Bethany Fosdyck 
An introduction to Women and Money
New monthly series focuses on financial education and women’s stories
Written for women, by women – the new Women and Money series by Everence® aims to share the unique experiences women face and how these experiences affect their lives and finances.
This series is inspired by Women and Money educational seminars led by staff in several communities for the last few years. The seminars addressed financial concerns women may deal with, with the goal of helping women learn more about finances and feel more confident about their financial decisions.
Rhoda Blough, Everence Stewardship Consultant, advocated to start the educational seminar for women because she saw the importance of talking with women about the financial situations they may encounter. Blough felt this acutely because her husband died unexpectedly, and Blough had to quickly figure out their finances while also trying to grieve.
“Reflecting on my own experience, I recognize the importance of women being knowledgeable in all aspects of their finances,” said Blough in the first article of the series.
Although many of the financial principles are universal, the common thread of the series is women sharing their experiences with other women.
Find the series at everence.com/articles-and-stories and select Women and Money on the topic list.
About Everence
Everence helps individuals, organizations and congregations integrate finances with faith through a national team of advisors and representatives. Everence offers banking, insurance and financial services with community benefits and stewardship education.
Sara Alvarez
Content Marketing Director
sara.alvarez@everence.com
AMBS co-sponsors Believers’ Church Conference
Release by Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary
AMBS faculty, staff and students were among more than 150 participants in “Word, Spirit, and the Renewal of the Church,” the 18th Believers’ Church Conference. The event was held Sept. 14–16 at Goshen (Indiana) College and was co-sponsored by Goshen College and AMBS.
Safwat Marzouk, AMBS associate professor of Old Testament, and Jamie Pitts, AMBS associate professor of Anabaptist studies, played major roles in planning and hosting the event, and other AMBS faculty and students presented papers, led worship and participated in other ways.
Above, several AMBS students visited with renowned theologian Miroslav Volf, Dr. Theol., a professor of systematic theology at Yale Divinity School in New Haven, Connecticut, following his lecture on Sept. 15 at College Mennonite Church in Goshen. Volf’s presentation, “Humility and Joy: What We Can Still Learn from Martin Luther,” was sponsored by the Yoder Public Affairs Lecture Series; he was also a speaker at the conference. AMBS President Sara Wenger Shenk introduced Volf, a friend from when she and her husband, Gerald, served in the former Yugoslavia in the 1980s.
(l. to r.): Miroslav Volf; Jonathan Krull, visiting professor of philosophy at Huntington (Indiana) University; Benjamin Isaak-Krauss, MDiv student from Bammental, Germany; Scott Litwiller, MDiv student from Delavan, Illinois, and data services manager for AMBS; Rianna Isaak-Krauss, MACF student from Winnipeg, Manitoba; and Brian O’Leary, MDiv student from Seattle, Washington.
“Reading Volf at Goshen College gave me insight into how conflict and suffering in the Bible might be relevant for our theologies of suffering today,” said O’Leary. “I was honored to hear more about humility and joy from him after his talk.”
“It was exciting to hear Dr. Volf talk after reading his works for classes at AMBS!” added Benjamin Isaak-Krauss.
Read Goshen College’s article on the conference
Regional Mennonite Disaster Service Meeting – October 27, 2017
In this season of storms and disasters, both natural and man made, stretching from Puerto Rico along the Gulf Coast upto Las Vegas through Northern California, and upto Ft. McMurray in northern Alberta, may the peace of Christ be present in your lives, those of your families, and your congregations. I am amazed how many times, despite the circumstances, when Jesus comes to his disciples his first words are “Peace; be not afraid.” So may it be with us.
Mennonite Disaster Service will hold its annual meeting for the Illinois Unit on Friday afternoon, October 27th, beginning at 3:00 PM at the First Mennonite Church of Morton. In addition to hearing reports about unit activity from the past year, we have an important discernment to undertake concerning the next year.
The Illinois Unit is being asked by the Long Term Recovery Group in Ottawa/Naplate for assistance in rebuilding after the tornados of last February. Please read through the description of their work and be praying with us about whether this is something God would have us do. Because of the importance of this request please attend or find another person from your congregation to attend the unit meeting.
Finally, the Illinois Unit Meeting is preceeding the MDS Region 2 annual meeting this year which commences right after our unit meeting. Please consider joining us for some or all of that meeting as well. Registration information for that event is also included.
Thank you for all of your work in your home communities and congregations. Please contact me with questions. I look forward to being with you.
—
Ronn Frantz,
MDS Illinois Unit Chair
Click here to view the Ottawa-Naplate request
MC USA Executive Director search committee launches survey
9.27. 2017 Written By: Mennonite Church USA
The search committee for Mennonite Church USA’s next executive director invites denomination-wide participation in a Survey Monkey questionnaire to discern essential qualities and top priorities for the job description, and to nominate potential candidates for the role. The survey is available at mennoniteusa.org in English and Spanish and will be available for completion through Oct. 16, 2017.
Over the last three months, the search committee conducted phone conversations with select persons from across the church and is now broadening the scope of the listening phase of their work.
“This is an opportunity for community discernment, and we want to encourage participation from as many people across Mennonite Church USA congregations, conferences and agencies as possible,” says Joy Sutter, search committee chair. “The information collected will provide the search committee with additional clarity on the kind of person we want to invite to serve in this important leadership position in our beloved church.”
Sutter also said the search committee is working well together and listening deeply to the feedback that has been contributed through the search process.
“The committee believes that as we all work together in this important task, the bonds that connect us throughout Mennonite Church USA will be strengthened,” Sutter says.
The search committee invites continued prayer for their work and for the person whom God is calling to be the next executive director. For additional inquires or to apply for the executive director position, please contact the search committee at: EDsearch@Mennonites.org.
The committee continues to meet via videoconferencing on a weekly basis and will hold their next in-person meeting Dec. 1-3, 2017 in Dallas, Texas.
Call to Prayer after Las Vegas shooting
10.2. 2017 Posted By: The Mennonite 
On Oct. 1, a gunman opened fire during a concert in Las Vegas, Nevada, where over 22,000 attendees were gathered. The shooter, Stephen Paddock, killed 50 people and injured hundreds of others before taking his own life.
This tragic event now becomes the deadliest mass shooting in modern United States history, surpassing the death toll following a mass shooting at the Pulse Nighclub in Orlando in 2016, an event which claimed the lives of 49 individuals. Over 270 mass shootings, defined as an event where four or more individuals are killed in the same “general time or location,” have taken place in the United States in 2017 alone.
Michael Martin, director of RAW Tools, an organization that works alongside communities to address gun violence by forging garden tools from guns, wrote this prayer in mourning for this tragedy.
A call to prayer for Las Vegas and beyond
Lord, Hear our prayer….
We pray for the lives lost in Las Vegas that join the climbing number of those lost to gun violence in America.
Comfort the mourning, the grieving, the broken-hearted.
Compel our prayers to turn into actions.
May the triggers of our streets be beaten into plowshares.
May the triggers of our hearts be met with the open arms of our neighbors.
May we trust in the transformative power of your refining fire.
Forge us to be instruments of your peace.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
May our posture be of a readiness to steady a plowshare.
May we take hold of your olive branch that plots for peace.
May the plowshare break the earth of senseless violence.
May the furrows bring us a harvest of solace, a neverending rest from violence.
May we sit under the vine and fig, on earth as it is in heaven.
May it be so. Amen.
MDS on the ground in Puerto Rico
10.2. 2017 Written By: Mark Beach, MDS
Photo: Mennonite Disaster Service Puerto Rico Unit Leader, Eileen Rolon, stands in her house, which lost a roof during Hurricane Maria. MDS photo.
After several failed attempts, Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) regional operations coordinator, Larry Stoner, arrived in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Sept. 26, to begin a 10-day assessment of the situation there and to explore how MDS will assist.
“I landed at noon yesterday,” Stoner said in a phone call this morning. “The airport was hot and stuffy and filled with thousands of people trying to get out.”
Once outside the airport he noticed that “every single gas station had a least a hundred cars waiting in line.” He said, “The bigger issue is there is no electricity.”
Communication has been spotty as cell towers were toppled by the storm and his U.S. Verizon phone was not working well so he called on the phone of a local contact working with MDS.
Despite the challenge finding fuel there were still many cars on the streets in San Juan, he said.
“Downed trees and tree debris is everywhere in San Juan,” Stoner said. He added that in the city there are damaged buildings but there are also a lot of buildings that survived the hurricane. “It looks very bleak for the immediate future,” he said.
Hurricane Maria slammed into Puerto Rico more than a week ago, devastating the U.S. commonwealth. The situation has worsened since then as people are running low on water and food, the electricity and communication networks are spotty at best and there is a 7 p.m. curfew in San Juan.
To contact the MDS office in Lititz, Pennsylvania, Stoner had to borrow the phone of a contact there and find a place along the road where there was a cellular signal. Even then, recharging the phone is a challenge because of the lack of electricity. Stoner also has a satellite phone and his own Verizon-based phone, but neither are connecting.
Thursday Stoner planned to travel to Aibonito where the local Mennonite school and hospital have been damaged. “I heard that the 4th floor of the hospital was destroyed,” he said.
“The purpose of Larry’s visit is to connect with our MDS Puerto Rico Unit and their churches to begin assessing the damage and where MDS will respond,” Kevin King, MDS executive director said on Tuesday. “We will be responding, we will be rebuilding, but we just can’t say where and when until we can get there and conduct an assessment.”
When in Puerto Rico, Stoner who is from Lititz, Pa., is expected to quickly focus on the town of Aibonito and the surrounding area in the center of the country where the MDS PR Unit headquarters are located. He learned on Tuesday that the unit leader, Eileen Rolon, lost the roof on her house.
King has heard from a Mennonite pastor in Hatillo, PR that the front of their church and roof are gone.
Pastor Hector Lugo told King that “in all my years of living in Puerto Rico I have not seen worse conditions. The water supply is intermittent. No electricity.” He also said he waited in line for eight hours for a gallon of gasoline.
Lugo told King that he was hoping to get out to visit his congregation members, but can’t without gas. “The roads are opening up but there is massive destruction everywhere,” he said to King.
King assured Lugo that churches throughout the Anabaptist community will be holding them and their congregants up in prayer.
King hopes to be in Puerto Rico next Tuesday, October 3, along with MDS Region 1 board chair Phil Troyer and Elizabeth Soto, a professor at Lancaster (Pennsylvania) Theological Seminary who is originally from Puerto Rico and has family there.
MDS is accepting financial donations for the Hurricane Maria response. Persons wanting to volunteer for Puerto Rico should go online to register.
Race: beginning (again)
THIS EVENT IS BEING POSTPONED DUE TO LOW REGISTRATION! WE’LL REGROUP AND GATHER AROUND THIS TOPIC IN 2018!
Backstory
Illinois Mennonite Conference planned to host an event on church communication on Oct. 27 – 28 at Menno Haven Camp and Retreat Center. On August 22, I (Michael) received an email from our resource person, stating he took a new job and was moving out of the area, thus he was unable to lead our event. We explored other potential resource people to no avail.
Meanwhile, issues of race and violence were also on the front page, due to recent white nationalist protests in Charlottesville, VA. Not too long after that, news that President Trump intended to repeal DACA also hit the news.
We had Menno Haven reserved for the weekend and no presenter to follow through with our original plan. While considering options, we began to explore the possibility to creating a space for persons within IMC to come together around issues of racial justice and reconciliation.
Challenges
- Short Notice: We’re putting this together on short notice. Who can participate? Can we plan a quality gathering?
- We’re Pretty White: IMC gatherings, historically, are attended predominantly by white persons. What are appropriate goals given this reality? What can we not do due to this reality?
- Focus: What would be helpful for those who are present, given we don’t know who will be present?
The Key Question
As CEM, I focused on one question “Should we do this at all, given the challenges?” In my experience, one can always find reasons NOT to gather together to engage difficult things. Most people can rationalize not engaging hard things. Therefore, I like to ask a different question. “How are we better off by not doing it?”
In the end, we decided it was better to start a public discussion within IMC, with an eye towards ongoing engagement around these issues, even while recognizing the challenges of the circumstance.
So, we are moving forward with an event on racial justice and reconciliation.
How we’ll spend our time
1.) We’ll begin with an overview and strategies for coming to terms with race and racism within ourselves.
2.) We’ll spend time learning about White Supremacy – what it is, what it isn’t, and how to work at it.
3.) We’ll spend time learning about immigration, current challenges, and Latino identity and theology.
Who Should Come?
Anyone who is interested in engaging questions of racial justice and reconciliation from an Anabaptist perspective, with an interest in personal and/or church applications.
This is a safe space for people! Come as you are. Come ready to listen to others experiences.
Event Facilitators (listed alphabetically)
KRISTA DUTT – Krista is the Chicago program coordinator and a Church Relations Associate for Mennonite Central Committee. She is currently focusing much of her time thinking about the conversations about race that are happening in immigration court and how race impacts gun violence. Krista and her family live in West Humboldt Park in Chicago, attend River City Community Church, and participating in The Healing Corner.
RIC HUDGENS – Ric is the Co-Pastor of North Suburban Mennonite Church in Libertyville; and an adjunct lecturer at North Park Theological Seminary. He served for five years as Pastor-in-Residence at Second Baptist Evanston, a historic135-year-oldd African-American congregation; and eight years on the pastoral team at Reba Place Church. For twelve years he was a departmental director for the American Theological Library Association. Ric has a BA and MA in Missions and also studied at Loyola University and the University of Chicago Divinity School. He writes frequently for Geez Magazine and the Englewood Review of Books and is regular blog contributor to radicaldiscipleship.net (a ministry of Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries and Word and World). Ric lives in Evanston and is part of a household connected with Reba Place.
MARTIN NAVARRO – Martin and his wife Viri live in Elkhart IN. Where they both attend Prairie Street Mennonite Church. Martin enjoys spending time with family, and also vegetable gardening. Martin and his wife are Chicago natives. He grew up in the Comunidad Cristiana Vida Abundante. He has his MDiv from Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary. He has a passion for the studying the intersection of Mennonite identity and Latino theology. Currently, he is a stewardship consultant and financial service representative for Everence, serving exclusively Hispanic Anabaptist churches. Martin is also the Associate Conference Minister for Hispanic Ministries for Illinois Mennonite Conference.
TIM PEEBLES -By vocation, Tim is a teacher and theologian, with a focus on missional church and practicing peace. He currently expresses this vocation in the occupations of theological educator, martial arts instructor, and transitional pastor (most recently at Chicago Community Mennonite Church). He grew up in Springfield Illinois, went to college at Illinois Wesleyan University (in Bloomington), attended seminary at Andover-Newton Theological School (Boston), and did graduate work in theology at the University of Chicago. He and his wife have lived in Chicago for 24 years, for the last 18 years in the Rogers Park neighborhood. In addition to reading (and talking) theology, his hobbies include movies, tap dancing, whiskey, and fresh-water tropical fish, mostly in that order.Please call or email Michael Danner with questions. If you’d like to participate but resources are tight, give Michael a call, we want you to participate!
Click here for an event flyer