 A Postcard and a Prayer | |
| Mennonite Women USA | June 2011
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"My mission is:
to heal wounds,
to touch souls,
to create beauty,
and to inspire vital and creative living
in those around me"
writes Terri Brenneman in lesson 12 of the 2011-12 Bible study guide, Wonderfully Made: Women, Faith, and Self-Care.
This well-written Bible study is a delightful and inspiring playing out of Terri's mission. Pictured here along with Terri (seated) are several friends celebrating the release of her work at the home of Ruth Lapp Guengerich, co-executive director. Left to right: Pushpa King, Kathy Stiffney, Dee Albrecht.
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Coming in timbrel
Be sure to read the July/August issue of timbrel which focuses on Healing Stories.
Carolyn Holderread Heggen writes about healing stories and how we can tell the difference between healing stories and toxic stories. She also explains how we can change toxic stories into healing stories.
Natalie Francisco (left) writes about the importance
of self-care and illustrates how Jesus set an example
for us as he cared for himself.
The sister question for the September/October issue of timbrel on young women and the church is
How has your faith been transferred from one generation to the next?
Send your responses to Patty by July 1. Be sure to include your name and hometown. Consider giving a subscription to a special woman in your life as a gift. To subscribe to timbrel, send $15 for one year or $13 per person for a group of 10 or more to Mennonite Women USA, 718 N Main St., Newton, KS 67114. You can also e-mail or call 866.866.2872, ext. 34396. We'll start your subscription and send you a bill.
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The countdown is on for Mennonite Church USA Convention Pittsburgh 2011, July 4-9. Please drop by the Mennonite Women USA booth to say hello, to meet the staff and board members, and to learn about our programs. We also want to learn from you, about your interests and your ideas for MW USA. You are welcome to come and sit a spell to rest your feet and make new MW USA friends.
MW USA Staff and Board members will be busily involved at Convention.
- Tuesday, July 5, 10:30 - 11:25 am, Recognizing Slavery's Influence co-led by Ruth Lapp Guengerich andMark Regier of Everence.
- Tuesday, July 5, 5:30 - 7:30 pm, Mennonite Women USA Dinner. Speakers Elizabeth Soto Albrecht and Meghan Good will share how their life experiences have connected with Mennonite Women USA's Sister Care seminars.
- Wednesday, July 6, 1:00 - 1:55 pm, Women of Courage in the Bible and the Church, Linda Gehman Peachey
- Thursday, July 7, 1:00 - 2:15 pm, MW USA Lydia Tea. Come to learn about how to support this vibrant organization.
- Thursday, July 7, 7:00 - 8:30 pm, Women in Leadership reception: Creating Circles of Solidarity, planned by Joanna Shenk, Beth Martin Birky and Janie Beck.
- Friday, 10:30 - 11:25 am, Women in Leadership: Empowerment and Patriarchy in Mennonite Church USA by Joanna Shenk.
- Friday, July 8, Friday, 3:30 - 4:25 pm, Spouses of Pastors Provide Healing Bridges, Ruth Lapp Guengerich co-leading with Dallan Troyer.
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 Upcoming Sister Care Seminars
Sister Care: Equipping Women for Caring Ministry seminars validate women's gifts of caring and equips them to respond more effectively and confidently to the needs of others in their lives and in the congregation. Included in the seminar is a 64 page manual integrating biblical truths with life experience and skills for caring and listening. Presenters: Carolyn Heggen and Rhoda Keener
Illinois and Central District
August 26-27, 2011 - Mennonite Church of Normal, Normal, Illinois
Central Plains
September 17-18, 2011 - Swan Lake Christian Camp, Viborg, South Dakota
North Central in Minnesota
September 23-25, 2011 - Strawberry Lake Camp, Omega, Minnesota
Southeast
October 21-22, 2011 - Ashton Community Fellowship, Sarasota, Florida
South Central and Western District
November 11-12, 2011 - Hesston Mennonite Church, Hesston, Kansas
New York
March 16-17, 2012 - Rochester, NY
Franconia and Eastern District
March 23-24, 2012 - Eastern Pennsylvania
For information on how to register, or to schedule a Sister Care seminar in your area, contact the Mennonite Women USA office.
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Former International Women's Fund recipient from Ghana grieves family loss
Suzanne Lind, co-director for MCC in Africa and member of Florence Church of the Brethren-Mennonite near Constantine, Michigan, wrote this letter:
Dear Friends,
Leya Muloba, one of the women supported for theological studies by Mennonite Women USA, and by MCC for peacebuilding training at West African Peacebuilding Institute in Accra, Ghana, has lost a second infant child. Almost two years ago Leya gave birth to a stillborn son and almost died herself due to eclampsia. Last week, after a healthy, normal-seeming pregnancy, Leya and her husband George lost a baby girl just a few minutes after birth due to unexpected placental hemorrhaging which filled the baby's lungs with blood.
Leya is also the first woman the Michiana Friends of Congo hoped to invite as an IVEP volunteer to serve as a pastoral intern in our churches. That assignment did not work out, which was a great disappointment to all.
Today Tatiana Ndjoko, Mado Fumunguya and I visited Leya at her home, where she is recovering. Both she and her husband are deeply distressed and discouraged.
Your thoughts and prayers can join ours as we try to help Leya recover her health and sense of purpose in life. I will take her some books and magazines as she says study is something that will help her get through the long, sad days and develop hope for the future.
Love to all,
Suzanne 
Members of Florence Church of the Brethren-Mennonite near Constantine, Michigan, knotted a comforter (pictured right) to send to Leya and George, stitched with prayers and love.
Mennonite Women USA sends our prayers and love to Leya and George, and to Suzanne as she represents us in her work with Leya, George, and many others in Africa.
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Guengerich speaks at area conference meetings
Co-executive director Ruth Lapp Guengerich will be speaking at MW events at area conferences:
- Indiana-Michigan Mennonite Women will host a brunch on Saturday, June 18 during the annual conference sessions at Amigo Centre. The title of her speech is "God did not Create Tizzies." One person's question in response was, "From whence then did they come?" Learning to manage the "tizzies" in our lives is part of self-care, which the 2011-12 Bible study guide explores. If you are not attending this brunch, look for Ruth at Pittsburgh to find out how to dispel the "tizzies."
- Central District Conference meets in Goshen, Indiana June 23-25. Ruth will be sharing the vision, mission, and work of MW USA with the women at their dinner on Friday evening, June 24.
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Give to Mennonite Women USA
Mennonite Women USA's ministry is possible through your generous donations. Contribute on-line.
Make a pledge on our website. 
Or mail your contribution to the office at
Mennonite Women USA, 718 N. Main St.,
Newton, KS 67114-1819.
Please consider this ministry in your giving.
Gifts are tax deductible.
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The Kitchen Table
by Lorraine Eby
Franklin Conference Sister Care Coordinator
Burning Bush, June 2011
It was a beautiful spring wedding held in a small country Methodist church in Virginia. The ceremony was simple and inspirational. But the real God-moment happened later, at the wedding reception, between an older married couple, the parents of the groom.
The mother of the groom, diagnosed with advanced Alzheimer's disease and mostly unresponsive during the event, suddenly became animated as the bride was dancing with her father...
Read more...
Used by permission of the Burning Bush, Franklin Conference newsletter.
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Honoring and Remembering 
Mennonite Women USA invites persons to share financially to support this ministry. Individuals are invited to give in honor of, or in remembrance of, significant people in their lives. We recognize that each gift honors or remembers a relationship.
Gifts given by:
Weavers Mennonite Church Women in memory of Lelia Deputy.
Esther Heatwole in memory of Alice Brunk.
Holly Keller in memory of Joan Keller.
Don Snyder in memory of Leta Snyder.
Kathryn Yoder in memory of Annabelle Yoder.
Rebecca Buller in memory of Alice Peters.
Esther Nafziger in memory of Leah Brubacher.
Lois Kennel in memory of Susan Alderfer Landis Ruth.
Nancy Lee in memory of Ruth Shenk.
Mary Mingledorff in memory of Lizzie Mae Ruth.
Pam Risser in memory of Vera Kuhns.
Katharine Dettweiler in memory of Pearl Janzen.
Ethel Harder in memory of Christena Duerksen.
Miriam Housman in memory of Lydia Miller.
Norma Wyse in memory of Cora Elizabeth Wyse.
Mariam Stoltzfus in memory of Marianne Roth.
Gifts given by:
Beth Parson in honor of the former spiritual formation class at Emmanuel Mennonite Church.
Treva Kurtz in honor of Erma Schnabel.
Lois Reimer in honor of Marie Hershey Shenk.
Lelia Schlabach in honor of Gertrude Maust Dutcher.
Sharon Spicher in honor of Adella Kanagy.
Kathy Shelly in honor of Betty Shelly.
Marian Hostetler in honor of Beulah Kauffman.
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Hispanic Women's Conference 
Hermosa a los Ojos de Dios (Beautiful in the Eyes of God) is the theme of the XXXI Conferencia Femenil Hispana Menonita (Hispanic Mennonite Women's Conference) to be held at the Regency House Hotel, Pompton Plains, New Jersey, June 23-26, 2011. Board members Maria Tijerina, Archbold, OH and Rhoda Charles, Lancaster, PA will represent MW USA at this conference.
Please pray for our Hispanic sisters as they meet together for praise and worship.
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Latin American women call MWC community to prayer
In the May issue of Postcard and a Prayer women's groups and congregations were invited to choose a day of prayer to focus on Latin American women, using a liturgy that was developed by sisters of the Mennonite churches in Guatemala. Sylvia Shirk, pastor of Manhattan Mennonite Fellowship (pictured right), sent in this report of her congregation's response to this invitation:
We remembered you in our prayers on Sunday May 22, at Manhattan Mennonite Fellowship in New York, USA. We read the Guatemala, Argentina, Cuba, and Haiti country descriptions and prayer requests, and the testimony from Guatemala. We lifted up the prayers with a song, "Oyenos mi Dios." Our scripture theme was 1 Peter 2:2-10. In my sermon I told the story of the Latin American Anabaptist Women Theologians movement. I encouraged the congregation to be like you, precious living stones who are being built into a spiritual house, a holy priesthood. On our communion table was a cloth from Guatemala and we shared tortillas from a local Mexican business.
Thank you for inspiring us and for inviting us to join you in this world day of prayer.
Blessings,
Sylvia Shirk, Pastor
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Finding Jesus at Camp
A story of two camps and two different experiences in a girl's life.
by Ann Minter Fetters
The Mennonite, June 2011
I counted off to my mother as I stuffed the contents into a duffel bag: "One flashlight, one tooth brush, toothpaste, a wash cloth, a towel and a Bible." I was nervous and excited. It was the summer of 1972, and I had just finished the second grade. My friend Ellen had invited me to attend her church camp for a week, and much to my delight, my parents had given their consent ... Read more.
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Prayer for the Journey
by Terri J Plank Brenneman
from Wonderfully Made:
Women, Faith, and Self-Care
(2011-2012 Bible study guide)
Lord, help us to become like little children
in our exuberance and excitement
to be blessed by you.
Help us to seek you and your kingdom
with wonder and awe,
with the confidence of knowing
we are loved, valued, and welcomed.
Help us to love others and ourselves
with this same freedom and abandonment,
restoring joy and well-being.
May it be so.
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A Postcard & a Prayer is compiled by Mennonite Women USA staff Ruth Lapp Guengerich, Rhoda Keener, Patricia Burdette, Berni Kaufman, and Lois Loflin.
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Know of others who would like to receive "A Postcard & a Prayer" e-mails from Mennonite Women USA? Have them send name, address, and e-mail Berni. | |
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