Mennonite Women USA
A POSTCARD & A PRAYER
November 2013
Noteworthy News
Thanksgiving greetings,

November reminds us to take time to reflect on all for which we are thankful.

 

Thanksgiving is an important act not just on a particular day, but all year long. The staff of MW USA are grateful for our many supporters who joyfully support our ministries.  

 

We especially invite prayers of blessing and thanksgiving for Rhoda Keener and Carolyn Heggen, as they are leading Sister Care in Bolivia (see more information below), and for all the women who are traveling to attend this significant training event.

 

May God give you purpose in service, joy in giving, and love for all whom you serve.

 
Mennonite Women USA staff
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A Prayer of Thanksgiving  

by Sharon Reimer

 

Sustaining God,

We come before you with grateful hearts.

We honor you, adore you and celebrate you!

     We lift your name on high!

And we lift our hearts in praise,  

     because you save us from ourselves
     time and time and time again.

Thank-you! Thank-you! Thank-you!

 

Sharon Reimer, a retired RN, is a mother of 3, grandmother of 8, poet and lover of the mysteries of life - especially the God-connected mysteries. 

WIC

NATIONAL HAPPENINGS

Speaker: Jennifer Davis Sensenig
Theme: "Spirited Women of God"

 

When: March 21-23, 2014
Where: Laurelville Mennonite Church Center, Mount Pleasant, PA.
Worship leader: Rochelle Kniss

When: April 25-27, 2014
Where: Crosswinds Conference Center,
Hesston, KS.
Worship leader: Nadine Friesen  

Register today to join with other women in this vibrant community, rich, diverse and always full of the unexpected! 

Women in Conversation is sponsored by Mennonite Women USA and Laurelville Mennonite Church Center. For more information, call 1.800.839.1021 or email Laurelville. 
 
INTERNATIONAL HAPPENINGS

Dates:
November 16-21, 2013

Notes:  
Pray for Carolyn Heggen and Rhoda Keener as they travel to Santa Cruz, Bolivia to lead a Sister Care seminar - "Cuidandonos entre mujeres:  Preparandonos para un ministerio de compassion" and for all the women who will be attending. Lizette Flores, who serves as Mennonite Central Committee country rep with her husband Cesar, is coordinating the event. She participated in the Guatemala Sister Care seminar in February. Lizette and Juana Masavi are pictured (left to right) leading worship in Guatemala.    
  

Eighteen women are traveling from Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay to join Bolivian women for the seminar. Many thanks to Linda Shelly from Mennonite Mission Network for coordinating travel.  Linda Shelly will also be participating in the seminar.  

 
 Learn about all the work of 
Sister Care.
Allegheny Conference Sister Care

Eighty-four women from Allegheny Conference attended Sister Care at Kaufman Mennonite Church October 25-26.

Local coordinators, (pictured at right) were drawn from several conference churches, included Cathy Spory, Jeanette Hunsberger, Jeri Hunsberger, Myrah Sinko, Evie Christner, Rosellen Lehman, Sharon Spicher, Michelle Mock, and Ali Brubaker.
 
Olivia Schlosser and Amy Yoder planned and led music; Jodi Mock (left) portrayed "The Beloved Woman Behind the Mask" and Heather Lehman presented "Carrying Our Friend to Jesus." As frequently occurs at Sister Care seminars, a highlight was the sharing of personal stories and the kind of care experienced during times of loss.
 

Lorraine
Sister Question  

Rebecca Hauder shares her understanding of balance with a contribution to the winter issue of Timbrel. How do you understand the word: BALANCE? 
  
Email Your Response

IWF Spotlight
 
Maria Elena Arango of Colombia is enrolled in a higher level degree in Theology and wants to finish her studies and become a teacher at the seminary.
 
Kitchen Table
 
The serenity [on the deck of a mountain cabin] was soon interrupted with loud voices and the squealing of little girls. There were four of them coming ... in the back of a pickup for a sleep-over...  

All You Need is Love:
Honoring the diversity of women's voices in theology
is the theme of a conference to be sponsored February 20-22, 2014, by the Women in Leadership Project (WLP) of Mennonite Church USA.

Come together with capable hearts and minds from around the country to contemplate what it means to love as Christians in the midst of a world rife with struggle and oppression. Come to listen to the stories of your sisters, and come to share your own...

 Read more.   
Women attending the Lancaster Conference Sister Care enjoy the back rub break.
Sister Care Milestone 

The completion of the Allegheny and Lancaster Conferences Sister Care seminars at the end of October and beginning of November marked a milestone for Mennonite Women USA. Over a three-year period, presenters Carolyn Heggen and Rhoda Keener have presented the seminar in every conference of Mennonite Church USA. A total of 2,200 USA women have attended the seminar since its beginning with the Lancaster seminar being the largest with 199 women participating. Read more...
Sister Care Shared Globally 
Manjula Raul (left) with Carolyn Heggen at the All India Mennonite Women conference. Photo by Rhoda Keener

 

What began as a seminar for women in the United States has now been shared in Asia and Latin America with additional invitations received from Kenya and Trinidad.

 

Sister Care is a Mennonite Women USA (MW USA) sponsored program that equips women to continue their own healing journey, to identify God's grace in their lives, and to walk with others in compassionate ways that help transform loss and grief.

 

Read the entire article from Mennonite World Conference.  

A Shaper of Anabaptist Faith:
Marlene Bogard came to own her faith and now shares it with others.
by Laurie Oswald Robinson

 

While growing up in Mountain Lake, Minn., Marlene Harder Bogard, minister of Christian formation for Western District Conference (WDC), had everything a young person needed to form a strong Christian identity-a strong home, a strong church and strong role models.

Except there was one catch: She had not yet owned the faith for herself.
   
Memorial gifts

  

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:

Carol Duerksen in memory of Verle Vogt.

Judith Goering in memory of Verle Vogt.

Lois Goering in memory of Verle Vogt.

Barbara Kaufman in memory of Verle Vogt.

Berta Miller in memory of Verle Vogt.

Laverne Nafziger in memory of Verle Vogt.

Karen Regier in memory of Verle Vogt.

Frances Siemens in memory of Verle Vogt.

Bonnie Sowers in memory of Verle Vogt.

Karen Unruh in memory of Verle Vogt.

Ruth Vogt in memory of Verle Vogt.

Joyce Graber in memory of Doris Holoway Nafziger.

Deb Sprunger in memory of Melva R. Lehman.

Lillian Stoltzfus in memory of Lydia Stoltzfus.  

Lois Yoder in memory of LaVerne Wissinger.   

Esther Daza-Bailie in memory of Leona Daza Schrag.

Wilma Kauffman in memory of Ferne Lehman.

Pam Risser in memory of Vera Kuhns.

Anonymous in memory of Anna Martha Martin Kauffman.  

Carolyn Burkholder in memory of Elva Lois Turner.  

Doris King in memory of Edith King.

Mary Alice Lehman in memory of Carolyn Albrecht.

Rhoda Atzeff in memory of Miriam Burkholder.

Lois Chamness in memory of Betty Hershey Newswanger. 

 

Gifts given by:

Joyce Hostetler in honor of Elizabeth B. Shelly.

Alma Shelly in honor of Elizabeth B. Shelly.

Sarah Nafziger in honor of Elizabeth B. Shelly.

Anonymous in honor of Elizabeth B. Shelly.

Doris Bohn in honor of Elizabeth B. Shelly.

John Bohn in honor of Elizabeth B. Shelly.

Kathy Shelly in honor of Elizabeth B. Shelly.

Chris Moser in honor of Elizabeth B. Shelly.  

Sharon Baker in honor of Melissa Roth.

Mary Snyder in honor of Rheta Mae Wiebe.

Nancy Rohrer Sauder in honor of Ruth Garber Rohrer.   

Edna Krueger Dyck in honor of Mary Krueger. 
 
 

As the trees lose their leaves, may their naked beauty invite you to celebrate that God is in all things, from birth to death, and from winter, through spring, summer, and fall. The cycles of the seasons offer new opportunities for us to reflect on how God works in and through us, from season to season.

 

Sincerely,

 

 

Mennonite Women USA
718 N. Main Street
Newton, KS 67114
316-281-4396

Copyright � 2013. All Rights Reserved.
Mennonite Women USA is a constituency group of Mennonite Church USA.