Daily Connector | Thoughts on giving | Pete Yoder & Metz Kramer
For good, or for ill, money has power, and it speaks for us. For this reason, we offer our financial giving intentionally. Just as in a growing season, from planting to harvest, we plan our giving upfront, so that it speaks to what we value, believe, and support. So where we give, you can hear our voices. In 1981 we graduated from Goshen College. Since that time we have been annual contributors to express our gratitude and show that we value that place. As students we always heard about the “constituents” and the power they had. They wanted to do away with our radical Bible professors. Life drawing classes had to be taken in South Bend. We still couldn’t dance, not even the allowed folk dancing. Those constituents had control in part, because the college was dependent on their money. In 2010, there was mounting pressure to accept openly LGBTQ
Daily Connector | Plarn anyone? | Katie Mast
The kitchen floor was nearly covered. I had just put all the groceries away and there they were, plastic bags puffed in a pile like cumulus clouds. I scooped them up and tried to stuff them in the cupboard where the rest of the bags were stuffed. The door didn’t want to close. I keep reusable bags folded in the car and rolled up like sleeping bags in my purse. It has always seemed like a fairly easy way to reduce the use of plastic. But, they can’t be brought into stores and used right now because of the pandemic. It only takes a few of the plastic grocery bags to line the trash can in the bathroom, so my stash is piling up. I’ve tried to find ways to reduce the use of them. I’ve asked store clerks to use as few bags as possible. I’ve employed several strategies
Forest health, our health
One of my favorite Ohio-based organizations is the Arc of Appalachia. My introduction to the Arc came during a 2010 tree education course that rocked my world, bringing the forest to life in a way I’d never experienced. To borrow from this upcoming Sunday’s passage about Moses and the burning bush, it was the first time I glimpsed the plant world aflame with God. This is how the Arc describes its work: We acquire and steward wildlands in the Ohio region. We create sanctuaries where people can connect with the natural world. We teach about our forest heritage to inspire a global conservation ethic. We honor, in our work and our teachings, our Native American legacies. I like that they use the word sanctuaries. We know something about that. To date, the Arc has raised over $16 million dollars to purchase and preserve over 7000 acres of Ohio’s most
Daily Connector | Sixty-five and counting | Paul Swartzentruber
Jan and I were married on August 20, 1955, at 7:30 p.m., at the Orrville (Ohio) Mennonite Church on one of the hottest days of the summer. Even now, sixty-five years later, I can still feel my sweat-soaked body in my navy-blue wool suit standing in front of the congregation to listen to the minister’s sermon and to say our memorized vows to each other. We celebrated the anniversary of that occasion last week by spending two nights at The Lodge at Geneva-On-The-Lake, on the shores of Lake Erie. We could not have asked for finer weather or a nicer location for hiking along the lake shore, basking in the sun by the pool, reading on our small patio, and just generally taking it easy, obeying all mask and social distancing rules as appropriate. We took our own wine and crackers for Happy Hour and then had lovely dinners on
Daily Connector | Thinking Baseball: And Now the Offering… | Tim Stried
I have enjoyed reading the CMC Daily Connectors and getting to know many of you a little better. No matter how COVID-19 has or hasn’t affected our lives, each of us lost things, gained things, and learned new things about ourselves and others. Beginning Thursday, March 12, one of the things I “lost” was sports, but for the non-sports people in our church, please keep reading, because this isn’t about “my teams” or wins and losses. To some, sports and extra-curricular activities may seem unimportant, but for kids, they are their connection to their school, community, teamwork and friendship. I will never forget March 12, when we (Ohio High School Athletic Association) got the call from Governor DeWine that our basketball, wrestling and ice hockey state tournaments could not take place that weekend. Our girls’ basketball state tournament was about to tip-off at St. John Arena and we were almost
