Crossroads fall winter 2016 17 issuu

CROSSROADS LET YOUR LIFE SPEAK

FALL/WINTER 2016

THE MAGAZINE OF EASTERN MENNONITE UNIVERSITY

VOL. 97 / NO. 2

CROSSROADS FALL/WINTER 2016 / VOL. 97 / NO. 2 Crossroads (USPS 174-860) is published three times a year

by Eastern Mennonite University for distribution to 14,000 alumni, students, parents and friends.

A leader among faith-based universities, Eastern Mennonite University emphasizes peacebuilding, creation care, experiential learning, and cross-cultural engagement. Founded in 1917 in Harrisonburg, Virginia, EMU offers undergraduate, graduate, and seminary degrees that prepare students to serve and lead in a global context.

EMU’s mission statement is posted in its entirety at www.emu.edu/mission.

BOARD OF TRUSTEES KATHLEEN (KAY) NUSSBAUM, CHAIR / Grant, Minn.

MICHELLE ARMSTER / Wichita, Kan. EVON BERGEY / Perkasie, Pa. MYRON BLOSSER / Harrisonburg, Va. HERMAN BONTRAGER / Akron, Pa. SHANA PEACHEY BOSHART / Wellman, Iowa JONATHAN BOWMAN / Manheim, Pa. RANDALL BOWMAN / Richmond, Va. JANET BRENEMAN / Lancaster, Pa. DAVID HERSH / Line Lexington, Pa. CHARLOTTE HUNSBERGER / Souderton, Pa. CLYDE KRATZ / Harrisonburg, Va. CHAD LACHER / Souderton, Pa. KEVIN LONGENECKER / Harrisonburg, Va. E. THOMAS MURPHY, JR. / Harrisonburg, Va. DANNIE OTTO / Urbana, Ill. ELOY RODRIGUEZ / Lancaster, Pa. AMY L. RUSH / Harrisonburg, Va. JUDITH TRUMBO / Broadway, Va. ANNE KAUFMAN WEAVER / Brownstown, Pa. TWILA K. YODER / Corporate Secretary to the Board CROSSROADS ADVISORY COMMITTEE LEE SNYDER / Interim president KIRK L. SHISLER / Vice president for advancement ANDREA WENGER / Marketing and communications director PHIL HELMUTH / Development and church relations director JEFF SHANK / Alumni and parent engagement director STAFF LAUREN JEFFERSON / Editor-in-chief JON STYER / Designer/photographer JENNIFER NORTH BAUMAN / Mileposts editor JOSHUA LYONS / Front-end web developer BJ GERBER / Mailing list manager All EMU personnel can be reached during regular work hours by calling 540-432-4000, or via contact details posted on the university website, www.emu.edu.

POSTMASTER: Submit address changes to: Crossroads Eastern Mennonite University 1200 Park Road Harrisonburg VA 22802

FROM THE INTERIM PRESIDENT

‘SEEING EACH OTHER’ LEE SNYDER Interim President

I AM OFTEN ON CAMPUS EARLY IN THE MORNING, coming to work before the campus bustles with activity. Those who eat breakfast are finishing up their bagels and cereal; here and there students make their way to an 8 a.m. class.

Then offices open, signaling the day has begun.

I see a tipi set up on Thomas Plaza. At the end of the lawn, on Park Road, a provocative line of colorful tee shirts are hung on crude crosses. In the campus center hangs a purple banner painted with hand prints. These are signs of vigils, of prayer circles, of memorials and petitions – of commitments that move our students to join together in solidarity with people suffering across the world. In recent weeks, students have stood with indigenous groups and other advocates at Standing Rock, protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline which threatens the water supply and sacred burial grounds. Undergraduate, graduate and seminary students have joined to mourn for child victims of gun violence; respond through prayer, art, and writing to sexual violence; and pray for peace in Colombia.

As a campus community, we have also listened, learned and reached out to the concerns of immigrants and marginalized groups in this time of post-election uncertainties. EMU is experiencing anew who and what we are as a Christian community.

That empathy and concern doesn’t stop with our graduates once they move beyond campus. EMU prepares graduates to serve and lead in a global context; for many of our graduates, that means serving here in the United States in a multicultural setting.

This issue of Crossroads – which takes its thematic title from a Quaker adage, "Let your life speak" – features alumni who have made conscious choices, as Professor Melody M. Pannell says, to “straddle worlds” and to work for the betterment of others in those worlds. These vocational choices can be risky, demanding and challenging work.

These stories touched me with their beauty and hope. As a campus community, we must remind ourselves regularly of our commitment“to do justice, to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God,” values from Micah 6:8 to which EMU aspires. May you also be inspired.

IN THIS ISSUE FEATURES

16 THE FIRST BUT NOT THE LAST Meet Sharon R. López ’83, the first Latina president of the Pennsylvania Bar Association.

17 LOVE OF NEIGHBOR Trina Trotter Nussbaum '00 leads the Center for Interfaith Engagement into a new era.

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24

SHALOM-SEEKING IN FLINT

OPEN DOORS In West Philadelphia, a pastor perseveres to open a new church serving Indonesian immigrants.

26 COMMON HUMANITY Two alumni work through nonprofit organizations to increase respect and understanding of Muslims and Arabs.

27 A WARM WELCOME Welcome sign spreads far beyond Harrisonburg.

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LET YOUR LIFE SPEAK

22

BUILDING ASSETS

ROYAL FILES

ON THE COVER Rhoda Reinford '76 Charles visits with Mya Ray, a fellow member of Habecker Mennonite Church in Lancaster, Pa. See story on page 28.

Photo by Jon Styer.

2 PHOTO

4 ATHLETICS

11 PROGRAM MILESTONES

30 MILEPOSTS

8 FACULTY FILES

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ROYAL FILES

PHOTO

HOMECOMING 2016 Runners travel through colored powder during the annual Campus Canvas Fun Run. Generations come together for a photo between Thomas Plaza and the fountain.

PHOTOS BY ANDREW STRACK AND JOAQUIN SOSA

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ROYAL FILES

From left: Fans cheered on field hockey and the women's and men's soccer teams. // Future Royals gather in front of Herm, EMU's mascot, during the Fall Festival on the front lawn, which included games and inflatables for kids, food trucks and live music. // EMUTenTalks drew a full house to hear Shirley Showalter '70, author and president emeritus of Goshen College; Leonard Dow '87, pastor and board vice-chair of Mennonite Central Committee; and Erik Kratz '02, professional baseball player. // Strong Water plays for the Fall Festival. // Chamber Singers alumni, with Interim President Lee Snyder, recognize retiring professor Ken J. Nafziger, shortly after he led the singers in the final selection of Sunday's worship service.

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ROYAL FILES

ATHLETICS

NCAA WOMAN OF THE YEAR NOMINEE HANNAH CHAPPELL-DICK Former Eastern Mennonite University All-American runner Hannah Chappell-Dick '16 joined other honorees for the 2016 NCAA Woman of the Year Award this fall in Indianapolis, Indiana. The top 30 honorees demonstrated excellence in academics, athletics, community service and leadership.

Chappell-Dick is the first woman from Eastern Mennonite to be named to the top 30 of the annual NCAA honor. The 2016 graduate is currently running semi-professionally with the Atlanta Track Club while serving for a year in Atlanta’s inner city, volunteering with “Back on my Feet” through DOOR/ Dwell.

At EMU, she earned five All-America honors while running cross country and track. She finished as the national runner-up in the indoor mile in 2015 and 2016. Last fall she was named the ODAC Runner of the Year in cross country, and claimed 16 All-ODAC First Team honors between her two sports.

She graduated magna cum laude with a 3.85 GPA, majoring in biology with minors of coaching, kinesiology and exercise science, and honors. Also a six-time ODAC/Virginia Farm Bureau Mutal Insurance Scholar-Athlete, Chappell-Dick earned the 2016 Marjorie Berkley Award as the top female scholar in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference.

A record 517 school nominees were submitted this year for the Woman of the Year award, which was whittled down to 142 conference nominees. The committee selected 30 women from that pool – 10 from each of the three NCAA divisions – representing 13 sports and a host of undergraduate majors.

—JAMES DE BOER PHOTO COURTESY JUSTIN TAFOYA/NC AA PHOTOS

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RECOGNIZING OUR STUDENT-ATHLETES

ROYAL FILES

PHOTOS BY SCOT T EYRE

JONATHAN BUSH '16: "Athletics has taught me many different ways of being a leader. I chose to be a resource for many groups and individuals, to help out in many little ways. This way of leading is an example of hard work and dedication. I've taken this leadership into the classroom to push other students to achieve their potential."

ANGELIA MILLER '16: "Softball made me who I am today, and has prepared me for the world after graduation. By encouraging me to step out of my comfort zone, a former teammate helped me develop communication skills and leadership skills. The long-lasting relationships that I've built both on and off the field have been positive in a number of ways."

JESS RHEINHEIMER '16: "In a nursing leadership class, we had to give an example of the leader you want to be later in life ... I could write a paper on Coach Kevin Griffin's leadership abilities, the Christ-like figure he is, and the life lessons I have learned from him over the years."

LONDEN WHEELER '16: "My coach became my best friend, my teammates became my biggest supporters on and off the track, and that impacted me in ways that I know I couldn't be impacted at other schools."

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Rendering courtesy of CHA Companies

$2.2 million Track & field renovation The track and field facility, built in 1988, has been a tremendous asset to EMU student athletes. A much-needed renovation will improve safety and contribute to the future health and growth of the program. As we look to the future, it is urgent that the renovation of the track and field proceed as soon as possible. It is exciting to envision how a completely renovated track and field will attract new generations of studentathletes for years to come!

TIMELINE

EMU is currently seeking leadership gifts for this urgently needed track and field renovation campaign. Consider a multi-year commitment or a gift of appreciated securities to leverage your impact for this project. Naming opportunities are available, and can be used to honor a loved one, a family, or a beloved coach or mentor.

LEARN MORE

& GET INVOLVED

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PROJECT FEATURES

• Track replacement and expansion from six to eight lanes which will allow EMU to host high school and collegiate championship meets.

• Addition of 3,000 m steeplechase and related equipment • Relocation of long jump, triple jump, pole vault, javelin and shot put • New hurdles, starting blocks and landing mats • Fencing to protect the track facility and provide security

Visit emu.edu/giving/track-and-field-renovation to learn more or contact advancement@emu.edu to discuss your gift.

Rendering courtesy of Blue Ridge Architects

$3 million Dining hall renovation The dining hall on the first floor of the Northlawn residence hall has served EMU for more than 50 years. In recent years, the quality of food service under the direction of Bruce Emmerson of Pioneer College Caterers has soared in its reputation among the campus community and beyond.

The two meeting rooms are used daily and to capacity. The current facility lacks a welcoming entrance, is an inadequate venue for group events and makes efficient food service a challenge. A renovated facility would highlight our university's tradition of hospitality with the provision of more and better seating options, modern serving stations and options for convenient meeting rooms.

TIMELINE

Nearly half of the total funds required have been committed. EMU is actively seeking the final $1.6 million needed to proceed with renovations. Consider a multi-year commitment or a gift of appreciated securities to leverage your impact for this campaign. Naming opportunities are available, and can be used to honor a loved one, a family, or a beloved mentor.

PROJECT OUTCOMES

• Formal entrance and greeting space, heightened 16-foot ceilings and serving stations layout • 7,000-square-foot banquet facility addition to the southeast corner to accommodate seating for 345 guests, plus outdoor dining terrace • Renovated west dining room with booth seating and additional meeting space with small catering kitchen

Visit emu.edu/giving/dining-hall-renovation or contact advancement@emu.edu to discuss your gift.

LEARN MORE

& GET INVOLVED

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ROYAL FILES

Eastern Mennonite University students Enock Samalenge (left) and Dirk Oyer work with Professor Esther Tian on a project in Tian's "Introduction to Engineering and Design" course.

PHOTOS BY ANDREW STRACK

FACULTY FILES

PROFESSORS COLLABORATE National Science Foundation grant supports research into improved instructional methods in STEM classes

Back row, from left: Principal investigators and professors Stephen Cessna (biochemistry) and Daniel Showalter (math). Front row, from left: Professors Tara Kishbaugh (chemistry), Lori Leaman (education) and Susannah Lepley, former director of multicultural and international student services.

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IN A 2014 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN BLOG POST, Dr. Kenneth Gibbs Jr. writes that “the large and persistent under-representation of certain social groups from the enterprise represents the loss of talent” and concluded that “diversity leads to better problem-solving, expands the talent pool and is important for long-term economic growth.”

For those who share that view, the good news is that students enrolling in university science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) programs are increasingly diverse.

At the same time, a poor retention rate among this group is prompting STEM educators to explore different ways to better meet the needs of a changing student body.

EMU is no exception. Over the next three years, the university will work to improve its retention rate of minority students in STEM programs, using a recently awarded $300,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to improve instructional techniques in the classroom and laboratory. “[These students] often have to adapt to an academic culture and a university culture that their parents couldn’t introduce them to, and on top of that, the STEM culture.

It’s like going to a foreign country three times over,” said Stephen Cessna, professor of biochemistry.

In addition to STEM faculty, EMU’s education department and the multicultural services office will also participate. The grant includes faculty trainings on bias and teaching methods, a mentoring program for STEM faculty, and improvement of a peer tutoring program for minority and first-generation college students in STEM majors.

EMU will share its findings and conclusions with STEM departments of other universities experiencing similar enrollment trends and challenges. —ANDREW JENNER '04

Incoming president Susan Schultz Huxman (right) with Interim President Lee Snyder.

PHOTO BY ANDREW STRACK

INAUGURATION OF EMU’S TH 9 PRESIDENT

DR. SUSAN SCHULTZ HUXMAN FRIDAY, APRIL 7, 2017: Inauguration Ceremony, 1 p.m. Yoder Arena, University Commons with reception following.

Open to the public.

Students, faculty, staff, alumni, donors, community members and friends are invited to take part in special activities April 3-9, 2017, as part of a week-long celebration of Dr. Huxman’s inauguration.

Activities will include worship and blessing, gala celebration, service in the local community, arts, music and more.

Details on Inauguration Week will be posted at emu.edu/inauguration as finalized.

FROM THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

THANK YOU, LEE KAY NUSSBAUM '78 Chair, Board of Trustees

With this issue of Crossroads, I have the honor and joy of expressing appreciation to Dr. Lee Snyder, interim president, and welcoming incoming president, Dr. Susan Schultz Huxman, who will begin her new role Jan. 1, 2017 How can one thank Dr. Snyder – Lee – enough? She has served Mennonite higher education in three institutions over 40 years as teacher and administrator, and – perhaps, more importantly – mentor, role model, non-anxious leader and friend.

Lee is a person of faith, approachable, confident in her gifts, a listener and one who empowers others to their highest potential.

Thank you, Lee, for capably leading EMU during the transition from President Loren Swartzendruber to President Susan Schultz Huxman. You have generated a path for smooth transition, leaving – once again – your legacy of servant leadership at EMU and in the broader scope of Mennonite higher education.

WELCOME, SUSAN My first opportunity to meet Dr. Schultz Huxman was during the presidential search process. I was deeply impressed by her vision for faith-infused higher education that is grounded in Anabaptist commitments, her gifts as an extraordinary communicator, her commitment to excellence in both academic and administrative leadership, and her genuine interest in EMU’s mission and future.

Susan, we wish you God’s blessing as you and your family join the EMU community and make a home in Harrisonburg. We are grateful for your willingness to follow God’s call to EMU at this time in our institution’s history, as we launch into a second century of preparing students to serve and lead in a global context.

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Show your Royal pride in anticipation of your class reunion!

Alumni with a class year ending in "2" or "7" are competing this year in the Reunion Challenge.

Can you give a gift to help your class win the bragging rights as the most supportive class?

Go to emu.edu/alumni/challenge to provide a gift.

This is all about participation. Gifts of any size help out your class. Participation matters!

There are many ways that EMU needs your help in order for us to be successful. Help us tell the EMU story! You can choose the extent to which you are involved as an ambassador.

Here are some ways EMU ambassadors can volunteer to support our university: • Admissions – assist with student referrals and enrollment efforts.

• Social media – advocate for EMU on Facebook and other social media outlets.

EMU ambassadors are alumni, parents, faculty, staff, students or friends of EMU. Ambassadors advocate for EMU in their community, church, place of employment and among family and friends.

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• Career and internship support – mentor an EMU student or recent graduate.

• Engagement and giving – encourage others to get involved and invest in the EMU community.

Contact us to start the process of becoming an ambassador, email alumni@emu.edu or call 540-432-4206 to speak with our director of alumni and parent engagement.

ROYAL FILES

PROGRAM MILESTONES

40 YEARS OF SERVICE LEARNING The Washington Community Scholars' Center Greek food, a walking tour and fellowship time brought together more than 50 people to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Washington Community Scholars Center, known for many years as the Washington Study-Service Year (WSSY). Program leaders, current students, internship supervisors and alumni – one from the program’s inception – gathered in Washington D.C. on Oct. 22 for the celebration.

Director Kimberly Schmidt, who has been with the program for 17 years, welcomed guests to the Nelson Good House in the Brookland area, home of the program since 2005.

She spoke of arguments over “homemade granola with wheat germ sprinkles” versus “Captain Crunch with extra high fructose corn syrup chocolate,” and “50 flat bicycle tires” found stashed in the basement of the former WCSC location.

Underneath the humorous stories of “13 to 15 energetic and enthusiastic university students … all required to live together in a funky house in Brookland supervised by a busy professor and two patient and dedicated staff members,” though, is the program’s mission of learning through service and servant leadership. She recalled one student describing their work as “serving the nation’s poor in the nooks and crannies of the nation’s capital.”

“WCSC is more than going out on the town,” said Schmidt.

“Our students have consistently received rave reviews from their internship site supervisors.”

Many participants are offered a position when their internship ends. Others find they like the D.C. metro area and return to the area to stay.

Connections are also made that last a lifetime. Nathan Kauffman '10, who attended WCSC in 2009, interned at the

Alumni and friends gather to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the WCSC program. Back row, from left: Susan Burns, Molly Kraybill '13, Kelsey Kauffman '08, Phil Baker-Shenk '79, Kirk Shisler '81. // Front row, from left: Jennifer Shenk '13, MA '15 (counseling), Daniel Heacock '78, Sue Rutt Glick '80, Sharon Weaver '79 Hoover, Barbara Martin '88, Aerlande Wontamo '06. Top: Director Kimberly Schmidt (second from left) leads a tour. (Photos by Molly Kraybill)

Chesapeake Climate Action Network – a grassroots, nonprofit organization which fights global warming in the Chesapeake Bay area. This internship led to a staff position after graduation. He went on to marry current WCSC Associate Director Kelsey Anderson Kauffman '08 who had lived in the same room in the Nelson Good House the year prior.

Phil Baker-Shenk '79, one of the first WSSY students, attended the celebration with his daughter Jennifer Shenk '13, MA '15 (counseling). Shenk spent a summer term at WCSC in 2011.

His internship with the Quaker-established Friends Committee on National Legislation led to a career in Native American Indian tribal advocacy. “WSSY was, for me, a safety net, a network and a nest that served as a springboard into broader relationships, more diverse passions and vocations, and lifelong commitments.”

The event also coincided with a campaign for the WCSC 40th Anniversary Endowed Scholarship Fund. More than $39,000 has been raised towards the goal of $100,000. The fund will help students with significant financial need to reduce room and board costs. Those who most benefit from the fund include commuter students, first-generation college students, students of color and non-traditional students.

—RANDI B. HAGI '14

TO DONATE TO THE WCSC 40TH ANNIVERSARY ENDOWED SCHOLARSHIP FUND CONTACT TIM SWARTZENDRUBER, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT, AT SWARTZT@EMU.EDU OR 540-560-5720 OR VISIT EMU.EDU/WCSC/SCHOLARSHIP www.emu.edu | CROSSROADS | 11

LET YOUR LIFE SPEAK Professor Melody M. Pannell '97, a native of Harlem, New York, is a bridge-builder. "God desired to use my life as a vessel to transform the two societies that I represented," she says. Melody returned to her alma mater to teach social work and to advocate for students of color and a more diverse faculty. On the following pages, meet bridge-builders who empower others. In their stories, we find love, authenticity, courage and joy.

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PHOTO BY JON ST YER

A MENNONITE GIRL FROM HARLEM

by Melody M. Pannell

THE SEVEN-HOUR DRIVE from Harlem, New York City, to Harrisonburg, Virginia, was filled with excitement, anticipation and a sense of purpose. Somehow I knew that I would never be the same once I stepped into this “new land,” this unfamiliar place that I would soon call “home” for the next four years. Everything was different yet strangely comforting. I longed to feel a sense of belonging and acceptance.

My father, Richard W. Pannell, once told me he had visited Eastern Mennonite College as a teenager in the late 1950s. A group from Newlinville Mennonite Church in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, visited the college to hear the music of “The Holy City Oratorio.” He remembered a sense of peace and tranquility at the beautiful campus, a

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“TOGETHER WE CAN ENGAGE, EMPOWER AND TRANSFORM OUR MENNONITE COMMUNITIES AND CREATE AN INCLUSIVE FIDELITY OF PLACE THAT WILL BE SUSTAINED, TRANSFORM OUR SOCIETY AND FLOURISH INTO THE FUTURE.” Lancaster native Ethel M. Pannell (left) married Richard W. Pannell while she was a missionary in Harlem during the height of the civil rights movement. Melody is one of their three children, raised in Seventh Avenue Mennonite Church. She attended EMU, graduating in 1997 and eventually returning to work at her alma mater.

(Photos courtesy of Melody M. Pannell)

feeling that this was the college that he wanted to attend. Although not raised in the Mennonite faith, he began attending the Mennonite Church as a teenager, drawn to the hospitality, care and loving spirit of Pastor Elmer D. Leaman and the congregation. Somehow they felt like “family.” He also was intrigued by the Anabaptist theology of peace, justice and service to the world. “Yes, this was the place for me,” he happily exclaimed to his mother upon his return home.

This was some lofty idea that my father had. Although EMC was the first predominately white college institution in the south to open its doors to AfricanAmericans, very few African-American students found their “place” in this Mennonite academic society. Willis Johnson was the first African-American to enroll in 1948, although he did not graduate.

Peggy Webb, another local student, was the first African-American graduate in 1954 – the same year as the landmark case, Brown v. Board of Education, and the beginning of the civil rights movement.

At the top of his class at Coatesville High School, my father’s capacity to achieve academically was not in question. Yet he was strongly encouraged to reconsider his plan to attend a predominately white college in rural Virginia.

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church, she was not as familiar with the African-American community – hopes Mennonites. However, she had experithat too often had been denied. I also ence with “white society” as an Africanrepresented the ideas of White MennoAmerican woman growing up during the nite allies who believed in the value of raJim Crow era. Consequently, my father cial diversity, advocated for social justice, never applied to EMC. and worked against systemic inequalities To my father, it was a dream dashed, a within the church community. One of harsh reality of a dichotomy of commuthese White Mennonites was my mother, nity. He had embraced the Mennonite Ethel M. Pannell, who had traveled from Church as a teenager, but Mennonite rural Lancaster County to New York higher education was a different place.

City to serve as a missionary in Harlem Little did he know that he would relive during the height of the civil rights the dreams of his heart in 1993 when movement. There my parents met, marI began social work studies at Eastern ried and raised three bi-racial children.

Mennonite University.

I am that Mennonite girl from Harlem I had worked with at-risk Black adowho became part of the community lescent girls in Harlem and decided to of Eastern Mennonite University the study social work from a Christian permoment that I stepped on campus. I spective. I was raised at Seventh Avenue felt “called” to this place, not only for Mennonite Church on the corner of my academic development, but also for 146th Street and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. my spiritual formation and personal Blvd. in Harlem, where I learned about transformation. I sensed that I had a purAnabaptist theology concerning peace pose for being here. I was called to be a and justice. I also knew of Black libera“bridge-builder.” I belonged, even if many tion theology and “existential preaching people did not believe that I too was theology,” which supplied a divine Word “Mennonite.” I was Mennonite through that “answers a crisis or conflict at the the ethnicity of my German-Swiss, heart of human existence,” and utilizes Pennsylvania Dutch mother, and I was the model of ethical-political theology Mennonite by faith and the principles of “where preachers proclaim God’s Word as Anabaptist theology through my Africanan alternate vision to injustice, inequities American father who had served during of power, suffering, and oppression.” my childhood as the first Black pastor of With this in mind, I packed my beSeventh Avenue Mennonite Church. longings with enthusiasm, determination I did not look like the majority of the and hope. I was a Mennonite girl from students around me. I was also not from Harlem who carried the hopes of her a rural or suburban area, nor was I from father as well as so many others in her a higher socioeconomic status. I was

from one of the most diverse and largest cities in the world. However, I represented a historically marginalized group of people who had experienced the trauma of prejudice, oppression and systemic discrimination. During the low points of my experience, I questioned whether or not I actually belonged at Eastern Mennonite University.

Yet I believed in the vision of EMU to be a “learning community marked by academic excellence, creative process, professional competence, and passionate Christian faith, offering healing and hope in our diverse world.” I believed it when EMU said that they commit themselves to “do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God.” My fidelity to this place was strong. I was a loyal, supportive, dedicated and active member of the campus community. I remembered the voice of my mentor Marian Sauder Egli '75, who had graduated from Eastern Mennonite Seminary when it was not “popular” for women to attend. “You need EMU, but EMU also needs you,” she exclaimed. I believed her. I became involved on campus as a ministry assistant, Celebration worship leader and Chapel Committee member, president of the Black Student Union, resident assistant, hall director and co-president of the Student Government Association.

I was able to make a few significant connections with peers, faculty members and the broader church community.

This enabled me to move through the “transformation pyramid” of survival (physiological and safety), success (social belonging and esteem) and transformation (self-actualization). I began to share my ideas, utilize my creativity and open myself to be transformed through this cross-cultural experience. I also believed that God desired to use my life as a vessel to transform the two societies that I represented.

After graduating in 1997, I came “home” to my alma mater to become the director of multicultural services from 2003-08 and later in the fall of 2015, I returned once again to my fidelity of place to become a professor of social work. It was a dream fulfilled to be a part of increasing the diversity of faculty

Professor Melody M. Pannell teaches a course on social work in November.

PHOTO BY JON ST YER

members at EMU. My story however is unfortunately an exception and not the normal experience of students of color who attended EMU. This leads me to the question: How can Mennonite institutions go beyond the practice of hospitality to create and utilize a framework of particular education theories, philosophies and perspectives that enhance our efforts to empower our multicultural students to overcome cultural barriers that separate them from becoming engaged in the community of learners, contributing their unique gifts and thriving in the place we ask them to call home?

During my studies in Christian education, a few of my favorite authors shed some light on the empowerment, liberation and transformation of educational communities.

Ira Shor in Empowering Education: Critical Teaching for Social Change, suggests that curriculum should “empower students … be transformative in nature” and help to make students “social critics.”

Brazilian educator Paulo Freire taught in Pedagogy of the Oppressed that “Education either conditions the younger generation into acceptance of society’s status quo or becomes ‘the practice of freedom’ through which people deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to transform their worlds.”

Freire revolutionized educational thinking by proposing that liberation and

education were equivalent and mutual processes. In other words, “education is necessary for the liberation of communities of oppressed people, and education and liberation are partnerships that must work together for the good of all communities.”

Quaker educator Parker Palmer says in To Know As We Are Known: Education as a Spiritual Journey, that this “transformation” should be the goal and objective of our educational efforts and that the spirituality of our students plays a significant role in the successful development and formation of their educational journey. “Such spirituality encourages us to welcome diversity and conflict, to tolerate ambiguity, and to embrace paradox.”

I believe that it is a beautiful and worthwhile journey of learning that we can take as a community. However, we must tap into a new way of relating to and educating our multicultural students.

It is not just about what our Mennonite institutions can teach those that represent different cultures. It is about what embracing diversity can teach us.

Together we can engage, empower and transform our Mennonite communities and create an inclusive fidelity of place that will be sustained, transform our society and flourish into the future.

THIS ARTICLE WAS FIRST PUBLISHED IN THE NOVEMBER 2016 ISSUE OF THE MENNONITE.

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'THE FIRST BUT NOT THE LAST' OVERLOOKING A COURTYARD in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Triquetra Law offices are home to attorney Sharon R. López ’83, her law partner Andrea Farney, and bilingual litigation paralegal Anne Sensenig ’83. The three women work together on cases involving discrimination, civil rights, employee rights and appeals.

President-elect of the 27,000-member Pennsylvania Bar Association (PBA), López will become la primera Latina to lead the organization in its 121-year history. “I like to say, ‘the first, but not the last,’ she says. “That puts the emphasis on sponsoring others to walk through an opened door.”

Recognized by her alma mater Widener University Commonwealth Law School for her efforts to promote diversity in the legal profession and for excellence in public service, López strategically developed her career to advocate for her clients, her profession and her community.

Born to a Mexican father and a Pennsylvania Dutch mother, López moved to the United States from Latin America for elementary school. She remembers travelling to Mexico for “a perfect storm of family, food and fun.”

I was never alone and there was always something about to happen. I can still see my abuelita demanding the freshest tortillas at the tortilla factory, and my abuelito whistling as he stirred his coffee and winked at me. As a rule, we only spoke Spanish in Mexico, a challenge because the other 11 months, we spoke English in our Lancaster County home.

Coming from another culture to another culture makes you see diversity as something normal.

After graduating from Lancaster Mennonite High School, López came to EMU, where she experienced “working with like-minded people to create change.” By her senior year, she also was chair of the Peace and Justice Fellowship.

In 1981, after completing an intensive course at the Spanish Language Institute in San José, she studied for one semester at the University of Costa Rica. While in San José, she saw real poverty alongside a well-fed middle class. “I learned a lot about my privilege,” López says.

I got to know a young woman with two children. With her permission we visited her “home.” The poverty she lived in was palatable destitution. I made the mistake of giving her $100 that evening. I wasn’t thinking of how the money would impact her life. I never saw her again. No one should live like that, but I should have been more careful about how I “helped” her. It was an important lesson.

López credits Professor Vernon Jantzi ‘64 for her first opportunity to serve as a community organizer and advocate. Jantzi set up an externship with the Costa Rica Department of Agriculture. She went to Coto Sur, a coastal region where peasant families moved onto abandoned banana plantations as part of Costa Rica’s formal agrarian reform.

Another influential mentor was Barbra Graber ‘76, then a theater professor and house parent for an intentional community. López joined the

16 | CROSSROADS | FALL/WINTER 2016

PHOTO BY JON ST YER

"TRUE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION INVITES ALL THE WELL-REASONED OPINIONS TO THE TABLE." cast of Storm, “an improvisational piece focused on the tension between the sexes.”

Barbra was such a creative force. I was forced to look inward and examine my own bias about women. That play helped me make one of the most important decisions in my life, to be a feminist mother.

López returned to Lancaster, started a family and worked on various social justice issues, including AIDS prevention education and sexual assault awareness and victim services. She chose to attend law school to continue her work. “I thought it would give me good tools to create social change,” she says. “I still think it was a good choice for me.”

Now, as the next PBA president, she continues to find like-minded people. Nevertheless, members of the statewide professional association don’t all share her perspective. “True diversity and inclusion invites all the well-reasoned opinions to the table,” she says. “As long as we keep the dialogue going and respect each other, the social change ball will move forward. That is an EMU value I use in my justice work everyday. I am forever grateful for that.” —LAUREN JEFFERSON

LOVE OF NEIGHBOR

Trina Trotter Nussbaum '00 (left) visits with Dr. Syafaatun Almirzanah, a Fulbright Scholar from Indonesia.

PHOTOS BY ANDREW STRACK

Under new leadership, Center for Interfaith Engagement works to build bridges amidst social polarization.

WITHIN HOURS of her arrival from Indonesia to Eastern Mennonite University, Fulbright Scholar Dr. Syafaatun Almirzanah had a new friend. At the faculty/staff picnic, five-year-old Julian Nussbaum tugged on her shalwar kameez, whispered in her ear and made sure she had enough food.

Their budding friendship was a small symbol of the work of his mother, Trina Trotter Nussbaum '00, the newly named interim director of the Center for Interfaith Engagement.

Since 2009, under the guidance of first-year director Gerald Shenk and then Ed Martin for the following six years, the center has worked to promote intercultural and interreligious understanding. Nussbaum’s leadership ensures a seamless transition; as the former associate director, she has been an active contributor to the center’s past accomplishments and future activities.

“CIE’s challenge today is to strengthen relationships across religious and ideological divides while still being honest about

our differences,” she said. “Like Jesus, we must not keep quiet in this age of extreme social polarization, but be rooted in justice in the face of oppression, and open to engaging with those who have a worldview different from our own.”

A first step in her new role was to initiate a search for an Interfaith Peace Camp program coordinator. A flagship program since 2008, the peace camp has provided a model for children’s interfaith programming in the United States and Canada. New coordinator Jennifer Perry will work in conjunction with local Muslim, Christian and Jewish communities to build new and sustainable programming.

The center targets efforts on the local, national and global levels, with notable accomplishments including: • Ongoing research of local intra- and interfaith structures to create a community-wide network to prevent religiously motivated violence; • Outreach to local partners, including the Harrisonburg/Rockingham Interfaith Coalition and Faith in Action (see photo at left), as well as religious leaders of different denominations, to increase dialogue and understanding; • Hosting of four visiting scholars, including Dr. Almirzanah, to teach undergraduate courses and offer a range of community events; • Offering a popular film series in 2014, 2015 and 2016 taught by visiting Jewish scholar Dr. Bob Bersson; • Securing funding for Iranians to attend EMU's Summer Peacebuilding Institute and Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience (STAR) training; • Hosting and facilitating a 2011 conference on Moroccan religious freedom at EMU;

Members of the leadership team of Harrisonburg-based Faith in Action include several EMU alumni. From left, Matt Carlson GC '15, SEM '16; Art Stoltzfus MA '15 (conflict transformation), Hadley Jenner GC '97, '05; Raad Amer MA '11 (conflict transformation), Stanley Maclin CMS '01 and Aaron Kishbaugh MA '06 (conflict transformation).

• Participating in off-campus interfaith events, including a 2014 cross-cultural trip to Iran and a 2015 workshop on faith and trauma in Chicago. —LAUREN JEFFERSON

THE CENTER IS FUNDED BY GRANTS AND DONATIONS. JOIN IN EXTENDING COURAGEOUS LOVE ACROSS RELIGIOUS DIVIDES IN OUR WORLD. VISIT www.emu.edu/cie/give OR EMAIL cie@emu.edu www.emu.edu | CROSSROADS | 17

Ryan Beuthin MA '11 (conflict transformation) stands at the former site of the Chevrolet Flint Motor Plant, a vast expanse of acreage in downtown Flint bordering the Flint River.

Residual contamination complicates redevelopment plans, which may include new housing and business infrastructure and public open space.

PHOTOS BY JON ST YER

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SHALOMSEEKING IN FLINT with Ryan Beuthin and his family

"THE WATER CRISIS IS BAD FRUIT ON A PLANT WHOSE SEED WAS SOWN DECADES AGO."

www.emu.edu | CROSSROADS | 19

Caption...

PHOTOS BY JON ST YER

Ryan Beuthin on Saginaw Street in downtown Flint. He is operations manager for three adjacent restaurants: Flint Crepe Company, Merge and Table & Tap.

“FLINT IS COMPLICATED.” Ryan Beuthin drives two visitors through the Mott Park neighborhood in Flint, Michigan. Though clean and wide, the streets are flanked by decrepit, abandoned homes, vacant grassy lots and on occasion, a burned-out husk awaiting demolition.

“I can explain the arson to you,” he says. “When you hear the fire trucks at night, you know it’s another one, but it’s slowed recently.” Then he sighs. “It’s really complicated.”

For the fifth time in less than 45 minutes, though, he doesn’t use complexity as an excuse. He explains how and why arson happens in a large American city in the 21st century. The tour continues.

He steers to the side of the road to point out a church plant that didn’t make it, a volunteer enterprise that did, the story of a resident he got to know. After each anecdote, he returns, doggedly, to his explanation of arson.

Here is a person who is unwilling to look away.

Beuthin, a 2011 graduate of the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, and his wife Janie are making the choice 20 | CROSSROADS | FALL/WINTER 2016

to live with their eyes open, to raise their children in a place that desperately needs both peacemaking and peacebuilding.

As operations manager for three downtown restaurants, Beuthin works with a group of socially conscious business partners. He attends ribbon-cutting ceremonies for new projects and claps alongside the crowds, but he knows grant cycles are fickle and so are the majority of outof-the-area volunteers. While he rejoices when a new business opens downtown or a building is renovated, he is frustrated that the funding is not local, nor the ownership representative of the city’s diverse population. He is both impatient and patient at the same time.

Beuthin wouldn’t say he’s enlightened at all, just that he’s still learning, still having his eyes opened by God. “There’s blue pills and red pills,” he says, referring to a metaphor popularized by the film “The Matrix,” which reflexively recalls Plato’s shadows on the cave wall. “The blue pill is to keep everything the same, for ignorance. The red pill is truth. And once you take the first one, God has a whole lot more of them for you.”

Here’s a short list of Beuthin’s own

awakenings: a cross-cultural semester in Costa Rica while a student at Olivet Nazarene University (Illinois); teaching refugees in a Houston (Texas) high school; deciding he really didn’t know what trauma meant when he worked with those students, and that “do no harm” wasn’t a possibility until he understood trauma; moving to Harrisonburg with Janie in 2009 to study at CJP. There, among “Kenyans going back to Kenya and folks from Myanmar going back to Myanmar, it was really only Americans going to someone else’s country to work,” Beuthin recalls. “So the message I got was the better choice, at least for me and for us, is to stay here in this broken place and try to make a difference.” By then, the couple had a growing family and moving back to the Midwest, and their roots, was a good choice. Janie’s hometown of Flint became their new home in 2011. Beuthin, who grew up in Michigan and Indiana, also calls the area “as home as home could be.”

There were no issues with water when the Beuthins first moved to Flint and purchased their cozy two-story bungalow

Ryan with his wife Janie and daughters Juniper and Starling in their Flint home. The couple is expecting their third child in December.

in the Mott Park neighborhood a few miles from downtown and one block from the Flint River. Even then, the city was a difficult and challenging place, with one of the highest crime rates in the country. Since the closure of General Motors’ Buick and Chevrolet plants, the city has hemorrhaged both jobs and population, from nearly 200,000 in 1960 to approximately 99,000 today. The city is 57 percent black, 37 percent white, and 6 percent people of other races, including a small but growing number of foreignborn residents. Forty-two percent live below the poverty line.

Then the corroded water pipes happened. “The water crisis is bad fruit on a plant whose seed was sown decades ago,” Beuthin wrote in Sojourners magazine, linking racism to the decline of one of America’s greatest manufacturing cities. “I encourage us white Christians to change our position and our posture and to seek new knowledge of who we are in the world that our ancestors have created.

Listen, listen, listen. Don’t seek to lead.

Read. Ask. Don’t defend. Be invited; don’t impose. And then, once you’ve allowed God to do a new work in you,

once you have repented for the collective plank in our eye and sought shalom for our country’s legacy — then, maybe God will use you to help.”

Walking with humility, listening and learning continues to be a journey of discovery for Beuthin. This fall, he negotiated new terms at work to allow the donation of 10 hours a week to the church he and his family have been members of for the past two years. A few blocks from his home, Bethel United Methodist Church – a predominately African-American congregation celebrating 95 years – has recently become a space of notoriety. One of two Michigan Food Bank “resource hub” sites in Flint, the church is where Pastor Faith GreenTimmons famously asked then-presidential candidate Donald Trump to stay off his stump speech on a visit (“an imposed visit,” Beuthin says) to their water distribution operation in September.

“We’ve turned into a community center overnight,” Beuthin says, of the Michigan Food Bank siting. Additionally, the denomination has also selected Bethel to be a new Community Development Corporation. Forty-year church member

Harold Woodson, Flint School Board president, will direct the new 501(c) (3) organization and Beuthin has been asked to assist him. The duo attended the Christian Community Development Association’s national conference this fall, and are in the process of collecting constituent and neighborhood input, solidifying objectives and building a board.

But what has been most remarkable to Ryan and Janie Beuthin, though, is the power of simplicity amidst all the complexity in their hometown. With initiatives, challenges, trainings and community conflicts swirling around, what has seemed to have the most impact in these times has been acting on the simplest questions. Beuthin says: Who’s going to board up the burnt-out homes? What do neighbors say about the church we attend?

Have they experienced the shalom we claim to seek?

And to all of us, he asks: Who is seeking out and meeting the most immediate needs of neighbors? Are you hoarding your sources of hope, or seeking to sacrificially give so that others may have life?

—LAUREN JEFFERSON

www.emu.edu | CROSSROADS | 21

ALUMNI HELP BUILD ASSETS For more than 20 years, nonprofit helps foster economic opportunity and equitable enterprise WITH HOLIDAY DEMAND ON THE UPSWING, The Stroopie Company went to two shifts in early November, allowing them to churn out up to 6,000 Dutch stroopwafels (cinnamon-y, carmel-y goodies best enjoyed with a hot beverage) a week. All six workers running the show at the company’s small production facility in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, are refugees: three from Burma and three from Syria. Once a day, they sit down with the store manager, who is also a certified ESL teacher, for a half-hour English lesson.

As a certified B Corporation, The Stroopie Company measures its success by social and environmental standards in addition to the profit column – hence 22 | CROSSROADS | FALL/WINTER 2016

the language classes and $11-an-hour starting wage offered to refugees otherwise facing limited employment prospects. Alone, however, these commitments don’t solve the challenges of solvency and profitability facing any small business. To help meet them, The Stroopie Company has turned to Assets, a nonprofit that has worked to create economic opportunity and reduce poverty in and around Lancaster for more than 20 years.

One of the organization’s new programs, says executive director Jessica King '96, is called the Great Social Enterprise Pitch, which offers a series of business-planning workshops to 10 entrepreneurs who prioritize social and

environmental well-being. After the workshops, five participants pitch their ideas to a panel of judges and compete for more than $50,000 in cash and services.

In 2015, The Stroopie Company won the competition, coming away with donated legal services, a free photo session for a new product catalog, and cash that it invested in new equipment.

“It gave us the confidence that we had a great idea going,” says Jennie Groff, one of the company’s owners. “We really feel like we’re poised to grow.”

Lancaster is a welcoming and generous community that resettles more refugees and gives, on average, more to charity than anywhere else in Pennsylvania. By

Jessica King '96, executive director of Assets, visits with The Stroopy Company owner Jennie Groff (right, facing) and two employees, both refugees.

Jessica King outside of Assets in downtown Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Below: King with Director of Development Tina Campbell '99 (left) and Finance Director Rosanne Jantzi '89.

(Photo by Tyler Naples)

PHOTOS BY JON ST YER

integrating this philanthropic impulse into a workable business model, King says, “impact businesses” like The Stroopie Company are able to fund their own pursuit of a greater good. “[The Stroopie Company] is a means to an end. The end is about helping their neighbors have better lives,” she says.

“There are a lot of ways you can do that.

Making cookies is their way of doing that.

“It’s amazing to see the kind of impact that [employers] can have on the lives of people around them, their neighbors and their employees, regardless of what their business is. It’s the spirit of ‘how’ they do it,” King continued. “It might not be all that bright and shiny, but it really matters to people. That’s what really gets me excited.”

Through its various programs, Assets provides training and lending to entrepreneurs from underrepresented groups as well as the impact businesses committed to social and environmental goals. During the most recent fiscal year,

it supported the creation of 40 new businesses and more than 70 jobs, provided loans or long-term training to more than 150 entrepreneurs, and involved nearly 1,500 businesspeople and community members in other programs and events.

“We believe in the power of business to transform our communities for good,” says Tina Campbell '99, director of development. “But we are also convinced that it must be equitable transformation – that all races, ethnicities and cultures must be included for true economic development to happen in our own communities.”

According to board member Kevin Ressler '07, an important part of this vison has been Assets’ expanding focus over the past several years to supporting impact businesses in addition to entrepreneurs from underrepresented groups.

“This work breaks down the barriers of ‘us’ and ‘them’ and begins to see that ‘we’ is our only hope moving forward to maintain a country full of communities that don’t just co-exist but co-create and

thrive together.”

Since 2008, The Stroopie Company has employed 16 refugee women in its kitchen. Many have used it as both a landing and a launching pad, a welcoming place to build experience and improve their English before moving on to other things. Recently, when a TV news crew stopped by for an interview with one of the Syrian workers, Groff called in an employee who’d just left to provide some translation help. Watching from the sidelines, Groff was struck by the poise and fluency the former employee had developed, at least in part, right there in the stroopwafel kitchen.

“She came here hardly wanting to say anything. To be able to see how she’s leaving us – it just was hugely encouraging,” says Groff. “That is totally what motivates my husband and me. It is just so rewarding to see our refugee employees come in and gain confidence. You can just almost see it happening before your very eyes.” —ANDREW JENNER '04

www.emu.edu | CROSSROADS | 23

Pastor Beny Krisbianto SEM '15 with wife Angelia and daughter Jesslyn at the new location of Nations Worship Center in an historically Italian-American neighborhood of West Philadelphia.

PHOTO BY JON ST YER

OPEN DOORS Pastor makes a new home

DOES ANYONE KNOW WHAT’S HAPPENING WITH PARADISE GARDENS AT 15TH & RITNER? VARIOUS RUMORS FLYING ‘ROUND THE NEIGHBORHOOD NONE OF THEM ESPECIALLY GOOD …

Posted on an internet site, that comment summed up many conversations of locals in the predominately Italian West Philadelphia neighborhood in 2012. Vacant for 12 years, the nondescript two-story building had been well used by an Italian-American civic association and the fraternal organization Knights of Columbus.

“A lot of people had memories of this place. Many life events were celebrated here,” said Pastor Beny Krisbianto SEM '15, a native of Indonesia who leads Nations Worship Center. “So I understand their worries. The rumor was that Buddhists were going to make it a temple, and there would be statues out in front. Then we told them we were Mennonites, and we had to explain that in two public meetings. Three hundred came to the first one. Thirty came to the second one.”

On Nov. 20, that patience paid off. His congregation of about 120 Indonesian immigrants welcomed a host of guests, including neighborhood and city officials, to their celebration worship service of the new Ritner Street location. Among them were leaders from Franconia Conference, of which Nations is a part.

Krisbianto’s pastoral conviction, discovered as a high school convert to the Church of God in his predominantly Muslim country, has taken him on a long journey. Fifteen years ago, he earned a scholarship to a Bible school in Iowa, where fast food restaurants closed at 6 p.m., he said, and “corn was all around.”

Later, called to minister to Indonesian Christian refugees 24 | CROSSROADS | FALL/WINTER 2016

escaping religious persecution in their homeland, Krisbianto came to find in Anabaptism an acceptance of the dignity of all humanity, and Christ’s call to love all. He worked for five years, often one class at a time, to finish an MDiv degree at Eastern Mennonite Seminary, gaining a strong theological basis for the emotional connection he felt with the displaced.

“My heart was touched,” he said, describing the confusion and frustration of recent immigrants who had suffered so much, “lost everything,” and could not communicate to find jobs, health care or education for their children. It was important that they have a safe space to come to, and someone to trust.

Mark Wenger, director of pastoral studies at EMU Lancaster, remembers Krisbianto “wrestling out loud about what to do with undocumented immigrants” in a class presentation on the Bible, the church and immigration. “He declared his insight and conviction from one of the Anabaptist authors he read that ‘the church must do what God calls it do,’ despite government pressures,” said Wenger, who preached at his former student’s ordination service.

“When you come to the doors of our church, we do not ask if you have a green card or if you are a legal resident,” Krisbianto says. “Our church is welcoming them, helping them, loving them.”

Though a pastor, Krisbianto says his primary job is as a social worker. In 2008, he wrote an essay for Franconia Mennonite Conference titled “The Indonesian pastor’s cell number is 911.” This is still true today, even as the flood of refugees has trickled off because new leadership in Indonesia has stabilized tensions. Many have returned to Indonesia but many stay.

Krisbianto’s congregation holds services in English and Indonesian. Two years ago, he returned to Indonesia to preach, meeting his future wife there. He and Angelia have a five-month-old baby, Jesslyn, one of the newest members of Nations Worship Center. —LAUREN JEFFERSON

CENTENNIAL BEQUEST CAMPAIGN 100 YEARS MORE To celebrate our centennial in 2017, we invite you to help make the EMU experience available to students for another 100 years by considering an estate gift! Our goal is to increase estate gift commitments by adding 100 new Jubilee Friend households by June 2018. These future gifts, of any size, will strengthen EMU’s ability to serve students.

How can you become a Jubilee Friend?

Name EMU/EMS/CJP/Athletics in the following:  Will/Living Trust  Charitable Remainder Trust  Charitable Gift Annuity  Life Insurance Policy  IRA, 401(k), 403(b), or other retirement plan  Gift Fund or Donor-Advised Fund

Why are planned gifts important?

Endowments are funded by planned gifts. Planned gifts provide student scholarships, enhance classroom technology, support institutional research, and contribute to much more, helping EMU provide a quality Christian education.

Ways to allocate your planned gift:  Named Endowed Scholarship  Facility/Building Endowments  Program/ Department Endowments  Faculty Chair Endowments

Will you help to ensure EMU’s future?

To learn more contact: Jasmine Hardesty, director of planned giving 540-432-4971 or jasmine.hardesty@emu.edu

To learn more about planned giving or to let us know that you have included EMU in your estate, please visit our website at

emuplannedgiving.org www.emu.edu | CROSSROADS | 25

COMMON HUMANITY BSHARA NASSAR MA '14 (ABOVE) AND MEL LEHMAN '71 (right, with Nassar) both believe in the power of art to connect humans. Nassar, based in Washington D.C. and Lehman, of New York City, travel the country and beyond with their respective nonprofit organizations, collecting and showing Arab and Muslim artwork. They met at Homecoming and Family Weekend, when Nassar staged the "Hope is Stronger Than Misery" exhibit. His Nakba Museum Project, focused on Palestinian history, is moving toward a permanent home in Washington D.C. "In a world where hatred is brewing, art helps us retain our humanity, open our hearts and minds, and understand one another on a deeper level," he says.

Lehman is founder and executive director of Common Humanity, which seeks to build understanding and friendship with the Arab and Muslim world. The organization began in 2009 with medical delegations to Syria and has continued with touring art exhibits that raise funds for refugee artists. "Our entertainment, news media and political leaders continually offer us negative images of the Arab and Muslim world," Lehman says. "But we need to remember that there is much good there and the vast majority of people there want peace just as we do. Our Iraqi refugee art exhibits help visitors to see the richness and beauty of Middle East culture and to recognize the common humanity we share with the people there."

26 | CROSSROADS | FALL/WINTER 2016

PHOTOS BY JON ST YER

PHOTO BY JOAQUIN SOSA

No mat ter where you are from, we’re glad you’re our neighbor.

h t t p s : / / w w w. f a c e b o o k . c o m / w e l c o m e y o u r n e i g h b o r s

A WARM WELCOME Signs By Church Become Popular In City Yards Tri-color signs are appearing in yards across Harrisonburg. In the center, in English, the signs say, “No matter where you are from, we’re glad you’re our neighbor.” The sentence is repeated above in Spanish and below in Arabic.

The signs come from the Harrisonburg District of Mennonite Churches. There are currently about 400 signs around the city, with more being printed.

Matthew Bucher MA (conflict transformation) '15, SEM '15 is pastor of Immanuel Mennonite Church in Harrisonburg.

He came up with the idea last fall during the heated presidential primary debates.

“I was disappointed and angry by some of the rhetoric that I was hearing from some of the candidates,” Bucher said, adding that he doesn’t remember which specific candidate during the Republican debate first sparked his anger, but Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, namely, had been vocal about his desire to ban Muslims and build a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border. The controversy over the Syrian refugee crisis has also stirred anti-immigrant sentiments.

“If there are things that endanger my neighbors, whether they’re from Honduras or Egypt, I want to treat them as a

neighbor,” Bucher said. “I want to love them, even if they got here a little more recently than I did. We’re still neighbors.

We’re still called to care for one another.”

Bucher said his congregation, including original sign painter Melissa Howard, supported the idea from the start. The Harrisonburg District of Mennonite Churches then decided six months ago to make the signs available more broadly. The church posted information about the signs on Facebook, and word is spreading, with signs going to Indiana, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, Mississippi and California.

Paul Groff '90, a member of Ridgeway Mennonite Church in Harrisonburg, has the welcome sign in his front yard in the south side of the city. He counted nine signs on a recent twomile run through his neighborhood.

“We want to show that we’re welcoming of all folks, no matter where they’re from,” Groff said. “We feel our various cultures enrich us and connect us to the wider world.”

Bucher said it’s “absolutely crucial” that fellow Christians show hospitality no matter where someone is from, and to love thy friends, neighbors and even enemies. The signs, he said, express a deeper commitment from the church.

“These signs are a marker of something that’s deeper for us,” Bucher said. “It’s not ‘put the sign out and pat ourselves on the back.’ We put this sign out to say, ‘This is how we want to live.

We want to love each other as God loves us no matter if we’re from a different country or we speak a different language.’”

The signs cost $10, with a portion of sales donated to the Mennonite Central Committee, which is the relief and development organization for the Mennonite Church.

—BY SHELBY MERTENS/DAILY NEWS-RECORD TO PURCHASE A SIGN, CALL IMMANUEL MENNONITE CHURCH AT 540-432-0711 OR EMAIL IMMANUELMENNONITEPASTOR@GMAIL.COM.

www.emu.edu | CROSSROADS | 27

TWO LANGUAGES, ONE LOVE Church hosts life-changing friendships WHILE MIRIAM CHARLES, 89, quilts over a frame in the basement of Habecker Mennonite Church in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, six fellow congregants make steady progress on simple drawstring bags that will be Mennonite Central Committee school supply and hygiene kits. Say Li works at a nearby sewing machine. Ler Lah, a widower and father to seven children, hooks a drawstring through a wooden dowel needle.

Conversation is limited; among the group, only Mya Ray speaks English and is able to interpret. But no matter. Former teacher Rhoda Reinford '76 Charles, Miriam’s daughter-in-law, moves around the room with quiet instructions, pats on backs and enthusiastic 28 | CROSSROADS | FALL/WINTER 2016

encouragement —“getting my home ec teaching opportunity,“ she jokes.

Mya Ray’s three daughters charge in and out of the Sunday school rooms: Dolly, nearly 8, has numbered the pages of what looks to be a novel (written in English), while sister Grace, 5, colors a wide-eyed pony with a luxurious mane.

Two-year-old Florence tries to keep up.

In the play area, toddler William, the youngest child of Lu Dee, industriously drops toys through a long cardboard tube held patiently by Rhoda’s husband Jonathan. The Karen women’s husbands are working on this Thursday morning.

Habecker’s history of hosting refugees began in 1946, when Miriam and her husband, Arthur, took in a series of Eastern European families. The church then

Habecker Mennonite Church's sewing circle sings the Doxology before enjoying a noon meal. // Clockwise from upper left: Miriam Charles, 89, takes a break from quilting to talk to a visitor. She and her husband first hosted refugees after World War II. // Rhoda Reinford '76 Charles, her daughter-in-law and sewing circle leader, talks with Mya Ray, a Karen refugee and now U.S. citizen. // A potluck of chicken noodle soup, home-baked bread and various noodle dishes ends a sewing circle meeting. // The church, located west of Lancaster, hosts its Sunday service in English and Karen.

PHOTOS BY JON ST YER

sponsored several Vietnamese families in 1980. In 2008, the church sponsored a refugee Karen family, who like thousands of others, had escaped the longestrunning civil war in the world to live in camps across the Thai and Laos border.

(Less than 24 hours before their arrival, housing plans fell through, and Arthur and Miriam Charles offered hospitality.)

Since that family, the church, first under Pastor Karen Sensenig and now Pastor Chris and Dawn Landes, has welcomed an increasing number of refugees who have helped to rejuvenate a dwindling congregation.

“They’ve adopted us as much as we’ve adopted them,” Rhoda Charles says. “It’s totally changed us as a congregation.

We’ve formed wonderful friendships.”

Charles was a home economics teacher Hardly a day goes by without a phone at Lancaster Mennonite High School for call seeking advice. three years after graduating from EMU, Many Karen bring to Habecker a where she met Jonathan, who then strong Christian faith, which Charles taught social studies and photography. says has changed and deepened her own Their three sons – Nathan, class of ’02, faith. In her first introduction to the Derrick ’06 and Michael ’09 – are congregation, Mya Ray “stood in front alumni. From 1980 until 2013, they opof everyone and said, ‘I am your sister in erated an in-home photography business, Christ,’” a moment of intense bonding Charles Studio. This has since transithat Charles remembered later when a tioned to become Paul Jacobs Photogranurse asked her how she happened to be phy, run by a long-term employee. in the labor room with her Karen friend.

From the first refugee family, the duo “That was the moment.” have fulfilled many support roles: filling There’s another moment she rememout paperwork, setting up medical apbers, when newly arrived Karen sang to pointments, arranging housing, preparthe Habecker congregation. “The words ing for job interviews, driving children were Karen, but the music was unmisto Mennonite Children Choir practice, takable,” she said. “It was ‘Count Your speaking with social service workers.

Blessings.’ Count your blessings, when

you’ve just arrived in a new country after years in a refugee camp and your family has suffered so much.”

Charles says that birthday parties she organized for Karen children included games and traditional American cake and ice cream, but she soon learned that her friends wanted to worship first and then share a meal. “God had used this to help me refocus, not that prayer, hospitality and service were values that were foreign to me before, but this has really cemented those.”

Back in the basement, the adults work to a stopping point. Before their lunch of chicken soup and noodles, they sing the doxology – in two languages, speaking the same love in common rhythm.

—LAUREN JEFFERSON www.emu.edu | CROSSROADS | 29

MILEPOSTS FACULTY & STAFF Kathy Evans, professor of education, published The Little Book of Restorative Justice in Education (Good Books), co-authored with Dorothy Vaandering.

Robin Setlock Frey Felty '90, adjunct faculty, EMU Lancaster, Lititz, Pa., has been appointed superintendent of New Manheim Township School District. She was formerly assistant superintendent at Warwick School District. She has also served as an assistant superintendent in Ephrata Area School District and a consultant with the Pennsylvania Department of Education. Robin has a doctorate in educational leadership and an MBA.

organizational communication. He is director of communication and leadership cultivation for Franconia Mennonite Conference.

Jonathan Lantz-Trissel '00, sustainability coordinator, is in his second and final year as co-chair of Virginia Sustainability in Higher Education Consortium, comprised of sustainability professionals from 17 Virginia colleges and universities.

Ed Martin retired in June from a parttime position as director of the Center for Interfaith Engagement. Ed brought decades of experience in the Middle East and Asia to the position, which he held for six years while commuting from Akron, Pa.

Joan Griffing and Ryan Keebaugh, professors of music, and Marti Eads, professor of English, collaborated on three pieces to be performed by the group Musica Harmonica, of which Griffing is a member, during concerts in Wyoming and at the Decolonizing Music Conference in Puerto Rico in September. Two pieces are based on Eads’ poetry inspired by Nobel Peace Prize recipient Leymah Gbowee MA ‘07. The goal of Musica Harmonica is to promote peace and cultural awareness through musical collaboration.

Doug Graber Neufeld, professor of biology, will direct the new Center for Sustainable Climate Solutions at EMU. He returns this summer from a two-year research and service leave working with Mennonite Central Committee in East Africa.

Amy Springer '92 Hartsell, assistant dean and coordinator of student services, is an executive board member of The Virginia Network of the American Council on Education, Office of Women in Higher Education.

Alena Yoder '16 is a program associate with the Women’s Peacebuilding Leadership Program at the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding.

Ericka Histand '02 Gingerich began this fall as admissions receptionist and daily campus visit coordinator. She moved from Oregon with her husband David '02, who is studying at EMS, and two children. Ericka has taught in Oregon and Ecuador.

Rebecca Kauffman, adjunct faculty, language and literature department, has published Another Place You’ve Never Been (Counterpoint Press, 2016), which, among other accolades, was named in the 20 best books of fall 2016 by the Huffington Post.

Steve Kriss ‘94, associate director of pastoral studies, EMU Lancaster, Philadephia, Pa., graduated from Duquesne University with a PhD in rhetoric focusing on ethics and

Trina Trotter Nussbaum '00 has been named interim director of the Center for Interfaith Engagement.

Paul Yoder '06, MA '11, assistant professor of education, earned a PhD in education from the University of Virginia in August 2016.

1940-1949 Chester Wenger EMHS '34, AA '36, BT '41, Lancaster, Pa., was featured on Malcolm Gladwell’s podcast “Revisionist History,” on the theme of “how people deal with difficult questions.” Wenger’s episode is titled “Generous Orthodoxy,” which takes the title of a 2014 essay he wrote laying out the biblical and theological rationales for his change in belief about LGBTQ inclusion.

1950-1959 Amos Yoder '54, Grove City, Minn., published his memoir, A Chirp from the Grass Roots. He celebrated his 10oth birthday in November.

30 | CROSSROADS | FALL/WINTER 2016

Alumni and current members of the women's basketball team came together for a spirited game during Homecoming and Family Weekend.

(Photo by Andrea Cable)

Anita Rose Runion '58 Ovalle, Guatemala City, Guatemala, teaches part-time at Christian Academy of Guatemala after more than 40 years in education.

Urbane Peachey '58, Lititz, Pa., has published More Than One Thing Is True: Agony and Ecstasy Below Cloud Nine (Masthof Press). The memoir includes reflections on his experiences with Mennonite Central Committee from 1960-86 and as a Mennonite pastor from 1986-2000. He writes as a practitioner about his work with NGOs in the Middle East; on commonalities between Islam and Christianity; and on pastoral life, a section which presents lived examples of adult personal and spiritual formation and makes a strong case for people of faith to be advocates for the common good in public life.

1960-1969 Doug Hostetter '66, Valley Cottage, N.Y., is director of Mennonite Central Committee’s United Nations (UN) Office. He continues to work on behalf of Vietnamese people affected

by Agent Orange. Doug volunteered in Vietnam as a conscientious objector.

Kenneth C. Reed '66, San Jose, Ca., published Both My Sons (Masthof Press, 2016). This historical novel, his third, recounts the life of a Swiss-German immigrant and his family.

1970-1979 Rebirth, comprised of Rob Eby '71, Mel Lehman '71, Dean Clemmer '72, James Krabill '73 and Elaine Warfel Stauffer '73, have re-released their third and final self-titled album as a compact disc and digital download.

Proceeds of the sales benefit the Sadie A. Hartzler Library. Visit www.rebirthforsale.com.

Rob Eby '71, Scottdale, Pa., is a behavioral health therapist with Chestnut Ridge Counseling Services, Inc., in Uniontown. He and wife, Gwen, attend Scottdale Mennonite Church.

John Lazer '71, Winchester, Va., is a substitute bus driver for Winchester City Schools since his retirement and drives a shuttle bus in Glacier National Park in the summer. Additionally he

drives for WATTS, a ministry to the homeless in Winchester. Last year, he went on a mission trip to Nicaragua.

Gloria Shenk '75 Worme, Mount Joy, Pa., is a receptionist and in support services for Hospice and Community Care Pathways Center for Grief and Loss. She married Tony Worme in May 2014 and moved to Mount Joy soon after, where she attends Mount Joy Mennonite Church.

Carolyn Grasse-Bachman '76, Bridgewater, Va., is a visiting assistant professor at Bridgewater College in the department of health and human sciences. She earned a BS in home economics education from Eastern Mennonite University, an MEd in home economics education from Oregon State University and a PhD in individual and family studies from the University of Delaware.

Joe Bontrager '78, SEM '93 and Gloria Beidler CPS '92, BS'00 Bontrager have completed their overseas service with Eastern Mennonite Missions and started a term as nonresident volunteer workers to East Africa.

They will focus on continued relationships, development, and publication of materials for partner churches.

Conley McMullen '78, Harrisonburg, Va., a professor of biology at James Madison University, received the James Madison University Alumni Association Distinguished Faculty Award in 2016.

Wilda Stoltzfus '78 Schwartzentruber, Bellefontaine, Ohio, is clinical director of Community Health and Wellness Partners of Logan County, a year-old Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) that offers whole-person primary health care in two locations in rural West Liberty, Ohio. She had previously worked many years in oncology.

Miles Yoder '79, Lancaster, Pa., assistant principal at Lancaster Mennonite School, is also principal at the Hershey campus of Lancaster Mennonite School.

J. Merle Zook '79, Mount Sidney, Va., has returned to his former position as chief financial

officer for Dynamic Aviation, based in Bridgewater, Va. Zook started at the company in 1999 as a controller, was promoted to DFO in 2002 and remained in the post until 2010, when he was named executive vice president.

1980-1989 Evon Bergey AA '81, Lancaster, Pa., is vice president of community initiatives of Landis Communities. Previously she held leadership positions within Magellan Healthcare and Penn Foundation Behavioral Health Services.

Lorena Rosen '81 Suter, Orlando, Fla., is a school social worker with Orange County Public Schools.

Gerald Hershey '82, Waynesboro, Va., retires after 17 years as president/COE of DuPont Community Credit Union in March 2017. He began his career with DCCU in 1989.

Beryl Jantzi, class of ‘82, SEM '91, Harrisonburg, Va., was awarded the President’s Stewardship Award at the Everence National Convention this spring. Jantzi, the Harrisonburg office’s director of stewardship education, trained financial coaches who help pastors with financial issues and helped the office earn a Lilly grant to provide financial assistance and education for pastors.

Melody Keim '83, Lancaster, Pa., vice president of programs and initiatives at the Lancaster County Community Foundation, has been elected to the Pennsylvania Humanities Council board of directors.

Cheryl Steckly '84, Croghan, N.Y., has served four years as Lowville Academy and Central Schools superintendent. Prior to this, she was an elementary school principal and director of programs for students with disabilities, and spent 21 years as a teacher for a total of 32 years in education.

Lisa Gallagher '85, BSN '89 Landes, Mumbai, India, had the unique opportunity to mentor a fellow alumna. Carrie Schlabach ‘14, a graduate nursing student at Virginia Commonwealth University, served her clinical practicum at the consulate’s health clinic.

Landes also taught in the EMU nursing department from 2001-08 before joining the Department of State. (See C. Schlabach ‘14).

Sherwyn Smeltzer '86, Harrisonburg, Va., has passed the Certified Financial Planner (CFP) exam, one of three steps required to earn the CFP designation, in addition to education and experience requirements. A CPA, he works at Park View Federal Credit Union as a financial planner.

Judy Oaks '86 VandeBunte, Grand Rapids, Mich., is an NICU nurse at Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital. She and husband Gene have three sons.

Yvonne Boettger '87, Harrisonburg, Va., received the Senior Professional in Human Resources designation from the HR Certification Institute. She has been the human resource manager at Park View Federal Credit Union since 2006.

1990-1999 Elizabeth “Beth” Wilson '91 Hutchins, Oxfordshire, England, creates and sells gifts, jewelry and DIY supplies through two Etsy stores, Colorful Clay and Indigo Lark.

Kevin Longenecker '91, Rockingham, Va., was one of 42 nominees for the 2016 “Virginia Business” Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Award.

The magazine’s awards recognize outstanding performance by CFOs in for-profit and nonprofit organizations. Kevin is CFO of InterChange Group Inc., where he works with

President Devon Anders '88. Kevin is a member of the EMU Board of Trustees.

Jenny Shenk '91 Mahone, Newport News, Va., is principal at Warwick River Christian School, which celebrates its 75th anniversary Sept. 16-17, 2017. For more information, visit warwickriver.org.

Tisa J. Wenger '91, Hamden, Conn., is associate professor of American religious history at Yale University. She and husband Rodney have three children.

Melissa Hensley '92, Bridgewater, Va., is Virginia’s Outstanding High School Principal of 2016. Melissa has been principal of Central High School in Woodstock, Virginia since 2012.

Daryl Lambert '92, Mount Sidney, Va., was inducted into the Rockingham County Baseball League Hall of Fame in June. Daryl is a member of the EMU Hall of Honor. He works for the Virginia Department of Transportation.

He coached baseball at Fort Defiance High School for 22 years.

Janelle Hurst '92 Mazariegos, Churchville, Va., challenged her North River Middle School soccer team to score within the first 30 seconds. As a reward, she brought them to an EMU men’s soccer game, where they escorted Royals players onto the field during introductions and then participated in a half-time scrimmage.

Rod Martin '94, Bechtelsville, Pa., received the Mark S. Walsh Award at the Young Leaders Annual Meeting of the National Stone, Sand and Gravel Association in Austin, Texas.

Gilberto Perez Jr. '94, GC '99 (peacebuilding), Goshen, Ind., is the recipient of two awards for education and advocacy on behalf of the Indiana Latino community: he was named Teacher of the Year 2016 by the Indiana Governor’s Office and the Indiana Latino Expo, and also earned the 2016 Chickadee Bird Award from the Indiana Undocumented Youth Alliance. He is senior director of intercultural development and educational partnerships at Goshen College’s Center for Intercultural and International Education.

“20 UNDER 40” HONOREES Four alumni are among The Mennonite’s “20 Under 40” honorees this summer, selected for their commitment to “following Jesus” and finding “value in the Christian faith and community.” The honorees were selected from 120 nominations of nearly 90 individuals.

Sarah Hooley '10 lives and works on her family’s farm, Stoneybrook, in the Filer, Idaho area. Her degree is in justice, peace and conflict studies. She has experience in conflict resolution and is affiliated with Common Ground Conciliation Services. She attends Filer (Idaho) Mennonite Church and has served on the Pacific Northwest Conference board of directors.

Nathan Grieser SEM '15 directs The Shalom Project, a year-long voluntary service experience for young adults supported by several Lancasterarea Anabaptist congregations. (Among the recent participants are Erin Hershey '15 and Lenore Kauffman '15.) He attends Sunnyside Mennonite Church, where he was formerly the youth pastor before becoming director of The Shalom Project. He and his wife, Katie, have a 19-month-old daughter, Ivy. Kevin Ressler '07 is executive director for Meals on Wheels in Lancaster, Pa. He attends Community Mennonite Church and has a degree in justice, peace and conflict studies.

Mike Metzler SEM '09 is pastor at Zion Mennonite Church in Broadway, Virginia. He and his wife have three children. After graduating from Messiah College and EMS, he was associate pastor for youth at Mountville Mennonite Church in Lancaster County before moving back to Virginia.

Randy Nyce '95, Hatfield, Pa., of Everence Financial Advisors in Souderton, Pa., was named Chairman of the Board for the MAMA Project, a development effort focusing on the educational, health and nutritional needs of severely malnourished children, particularly in Honduras. The MAMA (Mujeres Amigas [Women Friends] Miles Apart) Project began in 1987 as a partnership among Mennonite women’s groups in Pennsylvania and Honduras.

Joe Buckwalter '96, Christiansburg, Va., completed his master’s degree in fish and wildlife science at Virginia Tech and is now a research faculty member.

Tonya Williams '96 Parker, Broadway, Va., is assistant principal at Cub Run Elementary School in McGaheysville.

Anxo Perez '97, Spain, is CEO and founder of 8Belts, a language learning company. He published The 8 Steps to Success (2014) and has been awarded two major entrepreneurial prizes in Spain and Europe.

Jonathan Bowman '98, SEM '08, Landisville, Pa., has been appointed director of technology for the Lancaster Mennonite School system. He previously taught at Eastern Mennonite High School. For the past eight years, he has served as a pastor with Landisville Mennonite Church.

Jeremy Ours '98, Kalona, Iowa, is director of advancement at Iowa Mennonite School.

He and wife Sheila Bender '97, live in Kalona.

'CIRCLE LETTER SISTERS' Six of the eight women in the Class of '66 who started a circle letter that continues today. From left: Sharon Kandel Yoder, Miriam Bauman Allison, Dolores Godshall Bauman, Lois Moyer Longenecker, Peggy Halteman Blosser, and Barbara Mosemann Penner. Carol Layman Parks and Anna Lois Longacre Lind were unable to attend. (Photo by Andrew Strack)

www.emu.edu | CROSSROADS | 31

Sandy Thorpe '98, Fishersville, Va., received the 2016 Early Career Special Education Administrator Award from the Council of Administrators of Special Education. An 18-year veteran educator, she is executive director of special programs for Harrisonburg City Public Schools.

2000-2009 Mark Longacher '91, Castle Rock, Co., is an assessor for Douglas County. He and Lisa Hostetler '92 have three children. They attend First Mennonite Church in Denver.

Gloria Beidler CPS '92, BS '00 Bontrager with husband Joe Bontrager '78, SEM '93, has completed overseas service with Eastern Mennonite Missions and began a term as a nonresident volunteer worker to East Africa.

Shawn Snider '00, Harrisonburg, Va., won the Baen Books Fantasy Adventure Contest with his short story “The Lavender Paladin.”

Amanda Williams '01 Knight MA '08 (education), Singers Glen, Va., was Teacher of the Year at Fulks Run Elementary School, where she is a librarian.

HERE'S SOME LOYAL ROYALS! Hannah Wheeler (middle) holds a "Guess who's going to EMU sign?"

The traditional gift from admissions to committed first-years that appeared in her mailbox prompted the family to riff on their EMU connections. Younger siblings Sonya and Ben are seated in front of Hannah. Rachel (holding the "5 more years" sign to the left) and Joel, class of 2017, flank Hannah. In the back row, from left, is her sister-in-law Laura Nyman '13 Wheeler, currently in the MA in Education program, and Jacob '14, younger siblings Luke and Sarah, and parents David and Jana. (Photo courtesy of Wheeler family)

Kurt A. Schenck '01, Lititz, Pa., was hired

by Tono Group to lead Relo Real Estate Services. Kurt, partner and broker, is a former commercial Realtor with High Associates and former residential Realtor at Howard Hanna and Sotheby’s.

Sarah Gehman '02 Bixler, Princeton, N.J., recently graduated summa cum laude with an MDiv from Princeton Theological Seminary.

She received the Arthur Paul Rech Memorial Award in Theology and Pastoral Ministry. Sarah entered the PhD program in practical theology/Christian education this fall at Princeton Seminary.

Jason Coleman '02, Buena Vista, Va., has been promoted to associate design engineer after four years with Everbrite, LLC. He had taught K-8 art for nine years. He is entering his 14th season as head baseball coach at Parry McCluer High School. He and his wife Kelley have two sons, Keaton and Tanner.

INVESTOR IN THE FUTURE Ray Martin, with grandson Troy, launched the Center for Sustainable Climate Solutions in August. Led by and based at EMU, the center also includes Goshen (Indiana) College and Mennonite Central Committee as founding institutions, with additional partners expected to join later. “The Center will stimulate and motivate our commitment at all levels,” Martin said. “It will be a visible statement to the larger world that Mennonites are serious about climate change.” Martin attended Eastern Mennonite College from 1959 to 1961 before finishing his bachelor’s degree in economics at Goshen. He lives in McLean, Virginia. Professor Doug Graber Neufeld has been named the first director of the center. (Photo by Andrew Strack)

32 | CROSSROADS | FALL/WINTER 2016

Adam Starks '03, Philippi, W.Va., is assistant professor of business and management at Alderson Broaddus University.

Nicholas (Nick) Buckwalter '04, Lititz, Pa., opened Wellspan Family Medicine with a partner in Manheim, Pa., They provide full care for families including obstetrics.

Audrey Berkshire Jackson '04, Chesterfield, Va., joined McGuireWoods Consulting as vice president of advocacy, assisting clients with initiatives related to public affairs and grassroots campaigns.

Eric Kennel '04, Lancaster, Pa., is executive director of Compass Mark, which helps families, teens and adults in Lancaster and Lebanon counties with substance abuse education, prevention and intervention. He formerly was director of grant development for Liberty Lutheran.

Mary Beth Price '04, Strasburg, Va., was named administrator of Shenandoah County.

She had been assistant county administrator since 1997.

Kristene Wellings '01, MA '04 (counseling), Roanoke, Va., works with National Counseling Group. She was a school counselor for 12 years and then became a licensed professional counselor.

Jonalyn Denlinger '05, Baltimore, Md., was inducted in the Hall of Honor in October. She was a four-time All-ODAC First Team selection and All-American Third Team as a junior. She left the field hockey program fifth in career assists and seventh in career goals and points.

She also earned the President's Award. Jonalyn is director of membership for the Assocation of Baltimore Area Grantmakers and an adjunct professor at University of Maryland School of Social Work.

Peter Sensenig '05, Zanzibar, Tanzania, published Peace Clan: Mennonite Peacebuilding in Somalia (Pickwick Publications). He is regional interfaith consultant for Mennonite Board East Africa, and holds a PhD in theology from Fuller Theological Seminary.

Deborah Good '02, Albuquerque, N.M., is data and research manager for Mission: Graduate at the University of New Mexico, a cradle-to-career collaboration to achieve large-scale social change through the addition of 60,000 new graduates with college degrees and certificates in central New Mexico by 2020.

Andile Dube '06, Tempe, Az., is published in Walking the Tightrope: Poetry and Prose by LGBTQ Writers from Africa (Lethe Press, 2016).

Dan Lapp '02, Charleston, S.C., graduated from Penn State College of Medicine in May 2015 with an MD and a PhD in neuroscience.

He is now a resident in pediatrics at the Medical University of South Carolina. He and spouse Lynley Culbertson '02 have two children.

Megan Mlinarchik '06, Harrisonburg, Va., was inducted into the Hall of Honor in October.

She was an NCAA national qualifier a combined 11 times in the pole vault and high jump, earning All-American status in 2005. Megan teaches elementary school in Harrisonburg.

Ashley Sauder '03 Miller, Harrisonburg, Va., won Best in Show for her mixed media piece “Faded Memory” at the June 16-19 Boardwalk Art Show in Virginia Beach. The award brought a $7,500 prize. Ashley directs the Spitzer Art Center and is managing the Centennial’s “10x10x100” Project.

Sara Kauffman '03 Mwagura, Fargo, N.D., is lead child care teacher at North Dakota State University. She and husband Joseph have a daughter, Liliana.

Russell James Pyle '03, Albuquerque, N.M, released his first solo album “RISE” in May and will release “SEASONS EP” in December. He was selected by the National Park Service Arts Foundation to be artist-in-residence at Big Bend National Park for November. Russ is married to Deborah Good ‘02. Learn more at www.russelljamespyle.com.

Zach Bower '06, Telford, Pa., is a social studies teacher at Christopher Dock Mennonite School.

Courtney Wilson '06, Timberville, Va., received her family nurse practitioner postmaster’s certificate from South University in April.

Derrick '06, MA '15 (education) and Rebekah Good '07 Charles, are currently country representatives with Mennonite Central Committee for Nicaragua and Costa Rica.

Oz Blackaller '07, San Diego, Calif., was a featured chef on The Food Network’s “Cutthroat Kitchen” for the second time. Oz owns Cueva Bar, a tapas restaurant.

Jodi Meyers MA '07 (counseling), Mount Sidney, Va., was recognized in April as the Central Valley Counselors Association School Counselor of the Year. She has worked at Wilson Memorial High School for nine years. Meyers also worked with Penn State University’s agriculture extension service and taught at James Madison University.

Joy Shaiebly '07 Shelly, Manheim, Pa., is helping to coach the new women’s soccer franchise Lancaster Torch FC in the Women’s Premier Soccer League.

Timothy '07 and Cheryl Heatwole '07 Shenk, Camden, N.J., and their three children are members of a trans-denominational intentional Christian community seeking "to share life together, encourage each other in discipleship, and help empower a life of service in a city that suffers from the interplay of racism, poverty, and environmental degradation." In fall 2015, Tim and Cheryl started a Montessori program on a sliding scale tuition for children ages 3-5. Visit MontessoriSproutsinCamden. blogspot.com to learn more.

Lars Åkerson '08, Durham, N.C, co-created Life Lines with a fellow graduate student at Duke University Divinity School. An audio journal for the 147 men and three women living on death row to tell their stories, Life Lines offers an opportunity to restore a sense of humanity among the condemned and give those outside the wall of prison a chance to “look within.”

Cheryl Estep MA '08 (education), Fulks Run, Va., is coordinator of student assessment at Rockingham County Public Schools. She was previously a math teacher and test coordinator at Broadway High School, and an assessment/ technology specialist with RCPS. Pam Mandigo '08, Herndon, Va., presented at the Grand Valley Shakespeare Performance and Pedagogy Conference in Grand Rapids, Michigan, with Professor Heidi Winters Vogel on the Crash House Collaborative Theatre Project, a two-week camp for high school students in which they deconstruct original scripts and create a new play.

Jacqueline Painter '08, Broadway, Va., received the New Advisor of the Year award at the Everence National Convention this spring.

She managed the Everence Federal Credit Union branch in Harrisonburg before becoming a financial advisor.

Angela Carter '09, Harrisonburg, Va., was invited to the International Summit to End Sexual Violence in New York City through Take Back the Night. She performed spoken word pieces at the celebrity sound-off and was a keynote speaker on a panel of survivors.

Rachel Clemmer '09 Charles, Lancaster, Pa., completed her nurse practitioner degree in 2016 from Penn State Hershey. She began working as a nurse practitioner at South East Lancaster Health Services in August.

Mitchell '09 and Lauren Derstine '10 Yoder, Harrisonburg, Va., are serving through Virginia Mennonite Missions in Managua, Nicaragua, where they teach and act as communications directors for a children’s home called Fortaleza de Esperanza (Fortress of Hope). They also teach at Nicaraguan Christian Academy.

2010 Teresa Shank MA '10 (education), Dayton, Va., was named Rockingham County School District’s Teacher of the Year. Teresa is a K-2 reading specialist at Mountain View Elementary School.

Irvin “Joey” Jones III '10, MA '16 (organizational leadership), Raphine, Va., provided leadership to Rockbridge County churches partnering in relief efforts after this summer’s floods in West Virginia. He is chairman of the deacons at Faith Mountain Baptist Church.

Benjamin Bergey '11, Harrisonburg, Va., was among 12 members chosen from the United

States and Canada to serve on the committee for the new song collection for Mennonite churches planned for release in 2020. Ben, who will be music editor for the project, is a doctor of music arts candidate at James Madison University.

Anna Engle '11, Seoul, South Korea, is an English teacher at Jubilee Christian School.

Bethany Miller '11, Hesston, Kan., has joined the independent living department at Bluestem Communities as sales and services manager. She previously worked in admissions at Hesston College.

Lyubov Slashcheva '11, Iowa City, Iowa, graduated with a doctor of dental surgery degree from Virginia Commonwealth University School of Dentistry in April. She was among 10 students to be recognized with an excellence award by the VCU Center for Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Care. This summer she was awarded the Steven Roth Memorial Grant through the Mennonite Healthcare Fellowship and worked in rural India at a dental school and hospital. Lyubov has started a master’s degree in dental public health at the University Of Iowa College Of Dentistry.

Maria Yoder '11 Swartzentruber, Harrisonburg, Va., was Teacher of the Year at Linville-Edom Elementary School, where she is a fifth-grade teacher.

Michael M. Swartzendruber '11, Kalona, Iowa, is a half-time pastor at Wayland Mennonite Church.

Emily Miller '11 Wenger, Rockingham, Va., works at Sentara RMH Medical Center. She is married to Kendall Wenger '12.

Aaron Brydge '12, Harrisonburg, Va., has been promoted to mortgage loan advisor at Park View Federal Credit Union.

ROCKIN' ROYAL Shirley’s Popcorn, offering special "Rockin' Royal" treats, recently opened in Harrisonburg. The store is co-owned by Rob and Lisa Hoelter Roeschley MA '01 (education) and Luisa Showalter ’89 and her husband, Wayne Witmer '88. (Photos by Dan Stanowick)

Katie Jantzen '12, Plymouth, Neb., and her family farm were featured on NPR “Weekend Edition.”

Heather Kennel '12 McCarthy, Sarasota, Fla., is a fifth-grade teacher at Sarasota County Schools.

Carrie Schlabach '12, Harrisonburg, Va., graduated in May from Virginia Commonwealth School of Nursing as a family nurse practitioner. She spent the last part of her clinical practicum course providing primary health care to U.S. State Department staff stationed in Mumbai, India— a unique placement made possible by a Mennonite Healthcare Fellowship scholarship (see Lisa Gallagher Landes ‘85, BSN ‘89).

Caroline Borden MA '12 (education), Harrisonburg, Va., is now teaching in the Middle East. She was formerly a lecturer in EMU’s Intensive English Program.

Lisa Knick MA '12 (education), Stephens City, Va., teaches English language learners at Frederick Douglass Elementary School in Winchester.

Jenna Longenecker '13, Lancaster, Pa., is an art teacher for Lancaster Mennonite Schools.

INTERFAITH DIALOGUE

Christopher Eads MBA '13, Harrisonburg, Va., was selected to serve among 40 individuals on the 2016 Board of Examiners for the U.S. Senate Productivity and Quality Award for Virginia and the District of Columbia.

Eastern Mennonite Missions’ Christian/Muslim Relations team of Sheryl Sensenig ’89 Martin, David W. Shenk ’59 and wife Grace ’59, and Andre Prins, gave a panel presentation at Eastern Mennonite Seminary on Oct. 27. The team’s goal is to “build bridges of loving and respectful connection between Christians and Muslims, while faithfully confessing Christ." David’s book Christian. Muslim.

Friend: Twelve Paths to Real Relationship (Herald Press, 2016) won Christianity Today’s top award in the Missions/The Global Church category. (Photo by Andrew Strack)

Lauren Bykowski '14, Mechanicsville, Va., is an art teacher at J.E.B. Stuart Elementary School in Petersburg. She illustrated a children’s book by Emeritus Professor Don Clymer (See Bookshelf, pg. 35).

www.emu.edu | CROSSROADS | 33

'WE ARE FAMILY'

COMMUNITY-BUILDING BUSINESS

The Black Student Union hosted a soirée during Homecoming and Family Weekend. Approximately 25 people attended the event, which offered current students, alumni and faculty the opportunity to meet, exchange stories and make connections. (Photo by Celeste Thomas)

Kirsten Parmer '93 Moore, Harrisonburg, Va., and her husband Chris own The Hub Coworking, which was awarded a Virginia Main Street Merit Award for Outstanding Business in July. The Hub’s more than 40 members represent nearly 30 different kinds of businesses.

Kirsten worked for 13 years in EMU’s marketing and communications department. (Photo by Andrew Strack)

Tyler '14 and Kendra '14 Litwiller Yoder, Harrisonburg, Va., are serving with Transend, a mission internship through Virginia Mennonite Missions in Harrisonburg. In partnership with Eastside Church, they disciple among James Madison University students and residents of Old South High Street where they live.

Austin Ardron '14, Charleston, W.Va., begins the pediatric nurse practitioner doctorate program at West Virginia University in summer 2017. He is currently an emergency room nurse at CAMC Women and Children’s Hospital.

B. Lani Prunés '14, Philadelphia, Pa., is deputy director of communication at Families Against Mandatory Minimums.

Erin Hershey '15, Lancaster, Pa., completed an internship at Steeple View Lofts through the Shalom Project, a new organization in Lancaster providing recent college graduates exposure and experience in a field they are interested in pursuing as a career while living in intentional community. She currently is employed full time at Ephrata Re-uzit Shop.

Makayla Baker '16, Staunton, Va., studies Shakespeare and performance as a graduate student at Mary Baldwin University. During the fall semester, she hosted Professor Marti Eads’ global literature class for a tour of the American Shakespeare Center’s Blackfriars Playhouse in Staunton, where she is wardrobe manager.

Tyler Eshleman '16, Taos, N.M., is program coordinator at the Taos Initiative for Life Together (TILT). He facilitates and plan wilderness treks for visitors, works on sustainability within the house/community, and creates a social media presence.

Jake Lind '16, Harrisonburg, Va., works for Coerver Coaching, leading soccer clinics for clubs in northern Virginia and Maryland.

Katie Miller '16, Washington D.C., is the communications officer for Government Accountability Project (GAP).

Sam Stoner '16, Staunton, Va., is the first sustainability coordinator for Mary Baldwin University.

Jessamyn Tobin '16, Harrisonburg, Va., works at the Fairfield Mediation Center. This fall, she displayed art in the seminary and shared at a chapel gathering. Proceeds from

the show funded her return to Thailand, her country of birth, to serve with Virginia Mennonite Missions.

Andrew A. Yoder '16, Harrisonburg, Va., was hired by Staunton-based solar development company Secure Futures as a technical analyst.

CENTER FOR JUSTICE AND PEACEBUILDING Fidele Lumeya MA '00, Altoona, Pa., published Ubuntu Peacebuilding, An AfroChristian Perspective, African Perspectives of Reconciliation (2016).

Kristine Bresser MA '01, Grosse Pointe Park, Mich., leads debriefings and trains debriefing teams for La Rucher Ministries, which focuses on care of Christian cross-cultural workers through crisis response, trauma awareness and counseling. The center’s base is a retreat in the Jura Mountains of Switzerland.

Emmanuel Bombande MA '02, Accra, Ghana, was appointed deputy minister and regional integration. Bombande was formerly special adviser to the United Nations General Secretary’s Special Representative to West Africa.

Jeremy Simons MA '02, Davao City, Philippines, continues to help a coalition of NGOs and Ateneo de Davao University organize networks of peace advocates for peace processes at the national level. He is also a consultant with De La Salle University-College of St. Benilde in Manila on implementation of a conflict transformation and restorative justice program in their student services department.

Jonathan Tieszen, MA '03, Harrisonburg, Va., has been named senior mortgage advisor at Park View Federal Credit Union, where he’s worked for the past 18 years.

Ashok Xavier MA '04 and Florina Benoit MA '04, Chennai, India, will be academic coordinators for the Caux Scholars Program in India, a three-week residential program in conflict transformation and transitional justice for leaders between the ages of 20-30.

Rita Litwiller MA ’04, Bangkok, Thailand, volunteered with the International Network of Engaged Buddhists during their international conference in Sri Lanka.

34 | CROSSROADS | FALL/WINTER 2016

Judah Oudshoorn MA ‘06, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, published Trauma Informed Juvenile Justice in the United States (Canadian Scholars’ Press, 2016) with a foreword written

by Professor Emeritus Howard Zehr. Judah is editor of the press’s new justice studies series, as well as professor of community and criminal justice at Conestoga College, a restorative justice mediator with the Correctional Service of Canada, and instructor of peace and conflict studies at the University of Waterloo.

Thong Tran MA ‘07, Canberra, Australia, completed a PhD from Australian National University and is a visiting fellow at the university’s The Fenner School of the Environment and Society.

Solomon Ketsela MA ‘10, Silver Spring, Md., is pursuing a doctoral degree at Regent University (DMin, community transformation). Additionally he is minister of church planting at Assemblies of Trinity International in Alexandria, Va. Pushpi Weerakoon MA ‘10, Colombo, Sri Lanka, started working at Transparency International as project coordinator. This work is on behalf of civil society organizations in collaboration with Sri Lankan government.

Judy Clarke MA ‘11, Richmond, Va., is executive director of the Virginia Center for Restorative Justice, a faith-based nonprofit in Richmond working with offenders, victims, and communities experiencing crime to forge paths to reconciliation and improve public safety.

Barbie Fischer MA '12, Philadephia, Pa., continues to work in restorative justice with her organization, Restorative Encounters. She presented at the 2016 Prison Summit and advised on a groundbreaking exhibit at Eastern State Penitentiary Museum called “Prison Today.”

provides training in conflict mitigation skills, and mentors religious leaders and local peacebuilding leaders.

Tony Harris MA '15, Annapolis, Md., is senior facilitator at World Learning. Fields of practice include strategic peacebuilding, facilitation, program design, and organizational leadership/development.

Roselyne Onunga GC '15, Kisumu, Kenya, has been hired as CEO of Local Capacities for Peace International.

Ahmad Zabi Rahat MA '14, New York, N.Y., is a research associate at ActKnowledge, a social enterprise that connects social change practice with the study of how and why initiatives work with community organizations, nonprofits, foundations and governments.

Daniel Foxvog MA '16, Lombard, Ill., is assistant director of the Lombard Mennonite Peace Center.

Jordan Detwiler-Michelson MA '16, Somerville, Mass., is currently international administrative coordinator within the International Development Division at Education Development Center, providing administrative support to various projects which aim to improve education, health and economic opportunity worldwide.

Shiphrah A. Mutungi GC '16, Kampala, Uganda, is program director of Morning Star under AECOM International. Morning Star is a trauma awareness and resilience building initiative for South Sudan that uses EMU’s Village STAR curriculum adapted to the South Sudan context.

SEMINARY David Eshleman '58, SEM '61, Dover, Ohio, published his fourth book, Share the Irresistible Story of Jesus (ChurchSmart Resources, 2016).

Michelle Van Rassel MA '13 Jackett, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, is coordinator for the University of Waterloo’s Centre for Peace Advancement. She is also involved with Community Justice Initiatives, practices mediation and conducts research into Artic security.

David Shetler SEM '87, New Paris, Ohio, is serving as the district executive minister of the Southern Ohio District of the Church of the Brethren.

Joanne Lauterjung MA '13, Yangon, Myanmar, is Myanmar Program Director for the Karuna Center for Peacebuilding, where she facilitates intra- and interfaith dialogues,

Derek King '03, SEM '13, Moundridge, Kan., was ordained by Western District Conference of Mennonite Church USA in June at Eden Mennonite Church.

Benjamin Bixler '03, SEM '13, Princeton, N.J., began PhD studies this fall in Biblical Studies and Early Christianity with a focus on Hebrew Bible at Drew Theological School in Madison, New Jersey.

Matthew Stearn MBA '15, SEM '16, Hampton, Va., is the executive director of Hampton Roads Ecumenical Lodging & Provision, Inc. (HELP), a nonprofit, faith-based organization that works with families in need of shelter, food, health care and financial assistance. Matt was the first graduate of EMU’s dual-degree MBA and MDV program.

MARRIAGES

BOOKSHELF

Stephanie Good '06 and Brandon Rittenhouse, Harleysville, Pa., Colton James, May 25, 2015.

Eric '06 and Stephanie Walton '05 Sents, Broadway, Va., Audrey Jean, Aug. 30, 2016.

Adam '06 and Marisa Clymer '06 Shank, Harrisonburg, Va., Frida Claire, Aug. 2, 2016.

Holly V. Scott '02, adjunct professor of history and graduate writing tutor, explores how the idea of “youth” served as a tactic in the political and social activism of the 1960s in Younger Than That Now: The Politics of Age in the 1960s (University of Massachusetts Press). Holly earned her PhD in American Studies from American University.

Jenny Hartwig '06 and Jason Wagner, Harrisonburg, Va., Bethany Charlotte, May 11, 2016.

Shannon Weaver '06 and Christopher Rutt '07, Grottoes, Va., Maylee Grace, April 29, 2016.

Dan Landis Wenger '66 to Thelma S. Wenger '77, Jan. 25, 2016.

Chris '08 and Eliza Barnhart '09 Burkholder, Danbury, Conn., Judah Quinn, May 8, 2016.

Carol Hess '72 to Nelson Hoover, April 30, 2016.

Kevin '08 and Kara Schlabach '09 Eby, Harrisonburg, Va., Isaac Bradley, Sept. 9, 2016.

Jon Styer '07 to Rhoda Miller '03, June 11, 2016

David '08 and Rebecca Souder '09 Gish, Charlottesville, Va., Benjamin Paul, April 25, 2016.

Religion / Christianity / Mennonite Biography & Autobiography / Personal Memoirs

AC R S M E M O I R S • VO L U M E 3

Lara Gautsche ‘10 to Josh Shoemaker, May 3, 2015.

Mitchell Leap '12 to Amber Loftin '15, May 29, 2016.

Joshua King '12, to Annie Diller '14, June 6, 2015.

Jennifer Blankenship '13 to Justin Hitt, July 15, 2016.

Kelley Schroder '13 to Lucas Dauberman, July 29, 2014.

Daniel Nafziger '13 to Erica Garber ‘14, July 24, 2016.

Kara Leigh Lofton '14 to Austin Michael Ardron'14, Nov. 13, 2016.

Joseph Luciani MA '13 (conflict transformation) to Ana Cervante, July 3, 2016.

Anne Marie Baer '16 to Eric Kemp, June 12, 2016.

BIRTHS & ADOPTIONS

Bertha Beachy • Emmert F. Bittinger • Earle W. Fike Jr. Margaret Jantzi Foth • Daniel Hertzler • Carl S. Keener • J. Kenneth Kreider Earl S. Martin • Pat Hostetter Martin • Edgar Metzler • Paul W. Roth Paul M. Schrock • Kenneth L. Seitz Jr. • H. D. Swartzendruber R. Jan Thompson • Dale V. Ulrich

“I pray this text will bless generations yet unborn as these accounts spur them and us to become agents of healing and hope.”

Jackson '09 and Katie Lehman '09 Maust, Harrisonburg, Va., Julia June, April 26, 2016.

Stanley W. Green, Executive Director, Mennonite Mission Network, in the Foreword

“Along the way, these humble servants came to understand and demonstrate that service, for followers of Christ, is not simple. . . . Their examples of leaning in to the needs of the world inspire us. For that we thank them, and we ask for their blessing and encouragement for the Anabaptist Christian service callings of the twenty-first century.”

Nancy Heisey, Professor of Biblical Studies, Eastern Mennonite University; Associate Dean, Eastern Mennonite Seminary, in the Introduction

Ben '09 and Laura Lehman '09 Ruth, Charlottesville, Va., Leo Benjamin, Sept. 4, 2016.

Aaron '09 and Maria Yoder '10 Billings, Rockingham, Va., Daniel Guy, May 20, 2016.

Fatemeh Darabi MA '09 (conflict transformation), Tehran, Iran, Paradis, Dec. 17, 2015.

Ben '04 and Meredith Blauch '05 Wideman, State College, Pa., Jonas Hawthorn, Aug. 30, 2016.

Jessica Witmer '04 and Nate Gundy, Orrville, Ohio, Owen Daniel Witmer, May 4, 2016.

Benjamin '05 and Joanna Goins '04 Myers, Falls Church, Va., Madeline Claire, May 14, 2016.

Jason '05 and Bryn Mullet '06 Good, Harrisonburg, Va., Mara Hostetler, Nov. 13, 2015.

Lindsay Martin '05 and Nathan Musselman '00, Harrisonburg, Va., Fox Wesley Martin, July 6, 2016.

Edited by Ray Gingerich and Pat Hostetter Martin

Malinda in Mexico (Etteloc Publishing), a book for young readers about a girl living in Mexico, is written

by Professor Emeritus Don Clymer SEM '08 with illustrations by Lauren Bykowski '14, a former student in his Spanish and Senior Seminar courses. The book is based on his daughter's experiences.

John '11 and Nicole Hostetter, Staunton, Va., Greta Emilia, May 11, 2016.

Shannon Pollock MA '11 (conflict transformation) and Jacob Neal, Charlottesville, Va., Asa Folger, Sept. 6, 2016.

Jessica Myers '12 and Eric Fitzgerald, Knoxville, Tenn., Asher Cade, April 7, 2016.

Andrea '03 and Josh Leaman, Lancaster, Pa., Robert Patrick, Feb. 10, 2016.

Numerous alumni contributed to the latest publication of the Anabaptist Center for Religion and Society, Re-Envisioning Service: The Geography of our Faith (Cascadia Publishing House), edited by Professor Emeritus Ray C. Gingerich '60.

Mark '10 and Kathryn '09 Fenton, Harrisonburg, Va., Lucas Grey, July 4, 2016.

Krystal Neuenschwander '00 and Jason Glick, Harrisburg, Pa., Gideon Eustace, Nov. 26, 2015.

Clay '02 and Joanna Souder '04 Showalter, Harrisonburg, Va., Melia Ann, Oct. 8, 2016.

Brethren and Mennonite stories integrating faith, life, and the world of thought

Michael '09 and Rachel Clemmer '09 Charles, Lancaster, Pa., Meredith Olive, June 22, 2015.

Becca Metcalfe, MA '11 (conflict transformation) and Luke Stone, Medford, Ma., Annelie Hazel, May 6, 2016.

Alanna Stoltzfus '02 and Eric Rosen, Atglen, Pa., Liv Rosen, Feb. 18, 2016

Re-Envisioning Service: The Geography of Our Faith

Anabaptist Center for Religion and Society

Seth '09, SEM '15 and Theresa Peachey '09 Crissman, Harrisonburg, Va., Isaiah Seth, July 28, 2016.

Sherrie Reinford '99 and Matt Johndrow, Broadway, Va., Logan Harvey, March 31, 2016, received for adoption April 11, 2016.

Daniel '02 and Lynley Culbertson '02 Lapp, Charleston, S.C., Rainier George, April 24, 2015.

Edited by Ray Gingerich and Pat Hostetter Martin

Erin Price '05 to Robert Saunders, June 4, 2016.

These sixteen memoirs lead to new appreciation of transformative yet understated service. Servants seeking little more than to address the suffering of their day return to their cocoons to find they have been changed in ways no longer easily accommodated.

Re-Envisioning Service: The Geography of Our Faith

RE-ENVISIONING SERVICE

How do the Historic Peace Churches, specifically the Mennonites and Church of the Brethren, respond when confronted with the ravages of twentieth-century wars? Re-Envisioning Service, this third volume of ACRS (the Anabaptist Center for Religion and Society) memoirs reporting on The Geography of Our Faith, focuses on service.

The metamorphosis of Mennonites and Church of the Brethren in the second half of the twentieth century—like a monarch butterfly wiggling its way out of its cocoon—should not pass unnoticed. What are we witnessing?

Overplayed: A Parent’s Guide to Sanity in the World of Youth Sports (Herald Press) by Director of Athletics Dave King '76 and co-author Margot Starbuck advocates for using common sense, setting boundaries, and helping kids find balance while still enjoying sports.

Theo MA '13 (conflict transformation) and Sharmila Peiris Sitther, Silver Spring, Md., Nadhira Amani, Sept. 17, 2016.

Joshua '14 and Sarah Demaree '10, MA '12 (counseling) Defnall, Harrisonburg, Va., Theodore Edward, Sept. 25, 2016.

Janine, MA '15 (conflict transformation) and Simon Åberg, Harrisonburg, Va., Tatanyha Tinadril, Sept. 23, 2016.

June Kuykendall '92, a hospice and palliative care nurse, offers spiritual and practical insight into providing care to terminal patients with Crossing Over: Affirmations of Faith in the Midst of the Dying (WestBow Publishing).

Julio Manuel Reyes Flores, MA '16 (conflict transformation) and Heather L. Joffe, Harrisonburg, Va., Pablo Mauel, April 24, 2016.

Andrea Burkholder, office assistant in the nursing department, Staunton, Va., Evan Michael, Aug. 8, 2016.

DEATHS Sarah Spruill Armstrong, Director of the Master of Arts in Education, Nellysford, Va., died Aug. 24, 2016, at 64. Sarah began at EMU in January 2015 and was instrumental in starting the MA in Restorative Justice in Education program. She retired from a 33-year career in the Virginia public school system and was employed at the University of Virginia (UVa) in Charlottesville, where she was senior

Graduates who worked with Mennonite Voluntary Service in Canada will recognize familiar names and places in a memoir by Isaac '55 and Mildred Alger Glick, class of '55, Risk and Adventure: Community Development in Northern Alberta (1955-1970). J. Daniel Hess '59, who helped in the editing process, handles orders of the self-published book at jdanielhess@ sbcglobal.net.

www.emu.edu | CROSSROADS | 35

home economics and English at Western Mennonite High School in Salem, Oregon,and later at Central Christian High School in Kidron, Ohio. She volunteered for many conference and church positions. She was a member of Methacton Mennonite Church.

Kathryn Ellen Hostetter '56 Bucher, Harman, W.Va., died March 16, 2016, at 91. She worked at Mountain Clinic in Harman for 30 years, and in several states and two continents.

A member of the Mennonite Nurses Association for more than 30 years, she served as the organization’s treasurer for 11 years. In 1984, she was honored as their nurse of the year.

Pauline M. Good '56, Lancaster, Pa., died March 28, 2015, at 84. She was a registered nurse for 22 years at Mennonite Home in Lancaster and a member of Landisville Mennonite Church.

SPORTS FOR ALL The Rockingham County Unified Basketball League, for athletes with and without disabilities, held their second annual championships at EMU. Three alumni connected to Turner Ashby High School started the league: retired athletic director John Woodrum '84, special education teacher Gina Troyer '93, and career and technical education teacher Jerry Arbogast '90, who coaches the TAHS squad. (Photo by Andrew Strack)

director for K-12 professional development in the School of Continuing and Professional Studies and then director of programs for the Statewide K-12 Education Advisory Council at Curry School of Education.

Anna Mae Charles '35 Fretz, Vineland, Ontario, Canada, died March 7, 2015, at 97.

Anna Mae earned her MS in nursing from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, and taught nursing at Goshen College until 1976. In retirement she worked as a staff nurse at a Florida hospital during the winter months as well as at a retirement community. She was a member of First Mennonite Church.

Grace Haldeman '36 Hostetter, Harrisonburg, Va., died Aug. 22, 2016, at 97. She and spouse B. Charles Hostetter raised their children in Manheim, Pa. and Harrisonburg, Va. In 1970, they helped with the development of a seminary in Lagos, Nigeria, with Mennonite Board of Missions.

Paul A. Hunsberger '39, Goshen, Ind., died May 19, 2016, at 97. Paul was a bi-vocational pastor and electrician in northern Ontario and Indiana. He was also involved in the ministry of Choice Books.

Clair Basinger '47, Linville, Va., died May 14, 2016, at 93. He moved to Virginia from Wayne County, Ohio, to attend EMU and stayed after he married Evelyn Wenger. He attended Greenmount Church of the Brethren.

Ida Mast '48 Swartley, Harrisonburg, Va., died on May 4, 2016, at 90. Ida and husband, Henry, were involved in church planting for 35 years. They established churches in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Ida worked as a volunteer at the local Gift & Thrift store for more than 20 years. She was a member of the Lindale Mennonite Church.

Barbara Keener '49 Shenk, Lancaster, Pa., died on May 6, 2015, at 87. She served in voluntary service in Kentucky and at Laurel Street, Lyndon and Bridgeport Mennonite churches in the Lancaster area. Barbara published several books and hundreds of poems, enjoyed public speaking, and gave tours of Lancaster Country. She taught at various Mennonite schools in Lancaster and at Tidings of Peace Christian School in York.

Betty Drescher '50, Quakertown, Pa., died on Sept. 21, 2016, at 87. Betty was an elementary school teacher and a member of Finland Mennonite Church.

Mary June Turner '50 Rohrer, Harrisonburg, Va., died Aug. 29, 2016, at 86. Mary June worked in the cafeteria at Rockingham Memorial Hospital and as a medical secretary. She attended Linville Creek Church of the Brethren.

Anna Stover '51, Palmyra, Pa., died Feb. 16, 2016, at 97. She lived at Lebanon Valley Brethren Home in Palmyra for 30 years. After retiring from Philhaven Hospital where she had been head of housekeeping for 30 years, she was a mission worker in Pennsylvania and Kentucky.

She was a Bible teacher and volunteered at Jubilee Shop in Lebanon.

Esther Mae Becker '51, Lititz, Pa., died on June 17, 2016, at 96. Esther taught English for 35 years in Ethiopia under Eastern Mennonite Missions. She began in the School for the Blind, spent many years in the Nazareth Bible Academy, and ended her career at the University of Addis Ababa. Esther received her master’s degree in library science from Syracuse University.

She was a member of Kauffman’s Mennonite Church where she taught Sunday school.

R. Herbert Minnich Jr. '53, Goshen, Ind., died July 7, 2016, at 85. He earned an MS from Cornell University and PhD in sociology from the University of Florida. He was a missionary with Mennonite Board of Missions in Brazil and Kazakhstan. He pastored in Kansas, Indiana and Oregon.

Irene Neuhauser '53 Riegsecker, Goshen, Ind., died March 19, 2015, at 90. She was a licensed practical nurse and worked in Flint, Michigan, for many years. She was a lifelong member of Mennonite churches, lastly at College Mennonite Church.

Paul W. Fry '54, Goshen, Ind., died March 8, 2015, at 86. He was an elementary school teacher in Goshen for 33 years. He retired to the Greencroft community, where he was known as an avid gardener of edamame soybeans.

Margaret L. Swarzentruber '55, of Lansdale, Pa., died on Jan. 2, 2015, at 88. She taught

36 | CROSSROADS | FALL/WINTER 2016

Alma E. Eby '56, New Holland Pa., died March 9, 2015, at 84. She taught grade school in addition to serving with Eastern Mennonite Missions at the School for the Blind in Ethiopia.

After retirement, she became owner of a used book store and volunteered at a thrift store for Mennonite Central Committee. She was involved with New Holland Mennonite Church.

William (Bill) M. Weaver '58, Harrisonburg, Va., died March 13, 2016, at 86. While serving as a pastor at South 7th Street Mennonite Church, he taught music, Bible and shop at three Christian schools: Conestoga, Ephrata, and Gehmans. He was a pastor at Rissers Mennonite Church and Dillers Mennonite Church, program director at Camp Hebron, and founding pastor of Halifax Mennonite Community Church.

Miriam E. (Landis) Wenger Shenk '58, Lititz, Pa., died July 3, 2015, at age 101. She was a missionary with Eastern Mennonite Board of Missions to Tanzania where she opened a home for female students and later, a domestic science school. She then served for 11 years as matron in the girls’ dormitory at Lancaster Mennonite School. Until retirement, she went to Kenya to help build and grow churches.

Dale Leon Keener '60, Falling Waters, W.Va., died April 18, 2016, at 77. He taught for three years in Ethiopia and three years in Rockingham County, Va., before owning and operating Keener Insurance Agency in Centerville, Va., from 1973 until his retirement. He was a member of Gateway Ministries of Williamsport, Md. James Sauder '60, Ephrata, Pa., died July 22, 2016. He and wife Rhoda worked for 30 years as missionaries with Eastern Mennonite Missions.

Anna Kathryn Eby '62, Harrisonburg, Va., died March 31, 2016, at 75. Born in Tanzania, she returned there with her husband Omar after graduation. She was later an elementary school teacher in the Rockingham County Schools.

Marie Erb '63 MacKnight, Sussex, New Brunswick, Canada, died on Feb. 15, 2015, at 76. She was a nurse in Ohio, New York, Iowa and Colorado. After her marriage and move to Canada, Marie taught for two years at the School of Nursing in New Brunswick. She later became a Mary Kay consultant for over 30 years.

Ada Bontrager '64 Yoder, Kalona, Iowa, died on May 2, 2015, at 80. She spent eight years in Germany under Rosedale Mennonite Mission, 24 years at AAA as a travel agent and tour guide, and more than 20 years ministering at Iowa Medical and Classification Center, a women’s correctional facility.

Floyd Eugene Schrock '69, McMinnville, Ore., died Oct. 2, 2016, at 69. He was an international student recruiter for Linfield College for 13 years. He was also an ESL teacher at Chemeketa Community College; director of development at Western Mennonite School; and English teacher, librarian and administrator at Logsden Christian School. He enjoyed observing all things in nature, especially birds.

Paul E. Reed '69, Dayton, Va., died Nov. 1, 2015, at 74. He served as pastor of the Rawley Springs Mennonite Church for 36 years. He also worked as an editor for Christian Light Publications and as a teacher at Berea Christian School in Harrisonburg and in Lancaster County, Pa. K. Joan Gingerich '71, Elkhart, Ind., died Nov. 22, 2015, at 67. Joan taught in several elementary schools for Elkhart Community Schools for 30 years.

Esther Gamber '72, Hesston, Kan., died Feb. 8, 2015, at 89.

William Judd Chelgren Jr. '75, Harrisonburg, Va., died on Feb. 3, 2016 at 62. He was employed by the City of Harrisonburg Transit.

John P. Bender, '78, SEM '83, Allentown, Pa., died Oct. 9, 2016, at 61. John worked for 30 years as a Mennonite pastor in multi-ethnic, urban settings in Harrisonburg, Va.; Raleigh, N.C.; Pittsburgh, Pa.; and Telford, Pa. He and his wife Marilyn moved to Allentown to support RIPPLE church and help birth Ripple Community Inc. Monica Cope '94 Cooper, Coopersburg, Pa., died June 4, 2015, at 42. She was a nutritionist for the Bucks County Health Department for 15 years. Monica was a member of Swamp Mennonite Church, Quakertown.

Lisa Horning Heft CRT '15, Denver, Pa., died Oct. 12, 2016 at 40. Lisa worked the past six years as a volunteer coordinator for Mennonite Central Committee in Ephrata. A member of Weaverland Mennonite Church, she was also attending Koinos Community Church in Sinking Spring. She was a past president of Lancaster Mennonite Women.

Degree Key CLASS OF - attended as part of the class of a given graduation year HS - high school degree from era when high school and college were one GC - graduate certificate MA - master of arts SEM - attended or graduated from the seminary Mileposts is compiled by Jennifer North Bauman, who may be reached at baumanj@emu. edu or at 540-432-4294.

Editorial Policy Milepost entries are printed on the basis of submissions from alumni or on the basis of publicly available information. We do not verify the accuracy of information that alumni provide, nor do we make judgment calls on the information that they wish to be published, beyond editing for clarity, conciseness and consistency of style. The information provided to us does not necessarily reflect the official policies of EMU or of its parent church, Mennonite Church USA.

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CENTENNIAL 1917-2017 SERVING • LEADING • TRANSFORMING

CELEBRATE DURING THE ACADEMIC YEAR 2017-2018!

EVENTS ALL YEAR

CENTENNIAL WEEK EVENTS

Special events for and including alumni will include music performances, Writers Read events, speakers and gatherings on and off campus. Some events will be in collaboration with Eastern Mennonite High School, with whom EMU has a shared history through 1981.

Centennial Week of Oct. 11-18, 2017, includes Homecoming and Family Weekend Oct. 13-15. Events include a theater production; "10x10x100" alumni art installation; century bike ride; The Steel Wheels concert; Fall Festival on the lawn with food trucks; decade gatherings and more.

RELEASE OF EMU’S HISTORY

ALUMNI LEARNING TOURS

Release of centennial social history written by Donald B. Kraybill, published by Penn State Press.

Oct. 20-Nov.3, 2017 to the Middle East with Linford and Janet Stutzman. Spring 2018, Central America/Cuba. Details TBD.

emu.edu/centennial New details will be added regularly. www.emu.edu | CROSSROADS | 37

PERIODICALS POSTAGE PAID Harrisonburg, Virginia

1200 Park Road, Harrisonburg VA 22802-2462 Parents: If this is addressed to your son or daughter who has established a separate residence, please give us the new address. Call 540-432-4294 or email alumni@emu.edu.

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