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Martin Navarro is a bilingual church relations representative with Everence Financial and a graduate of Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary. He is married to Viri, and they live in Elkhart, Indiana, where he is a member of Prairie Street Mennonite Church. Love is a verb that comes with sprinkles of truth. And sometimes the truth is difficult to swallow. In my position at Everence, I have been working with Hispanic faith communities, helping them integrate their faith and finances (specifically in the Anabaptist world). In doing so, I have experienced the challenges that come along with the word “love.” In my...
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Sarasota couple’s decision to follow Christ leads them to a life of service to the church By Jenny Castro In 1970, after a mutual friend introduced Marco and Sandra Güete to each other in Cartagena, Colombia, they knew pretty quickly that they wanted to be married. Sandra, 19 at the time, was living with her family, and Marco, 18, had recently moved there with his family. Marco recalls that he grew up moving around a lot, attending a variety of Catholic schools in Colombia, rarely living with his parents. Instead,...
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Ruth Harder is the pastor at Rainbow Mennonite Church in Kansas City, Kansas. Prior to Rainbow, she was the associate pastor at Bethel College Mennonite in North Newton, Kansas, and before that she was a hospital chaplain as well as the communications coordinator and youth director at LaSalle Street Church, a multi-denominational church in Chicago, Illinois. Ruth grew up in Hillsboro, Kansas, and is a graduate of Bethel College ('01) and Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary ('07). Ruth is married to Jesse Graber, a free-lance illustrator. You will find at least one of them cheering on the Kansas City Royals come...
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Betsy Headrick McCrae is pastor of Glennon Heights Mennonite Church in Lakewood, Colorado. She is married to Bruce McCrae, mother of two adult daughters, grandmother of two grandsons and eagerly anticipating the arrival of two more grandchildren in the very near future. Between church and family, her life is rich to overflowing. Several weeks ago I watched a video interview with Hassan Latif, founder of the Second Chance Center in Aurora, Colorado, and a good friend of our congregation. The Second Chance Center works with folks who are being released from prison to help them get back on their feet....
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Asia Frye is a seminary student through the Connect program at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary. She lives in Hillsboro, Kansas, with her husband and two daughters. Their family attends First Mennonite Church where Asia previously served as youth pastor before becoming a full-time student. She likes table top games, climbing, driving in the demo derby, dumb t-shirts and heirloom tomato gardening. There was a time that I wanted to die. This is a supremely unnatural place to find oneself. I got to that place when my depression was misdiagnosed, and the prescription that I was given was wrong, wrong, wrong...
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Linda Ewert has served as associate pastor for Pastoral Care and Christian Formation at Alexanderwohl Mennonite Church since 2007. She is a graduate of Eastern Mennonite Seminary in Harrisonburg, Virginia. She is married to Morris. They have two married daughters and four grandchildren. How does a church build relationships, make new friends and share God’s love with the community all at the same time? On September 20, 2015, Alexanderwohl Mennonite Church had its first “Love Your Community Day.” Alexanderwohl is a rural congregation near the small town of Goessel, Kansas. Sixteen projects were identified and completed on Sunday morning, between...
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Alyssa Rodriguez attends First Mennonite Church in Iowa City, Iowa, and works as a free health clinic coordinator, serving uninsured and under-insured populations while also learning the ins and outs of motherhood with her beloved daughter, Zulema. Beginning last summer, following the retirement of our co-pastors after 15 years of service, the church I belong to has been receiving assistance from an interim pastor. Part of his job has been to dissect our church’s identity as we prepare for new leadership. He has done this by taking surveys and questionnaires, as well as conducting focus groups and open meetings. One...
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Rachelle Luitjens serves as pastor of Mission and Faith Formation at Sugar Creek Mennonite Church in Wayland, Iowa and is a Master of Divinity Connect student at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary. She is married to Nathan and together they have three sons, ages 11, nine and eight. Rachelle enjoys being creative and spending her spare time outdoors. I swept the kitchen floor (again), thinking of all of the other things that had to get done: an overwhelming amount of housework, schoolwork, work-work, etc. How was it all going to happen? “Mom, can we go buy some trading cards? We want...
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Meghan Good has served as pastor of Albany (Oregon) Mennonite Church since 2009. She is a graduate of Duke Divinity School as well as Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts, and is currently pursuing a Doctor of Ministry in “Preaching as Story” at George Fox Evangelical Seminary. In her spare time, Meghan blogs on Scripture at mudpiegod.com and works with a local shelter, providing advocacy, counseling and life-skills training for the homeless. Some time ago, I noticed red bumps and rashes starting to appear on the forearms of guests at the local homeless shelter where I volunteer. “It’s a reaction...
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Cyneatha Millsaps is the pastor of Community Mennonite Church in Markham, Illinois, a south suburb of Chicago. Pastor Cyneatha is married to her husband Steven. She is a 2008 graduate of Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary. What does love look like? There are two women in our congregation who make me smile every time I see them enter the church together. Barbara and Shirley ride to church together each Sunday as well as to special events that may be going on during the week. This might not seem like a big deal until you understand a little bit more about them....
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Alma Ovalle Perez is a wife and a mother to three wonderful teenagers. She is the daughter of Gilberto and Elizabeth Perez. Alma is a high school Spanish teacher, simultaneous interpreter and writer. She sits on the board of Mennonite Women USA representing Iglesia Menonita Hispana and is on the executive committee for Southeast Mennonite Conference of Mennonite Women USA. Alma lives in Sarasota, Florida. On a recent trip to the grocery store, I saw a woman who looked like she might be from the Middle East, wearing a white headscarf, and her three small children enter the store just ahead of me. Her two older boys looked...
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Janie Beck Kreider is director of Communications for Mennonite Church USA. Years ago, I encountered the book, "All About Love: New Visions" by bell hooks. I remember being struck as I read the following passages: "When we understand love as the will to nurture our own and another's spiritual growth, it becomes clear that we cannot claim to love if we are hurtful and abusive." "The word 'love' is most often defined as a noun, yet all the more astute theorists of love acknowledge that we would all love better if we used it as a verb." Up to that...
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This post is part of our Journey Forward series. We’ve invited folks from across Mennonite Church USA to reflect on our Journey Forward and consider how they’ve seen Renewed Commitments at work in their lives, their congregation or community. If you’d like to contribute to this series by highlighting stories that bring our shared values to life, email JenniferC@MennoniteUSA.org. Mindy Nolt is associate pastor at Blossom Hill Mennonite Church in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. She is also a singer-songwriter and performs occasionally with her husband Jared Hankee. They live in Lancaster city with their three young children. Because I felt beloved by the Anabaptist family and community that...
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The following is an excerpt from Love is a Verb: A one-year spiritual practice resource, written by Leo Hartshorn. The resource explores the 2017 convention theme Love is a Verb through the lens of Richard Foster’s six spiritual streams. Download the entire booklet from the Mennonite Church USA resource center. The incarnational stream Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called...
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The Future Church Summit (FCS) will take place July 6-8, at the Mennonite Church USA convention in Orlando. It will be a generative, open space for denomination-wide conversation — to dream together, reset priorities and engage one another in answering the question: How will we follow Jesus as Anabaptists in the 21st century? Leading up to the summit we invite you to reflect on our shared history, what being Anabaptist means for you and your hopes for the Future Church Summit. Jennifer Delanty is a member of Seattle Mennonite Church and mother of four young adults, all in their 20s....
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