We descended upon Des Moines Mennonite Church much like we do any other church, with bags, bikes, mounds of laundry, food and technological paraphinalia EVERYWHERE. The patience of our hosts amazes me. With her pastor on sabbatical (this seems to be a trend in the churches we are visiting—interim pastors or pastors on sabbatical), Esther Streed welcomed us with places to dry out sopping wet tents, sleeping bags and clothing from an overnight downpour. The next morning she would follow us through the streets of Des Moines during a thunderstorm just to make sure we were o.k.. And then she waited out the lightening with us in a carwash. We have been blessed with many guardian angels along the way. Ones in flesh and bone. I could talk about the police man that gave me directions on Tuesday from the airport in Omaha, NE to the countryside in IA such that I did not miss a single turn (a truly remarkable feat, since I am known as the U-turn lady). I thought he was going to kick me out of the passanger drop off zone, instead he asked me if he could be of help. Lovely people….

Our evening conversation at DMMC simply was not long enough. Our brains were very tired, but something about what was being said deserved much more time. We were amongst people from our host church and Christ Community Church. CCC joined the Mennonite denomination three years ago. After “growing” from 600 to 75 members in a search to define a living theology, CCC was drawn to Mennonites through the writings of John Howard Yoder and others. A denomination that believes in alternative ways of engaging culture, through pacifism and community living, became a source for greater accountability for this entirely non-ethnic Mennonite Anabaptist community.

Members of CCC often live in intentional community. Communal discernment is highly encouraged as persons seek to make significant life decisions. I was personally amazed that some of the ideals our group has been discussing appear to be lived out by people in CCC. As we travel around for a short period of time, it’s easy to talk about the way we want things to be. However, enacting our ideals as we return to our home communities is much more difficult. I am grateful to have an example in my mind of how one church has chosen to intentionally think and live faith.

Posted by Alicia Horst

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 10th, 2006 at 1:43 pm and is filed under Trip06. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.