The Bridge: Winter 2018

The Bridge Winter 2018

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You Work Great Things in Me:

Community Enflame us with your love; Empower us with your Spirit!

vance culture, but just as easily it can singe the skin and reduce generations of progress to ashes.

Scripture also tells us that the Holy Spirit often comes to give people power. The power that comes by the Spirit can help us build institutions, serve hurting people, or sustain a movement for peace and justice. Without the power of ingenuity and service and compassion, there would be no Heifer International, no Brethren Volunteer Service. Yet the Church of the Brethren has long observed that power, like fire, also contains the potential for destruction. Power gone awry can topple the pillars of community, pin down oppressed people, and rip apart the threads that bind us together.

By Emmett Witkovsky-Eldred

Young adults are no strangers to feeling powerless.

In a chaotic world, in a fraught political moment, in an aging church, it doesn’t often feel like we have the tools or support—the power—to make a difference.

We lack everything we associate with power: the money, the training, the connections, the permission.

At Young Adult Conference 2019, participants will find opportunities to lay claim to their power—just maybe not the power the world always recognizes.

The YAC 2019 theme is “Enflame us with your love; Empower us with your Spirt!” Flame and power. Love and spirit. What heavy, loaded words! In scripture, both power and flame are closely associated with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit often appears as fire, from the burning bush and the fiery tornado in Exodus to the dancing flames atop the heads of worshippers at Pentecost. But what a curious, conflicted form to take. Fire both dances and spits, both glows and burns. It can be inviting or foreboding, alluring or repellant, warming or raging. It can sustain life and ad-

In Ephesians 3:16-20 (the theme verses for YAC), Paul distinguishes between the fruited power of Spirit and the other, corrosive kind of power. Paul prays for us to be strengthened by God’s spirit. “Not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength.” Not the power of muscle or money. Not the kind that imposes its will through force or violence or coercion. Rather, the inner power of resilience and conviction. The power to withstand evil, weather turmoil, and hold one another up.

Ephesians 3: 16-20 (MSG) I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.

God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us.

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Young Adult Conference 2019 Register January 25 at 12pm CT Learn more at www.brethren.org/yac How do we get our hands on that kind of power?

As Paul puts it, “with both feet planted firmly on love.” Power received with love is like the domesticated fire that we use to warm our homes and cook our food. If we’re mindful, it poses to us no threat.

Moreover, it creates the potential for us to practice hospitality and build community. It’s good for inviting people in; it’s useless for doing people harm. Paul encourages us to model our own love on Christ’s. He describes “the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love,” the breadth, the depth, the heights. We could explore the universe of Christ’s love for the rest of our lives—for the rest of our history—and never approach the boundary.

With such limitless love, God also possesses limitless power. Paul reminds us, “God can do anything.”

But God doesn’t force anything upon us or push us around. Rather, God’s Spirit is “deeply and gently within us.” That means that that same limitless power resides in us, too! But it vanishes if we try to push anyone around. Only vast love can contain vast power.

Put another way, Christ’s power will be our power, when Christ’s love is our love. So God, enflame us with your love; empower us with your spirit!

Save the Date:

May 24-26, 2019

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You Work Great Things in Me:

Leadership Greetings from the newest YASC member!

By Karly Eichenauer Hello all! My name is Karly Eichenauer and I am the newest member on the Young Adult Steering Committee. I am from North Manchester and am currently in my second year at Manchester University, majoring in Biology-Chemistry for Pre-Med with a Psychology minor. I am very involved on campus by playing tennis for MU, working as a Spartan Ambassador giving campus tours, and being a part of MU’s Brethren club, Simply Brethren.

Outside of school, I love spending time with my friends, eating ice cream, and hiking outdoors. I’m a big cat person and you can often find me curled up reading a book with one of my cats. Aside from my personal story, my faith story took an interesting turn in the last year.

Brethren, but I also got to know one of my current mentors, Bekah Houff. Bekah and I had several deep conversations during the trip about how young adults can be involved in the Church with MSS, BVS, and Youth Peace Travel Team, and issues facing the church in the future.

Though I was always in church growing up and in high school, after moving to college, I started to drift away from the Church, like many young adults in the Church of the Brethren. I claimed that I didn’t have time for going to church because I didn’t see many options of how to be an involved young adult or how I could use it in my college life. Fortunately for me though, I decided to take Brethren Heritage for my January Term class, travelling out to Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington D.C., and Maryland for several weeks to see the famous Church of the Brethren sites. Through this trip, I not only learned about the backstory and history of the Church of the

As we talked, I realized that I longed to go to National Youth Conference 2018, for a second time.

(Yep, I was pretty lucky to have the opportunity to go in 2014 and in 2018!) My faith was reaffirmed as I was inspired what I learned through the week. I was energized by what the youth and young adults in the Church of the Brethren could do together and how we could really be “Bound Together in Christ” as one church body. With my time on the Young Adult Steering Committee, I would like to bring the energy and excitement to the committee that I saw at NYC. I believe young adults can do great things in the world if we remain united in Christ.

Join these fine folks!

There is one open position on the Young Adult Steering Committee to be filled in June 2019! If you are interested in applying, go to bit.ly/yasc-apply to download the application.

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Young Adult Steering Committee Apply to join at bit.ly/yasc-apply

Meet the rest of the Young Adult Steering Committee

By Becky Ullom Naugle

Jessie Houff, originally from Bridgewater, Virginia in the Shenandoah district, now lives in Baltimore. In her final year at Maryland Institute College of Art, she combines her love of art and social justice. New adventures await after graduation! Jessie is the most tenured member of the YASC and will finish her term this coming summer.

Krystal Bellis hails from Ankeny, Iowa, in the Northern Plains district. She is finishing her nursing degree and looks forward to beginning her career. A trip to Haiti last summer confirmed her passion for nursing. Krystal spent last summer at Camp Pine Lake and helped her Church of the Brethren congregation celebrate 150 years of ministry this fall.

Emerson (Emmy) Goering, from McPherson, Kansas, in the Western Plains district, is currently attending McPherson College. Between high school and college, Emmy spent a year serving in Brethren Volunteer Service in the Church of the Brethren’s Office of Peacebuilding and Policy in Washington D.C. When not working at Craft Coffee or attending class, Emmy spends time dreaming about her next international adventures. Her trips to Rwanda and Israel/Palestine have been very rewarding.

Emmett Witkovsky-Eldred, originally from Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, in the Middle Pennsylvania district, is currently serving in Brethren Volunteer Service. Emmett is the program assistant in the Youth/Young Adult Ministry office, which means he’s living and working in Elgin, Illinois. Emmett is an avid writer and is headed to law school next fall.

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You Work Great Things in Me: Young Adults in Action

Action

Large Shoes to Fill

remarkable passion for history, and like many Salvadorans, he is fiercely proud of the recently canonized Saint Romero. His little sister is an energetic and playful nine-year-old. I see a lot of myself in her.

By Cameron Clark I finally made it. After an agonizing wait, I’ve arrived at my new home in San Salvador, El Salvador.

I’m here to work with the Centro de Intercambio y Solidaridad (Center for Exchange and Solidarity, or CIS) for the next two years, living alongside the Salvadoran people and learning as much as I can about their reality. I’ll be teaching English here, starting in January. The language school, however, is just one of many community outreach and political activism projects that CIS maintains, and I will likely be involved in many of them before long. As I study the history of CIS, I am beginning to feel the pressure of the amazing work I will soon be responsible for continuing. I have large shoes to fill.

I’m looking forward to learning from them. I realize more every day that I am only beginning to scratch the surface of understanding the Salvadoran reality, but I believe it starts with getting to know the people.

And hopefully the work I do will have some positive impact along the way.

Navigating an unknown city and culture continues to be an adjustment, but since leaving the airport I have been blessed with wonderful people to guide me. I was met there by two of my fellow CIS volunteers who took me to meet my host family: a proud, boisterous, opinionated man, his warmer and more laid-back wife (both lawyers), and their two children.

The older is a twelve-year-old boy, proud like his father, but with more youthful enthusiasm. He has a

Top: Cameron Clark (right) explores Espíritu Santo Island with students supported by CIS. Bottom: Colin Scott (right) deliberates at the Fall 2018 Mission and Ministry Board meeting.

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Young Adults in Action Are You Ready to Show Your Cards?

By Colin Scott

“All those in favor, signify by saying ‘Aye.’” “Aye.” “Aye.” “Aye.” “Aye.” “All those opposed, same sign.” “Aye.” “The action passes. Next….”

Whether you’ve served on a board, participated in a congregational business meeting, attended Annual Conference, etc., I imagine you’re accustomed to this procedural cadence or one similar. However, whether you agree that this process is the best or most constructive way to reach a decision effecting a larger “whole” may be a murkier issue entirely.

Currently, I serve on the Mission and Ministry Board, which uses the consensus model for decisionmaking to conduct business. No “Ayes” at our meetings. Instead, each voting member of the Board has a green, yellow and red card, which we are asked to display when an action item is before the Board.

Rather than a simple majority or a predetermined quorum of green cards concluding a matter, yellow or red cards being shown means discussion continues.

The goal is to resolve action items in a manner that all can support, even when not necessarily each person’s favorite or ideal solution. Deliberation—sharing, listening, discerning, and understanding—is paramount to the process.

the dedicated, hardworking Staff that serves our denomination and began to grasp the vast scope of the ministries and work of the Church of the Brethren. I became acquainted with fellow Board members who beautifully represent much of the diversity of our beloved denomination. As that meeting progressed, I found my voice and saw my opinions and perspectives—often inquisitive and passionate—welcomed, encouraged and valued.

During Board meetings, we spend a tremendous amount of time in honest, thoughtful discussion as an entire Board and in smaller groups around tables.

Conversations carry-over into our meals where we have greater opportunities to engage and learn about the personal lives of one another. I have been encouraged by the genuine care that quickly becomes evident and stems, in my opinion, from the time we spend around tables together in community and fellowship!

Through my first three meetings, in addition to traditional “business” the Board conducts, we have talked meaningfully, candidly, and intentionally about challenging topics like the church’s mission, living together as Christ calls, the ways race impacts the church, our peace witness, the Compelling Vision, sustainability, and Board development. We have listened to guests share differing perspectives on the life and health of the denomination.

The openness and desire of the Mission and Ministry Board to serve the needs of the whole body has impressed me in my short tenure. Those characterisThe Board broadly seeks to (1) “extend the church’s witness around the world,” (2) “support con- tics enable me to speak out and to “show my cards,” gregations in their [ministries]…” and (3) “care for the whether for affirmation, clarification, further discussion, or opposition. I know that I will be well-received whole fabric of the community, building up the and that we will diligently strive together for consenChurch of the Brethren as a distinctive part of the body of Christ, cherishing [our] unique heritage, and sus and to discern God’s will. strengthening [our] witness.” In my year and a half It is my hope that, through our daily actions, we on the Board, the clause “care for the whole fabric of invite others to tables of fellowship, work diligently to pursue consensus, and empower others to “show the community” has really resonated with me.

My first Board meeting was a whirlwind experience their cards” to us with confidence that we will receive that was both rewarding and daunting. I met much of them with love.

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You Work Great Things in Me:

Mission A Legacy Lives on in China

teachers, nurses, and doctors who shared faith and Christian service. Along the way, tour group members made new friends with local residents.

By Jeff Bach After a night in the provincial capital of Taiyuan As an Elizabethtown (Pa.) College tour group fol(where E. L. Ikenberry and Minor Meyers worked with lowed the trail of American and Chinese Brethren in the international YMCA and formed a small congregaChina this past spring, they found that Christianity is tion), the group rode to Shouyang, the third Brethren alive there as that nation grows and addresses its 21st mission station, opened in 1919. The local pastor, El-century challenges. der Yin, and his wife talked about the small congregaJeff Bach and David Kenley, professors at Elizabeth- tion there. Two of the group’s participants—Ted Flory town College, led the May 12-28 2018 study tour. Six and his brother, Phil—found the stop especially Elizabethtown students and 12 non-students who are meaningful. Their grandparents, Byron and Nora members of the Church of the Brethren traveled to Philips Flory, and their father, Wendell Flory, once learn about modern China and to trace the path of lived in the mission house that is still standing.

Brethren missionaries who served there from 1908 to There were more sobering memories, too. Three 1951. Kenley teaches the history of modern China, Brethren missionaries—Alva and Mary Lou Harsh and while Bach teaches religion courses.

Minneva Neher—were killed by Japanese soldiers in After four days in Beijing the group traveled 250 Shouyang in 1937 after the missionaries had been miles west to Shanxi Province in north-central China, called to resolve a domestic dispute. Nearby, tour where Church of the Brethren missionaries served. members also briefly visited Gwei Mei Liang, a 96For five days, participants explored cities and villages year-old woman who is the last living baptized memwhere the Brethren built churches, schools, and hos- ber of the Church of the Brethren in China. James pitals and where Chinese members became pastors,

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Young Adult Workcamp Brubaker expressed his joy at meeting this elderly Christian woman who had “connections with early Brethren mission work.”

Next the group traveled to Pingding, starting point of the Brethren mission in 1910. Eric Miller, a Church of the Brethren member originally from York, Pa., and his wife, Ruoxia Li, a native of Shouyang, made many of the arrangements in Shanxi. They work for the You Ai Hospital in Pingding, a private clinic founded by Dr. Li Youquan. Dr. Li adopted the name “You Ai,” meaning “fellowship of love,” which the Brethren used to translate the word “brethren.”

In a special moment, Ted Flory joined Dr. Li in dedicating the new Flory Café in the You Ai Hospital.

The Café is named in honor of the Florys who served as missionaries and one of their descendants, Mary Jo Flory Steury, former director of ministry for the Church of the Brethren. The hospital also features the Harsh-Neher library, named for Alva and Mary Lou Harsh and Minneva Neher.

These cultural interchanges highlighted the warmth of Chinese friendship. Group members gave to the hospital copies of a 1935 silent movie filmed by Brethren about the mission and a film made in 1946 about the Brethren Service Tractor Unit (the Plowboys). While in Pingding, the group also visited a hospital that stands on the site of the original Brethren hospital and has exhibits about the Brethren work.

On Sunday morning they worshiped with a Chinese Christian congregation who consider themselves spiritual heirs of the Brethren.

An excursion took the Elizabethtown group to Zhaobi, a village along the 80mile road from Pingding to Zuoquan that Brethren missionaries helped to build as part of the famine relief work of 19201921. There the group visited a home where missionary Frank Crumpacker stayed and preached.

The group traveled on to Zuoquan, known as Liao Chou until it was renamed for a Communist army general in 1942.

This town was the second mission station

of the Brethren in China, opened in 1912. Tour participants were able to go inside the Church of the Brethren church building in Zuoquan, the only Brethren church building still standing. In 1940, Japanese soldiers arrested and killed 13 Chinese Brethren here during their occupation of China.

The group spent the final two days of the tour in Shanghai, where Wendell Flory had administered the Tractor Unit of the Brethren Service Commission after 1946. The project was a shipment of tractors accompanied by 50 “Plowboys,” Brethren young men from farm backgrounds, to help with agricultural improvement. Those Plowboys included the fathers of two tour group members, Sandy Mason Cable and Lois Deaton. Ted Flory noted how meaningful it was to visit Shanghai, “the city of my birth and where my father worked as director of the UNRRA tractor unit in 1947-1949.”

All of the group members were impressed by the genuine warmth of the Chinese people throughout the tour and extended wishes for a peaceful future through mutual understanding.

Jeff Bach is director of the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown (Pa.) College.

Extirped from the October 2018 Messenger. Used by permission.

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You Work Great Things in Me:

Service An Unexpected Journey

specifically thought about my great great aunt Julia LaPrade, who was a member of the first BVS unit. I felt led to follow in her footsteps and those of my other relatives who had committed to serving in BVS. My advisors helped me work on my application along the ride home.

Today I am a month into my year-long volunteer program in Monterey, Massachusetts. I live and work at Gould Farm, a place for adults living with severe mental illnesses to find ways to support themselves and transition to a meaningful life. So far, BVS has been an incredible opportunity for me. Service is a beautiful way to strengthen someone's faith.

By Taylor Dudley Like many, the adventure that led me towards BVS was unexpected. I grew up in the Virlina district. My church family and district nurtured me through every step of life. Since I was old enough, I spent one week of every summer at my district’s camp, Camp Bethel. I went on to serve as staff for four summers. These times at camp taught me about the truly special bond of the Brethren.

After many conversations within this lovely community, I traveled to Colorado on my own for National Youth Conference. Along with the decision to be a youth participant at the conference I was challenged to go another step by entering the youth speaker contest. I prayed daily, and a short time later I was told that I was one of the two chosen speakers! Dava Hensley, my wonderful speech advisor, helped me prepare and gave me the confidence I needed to share the word of God. The trip to NYC was wonderful and remains impactful to my life. I partially grateful for Ashlyn Berrier, who helped me through my NYC journey, spiritually and physically. The connections that I made there challenged and strengthened my faith. Ashlyn showed me compassion and believed in my ability to be amazing. Once I arrived in Colorado my community each person who greeted me cheerfully broadened my community. I forged new friendships, which allowed me to learn more about the body of Christ.

NYC was a time where I felt closest to God, and I felt truly in tune with him. I especially resonated with one speaker, Laura Stone. Her sermon connected me more than any other time I had been before. It revealed to me all of the reasons why our God is good. I was able to sit down with her for lunch and learn about her time in BVS. She spoke about how lifechanging it was for her and how her time in BVS remains with her to this day.

After participating in NYC and sharing the word of God, I knew I needed to live solely for Him and others, but how? On the bus ride back I reflected on the opportunity BVS had been for others in my family. I

Taylor Dudley tends to a cow at Gould Farm in Monterey, MA.

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Brethren Volunteer Service Learn more at brethrenvolunteerservice.org

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You Work Great Things in Me:

Ministry MSS Ad

What I get to do

by Wendy McFadden When I headed to Elgin, Ill., at age 23 to work at the Church of the Brethren General Offices, I thought I would be here for one year of Brethren Volunteer Service.

I had just graduated from Juniata College and, along the way, had worked for the Wall Street Journal in Washington and New York. An internship with Messenger magazine seemed like a good fit. But right away there was a change of plans, and I was asked to become the managing editor. A decade later I was invited to be publisher of Brethren Press. And now it’s been 37 years since I arrived in Elgin.

That’s a long time, but, honestly, the job never stays the same. I oversee the ever-evolving areas of publishing and communication: Brethren Press publishes curriculum, books, and other church resources.

And the communication team creates Messenger, www.brethren.org, news, reports about the church’s ministries, and social media. Some of my most memorable projects have been related to Brethren identity, such as the denominational logo, the “Continuing the work of Jesus” tagline, and a national Christmas Eve special on CBS. Many things change, but some don’t. I still love to hear that our Shine curriculum is helping kids grow in faith. I love to see congregations get excited by a book like 25 Days to Jesus. I love to see the importance of the website—and of Newsline, which began decades ago as a three-minute voicemail message. I love to meet enthusiastic Messenger readers. I love producing a video report like The Not-So-Big Church, which tells the story of our Church of the Brethren and its big ideas.

In short, I love to find new ways to tell the old story, and to celebrate God’s work among us and through us.

Wendy McFadden is the Publisher of Brethren Press and Communications

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Interested in ministry?

Join Ministry Summer Service Apply by Jan. 5, 2019 at www.brethren.org/mss

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View web updates at www.brethren.org/yya.

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