Connecting

December 11, 2017

Plans for two people to visit Tanzania Mennonite Church were delayed from December, to possibly the end of April. With the death of Dan’s mother-in-law, and the staff transition underway, he felt it was most important to stay close to home and family.

Dan met with mid-states conference ministers – minus Ohio Conference – for a retreat day at Pathways on November 15. It was a good day of worship, reflection, and fellowship.

Bob Yoder and Dan continue meeting with Matt Ropp (Amigo Centre executive director) and Tim Lehman (Bethany Christian Schools head of school) about how we best support each other’s mission, and implications of that for our formal relationship. We’ve learned that “ownership” is not really a good word to describe the relationship because both are separate organizations. Delegates will receive a survey in January as one way of sharing their wisdom with this group.

Dan attended a meeting of local pastors where County Commissioner Mike Yoder revealed there will be a proposal for a 1200-bed ICE detention facility in Elkhart County. There is general agreement among local Mennonite congregations that this would be detrimental for the community and numerous pastors are developing stronger relationships with Latino pastors.

Doug and Dan attended the annual meeting of area church/conference ministers, this year in Nashville, Tennessee. Agenda included misconduct policy and healthy boundary training expectations, credential processes, and one evening of cancelled meetings.