wfn.org | MVS resource people

[Beth Hawn]

Microsoft Mail v3.0 (MAPI 1.0 Transport) IPM.Microsoft Mail.Note
To:  'Worldwide Faith News'
Date: 1998-07-01 15:09
Priority: 3
Message ID: AF899783E410D211AAB0006008075ABF
Conversation ID: MVS resource people

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July 1, 1998
Mennonite Board of Missions
Beth Hawn
219-294-7523
<NEWS@MBM.org>

Retreat resource people have watched MVS grow and change

KNOB NOSTER, Mo. (GCMC/MBM) - While the typical Mennonite Voluntary   
Service
worker is a young person fresh out of college and beginning to explore   
career
options, this year's MVS retreat resource people were on the other end of   
the
spectrum.

Willard Roth, of Elkhart, Ind., retired from his last pastorate in March.   

Mary Oyer, of Goshen, Ind., retired in May after 50 years of college and
seminary teaching. Alice Roth will retire in August from Mennonite Board   
of
Missions in Elkhart, Ind., where she is now vice president for Global
Ministries.

At the retreat, the Roths led the daily devotional times while Oyer   
focused
on church music, having the group sing everything from African hymns to   
psalm
settings to gospel.

Mennonite Voluntary Service is a joint program of the Commission on Home
Ministries of the General Conference Mennonite Church and MBM of the
Mennonite Church. For the second year in a row, the all-unit retreat, for   

volunteers from all over the United States and Canada, took place at Knob   

Noster State Park in western Missouri.

Although of a different generation than most of the MVSers, none of the   
three
retreat presenters is any stranger to voluntary service. Willard Roth, in   

fact, got into church work that way.

"In my first year of seminary in Goshen [in the mid-1950s], I had a   
special
assignment: to develop a newspaper or newsletter that would reflect the
nature and issues of voluntary service," he said.  He had just graduated   
from
the University of Iowa school of journalism, where he had lived in the
voluntary service house in Iowa City and edited their local VS   
newsletter,
HawkEyeTems.   The broader-scope publication he developed for what was at   

that time MBM Voluntary Service was called Agape.

Oyer was a resource person for a VS retreat several years ago (before the   

program integrated with the General Conference's Mennonite Voluntary
Service), also held at Knob Noster. In fact, at that time, Kent   
Dutchersmith,
now an Elkhart, Ind.,-based staff person for MVS, was a volunteer   
himself. He
enjoyed Oyer's contributions so much, he wanted her to come back, which   
this
year she consented to do.

"This was my first event after I had finished with teaching," she said.   
"It's
exciting to have something like this to open the next phase of life."

In her sessions, Oyer had assistance from a number of musicians from MVS   
units
and staff, on instruments that included banjos, guitars, a mandolin, an
autoharp, an electronic keyboard, a flute and a variety of drums.

"This was a very good group for trying new songs - they were willing to   
try
everything," she said. "It was unusual to have such a good instrumental   
group.

"I don't often work with this age. It's a pleasure - they have a kind of   
freedom
to participate [which many groups don't have]. I'm delighted with how   
many of
them produced psalms," she said, speaking of an exercise in which she   
asked
small groups to write psalms based on their choice of several Scripture
passages. "There are very few groups who could have produced sing-able
psalms in 40 minutes," Willard Roth added.

Alice Roth began working with MVS only within the past three years, after   
changes at MBM brought the program under the umbrella of her division.   
However, both the Roths' positions in church structures over the years   
have given them plenty of opportunity to observe the development of   
voluntary service.

"There has been a lot of emphasis on new programs, new service   
opportunities
for young people, especially shorter-term ones," she said. "It's   
important
for the church to be aware that MVS is still here, and it does evolve and   
change.
The reason I wanted to come [to the retreat] is that, as an   
administrator, I
 wanted to be here to experience and observe what MVS is about, in order   
to be able
to communicate that effectively to the rest of the church."

What are some of those changes? "One contextual, decisive reality that is   

different from early years is that there is no military draft now,"   
Willard
said. In fact, he noted, voluntary service as most Mennonites know it   
today
has its roots in Civilian Public Service, the program that Mennonite and
other peace churches developed (and fully financed) to give young men an
alternative to fighting in World War II.

"Back then [in the 1940s, when VS began], some kind of service was   
mandatory
[for young men]. MVS would not have started with the intensity it did   
were it
not for that."

"Other changes in MVS are more 'obvious,' like changes in financial
structures and placements," Alice said. "The church institutions,
responding to decreasing funds, have been increasingly asking MVS to   
become
self-supporting."

At the same time, Willard noted, "In earlier years, units were larger and   

generated more revenue. Now, the proportion of volunteers going into   
'cause
 -oriented assignments,' such as Bread for the City in Washington, has   
gone
up." However, he said, units now tend to develop "geographically,   
alongside
congregations that are extremely supportive."

Despite the challenges MVS faces in the years ahead, some essential   
things
have not changed, the Roths agree, and this will keep MVS a viable,   
important
program of the Mennonite church.

"In voluntary service, you find young adults who are very serious about   
their
faith," Alice said. "This represents what stays constant in the face of
other changes."

"Another thing that hasn't changed is how voluntary service affects the   
way
the volunteer lives his or her life afterward," Willard added. "Voluntary   

service has always been seen as giving expression to the good news of the
gospel."

"These are people who are unusually motivated," Oyer said.  "They are   
willing
to go out on a limb financially. There's something very stimulating about   

working with a group like that. I like to sing with that kind of people."
                       * * *
Melanie Zuercher is news service editor for the General Conference
Mennonite Church.