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Thirty-five short-term workers “step out of the boat” |
An overflow crowd of worshippers commissioned 35 young adults into short-term mission service with Eastern Mennonite Missions at Mount Joy Mennonite Church on September 14.
 Congregants gather around Elizabeth and Jason (striped shirt with back to camera) Barthlow from Marion Mennonite Church in Greencastle, Pa., to commission them as YES team leaders for service at the Bezalel School in Carcha, Guatemala. Photo by Joe Hollinger
Four GO! participants will be serving in Central Asia, Honduras, The Gambia and Guinea-Bissau while a STEP team, a partner program with Brethren in Christ World Missions, will be serving in Honduras.
Four one-year volunteers joined the staff of the Harrisburg (Pa.) Discipleship Center to assist with office, kitchen, training and outreach duties.
Gustavo Ramirez, church planter and pastor of Hope of the Nations in Reading, Pa, challenged the congregation – not only those being commissioned -- “to get out of the boat” as Jesus had urged Peter in Matthew 14.
The boat represents our “comfort zone,” Ramirez said. “When we are afraid, we need to call out to Jesus. He will save us. There will be times when you are in despair, when you’ll want to come home, when you will realize your own inadequacies, but that is when you get on your knees. Do not look back to ‘the boat.’ Look to Jesus who has called you to this place. He is the only strength you will need. Jesus is the only one who can truly help.”
As part of the commissioning charge, Ryan Showalter, director of Discipleship Ministries, told the missionaries, “We are called to be Christ’s hands and feet in our world, to gently heal the brokenness we encounter, even as we have been healed. Tonight you begin a new phase of the journey.”
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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.
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