MYF

Frisbee Golf September 27, 2009

MYF Happenings 10-09

This past Sunday, the MYF got the new year off to a flying start by trying to make discs fly straight in windy conditions as we played the disc golf course in Madison Meadows. We have thirteen youth in the MYF this year. Laura Richards, Jim Householter, Jonah and Deborah Wetherill will be the adult sponsors for this coming year. It is our hope and prayer that through this youth program each youth will find a place to belong in our church family, explore God’s call on their life, and engage in service and Christian discipleship in our world. We also plan to eat a lot of pizza and have some fun along the way.

Our highlights for the coming year include workdays at Menno Haven camp, a church lock-in, providing free babysitting for the church, spiritual life retreat, and of course our famous annual Lombardo Bistro on February 13. We are also planning for an out of country learn and serve trip in the summer of ’10.

Servants put learning into action- Thursday, July 09, 2009

Mary Lacan and Kate Martin Photographer: Ryan Miller PHOTO(S) AVAILABLE

“And the greatest among you will be your servant.” Matthew 23:11 (NRSV)

COLUMBUS, Ohio (Mennonite Mission Network) – Rakes, mowers, shovels, paintbrushes, hands and feet were some of the tools youth and adults wielded during servant projects in Columbus.

And in return, they were blessed with dance lessons, food, stories, a new knowledge of the city, and an opportunity to put the message they heard in worship to work.

Mary and Daniel Lacan, youth from Lombard (Ill.) Mennonite Church, were impressed by the call to a life of service put forth by Shane Claiborne, the Friday morning youth worship speaker. They saw their servant project as one opportunity to put their learning into action.

Nearly 3,300 youth and adults participated in servant projects organized by Mennonite Mission Network during the Mennonite convention June 30-July 6.

“Servant projects are a way to thank our host community for hosting us, but also a way to learn more about Columbus and how God is at work in the city where we’re gathering,” said Arloa Bontrager, servant project coordinator and Mission Network Youth Venture and SOOP director.

At Faith Mission Shelter, a center providing comprehensive care and services for people looking to transition into new housing and job situations, 40 youth and adults helped to host an outdoor barbecue for residents and others. Faith Mission also has a kitchen that is open not just to residents, but to anyone who is hungry, so the group was prepared to feed up to 400 people at the barbecue.

They served food, played outdoor games like corn hole and cards, and talked with residents and staff members, sharing their stories with each other.

“This was a short project, but not small. A project like this reminds me of ways that I can serve in my own community. And really, I’m getting as much out of this project as the people from Faith Mission are,” said Aspen Schmidt, a youth from Lorraine Avenue Mennonite Church in Wichita, Kan.

Deaconess and Deacon Clara and Stanley Cartwright hosted 90-some youth and watched as they cleaned out the sanctuary, garage, weeded and watered a community garden and helped with landscaping around their church.

Trinity Baptist Missionary Church, where the Cartwrights serve, is a church of 600, led by Pastor Dr. Victor M. Davis, that offers a plethora of ministries and services to the community.

“We have been so impressed with these youth that have come through and worked so hard. This helps us continue the work we’re doing,” said Stanley Cartwright. “It takes a community to raise a child, and it’s clear that your community has been teaching these children right, and this is a model of service that we want to take back to our own congregation.”

And in Urbancrest, a Columbus suburb, two groups of 30 volunteers were hosted by the Somali Bantu Community of Ohio. This community organization, made up of many immigrants from Somalia, partners with local colleges and government to provide English as a second language classes, neighborhood support and seminars that teach people about food preparation, hygiene and customs in the United States.

The first group of youth helped to pick up trash and sweep sidewalks in the apartment complex where the Somali Bantu Community is housed. On the second day, a different group got to partake in a picnic and outdoor party hosted by the Somali Bantu group. The group sampled food, played with children, and learned traditional Somali dance from members of the community.

Before they left, Abdukadin Matan, one of the leaders of the community organization, blessed the group from Gehman Mennonite Church in Adamstown, Pa., and Mount Joy (Pa.) Mennonite Church, and thanked them for their service on behalf of the church.

And for many groups and servant project leaders, it was this opportunity to learn from the communities they served alongside that meant the most.

As Bontrager said, “The Columbus community was exceptionally gracious in hosting us.”

Hannah Heinzekehr
PHOTOS AVAILABLE

PHOTO(S) AVAILABLE

Article taken from http://www.mennonitemission.net/

MC USA Convention June 30 to July 5, 2009

Convention 2009: The Two Shanes

By: Katie Parker

My first Mennonite Church USA Convention was amazing! While some may shudder at the thought of a hockey arena full of 4000 teenagers, I am filled with excitement. The highlight of my experience would have to be the worship services. The music was always fun and uplifting. Most people don’t associates Congo lines and beach balls with a Mennonite worship service. But that’s how we youth worshiped in Columbus!

My favorite speaker was named Shane. Everyone who was at the convention knows there were two speakers named Shane: they were both my favorite. Shane Hipps, as his last name suggests, used his hips. He taught us the Booty-X. Four thousand teens dancing in unison looks really…interesting. Ask a MYFer to do the dance for you sometime. Shane Hipps taught us that the Holy Spirit is in every breath we take. That physical way of looking at the Holy Spirit helps show that God is always with us and you can’t live without him.

Imagine a guy with long dreadlocks, glasses and baggy pants and you’ve got Shane Claiborne. He worked with Mother Teresa in Calcutta for 10 weeks. This Shane taught us about sharing God’s message and serving God, not only in your home church, but everywhere. He said we should act like Jesus acted, not just read the Bible.

The only downsides to the convention were the interesting (read bad) food at the convention center and really early mornings. But everything else was marvelous. Worships, seminars, speakers and service projects all made for a wonderful experience.

MC USA Convention June 30 to July 5, 2009

Convention 2009: An Atmosphere Wholly Mennonite

By: Emily Householter

Convention for me was a week of amazing experiences and activity 24/7. Looking back on everything that happened, I have many great memories, but the thing that stands out most for me is the atmosphere. My one hope for Convention was that I could get a sense of how many Mennonites there really are out there (I am the only one at my school). It wasn’t until I walked into worship that it truly sunk in: all the people I had seen earlier eating dinner or playing volleyball were people that I actually had a connection to spiritually. We were all there for the same reason—to “Breathe and Be Filled.”

The atmosphere at the worship services was really special for me also. The youth worship services were held across the street from the Convention Center in Columbus’ hockey arena. Imagine walking into the rink, being met with the sound of 4000 other youth and sponsors, LED lights around the rink saying,

“Welcome Mennonite Church USA”, two projection screens hanging from the ceiling and a 12-foot tall glass cross on a stage at center ice. My favorite memory of all though was singing four-part harmony to traditional hymns along with 4000 other people and a band. That is certainly not an experience I get every Sunday.

While the week of Convention was tiring by the end, the 2011 Convention can’t come soon enough for me. This week was certainly unique in that it was a great balance of fun, getting to know other MYFers a little bit better and receiving a healthy dose of the Holy Spirit.

MC USA Convention June 30 to July 5, 2009

Convention 2009: Giving Our Fears to God

By: Johah Wetherrill

t night Jessica Schrock-Ringenberg, pastor of youth,That night Jessica Schrock-RingenbeWednesday night at convention, we each received a small mirror while going into the large youth worship space. We had fun reflecting light at each other with the mirrors while waiting around outside for the gates to open. Little did I know that these mirrors would be a part of my strongest memory from convention.

That night Jessica Schrock-Ringenberg, pastor of youth, That night Jessica Schrock-Ringenberg, pastor of youth,That night Jessica Schrock-Ringenberg, pastor of youth,young adults and Christian education at Zion Mennonite Church in Archbold OH, shared a powerful personal testimony. When she was a teenager, she started to sleep in the same bed as her mother. She found out that the reason for the switch was that her father had threatened to come back in the middle of the night to kill her mother. Fortunately most of us don't have to live with that kind of fear either as a child or an adult.

After Jessica's testimony, the worship leaders encouraged us to talk with our youth groups about our fears, whether big or small, and to name them by writing them out on the mirrors. The leaders then instructed us to bring the mirrors with us to worship the next morning.

During the Thursday morning worship, there were boxes and wheelbarrows around the arena. The worship leaders invited people to come and give their fears to God by bringing the mirrors to one of these stations. I found it very powerful to sit in prayer, and later in song, and hear the breaking glass all around the arena as people gave their fears to God.

MC USA Convention June 30 to July 5, 2009

Breathe and Be Filled—MC USA Convention 2009

By: Kristan Martin

Of course everyone knows that there will be music at the Mennonite USA Convention and lots of it: enough to fill a hockey stadium of about 4,000 youth and leave ears ringing with the well-known praise songs afterwards. But one evening, we were surprised when someone besides Jeremy Kempf and his band (made up of young people in their 20s and 30s) played music for us. This lively musician was past the middle of middle age and sang spirited songs that were one of a kind for the convention worship sessions. He also happened to be blind.

But we shouldn’t have been surprised that a blind person could play the piano so well and have such spirit in his music. Eyes aren’t needed to make stirring, wonderful music. People depend so much on detecting things with their eyes that they sometimes forget about the things that can’t be seen, such as God’s Spirit.

Nooma is the Greek word for spirit and breath. The synonymy of breath and spirit within this word illustrates the connection between the air we breathe into our lungs and the Spirit of Life that God has given us. God’s Spirit and power is inside of each and every breath we take. It is God’s gift to us over and over and over again.

All too often people get wrapped up in looking for the Spirit within them and forget that it was already there, waiting to be experienced. Although the Spirit can’t be seen with eyes, it can be seen by how it works through people.

Shane Claiborne, one of the speakers at our worship, shared a story about how he once bought an ice cream cone for a child on his birthday. This present was a rare luxury in their impoverished community. Instead of hogging the joy of ice cream forhimself, the child lined up all his friends and fellow kids and allowed them each one lick. A small child shared the best thing he had with others that didn’t have any. That is the Spirit working.

Eyes aren’t needed to use the Spirit to help others. You don’t need eyes to read piano music if you already know the song by heart. You don’t need to look for God’s Spirit within you when it is already there. So I challenge you to stop looking for what you already have, to reach out to others as living proof of God’s Spirit and to just breathe and be filled with it all.

June 30 to July 4, 2009

Next Big Event

By: Laura Richards

Even MYFers will join thousands of youth from all over the U.S for the Mennonite Youth Convention in Columbus, Ohio from June 30 to July 4. Our MYF group includes Chris and Kate, Katie, Kristen, Mary, and Daniel, Emily, Katie CJ, Justin and Drew. Ann Venderely, Jonah Wetherrill and Laura Richards will serve as our fearless sponsors.

May 15, 2009

Menno Haven Workday

By: Laura Richards

A small, but hard working group of MYFers (Katie, Kristen, Justin, Daniel, and CJ) and a former MYFer (Christ Ewert) worked on several projects at Camp Menno Haven Saturday, May 15. They stuffed thousands of flyers, painted signs, worked on electrical projects, and cut down trees and branches and piled them high. Chris and CJ installed walkway lights to the girls' village.

May 3, 2009

Heartland and a Mystery

By: Laura Richards

May 3rd, the MYF ate lunch at the Heartland Cafe, a 33 year old institution in Rogers Park and famous for "good stuff to eat" Barack Obama and Studs Terkel spoke on the stage that's park of the Heartland. Next, off to the Lifeline Theatre, an MYF tradition. Lifeline specializes in original literary adaptations. This time we saw the Busman's Honeymoon (1937), based on the book by Dorothy Sayers, a wonderful whodunit.

April 5, 2009

Big Hit

By: Laura Richards

Organized by CJ Yoder and Emily Householter, the April 5th MYF Soup Event was a big hit! LMCers enjoyed several kinds of homemade soups and cookies for dessert. The MYF raised$1,230 towards their trip to the Mennonite Youth Convention in Columbus, Ohio June 30 to July 4. A very big thanks to
Jan who made the break bowls, those who baked cookies, and for everyone who gave support to the MYF! You're the greatest!

January 16 to 18, 2009

Menno Haven High School Winter Retreat

By: Emily Householter

What do you get when you bring together 11 high school youth groups, 15 Lombardians (12 High Schoolers and 3 brave sponsors), below freezing temperatures, and 43 hours jam packed with fun but very little sleep? The MennoHaven High School Winter Retreat 2009! For the weekend of January 16-18, the MYF went to Camp MennoHaven for 3 days of adventure and a chance to worship God.

During the retreat, 4 worship services were led by Jill Schmidt, a Mennonite Volunteer Services worker, so the youth could praise God and learn more about Him. Jill shared with us how to, “Tak[e] Risks to Glorify God.” She reminded us of times when Jesus did things that were “radical” and different, and she inspired us to do what is right in God’s eyes instead of just following along with what the ‘cool’ kids are doing.

In addition to learning about God, the MYFer’s showed their inner talents while having a lot of fun. LMC entered 6 teams into the 4 different tournaments and in the words of Katie Parker, “LMC dominated in the tournaments,” (since we swept both the volleyball and basketball tournaments.) For the all-camp activity, the youth showed their stage talents by performing music videos for Christian songs. Among other things, free time was a way for the LMCer’s to get to know each other better by ice-skating on the lake, tubing down a snowy hill, and playing late night cards and volleyball.

Consensus among the 15 tired LMCer’s on Sunday was that the retreat was amazing fun and a great chance to learn more about God and each other. There’s no doubt that memories of this retreat will stay with the youth for years to come and that all of the MYFer’s are already looking forward to returning to MennoHaven for Winter Retreat 2010!