|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Stacy Nofziger, DM office manager |
 Light-hearted banter seems to be a regular part of Stacy Nofziger’s day at Discipleship Ministries’ (DM) offices; she doesn’t get a lot of slack from DM Director Ryan Showalter or DM Outreach Coordinator, whose offices are next to hers. As DM’s office manager, Stacy takes care of the many details of Eastern Mennonite Missions’ short-term outreaches. She’s served on numerous short-term teams, and notes how different it is “serving on this side of missions.” Her brown hair bobs as she shakes her head, brown eyes smiling. “There is a lot more going on behind the scenes than I ever realized!”
“What’s it like working with these crazy people?” she muses. “It brings much laughter in my life. But there are many serious moments, too. It’s neat to be able to interact with seriousness and fun interspersed. It makes me love my job.”
Various unspecified sources assert that “she has an addiction to Mountain Dew,” “a sad disillusionment with [liking] the Detroit Tigers,” and “is generally normal, except for moments when she’s defensive about Ohio rednecks.” One also asked, “Did she tell you about her obsession with Ecuador?” She didn’t, but we’ll see if this is significant or not.
Stacy’s adventures in missions began when, in her junior year at Bluffton College, started looking at brochures on mission trips “to get my feet wet in missions.” But her love of missions began many years before that.
 Stacy, age 3, in Somalia
She ended up serving in STAT in Hong Kong, because she wanted only a summer experience before her senior year, and Kenya wasn’t an option. When she completed that assignment, one of the HDC volunteers told her, “We’ll see you in YES next year!” “No way, I’m done!” was her response. She continues, “I wanted to be a normal college senior, I had ‘checked off’ the mental box that contained missions.” She was on the usual career track; her missions dream had cooled.
“But I didn’t have any peace whenever I though about what jobs I wanted to do,” she says. “Every time I prayed about it, YES was brought to the forefront of my mind.”
So she applied in the winter and went to serve in Chile, “because it was the most rustic outreach listed. I definitely came back with more of an appreciation of the simple life!”
While on outreach in Chile, she received an invitation to lead a STAT team to hand out literature to Muslims in Spain. But she also received an invitation to lead a YES team to Kenya. “My heart leaped!” she says. “I was finally able to fulfill my dream.” She accepted both.
Both the Spain and Kenya experiences had their challenges. Kenya was particularly difficult – because it was there that she realized that God was not calling her to serve long-term in Kenya. “It was frustrating – when I would try to learn the language (Swahili), Spanish words kept coming to my mind.” When it became obvious she was more drawn to ministry to Spanish speakers during a worship time, she began to weep as she realized she had to let go of that dream.
Stacy next settled in Lancaster and began working in the office of Meadow Valley Electric. A few months after that, Naomi Paine, who had worked for 12 ½ years as the DM Office Manager, decided it was time to move on. When Stacy applied for the position, Naomi learned of where Stacy was working, and decided to apply for Stacy’s job. To make a long story short – they just switched positions.
What’s the future for Stacy? “I would like to go on the mission field, but I don’t yet know where.” Though she is interested in a Spanish-speaking country, she is tight-lipped about when that may happen. We’ll have to stay tuned to see whether the co-worker’s crack about Ecuador means anything for Stacy’s future or not.
 |
|
|
Positions Available
Join StaffX at the Harrisburg Discipleship Center to grow spiritually and in leadership skills as you mentor and serve others. Current volunteer staff openings: Community Outreach Coordinator, Mission Mobilizer, Office Assistant, and Prayer Coordinator.
Contact Sherrie Ober if you are interested.
|
Show/Hide comments
Show/Hide comment form