wfn.org | 80 MVSers pray for peace at air base

[Beth Hawn <BethAH@mbm.org>]

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June 10, 1999
Mennonite Board of Missions
Beth Hawn
(219) 294-7523
<NEWS@MBM.org>

80 MVSers pray for peace at air base for stealth bombers

KNOB NOSTER, Mo. (MBM/GCMC) - Virtually cut off from all news for several 
days, and completely unaware of the potential peace agreement in the former
Yugoslavia, 80 participants in the annual Mennonite Voluntary Service
retreat 
here gathered outside a nearby Air Force base to lament the war.

Less than three miles from the central Missouri state park, where 120 MVS
staff 
and participants gathered for a week of worship, sharing and play, Whiteman 
Air Force Base launched stealth bombers daily to conduct bombing runs to 
Serbia and Kosovo.  Every morning, the planes flew overhead, while MVSers
who came from as far as Hamilton, Ontario, and Tucson, Ariz., heard about
living 
in community with one another and with God.  Upon learning that the base was
the point of origin for some of the bombing, the group decided to do
something 
about it.

Rather than engaging in a classic protest designed to garner media
attention, organizers chose to hold a brief and simple service of prayer,
scripture reading 
and singing, to lament the bombing.

"Gracious God, we gather as a community of faith that is consumed by grief,"

MVSer Gayle Alderfer prayed in the gathering.  "Our hearts break at the roar
of 
the bombers and fighter jets coming and going from this place.  We have
chosen 
to call ourselves lovers of peace and justice, and admit to you our
inability to 
worship you in the midst of war."

Reading from Lamentations and the Psalms, participants prayed for the 
Kosovars and the Serbians.  They confessed and repented of their complicity 
in the war, as citizens of NATO member-countries.  While a few members of 
the large circle held simple signs that read "Peace in Kosovo," so that
passersby 
could know why the group was gathered, prayer was also lifted up for those
at 
the Air Force base.

"We pray with our brothers and sisters here at Whiteman Air Force Base,"
MVSer Danielle Miller prayed.  "By order of our government, and sometimes by
choice 
or conviction, planes and bombs stamped 'made in the USA' deliver death
daily 
to the people of Serbia."

During the service of lament, five people in civilian clothes emerged from
the 
nearby main gates of the base.  A young woman approached a member of 
the group and asked where they were from.  She expressed surprise that this
gathering of Mennonites from across North America had come to the base.  
It was then explained to her that the group was there praying for the
Kosovars, 
Serbs and for the people at the base.  When told that prayer was being
offered 
for those at the base, her face changed noticeably.

"Really, you're praying for us here?" she said.  "Thank you so much for
praying 
for us.  I have friends flying missions over to there. Thank you."

She then expressed interest in joining the prayer circle, but another member

of the group she was with said they needed to be going.

Johnson County Sheriff Chuck Heiss was on hand at the prayer service, to 
oversee the actions of both those praying and those who might happen upon 
the MVSers and disagree with their presence.  Heiss said this was the first 
gathering at the base since the NATO bombing began more than two months 
ago.

In a closing prayer, Alderfer, who also serves as the local program
coordinator 
for the Tucson unit, asked on behalf of the group for God's forgiveness and 
love.

"Give us, oh God, the strength to pray for the revealing of your reconciling

Spirit in the hearts, minds, and actions of the Kosovars, the Serbs, the 
member nations of NATO and our own lives.  Help us to remember in the midst
of despair that you are with us."

MVS is a joint program of the Commission on Home Ministries of the General
Conference Mennonite Church and Mennonite Board of Missions of the Mennonite
Church.

				* * *
* * *

Christy Risser                             PHOTOS AVAILABLE

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