Mennonites | Ain't Complicated

Harmony in the World

Well, Harmony on World, anyway.

Or maybe this should be titled “Headings for World”?

Her name is Harmony

I know that girl! She’s the daughter of one of my babyhood friends and good buddies, Darrell. (We grew up in Mexico together.)

Many WORLD readers nominated compassionate ministries for this year’s Hope Award for Effective Compassion contest. Charity expert Jill Lacey and I researched and assessed the entries and then sent a reporter and a photographer out on the road to see firsthand what groups are doing.

The first fruits of this exploration are on the pages that follow. We chose three finalists—Christ Clinic in Spokane, Youth Horizons in Wichita, and New Horizons in Colorado—and in San Diego late last month announced the champion: New Horizons.

Source: Effective compassion

Wow! Congratulations to New Horizons. God bless them in their service. And Harmony and other nannies also.

Read it all

Mennonite Baptist?

That’s what I wondered when Google Alerts pointed me to this story this morning:

The Pollard Agency, a Fruithurst, Ala.-based contract security company, unlawfully discriminated against an employee because of her religion, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission EEOC charged in a lawsuit it filed on March 8, 2010.

According to the EEOC’s suit, the Pollard Agency violated federal law by firing Marian Lawson from a client location in Monticello, Ga., rather than accommodating her beliefs as a Mennonite Baptist that she cover her hair with a scarf.

Do they mean Mennonite Anabaptist? or Anabaptist Mennonite? or German Baptist?

Maybe Marian is a Mennonite Baptist.

Is there such a thing?

Anyway, towards the end of the story, this:

“Title VII protects employees from having to make the difficult choice between their religious beliefs and their employment,” said Robert Dawkins, regional attorney for the EEOC’s Atlanta District Office.

Maybe we American Christians are being spared too many difficult choices regarding our beliefs.

Maybe.

What do you think?

Oh, and here’s the source for the above story: Pollard Agency Sued By EEOC For Religious Discrimination

Haiti: More Updates

Young survivor in Haiti enjoys a meal

First, I want you to know that Christian Aid Ministries has updated their Haiti quake page.

Now, what follow are excerpts from and links to two news stories featuring CAM’s relief efforts in Haiti.

From Assist News, this:

The following accounts are all told from the first-hand experience of Christian Aid Mission (CAM) staff member, Joanna Seibel.

A dazed young survivor enjoys a meal With all of the atrocities that have been reported since the fateful 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit Port-au-Prince, Haiti on Tuesday afternoon, January 12, 2010, so many personal stories have gone unheard. Joanna Seibel’s first-hand dramatic account gives a more detailed picture of the tragedy that has taken place within the last three and a half days.

In Titanyen, Haiti, a village not far from the Haitian capital, Christian Aid Mission staff members found themselves suddenly startled by massive and violent shakings. Joanna Seibel was among them. As she instantly realizes that this was to be a dangerous earthquake, she runs to the next room to grab the baby Kiana, before escaping from the crumbling house.

Source: This Is My Story

And from the News Democrat, this:

A local man is helping coordinate aid efforts in Haiti through the national Mennonite organization, Christian Aid Ministries. Paul Weaver, CAM assistant director, has been organizing response teams and fund raising efforts since the 7.0 earthquake struck the poverty stricken nation in the afternoon of Monday, Jan. 12.

Weaver, who has been to Haiti himself more than 30 times, attends the Mennonite church on West Fork Road outside of Georgetown and has been involved with CAM since it’s founding in 1985. The local church has sent missionaries to Haiti as recently as last year.

CAM has been doing mission work in Titanyen, a village north of the capital Port-Au-Prince, since 1991. When the earthquake struck, Weaver said the mission buildings suffered minor damage in comparison to surrounding structures and no workers were injured. The mission had been providing school children with food and ministering to the largely voodoo worshiping population. They had also been working on several reforestation projects.

Once the shaking stopped Weaver organized a rapid response team of 24 doctors, paramedics, and nurses who were sent in Thursday. The mission workers already on the ground began digging people out of the rubble and organizing shelter. Some were out until 3:30 a.m. Wednesday morning trying to free the thousands of trapped people.

The CAM buildings quickly became a triage center the evening of Tuesday, Jan. 12 as hundreds of people began arriving with broken bones and cuts. CAM operates the only health clinic in Titanyen and they have become overwhelmed. Burn victims from a local mill which had caught fire during the quake were some of the first to be treated. Wounds were treated without anesthesia as more and more people lined up for aid.

Source: Chaos in Haiti

In closing, I remind you of the Haiti page I set up for CAM before they got their official page online. 🙂

Hey, Sister!

You’re held to a higher standard!

Let down by a Mennonite

Such are the inheritances of my up-bringing that I still have a twinge of conscience regarding shopping on Sundays. So it has been with a certain kind of nostalgic pleasure that I have noted that Amish and Mennonite businesses are closed on Sundays in Sarasota. “Good for them” I have thought, “they hang on to some healthy counter-cultural traditions”.

I hoved up to “Sam’s Club” this afternoon, to buy some catfish at a good price. The store was out of stock!.

As I entered the store I saw a 70-something Mennonite woman easily identifiable by her attire as she left “Sam’s Club” with a full cart/trolley.

I felt betrayed.

Before you react against the above writer, read his full post, especially the conclusion.

That said, I react with dismay (and worse) at this kind of Mennonite witness, for I also am a Mennonite.

But…why is this a Mennonite witness? Why not a Christian witness?

The question isn’t merely, “What has happened to the Mennonites?”

It’s also, “What has happened to the Christians?!”

Sunday observance just doesn’t matter anymore.

That’s too bad.

Attention, Mennonites!

Thanks to Google Alerts, I came across a blog post this morning that confirms the obvious to me: People notice our faces. (And they read our faces.)

I’ve thought many times while out among The General Public, What are people reading in my face?

I wonder that as a regular human.

And as a child of God.

And as a Mennonite.

When people see my face, do they see anger, distress, impatience, covetousness, lust, peace, joy, tranquility, happiness, contempt, fretfulness, coldness, suspicion, scorn, Jesus?

What do they see?

What do I want them to see?

What does God want them to see?

Hmmm. This sounds like Attention, Christians!

Well, to help you chew on that, chew on this:

The Mennonites I encountered growing up always aroused my curiosity. My observations made me sure they must be a humorless, fearful people. Being a bit shy myself which probably means I thought too much of myself, I didn’t try to initiate conversations with them. In the Bi-Mart on River Road they would catch me watching them. I would smile, they would smile back. Their facial expressions seemed so serious, even fearful, and I presumed anxious to get back to their safe little communities. At least, that’s how I perceived them.

I liked it that the girls were always in dresses, but I thought it odd that they wore sneakers with skirts. I suppose I would have ignored that if they had acted like they were more comfortable standing next to us in the check-out line. I knew their clothing was related to their faith, and I admired them for that. But I wondered, if they know God, why do they seem so depressed?

[…]

Had I been judging an entire community by a small handful of people who may be just having a bad day, or something?

Ouch! 😥

Read Kathy’s full post here: Hearing Heart Blog: Has the Mennonite Faith Changed, Or Have I? (Thank you, Mrs. Davis!)

So I ask again, Can the world see Jesus when they look at your life? And my face?

Good’s Store: Update

E-mail targets store

Kenneth Burkholder is perplexed.

His business, Good’s Store Inc., is one of hundreds of Amish and Mennonite stores that do not sell American flags.

Nobody’s singling out the other places.

But Good’s is under fire. Again.

The sender of a recent mass e-mailing claimed that a young, unnamed Good’s sales clerk “wrinkled her nose” in disdain when quizzed about flag sales.”We don’t sell those here,” the clerk supposedly said, “and we never will.”

It’s true that flags aren’t in the Good’s inventory, said Burkholder, the company president. The families that own the stores are Anabaptists, who view the banner primarily as a symbol of military might.

But, he said, it’s false to imply that this faith group, which includes Amish and Mennonites, is anti-American.

Nor could Good’s find proof that the supposed testy exchange with an employee ever took place, Burkholder added.

“We researched it. That was my main concern,” Burkholder emphasized, that the company not appear arrogant.

[…]

Burkholder said the brouhaha is not going to affect the store’s Amish and Mennonite customers.

Nor is it going to compel the 51-year-old business to start stocking American flags.

All the same, he added, he would prefer that people just stop talking — and writing — about what’s for sale at Good’s.

“We’ve been through this a number of years.”

Northern Youth Programs

Hey! I know these people!

WORLD Magazine | Northern light

One reason they are talking is the influence of Northern Youth Programs (NYP) and its founders Clair and Clara Schnupp, who have been married and flying all over the Arctic and North America in ministry for 50 years. Beyond the novelty of their given names and Mennonite dress, they are both licensed pilots. They met as counselors at a summer Bible camp in Ontario and married in 1959. They began Northern Youth Programs ministering to at-risk children on the streets of Thunder Bay, Ontario, in 1967.

According to Clair, sexual abuse and absentee fathers are the leading causes of suicide—six times greater in aboriginal populations than among others—and over time this is where NYP has focused much of its effort. Northern Youth’s programs include summer camps and prison ministries, but its soul is in its counseling seminars and family life training to help native people heal from the trauma of sexual abuse and become better parents.

Years ago, Clair graciously and generously gave me permission to translate into Spanish their Family Life Seminar. Thank you!!! My project eventually turned into a Mexican-ized “production” of my own and not really a translation of their work. Publicadora La Merced in Costa Rica happily took my finished work for final editing and publishing…over 15 years ago.

And even more years ago, Ruby and I (we weren’t married yet) attended one of the Schnupp seminars at Fairview Mennonite Church (near Albany, Oregon).

If I may, I’ll play the so-called Mennonite Name Game by saying that one of my first cousins married one of the Schnupp daughters. 🙂