By Matt DeBall, coordinator of Mission Advancement communications

“[Jesus said,] ‘What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish.’” ~Matthew 18:12-14, NIV

Jesus shows abundant hospitality throughout the gospels. He was regularly welcoming, associating, and drawing near to people who were overlooked and neglected. On this particular occasion, the disciples had just asked Jesus who was the greatest among them. His response:  to welcome one of the children who was nearby and to share a story about who is most highly esteemed in God’s kingdom.

The parable of the lost or wandering sheep continues to be an inviting story. This earthly narrative with heavenly meaning details a sheep wandering away and a shepherd leaving the rest of the flock to go find it. Jesus surely wasn’t stating that those who remain faithful to the flock don’t matter in God’s family, but was emphasizing that God’s love stretches beyond human expectations to care for those who are wandering and lost. By sharing this story, Jesus was providing a snapshot of his mission to care for all people, especially the most vulnerable.

After reading this parable recently, I was blessed to remember how great the love of God is for you and for me. I was also drawn to an untold parable behind the parable; a story of how the flock responded after the lost sheep was returned by the shepherd. I invite you to reflect on the following poem.

When the lost sheep was brought home
did the flock grumble and groan,
or with love did they have a great party?

Did any try to heap on guilt,
trample on the bond they had built,
or did they hold back their comments
when they saw the sheep’s tired face.

Did they poke at his pain or shame,
did they play the blame game,
or with gentleness did they help him heal?

Did those near the fence keep their distance,
look at him with concern and resistance,
or did each one offer greetings with joy?

Were any of the flock still troubled
by how the sheep could have stumbled
or did a new peace fall on one and all?

Were any focused on the wrong done,
contending he had lost, they had won,
or did they remember their call
to faithfully care for each other.

Did any jump to ask why and how—
the questions they had, even now—
or with kindness did they wait
for the sheep to share?

Had any of them kept track of the time
from the moment he left until he was fine.
Did they grow in patience and in grace?

Did anyone try to send the lost sheep away—
begrudging that he chose to stray, not stay—
or did they remember the goodness of their shepherd?

As followers of Jesus, are we ready for who the Lord turns or returns to us? There are many ways to assess our life and ministry together, and the litmus test of Paul noted in Galatians 5:22-23 seems as good as any:  “The Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” From your corner of the pasture in your congregation, in your community, and in the Church of the Brethren as a whole, let us consider:

> Which fruits of the Spirit are most present among us?

> Which fruits of the Spirit can we grow in?

> How will we welcome those who join us?

From my vantage point, faithfulness abounds as leaders, members, and supporters of the Church of the Brethren have a detailed history of offering time of service, talent in leadership, and treasure of resources to sustain all the work that we do. I have also witnessed love among us through how we care for one another and by how we value the work that we are able to do together.

Regarding the fruits of the Spirit we can grow in, the answer could certainly be ALL. Just like growing in faith, attending to the work of the Spirit among us is a journey and a process, not a destination. But what fruits could be riper among us?

The “how” question, we start in reflection and carry out in community. Just as we prepare our homes thoroughly and carefully for guests—whether for lunch or for a more extended stay—so also do we prepare the environment for our life together so that whoever joins us feels welcome. If I can expand how we interpret “priesthood of all believers,” this involves seeing that each of us is able to minister to one another, but also that we serve on the “welcoming committee of all believers.” Jesus is calling people to turn and return to him, and whenever we encounter them, it’s our responsibility to be ready to receive those whom the Lord brings.

Within the missions and ministries of the Church of the Brethren, we provide opportunities for the people of God to grow in discipleship and leadership formation and to embody and articulate their faith. We are cultivating relationships with partners around the world and living a life of serving in community. Together we are engaging our neighbors and sharing the holistic peace of Jesus Christ. Thank you for your self-less service to Christ and his church.

As the flock of Jesus, may love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control be abundant in our life together and in how we welcome the people the Lord brings to us.

Learn more about the faith-building and life-changing ministries of the Church of the Brethren at www.brethren.org/greatthings or support them today at www.brethren.org/give.

(Read this issue of eBrethren.)

Peacefully, Simply, Together in the great outdoors:
The Camp Mardela Way 75 Years and Counting

by Jennifer Summy, camp administrator at Camp Mardela (Md.)

This year, Camp Mardela is celebrating its 75th anniversary, and we have had a lot of time to reflect on where we came from, and how far we’ve come. 2020 forced us to reprioritize our lives, and the pandemic showed us the importance of Church of the Brethren camping values. We were forced to remove the distractions and find peace; to remove unnecessary activities and simplify; to turn towards our families and prioritize time together. Many people learned the value of camp in this post-pandemic world.

In the years following the pandemic, we saw a slow return of campers, but this year, we are already seeing camper numbers start to bounce back to their pre-pandemic numbers! In addition to this, during the pandemic we saw tremendous growth in another area:  rental groups. These groups have DOUBLED in the past couple years, as groups anywhere from Brethren family reunions to a capella groups have found the value in retreating into nature to deepen relationships with each other, with nature, and with God. We are thrilled about this growing ministry opportunity, as we share our Brethren values with these groups, and as they learn to respect, and even adopt some of these values for themselves.

Our property can host a maximum of 42 campers for any given camp program week. For those who are familiar with larger camps, this seems like a small number, but this has provided great opportunity to have a tremendous ministry. Every week of camp, campers and staff get to know each other on a more personal level, and this is what has created such a deeply connected community at Camp Mardela. Some of my favorite camps have been with fewer than 10 campers, because I have gotten know those campers very well, form deeper connections, and steward their spiritual growth more personally than if they were at a larger camp.

As I’ve been exploring Camp Mardela’s history, I learned that from the very beginning Camp Mardela was built on volunteerism and deep community. Men and women worked together to build and run camp, and that culture has been maintained over camp’s 75 year history. Camp Mardela has grown steadily since its first year of operation in 1948. No one could have predicted that this camp would be where it is today, but God has guided us with purpose and Camp Mardela has become a place to grow together.

We are so excited to celebrate our rich history with our 75th anniversary celebrations. We hosted our annual Camp Appreciation Day on May 21 with the theme of “Happy Birthday Camp Mardela!” We had live music, birthday games, Camp Mardela history trivia, and more. We asked members of the churches to bring a dozen cupcakes each to share for this event. What amassed was a beautiful tapestry of all colors, flavors, sizes, and kinds of cupcakes–a beautiful representation of the wonderful people who make up this community, and make it so sweet!

Our BIG anniversary celebration will be September 1-3, 2023, which is during the week of our annual Family Camp. We will have previous administrators return to speak and share parts of their Camp Mardela story, including Pat Ecker, Bruce Layton, Jennifer Summy, and more. All are welcome to join our anniversary sessions for FREE. Guests can register to join us for meals or for overnight accommodations at www.campmardela.org/camp-programs.

In a recent conversation with Pat Ecker, who served as the camp administrator in the 1980s and 90s, she described a time where she comforted a camper and his mother as they were both nervous to be apart from each other for a week. Mrs. Ecker shared the advice to the mother, “You’ve given your child roots; now let us give him wings.” I could think of no better way to describe the value of camp in the lives of these children and youth. By living peaceably with each other, learning to be present without modern distractions, and to live together in community, we get to teach our campers eternal values that will help them grow together into stronger and more mature children of God.

Camp Mardela is a camp/outdoor ministry affiliated with the Mid-Atlantic District of the Church of the Brethren. If you want to learn more about Camp Mardela’s programs, events, history, and more, visit www.campmardela.org. Learn about the Outdoor Ministry Association at www.omacob.org or find a list of Church of the Brethren camps at www.brethren.org/camps/directory.

(Read this issue of eBrethren.)

By Walt Wiltschek; office coordinator of Brethren Volunteer Service, at-large editor of Messenger magazine, and district executive for Illinois and Wisconsin District

When I was a youth pastor in Maryland fresh out of seminary, I was fortunate to have in the congregation a retired pastor who became a trusted and invaluable mentor for me. He said many wise things to me over the time I knew him, but one I most remember involved his grandchildren, who also attended the congregation. The family was going through a lot while I was there, so I had tried my best to get to know them and connect.

“You know,” this retired pastor said one day, “no matter how good a preacher you become (and I wasn’t a very good one then), or how many good sermons you preach, or how many Sunday school classes or youth activities you lead, that’s not what my grandkids are going to remember. They’re going to remember when you came to their house and shot basketball with them on their driveway. They love basketball, and when you came and shared that with them, that’s when you became real.”

It seemed a rather routine thing at the time–and I’m not very good at basketball, either—but that’s stuck with me ever since, and something I’ve tried to make part of the youth ministry I do, and the other ministry, as well. Woody Allen once famously said that “Eighty percent of success is showing up.” And while I’m not sure that Woody Allen is the best model for anything theological, in this case I think he might have gotten it right. It’s amazing how much of ministry is simply showing up—being there—accompanying people on the journey of life and faith.

In an article I encountered recently, author Rich Anderson noted that “The life of Jesus is the blueprint for just showing up.” Every miraculous and ordinary thing he did and said in his ministry exemplified showing up for people in need. Anderson goes on to give some contemporary examples of showing up, including a nurse who proved to be a great help to his nervous 100-year-old mother during an emergency hospital stay and even brought her flowers to help her smile—a nurse who hadn’t been scheduled to work that evening but came in for overtime because he felt it was important to show up that day.

In Matthew 10:40-42, in The Message translation, Jesus says, “Anyone who accepts what you do, accepts me, the One who sent you. Anyone who accepts what I do accepts my Father who sent me. Accepting a messenger of God is as good as being God’s messenger. Accepting someone’s help is as good as giving someone help. This is a large work I’ve called you into, but don’t be overwhelmed by it. It’s best to start small. Give a cool cup of water to someone who is thirsty. The smallest act of giving or receiving makes you a true apprentice.”

Mother Teresa once famously said that we can do “small things with great love.” As we in the Church of the Brethren and other denominations sometimes bemoan our shrinking numbers, perhaps we can also do loving things with our great smallness. Whatever our size, we can still show up and let God use us. Sometimes just showing up itself and being there is enough. Sometimes that’s the first step to listening or responding or taking action. But it begins with being there.

Thank you for showing up in the ministries of your congregation, community, district, and the larger denomination. Thank you for responding to people in crises, connecting across cultures, volunteering, stewarding resources, equipping fellow believers, supporting pastors and churches leaders, or doing the behind-the-scenes work that keeps everything going smoothly. However you participate in the ministry of showing up, you’re doing holy work.

Learn more about the work of the Church of the Brethren that provides opportunities to carry out the ministry of showing up at www.brethren.org/greatthings or support our ministries at www.brethren.org/give.

(Read this issue of eBrethren.)

Worship resources for the 2023 Pentecost Offering of the Church of the Brethren

By Kathy Hackleman, public relations coordinator at Annville (Pa.) Church of the Brethren

A successful fundraising effort requires multiple things: a product or service people are willing to pay to obtain and volunteers who are willing to organize, set up, and carry out the efforts involved in the fundraising event. In the case of Annville Church of the Brethren, the product is chicken pot pie and the volunteers who have organized the fundraiser for the past 10 years are church members Kathy Schrader and Kate Wentling.

The most recent annual fundraising sale of Pennsylvania Dutch chicken pot pie (most accurately described as a thick noodle soup) sold by the quart raised approximately $4,000 in March 2023. The recipient of the funds raised this year has not yet been selected but in past years, the fundraiser has benefited denominational ministries, church outreach projects, expenses for church youth to attend church camp or National Youth Conference, church kitchen renovations, or a need of the community.

Originally started as a dinner at the church where tickets were sold, over the years the annual fundraising dinner transitioned into its current form where quarts of pot pie are pre-sold. In a typical year, between 625 and 650 quarts of chicken pot pie are bought. Due to the rising cost of ingredients, the cost increased slightly this year to $8.50 per quart.

Held annually in March, the exact dates for preparing the pot pie varies from year to year as Kathy and Kate work around Easter and their own schedules to set the date. The final product is always put together and finished on a Friday and Saturday. Kathy and Kate begin working behind the scenes soon after the start of each new year. “We begin watching for good deals on ingredients in January,” Kathy explains. Of course, the main ingredient of chicken pot pie is chicken, and for 625-650 quarts of finished pot pie, that means about 60 chickens. Church members volunteer to cook down the chickens, sometimes at their homes and other times in small groups in the church kitchen.

Once the chickens are cooked and the meat removed from the bones, other ingredients are weighed and measured in preparation for a small group of volunteers who gather in the church kitchen to complete the pot pie. Those volunteers spend two days on tasks like peeling potatoes, working and rolling dough, stirring the pot pie as it cooks, and filling the containers.

Volunteers are recruited through announcements at church and individual contacts. People can sign up for the day or days they want to volunteer and for the specific job they wish to do. Volunteers are rewarded with doughnuts and breakfast casseroles on the days they work. Each of the two-day shifts is between two and five hours.

The specific recipe used for the chicken pot pie is a secret. The recipe originated decades ago from church members Charlotte and Gladys Wampler. It has been tweaked only slightly over the years, most often when ingredients have increased significantly in price or are no longer available. The original recipe called for specific brands of ingredients, which became problematic as the years passed. Also, the recipe has been changed to reflect precise measurements (Kate reports the original version called for the “white mug full of onions” and a specific number of eggs, which Kathy and Kate have found is more accurately measured by cups, not number since the size of eggs can vary widely). Even with the recipe and years of experience, Kathy and Kate say some years they need to adjust on the fly—like adding additional broth to make the finished pot pie “just right.”

Once all of the containers filled with pot pie are out the door, the work continues. Kathy and Kate write notes to include in the decades-old chicken pot pie folder, which includes details from each year’s fundraiser: the amount of money raised, cost of ingredients, where the funds were distributed, and any suggestions they have for the following year.

The annual spring chicken pot pie sale is only one of a number of kitchen projects Kathy and Kate coordinate at Annville Church of the Brethren. Another major effort is making chicken pot pie for the annual Brethren Disaster Relief Auction in Lebanon, Pa. For that, volunteers prepare about 100 quarts of the pot pie and deliver it to the auction where it is sold as part of a meal or by the bowl.

Although dozens of volunteers put in hundreds of hours to prepare the pot pie, Kathy and Kate contribute the lion’s share of work. However, it’s an effort they clearly enjoy, although both say they wish there was an easier, faster way to get the chickens cooked and prepared. Pot pie is not a difficult dish to prepare, Kathy notes, but it does take quite a bit of time since it involves multiple steps and quite a few ingredients. It’s continuing a decades-long tradition that propels Kate to do the work each year. “Annville is known locally for its pot pie, and I enjoy being a part of that,” she says. Kathy explains, “I enjoy the fellowship and I like it when people compliment the final product. There are some years where I feel like I can’t do it again, but then people tell me how much they look forward to it and how they wait all year for it, and I decide to do it again.”

The Office of Mission Advancement of the Church of the Brethren is grateful for this reflection from Kathy Hackleman. It represents the creativity and passion we strive to nurture together as followers of Jesus. For more inspirational stories about congregations being “Jesus in the neighborhood” visit www.brethren.org/church/#church-stories. Learn more about the missions and ministries of the Church of the Brethren at www.brethren.org/greatthings.

(Read this issue of eBrethren.)