation Bible school at Shady Pine. Franklin Mennonite
Conference -- one of 21 area conferences belonging to Mennonite
Church USA -- started the congregation in 1947 as an outpost
to people in Path Valley. The valley is 30 miles from Chambersburg,
the conference center.
Today, after 14 years as pastor, Neil is drawing many of those
extended family members into the church with the same kind
of love he found there as a boy, he said. On any given Sunday
morning, Neil may see as many as 14 cousins among the crowd
of about 100 members filling the tiny, rustic sanctuary. Only
about 10 percent of Shady Pine members are from a traditional
Mennonite background.
"Shady Pine began when I was a boy, and the one thing
I remember today is how loving people were," he said.
"They accepted me, an outcast, one of the Neil clan --
with families who had 12 kids each and who drank, fought and
were a bunch of bullies.
"But these Mennonites -- some of who wore black hats
and white coverings -- drew me close and taught me about Jesus.
Howard Lehman, one of the leaders at the time, really impacted
me. I broke a window while playing ball in the sanctuary and
I feared I was in big trouble. But rather than scold, Howard
put his hand gently on my shoulder and said, 'That's okay
Butch. But from now on, let's play somewhere else.'"
Miracle at Shady Pine
In what Neil describes as a "miracle," about four
years ago, many Neil cousins began to appear at Shady Pine,
the very place where an outcast boy became an accepted pastor.
"This exodus by my relatives into the church started
when one of my cousin's little girls got leukemia and died,"
he said. "Her grandparents became members and then brought
other family with them. ... It's strange to stand here and
see all my cousins out there. ...
"I'm no scholar but I can tell the story of what Jesus
has done. And that's powerful for them. They've known me all
their lives, and they'd know if I wasn't telling the truth.
They can see how much Christ has changed me and that draws
them."
Pacifism in Path Valley
Many of Neil's changes came after he returned home from the
Vietnam War, he said. Neil accepted Christ at Pleasant View
Mennonite Church in Chambersburg when he was 16. That's where
he met his future wife, Freda Martin, the daughter of Harvey
and Helen Martin, and where Jesus' peace-loving ways took
root. But because of his background, he felt it was his duty
to serve in the war.
"I wasn't a conscientious objector when I went to Vietnam,
but after the war I became one," he said. "To get
back into the church when I got home, I had to renounce my
involvement. But it was genuine on my part and not just a
requirement. ... I still grapple with practicing non-violence,
especially since 9/11. But Jesus' life is a powerful example
that shapes my own life and what I teach in the pulpit."
His sermons have ranged from the Sermon on the Mount to marriage
and divorce. In a community where fighting can be the norm,
Neil's views on life in 21st-century Path Valley are strangely
similar to Jesus' views in first-century Palestine. Ironically,
Willow Hill is near to Letterkenny, a U.S. Army base in Chambersburg,
where some Shady Pine members work. Two generations of residents
within Path Valley have worked there.
"I teach a clear conscientious objector stance, but I'm
also aware that many people depend on employment at Letterkenny
to feed their families," he said. "So rather than
talk in terms of do's and don'ts, I talk about how because
of the fall, we can tend toward hating others rather than
loving them. But then I explain that Jesus taught another
way."
Coming full circle
When he returned from the war, he married Freda Martin and
they settled in Willow Hill, the community where she served
as a girl in outreach with her family. It's where the couple
raised two children, Shawn and Heather. And it's where Butch
Neil drove a fuel-oil truck route before Franklin Conference
called him as a pastor.
The job would serve to sow seeds of trust among the community.
Freda Neil said, "Everyone in the community invites Butch
to do their funerals and their weddings, even when they're
not held at our church. Butch's life is his best evangelistic
tool, because they've seen him change."
The power of a life that has come full circle is not lost
on this couple that works together to embody God's love. Many
people in Willow Hill know little about Mennonite Church USA
but a lot about how Shady Pine brings feelings of belonging
and healing in their broken and hurting lives. For Butch Neil,
their ministry has been about sharing God's love at home.
For Freda Neil, it's meant learning to relate in a "foreign"
land.
"Their faith expression is a lot different than that
of traditional Mennonite circles, but it really touches me
because of its honesty and realness," she said. "Many
people here don't reason out their faith, they simply accept
Jesus from their heart. Their faith tends to be a really deep
and private thing. But once they trust you, they become very
open.
"Many women have shared with me about struggling with
addictions and being sexually abused. That's why I need training
in counseling. ... These women aren't prone to go to a professional
counselor for $80 an hour but they will talk to me over a
cup of coffee."
This one-on-one caring tends to be an expression of missional
focus of many members of Shady Pine, Butch Neil said. "As
a congregation, we're very passionate about reaching out,"
he said. "But it's not about big evangelistic crusades.
We just try to love people one at a time and accept them where
they're at. ...
"It's really all about friendship. And no matter who
comes to Shady Pine, we greet them all the same -- in the
love and acceptance of Jesus -- even before they get inside
the door."
Laurie L. Oswald is news service
director for Mennonite Church USA.
From bread and chocolate to war and guns; restaurant
owner joins Iraq delegation
by Anna Groff
Nadine Bechtel, owner of Bread
and Chocolate, a cafe in Goshen, Ind., relates with
a detainee during an awareness vigil for detainees
at a mosque in Iraq during her participation in a
Christian Peacemaker Teams there in April. (photo
courtesy of Nadine Bechtel)
GOSHEN, Ind. (MC USA) -- Nadine Bechtel, 54, the owner of
a flourishing cafe on Main Street in Goshen, decided to leave
her restaurant and life to join a Christian Peacemaker Teams
(CPT) delegation in Iraq on April 1.
Bechtel, who had traveled to Haiti with a local church group
for the past two years, was "looking for her next challenge,"
when she heard Rich Meyer of CPT at her home congregation,
Eighth Street Mennonite Church. CPT offers organizational
support to people committed to faith-based nonviolent alternatives
in situations where lethal conflict is a reality.
Reactions were "all over the map," when Bechtel
informed her friends and family she was leaving Goshen and
her restaurant, Bread and Chocolate (a European-style cafe
and catering business).
"Some people were just dead-set against it," Bechtel
said. "Other people were just very supportive."
Bechtel does not call herself brave because she simply was
"doing what I felt like I needed to do." Bechtel
said people do dangerous things every day, like driving a
car. She decided joining the delegation had a "payoff
worth the risk."
The CPT delegation group stayed in an apartment in Karrada,
a quiet, residential neighborhood right across the street
from the Tigress River. Bechtel believes the apartment building,
built in the 1970s, had not once been renovated.
"The kitchen was old," she said. When the delegation
learned Bechtel owns a restaurant, they wanted her to be in
charge of cooking. Bechtel enjoyed the challenge of "putting
things together without a recipe" and the limitations
of only cooking on top of a stove.
The two-fold purpose of the CPT team in Iraq included engaging
in conversations with people in Iraq and then bringing this
information and experience back to the United States. The
team talked with people at hospitals, clerics and people on
the human rights committee in Iraq. Bechtel says it was a
"broad spectrum" of people. "The people were
very friendly and very open about talking about the situation,"
she said.
In Karrada, Internet cafes were available. "We felt very
closed off from friends and family and if I hadn't been able
to e-mail, it would have been 100 percent worse," Bechtel
said. She received an e-mail daily from members of her congregation.
"That was a powerful connection to have, to know that
people were really keyed in to what I was doing and thinking
about us," she said.
Before Bechtel left for Iraq, she spoke with her congregation
about her motives for going and what she hoped to achieve.
Bechtel said when someone asked, "When you meet an Iraqi
woman, what are you going to say?" she stumbled over
her answer. "I'm not sure that before I went to Iraq,
I had an answer to that," she said.
Bechtel had to address this question when the CPT team and
delegation arranged an awareness vigil on the steps of a mosque
for the detainees in Iraq. "There were people there who
were very angry at the U.S and there were people there who
were thrilled with CPT," Bechtel said.
At the vigil, an Iraqi woman came up to Bechtel, ranting and
raving. "It was all in Arabic, I had no idea what she
was talking about," Bechtel said. "She was really
mad. Something nasty had happened to her." Bechtel said
she shook her head to show her support and to say, "no
matter what it is, I know you are hurting."
The woman drifted back into the crowd, but later came back,
gesturing that Bechtel's scarf needed adjusting. Bechtel,
unable to fix it properly, motioned for the woman to help.
After this exchange the two women shook hands. "Without
any words, we came to a meeting place at the end where she
knew that I cared and she knew that I heard," Bechtel
said. "It was an amazing thing for me."
Bechtel said the team never knew for sure the exact departure
date from Iraq, as at the end of the first week hostages were
being taken. The team arrived on Saturday and as early as
Wednesday they heard it may not work to leave when planned.
Bechtel said, "The whole thing was really unclear."
Bechtel said the group heard rumors that bandits were stopping
buses and making people answer questions in Arabic. "None
of us could have passed," Bechtel said. "I don't
know if this [rumor] was absolutely true or not, but that
was what we were told."
The delegation thought of sneaking out by putting two people
on a bus at a time, but it later became apparent the group
must fly out, even if the road was open. "With all the
hostage taking going on, it wasn't going to be safe to drive,"
Bechtel said. Bechtel, and another delegation member, flew
from Baghdad to Ammon, Jordan to Chicago on April 13, while
the rest of the CPT delegation left the following day.
Bechtel, anxious to share about her "profound experience,"
is scheduled to speak at six churches and with Goshen High
School's peace club. However, the transition back to daily
life is a challenge, as Bechtel finds it difficult to slide
back into her old life in Goshen and at Bread and Chocolate.
"I like my hot-running water and soft bed," she
said. "But I will never be the same."
Anna Groff, a communication
student at Goshen (Ind.) College, wrote this story for Mennonite
Church USA news service.
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