Posts by Jon Trotter
Gemeinschaft Home celebrates 35 years, launches campaign
Gemeinschaft Home is a community non-profit offering therapeutic services to nonviolent offenders who have been released or diverted from incarceration in support of a transition to healthy community living. This year we our celebrating our 35th anniversary providing residential and non-residential programming for men and women in the local area and throughout Virginia. Recent calls…
Read MoreFirst Mennonite Church responds to the protests
Since our congregation is located in the capital of the Confederacy, and large protests for police reform and eliminating racism are a daily occurrence here, the leadership of First Mennonite Church posted the following statement on our website and Facebook page, and sent it to the congregation: “This is an historic moment for Richmond, and…
Read MoreWalk, don’t run, to your nearest Relief Sale
“I’m walkin’, yes, indeed, I’m talkin’, ‘bout you and me . . .” -Fats Domino Harvey Yoder of Harrisonburg probably doesn’t have this 1957 Fats Domino song ricocheting down the cobwebbed corridors of his mind while out on his daily constitutional, but there’s a determined look on his face to keep time with his pace.…
Read MoreLife in exile at Lindale Mennonite Church
There is a commercial for a life insurance company that begins by showing some idyllic scene where everything is going well; and then something surprising and unexpected changes the whole scenario. Their tagline is “Life comes at you fast.” Indeed, we could use that tagline for 2020! Church leadership and the congregation were preparing…
Read MoreThe same unity of purpose at Stephens City
Stephens City Mennonite Church is one among many small, aging, congregations in Northern District. Our members are geographically scattered, but share a unity of purpose in loving our neighbors, seeking to assist those in need, and a love of music. During the pandemic, many of those dynamics have shifted. Using Zoom has enabled several…
Read MorePastoral care with Duo, a meaningful connection
In this issue of Pathways, we are to share “stories of coping, thriving, innovation, danger, struggle, hardship, new ways of working, new focuses….” Yes—to all of the above. It’s amazing how the same experience—and experiment—can contain all of those components at the same time. Like every other congregation, we at Weavers Mennonite Church are also…
Read MoreSpringdale congregation adapts WARM program
The apostle Paul comments in II Corinthians 12:10 that “When I am weak, then I am strong.” God’s strength often seems most apparent when we ourselves are weak. Each year, usually in mid-March, Springdale Mennonite Church, located on the outskirts of Waynesboro, Va., hosts the local overnight homeless shelter WARM (Waynesboro Area Refuge Ministry) for…
Read MoreWe are still a community
Park View Mennonite Church grapples with losses but finds undiminished connections We have made a significant discovery at Park View Mennonite Church. Even though we cannot gather physically in the space where we love to worship, pray, and sing together, our sense of community has not diminished. On March 13, we made the difficult…
Read MoreMore than a Sunday morning gathering
Early Church has never been defined primarily by our Sunday morning gathering. We have been known for the high value we have placed on being a glimmer of God’s presence when we worship and relate at Our Community Place (OCP), and for lots of non-Sunday face-to-face interactions. Before the coronavirus hit, we had already begun…
Read MoreBig Spring: still the arms and hands of Jesus
Big Spring Mennonite Church is alive and together, even if we have to be together by Zoom. We have said we are so grateful for Zoom and we are so tired of Zoom. But the Holy Spirit has been with us through all of our virtual gatherings and it has been good. By being a…
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