Mennonite Church USA News Service

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Contact: Laurie L. Oswald (316) 283-5100, E-mail: LaurieO@MennoniteUSA.org

For International Choir at MWC Assembly, music is universal language and prayer.

Youth Summit in Zimbabwe helps youth experience leadership call in new context.

Executive Board announces staff and budget reductions for 2004.

JoinHands passes $1 million mark in grants to congregations.

For International Choir at MWC Assembly, music is universal language and prayer.

The International Choir performs and leads worship during the opening Aug. 11 of Mennonite World Conference Assembly Gathered in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.

by Laurie L. Oswald

This is the third story in a series depicting Africa 2003, Mennonite World Conference's Assembly Gathered, held in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, on Aug. 11-17.

BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe (MC USA) -- It didn't matter that Ammeral Johnson didn't read music or know the Ndebele language of Zimbabwe or speak Spanish. The International Choir member said she felt the heartbeat of global songs wrap around Mennonite World Conference worship like a prayer that everyone knew.

This oneness united Johnson, an African-American of Hampton, Va., with the other 17 choir members from around the world during MWC Assembly Gathered in Bulawayo on Aug. 11-17. For Johnson, an administrative assistant for Mennonite Church USA's Executive Board Office of Cross-Cultural Relations, music is a common language that all people speak and that the God of all nations hears.

"Coming together with so many different cultures, so many different styles, so many different backgrounds was a foretaste of heaven for me," said Johnson, part of the International Choir that helped lead worship for 6,300 MWC participants from Mennonite/Brethren in Christ churches around the world and performed songs from each continent. "This choir shows us that we can come together from across the world, and the one common denominator is music.

"Even in the delegate sessions, they have interpreters to make everyone understand each other. But that wasn't so in our music and our worship. Even if we didn't understand the words fully, we got the meaning behind those words just by singing them together."

Absorbing the meaning in many languages and musical scores was what the choir did every day for three weeks, said Marilyn Houser Hamm of Winnipeg, who joined Eunice Khanye of Zimbabwe in co-directing the choir. The 18 choir members, fluent in a total of 16 languages, were an integral part of each day's worship. They came to Africa two weeks prior to MWC to practice for the gathering with Hamm, former director of worship and spirituality for Mennonite Church Canada; chair of the music committee for the Mennonite hymnal, Hymnal: A Worship Book; and member of the committee for the hymnal subscription service.

Riches of lands, treasures of worship

The choir brought riches from their lands to the treasure chest of daily worship that highlighted continents -- Asia, Europe, Latin America, North America and Africa. Zimbabwe Day launched the gathering Aug. 11 and World Day concluded it with a communion service Aug. 17.

These riches included many songs from Africa -- including a section at the beginning of the MWC Assembly songbook, "Gifts from Zimbabwe." The book contained about 90 songs in 20 languages, first presented in their original language and translated into English, French and Spanish.

Some of worship's brightest gold was the African song, Hakuna Akaita Sa Jesu, or "There Is No One Like Jesus." The song wasn't even in the songbook, but it topped the worship charts each day with constant requests to sing it. Reserved Europeans and expressive Africans alike danced in the aisles and raised their arms in praise to the words: There is no one like Jesus/There is no one like him/We ran and ran everywhere/We went round and round everywhere/We searched and searched everywhere/No one is like him.

This joy in Jesus was the universal language that wove through the stories of suffering that people told. Sermons revolved around struggles of hunger, violence and political turmoil. But songs vibrated with the hope that speakers also communicated, Hamm said.

"The expression of the theme -- 'Sharing gifts in suffering and in joy' -- happened in many powerful ways throughout the week, and it was the music that enabled all the voices of that theme to speak," Hamm said. "We found ways with music to name and share our pain in ways that transcended our differences and brought an amazing joy and celebration in God's Spirit.

"The language of music in our worship is one of the most significant languages we have. Mennonites have always known how important it is to sing together. It's our songs that bind us together and create a mutual sensitivity and blending that connects us to each other and to God."

From left, Marilyn Houser Hamm, co-director of the International Choir at Africa 2003, and Ammeral Johnson, choir member and administrative assistant for the Mennonite Church USA Executive Board Office of Cross-Cultural Relations, enjoy worship on Africa Day, Aug. 16.

Families of faith and music

To help MWC participants connect as God's family, the choir first had to be formed into a musical family through hours of hard work, patience, resilience and prayer, Hamm said. They learned songs in the mother tongue from where they originated. So besides having to learn melodies and their parts, the choir members repeated songs over and over and over again to smooth rough edges of foreign pronunciation.

"Added to these challenges, the choir came to Africa not having seen any materials," Hamm said. "But there was an amazing openness to one another from the very beginning. They had a strong willingness to enter into the space of another person who taught us his or her music in their language and brought us into their culture. ... A sense of family happened so quickly - even within the first two days."

Hamm gives most credit for this family togetherness to the grace of the Holy Spirit. "We would have made no headway if we hadn't prepared ourselves spiritually," she said. "We began each day with prayer and Scripture. ... And the way music is, it gives back energy, and constantly renewed us, along with the support given to us from the whole assembly."

The family included the music committee that helped to plan, select and organize the choir. Instrumental in the early stages of planning was Ken Nafziger of North America who didn't sing in the choir. The other committee members who did sing were Hamm from North America; Eunice Khanye, Africa; Agus Setianto, Asia; Jan Marten de Vries, Europe; and Mauricio Medina Benavides, Central and South America.

Other choir members were Johnson and Bryan Moyer Suderman, North America; Raema Mintash, I. Matsung Ozukum, Asia; Deusiline Martins Milhomen and Amos Lopez, Latin America; Florent Malu-Malu Lungungu, Apeku Leticia Amasika, Nyamisy Steven Mangana, Herbert Mwaanga Nkaso, Lwazi Sibanda, Ndumiso Mlilo, Africa; and Anita Hein-Horsch, Europe.

Voices heard, songs shared

An outgrowth for Johnson in being part of this family was new hope for an increased sense that Christ's body is a multicultural family in which all voices can be heard and all songs can be sung.

"Africa 2003 gave me the hope that Mennonite Church USA and churches all across the world can be part of eradicating racism," Johnson said. "As I looked out across this assembly and saw people from all over the world come together in one place and be of one accord, that hope was born.

"Now we all need to keep this fire alive and duplicate what we experienced here, taking the seeds of this gathering back home with us and plant them there, letting them grow."

What will help these seeds to grow will be the songs we continue to sing for and with each other during the years between MWC assemblies, Hamm said.

"One of the best ways to maintain our worldwide community in the interim between our assemblies are the songs we give each other," she said. "The idea of a global church can be very obscure. ....But music gives us practical handles on this and transcends time and space and binds us together."

Laurie L. Oswald is news service director for Mennonite Church USA.


Youth Summit in Zimbabwe helps youth experience leadership call in new context.

From right, Erica Littlewolf of Busby, Mont., a delegate for the Mennonite Church USA Executive Board who was supported through a Schowalter Foundation grant, enjoys making new friends at Africa 2003. From left they are Andrea Farr of Montana and Yvonne Platts of Norristowon, Pa.

by Laurie L. Oswald

This is the fourth story in a series depicting Africa 2003, Mennonite World Conference's Assembly Gathered on Aug. 11-17 in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.

BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe (MC USA) -- After spending two weeks in Africa, eating Big Macs and shopping at Wal-Mart will seem different to more than 50 young people from Mennonite Church USA who attended the Global Youth Summit and Mennonite World Conference in Bulawayo.

In late July, Erin Huebert, Monty Graber, Erica Littlewolf, Joseph Macon, Valeryre Griffin and Miles Musselman were some of the young people who left their fast food and shopping malls behind for Zimbabwe. They met young people who face 70 percent unemployment, lose parents to HIV/AIDS deaths and sometimes go to bed hungry.

The strong faith of African youth amidst harsh realities modeled for North Americans the kind of leaders needed in a struggling world, they said. Africa also helped them to consider a call to be leaders in their North American context in light of the fact that Mennonite Church USA and MWC are making new places for young leaders, said Huebert. She and Littlewolf, a Native American, joined the Executive Board delegation to MWC.

MWC sponsored its first-ever Global Youth Summit - including about 220 young people from 28 countries -- to create a new space where young people can discuss their struggles and dreams, explore their gifts and connect with adults. The MWC efforts dovetail with the Executive Board's priority of creating a "culture of call" throughout the denomination to identify and train new leaders.

"It's encouraging to us that adults are open to hearing from the youth and to making possible changes in the church to better support us," said Huebert, a graduate student in Chicago. "It's encouraging youth growing up in a pluralistic world that we do have a global family we belong to and one that's willing to make a place for us."

LEAP into Africa

Learning, Exploring and Participating, or LEAP, sponsored by Eastern Mennonite Seminary in Harrisonburg, Va., joins the Executive Board in tapping shoulders. Macon and Griffin, students at Philadelphia Mennonite High School, are participating in LEAP. They joined 48 other students from New York City, Eastern Mennonite Missions, Virginia Mennonite Board of Missions and Calvary Community Church in Hampton, Va.

LEAP provides Christ-centered theological studies, an exploration of ministry vocation and cross-cultural exchange. The cross-cultural exchange for Macon and Griffin showed them that having less materially can mean having more spiritually, they said.

"It takes a lot for people here to trust in God, but they seem to do that better than we do in the States," said Macon, 16. "Our faith should be much stronger because we come from relatively rich families and have food to eat and a home to stay in. We have so much stuff and yet we complain about the stuff we don't have."

Griffin, 15, said, "Eating different foods and being without television and radio makes you appreciate those things a lot more. ... But not having it for a time helped me to spend more time with God. I prayed more in the middle of the day and read my Bible more. I feel like I've gotten closer to him."

Lifestyle and Leadership

Making new discoveries about faith and lifestyle helps young people better hear and pursue a call to be leaders in North America, said Richard Pannell, LEAP director.

"Through LEAP, we want to develop well-informed, well-rounded leaders who can relate to others across human divisions, such as class, race, economic background and social status," Pannell said. "We try to reflect our denomination's desire to be a multicultural church by also selecting participants from a variety of backgrounds."

The juniors and seniors -- about half African American and half European American - and 10 leaders were at EMS for orientation and theological reflection before traveling to Zimbabwe. Back home, the youth planned to connect with mentors in their congregations and to communicate through a Web site. In spring 2003, EMS began LEAP -- to run in cycles for four years -- through a $2 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc.

A cross-cultural experience -- coupled with theological and spiritual input -- taps shoulders from an Anabaptist perspective, said Linford Stutzman, an EMS associate professor of culture and mission who helped with LEAP curriculum and gave input in Africa.

"We had a three-pronged focus, which included opening their eyes and ears to see what the world is like, to see what God is doing in the world through the church and to listen for how God may be calling them to use their gifts to minister to this world," he said. "In Zimbabwe, we got a lot of reactions about the differences in food and culture. We used those teachable moments to help them turn from a self-focus to see others' suffering."

Tripe and Teachable Moments

For example, he cited the first night's supper at MWC Aug. 11 at the International Trade Center. The youth struggled to feel grateful for the serving of "tripe" on their plates. The animal intestines, served with boiled maize, or "sadza," are a delicacy for Zimbabweans but a scary item on the menu for the North Americans.

"Kids came charging out of the dining hall with their eyes wide and exclaiming, 'We can't eat this stuff!' Some leaders took them aside and gave them a lecture on not reacting and gracefully receiving the gifts of our hosts. ... But then later on, when the leaders got their food, we couldn't eat it, either.

"That was a humbling experience for us all, and we used it to talk about food, poverty, hospitality. We worked it pretty hard but then did allow them to go out for pizza later that night. After that, they settled into eating what was served."

Tripe and all, Graber, a social studies teacher at Christopher Dock Mennonite High School in Lansdale, Pa., and Musselman, 16, one of his students, said that the Africans' hospitality and faith deeply impressed them. They attended Brethren in Christ congregations Aug. 10. The two young men were supported financially by their school, congregations and their families to come to MWC as part of supporting the denomination's culture of call.

"The people at the house church I visited used a tent with four poles for their building, and yet they were still very excited about God," Graber said. "And they were so happy to have us here with them and treated us like royalty.

"I think they have something to teach us Europeans ... who get so caught up in little things that we lose this sense of faith. These people are praying so hard just to get a building, when we have big buildings but are quarreling about who should be allowed to worship in them." Photos available.

Laurie L. Oswald is news service director for Mennonite Church USA.


Executive Board announces staff and budget reductions for 2004.

by Mennonite Church USA Executive Board staff

NEWTON, Kan. (MC USA) -- The Mennonite Church USA Executive Board is reducing its staff by 10 percent and eliminating other related expenses totaling just over $150,000 in response to lower anticipated contributions from churchwide agencies and area conferences in 2004.

Projected contributions are about $30,000 less than the year before from conferences and about $250,000 less from churchwide agencies. Agencies had agreed to contribute an additional $250,000 per year in start-up funds for the first two years of the new Executive Board, but that additional support will end after this current year.

"To meet projected levels of income, we kept the governance of the Executive Board and support for the Constituency Leaders Council intact, but needed to reduce staff in some areas of program," said Jim Schrag, executive director of Mennonite Church USA.

Ron Byler, associate executive director for the Executive Board, said, "It is tempting to try to do 'more with less' by simply reassigning the work of staff who will be leaving or who have reduced assignments, but we know we need to readjust some program expectations.

"Some efficiencies may be possible but we also need to decide how to be the most faithful with the dollars the church continues to give to support the Executive Board's work for the whole of the church."

Projected Executive Board income of just under $2 million for next year includes Firstfruits from churchwide agencies ($750,000), firstfruits from area conferences ($720,000), firstfruits from other agencies ($65,000), other income ($300,000) such as interest, bequests and fee for service income and self-generated income raised by the Historical Committee ($135,000).

"We are grateful for the generous levels of support we receive from other parts of the church even though they are lower than we may have earlier projected," Byler said. "Some congregations, conferences and churchwide agencies are also facing financial challenges, and we know we are not alone in making difficult financial decisions."

Executive Board staff will be reduced from just over 30 FTEs (full time equivalent) to just over 27. Staff reductions include:

Kathy Harshbarger, administrative assistant, Office of Ministerial Leadership -- position discontinued and responsibilities transferred to the OML office in Newton
Ken Hawkley, assistant director, Discipling Ministry, Office of Congregational Life -- reduced from full-time to half-time
Ammeral Johnson, administrative assistant, Office of Cross-Cultural Relations -- reduced from full-time to half-time
Marlene Kropf, director, Office of Congregational Life -- reduced from full-time to four-fifths time in response to a decision Marlene made earlier to return to a part-time teaching role at AMBS
Steve Ropp, youth minister, Office of Ministerial Leadership and Office of Congregational Life -- position discontinued and some responsibilities such as staff liaison with the Youth Ministries Council will be transferred to other staff
Noel Santiago, assistant director, Witness and Peace Ministry, Office of Congregational Life -- position discontinued and some responsibilities such as liaison with the Environmental Task Force will be transferred to other staff
Dale Stoltzfus, co-director, Office of Ministerial Leadership -- reduced from half-time to one-third time

Depending on their years of service and administrative level, staff whose jobs have been discontinued or reduced have received two or three months notice and two or three months severance pay. Staff whose roles will be discontinued will conclude their work in early fall. Ongoing reduced staff roles are effective on Feb. 1, 2004.

Additional budget cuts include office and travel expenses related to the above staff reductions, elimination of funds for board development consultation and reduction of Firstfruits giving to Mennonite World Conference in proportion to the decrease in the total Executive Board budget.

Additional anticipated sources of income include increases in contributions raised by the Historical Committee for its own support, increases in annuities and estates, increases in fee for service income and increases in Firstfruits contributions from related Mennonite agencies.

The Executive Board represents the whole of the denomination's interests and mission -- in its ministry offices, agencies, conferences and congregations. It leads the church in responding to three priorities: becoming a missional church, training pastoral leaders and making global connections.

Executive Board ministry offices include Congregational Life, Ministerial Leadership, Cross-Cultural Relations, Convention Planning, Communications, Administration and Executive Director. The Executive Board convenes the Constituency Leaders Council and coordinates the Firstfruits Funding System.

With staff in Newton, Elkhart and dispersed locations, the Executive Board provides access to the church's resources through a toll-free number (866-866-2872), Web site (www.MennoniteUSA.org) and churchwide directory.


JoinHands passes $1 million mark in grants to congregations.

by Gordon Houser

NEWTON, Kan. (Mennonite Men) -- In January, with the first part of a grant to Faith Chapel in Los Angeles, Mennonite Men's church building-program passed the $1 million mark in grants to new congregations for building projects. MM executive director Jim Gingerich called this a milestone but says he hopes the next million comes more quickly.

Mennonite Men, an organization related to both Mennonite Church USA and Mennonite Church Canada, began its church-building program, then called Tenth Man, in 1985. In March the name of the program changed to JoinHands.

Since that beginning the program has provided grants to 37 congregations in Canada, the United States and overseas. Grants have been approved through 2006 for building projects totaling $303,000 in the following seven congregations:

-- Iglesia Cristiana Menonita Encuentro de Renovacion, Miami;
-- Los Angeles Faith Chapel;
-- Austin (Texas) Mennonite Church;
-- Lao Christian Fellowship, St. Catharines, Ont.;
-- Dayspring Christian Fellowship, North Canton, Ohio;
-- Trinity Mennonite Church, Calgary;
-- Unity Pentecostal, Miami.

Requests for help continue to come in from emerging congregations. Meanwhile, JoinHands continues to enlist donors to help provide the grants these congregations need. JoinHands invites individuals -- both men and women -- and groups to contribute $100 twice per year and sends letters twice per year that provide information about the churches receiving grants. The grants are up to 20 percent of the church building but do not exceed $50,000.

JoinHands gives priority to congregations less than 10 years old. Often these are urban and include many nonwhite congregations. Since 1999, a tithe of all grants has been given to help build churches overseas.

For more information about JoinHands, contact Mennonite Men, P.O. Box 347, Newton, KS 67114, 316-283-5100, mm@mennoniteusa.org, or visit www.mennonitemen.org.

Gordon Houser is associate editor of The Mennonite.