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DOOR encounters Mama Lynn
Thursday, April 27, 2006
ATLANTA (Mennonite Mission Network) - When individuals set aside their own desire to help others, they open their lives to be impacted by others.
Mama Lynn inherited her grandmother's house 10 years ago. After her grandmother passed away she realized the roof needed repair and Mama Lynn's mother, Granny Doo, paid to have it replaced.
The person took off the roof and never returned to do more work. Therefore, her entire house was destroyed by water damage, and the man was nowhere to be found. What was not damaged by water was stolen during the time her house was unlivable. Mama Lynn was left with no material possessions - just her family and faith in God. She had to move in with Granny Doo across the street and has prayed for God to provide her a way to return home. Mama Lynn's 10-year old prayer is finally beginning to be answered.
Becca Niederfringer is currently in DOOR's (Discovering Opportunities for Outreach and Reflection) year-long program, Dwell. Dwell teams live in an intentional Christian community listening, serving, worshiping and reflecting together. DOOR is a partner program of Mennonite Mission Network.
Through serving the community at the Café 458, a free resturant serving the homeless, Niederfringer met a weekly volunteer cook affectionately referred to as Mama Lynn.
"Mama Lynn is one of the most humble, joy-filled, faithful and loving people I've ever met," Niederfringer said. "Just to give you an idea of how loved and loving she is, attendance is always higher on Tuesday, the day she volunteers, because the clients know she will be there with wonderful food and an outpouring of joy, acceptance and love for all."
Several people and work groups have helped Mama begin to rebuild her home. In March the Dwell team was a part of helping sheetrock the ceiling of her home. The housemates enjoyed the privilege of working together to return the blessings that they feel from Mama Lynn. In appreciation Mama Lynn cooked a wonderful dinner for them to end their day of work.
The house is now framed with sections of new wood on the outside and electric and plumbing. There is still more work that has to be done before Mama Lynn can move in, including siding, windows, doors, heat, and fixtures.
"She continually praises God for every little bit that gets done on her home, the provision of materials, and her whole family has welcomed us all in and loves us," Niederfringer said.
Even though she has very little material possessions it is still important to her that she volunteers in her community. Mama Lynn taught the Dwell team that service outreach exists even when all you have is yourself to give. The team is helping Mama physically rebuild her home while Mama Lynn is showing them love despite her challenges as a testimony to God.
"I have been so grateful for her friendship and support especially through some challenging times at work over the year," Niederfringer said. "Through her I know Christ's love and acceptance in a real way."
Rebekah Paulson
DOOR opens windows to God's call
Thursday, February 17, 2005
ELKHART, Ind. (Mennonite Mission Network) — After a weeklong service trip to the big city, a typical group of high school students may itch for a return to normal life. But after a week in Denver last summer, Amanda Clark’s youth group instead sought more places to scratch.
Clark, youth minister at Wesley United Methodist Church in Sulphur Springs, Texas, took nearly three dozen youth and adults to the Denver DOOR (Discovering Opportunities for Outreach and Reflection) program in early June 2004. They volunteered at four different sites across the city, meeting volunteers and recipients at shelters, soup kitchens and coffeehouse ministries.
“Upon arriving home, they said, ‘Do we have a food bank?’ After I overcame my embarrassment from not taking them there sooner (the trip was for us adults, too!), I took them to our food bank, community chest, community cupboard and Boys & Girls Club,” Clark said. “Mission work is meant to be a regular routine and not a ‘once a year’ thing. That lesson was never presented more clearly than it was with the DOOR program.”
Glenn Balzer, DOOR program director for Mennonite Mission Network, said Clark’s experience echoes the purpose of short-term service.
“We want to help people see and understand that their faith can be more than a Sunday-morning event,” Balzer said. “Can you understand mission in a week? The simple answer is no, but my guess is that a lifetime of service and mission does not give a complete understanding either. What programs like DOOR do is help people to consider service and mission as something to integrate into their lives.”
Juliet Grundhofer’s story supports Balzer’s claim. Grundhofer’s experience in multiple mission settings led her to change her major in college, then drew her away from graduate school for a yearlong service term with a Mission Network partner program in Miami.
“Whenever you put yourself in a new situation, there’s immediately an opportunity for God to speak to you in a different way than normal. It opens up many windows,” said the DOOR volunteer.
As a child in a Chicago suburb, Grundhofer’s nondenominational youth group often traveled into the city’s heart on service projects. She took service trips to Honduras and the Dominican Republic, but her crucial moment came at Prairie States Christan Service Camp in Watseka, Ill., where her college mission team visited for a week one summer. The girl she met was 13, sitting at a picnic table away from the rest of the group.
“(Her) parents were going through a divorce at the time,” Grundhofer said. “She needed somebody to talk to. She needed, maybe not even (so much) someone to give her advice, as to try to understand her. We prayed a lot.”
The girl was angry, frustrated, sad, disappointed and without a safe place to talk to someone who would not take a side.
“Most of what I did to comfort her was just to listen … and help her try to understand why she was angry,” Grundhofer said. “The honesty involved and the things I was able to counsel her about and the way I felt I was helping her made me go back to college and change my major to family life counseling.”
The young teen is now in college, but the pair still talks over e-mail and on the phone during Grundhofer’s breaks from her job working through DOOR directing the Miami Community Music School with Miami Music Ministry. She said the job, when added to her previous Chicago experiences, has given her a passion for urban ministry.
Sulphur Springs, Texas, on the other hand, is far from an urban area. The town of about 15,000 people 80 miles east of Dallas does not feature an overtly homeless group or a population with blatantly visible needs. But Clark said just because the needs are not obvious does not mean they do not exist.
“(Our youth) didn’t know we had a food bank, (but) we worked at a community cupboard for the rest of last summer,” she said. “We’re now starting a soup kitchen ministry at church, which is something we had never thought of doing before.”
Clark said besides the continuing activity, the group’s experience with short-term mission prepared both the young people and the adults for the future.
“Because they got to visit different (volunteer) sites every day, when God does call them to either be a part of or start a ministry, whether it’s this year or when they’re 40 years old, they’ll know what it’s like,” Clark said. That is a testament to a great mission trip – when they change their world at home.”
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DOOR Atlanta honored for promoting service
Thursday, February 24, 2005
Christy Prochno and Jacki Slabaugh of North Main Street Mennonite Church in Nappanee, Ind., sort donated food at the Atlanta Community Food Bank during a week of service through DOOR in July 2004.
ATLANTA (Mennonite Mission Network) — A Mennonite Mission Network program that offers church groups and young adults the opportunity to explore service opportunities in the big city has been named the Atlanta Community Food Bank’s 2004 civic organization of the year. Through DOOR (Discovering Opportunities for Outreach and Reflection), volunteers contributed more than 620 hours of service to the Food Bank’s Product Rescue Center and Community Garden Initiative.
DOOR is a network of urban programs in Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Miami and San Antonio that offers coordinated experiences designed to challenge groups and individuals from all denominations to "See the Face of God in the City." Participants spend between one day and one year being introduced to city life by volunteering with local agencies, churches and ministries, listening, worshipping and reflecting on their experiences.
Jeff Delp, DOOR Atlanta city director, said relationships with local organizations like the food bank allow DOOR to run a quality program. “First and foremost, DOOR Atlanta strives to be a member of the Atlanta community. (T)hrough the relationships established by being a member of the community, we are able to carry out our program,” he said.
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DOOR celebration offers slice of heaven
Thursday, July 26, 2007
ATLANTA (Mennonite Mission Network) - An air of celebration permeated Beulah Cathedral as members of four diverse urban congregations joined their voices to worship together and commemorate a year of work and witness in Atlanta.
On July 15, members of Atlanta Mennonite Fellowship, Beulah Cathedral, Community Fellowship and East Atlanta Christian Fellowship, partner churches of DOOR (Discovering Opportunities for Outreach and Reflection) in Atlanta, gathered together to participate in the “DOOR Atlanta Celebration,” an annual ecumenical worship service that crosses racial, economic and denominational lines.
The service included prayer, music, reflections from DOOR staff members and participants, and a meditation by Glenn Blazer, DOOR national director. After the service, all attendees were invited to stay for a potluck dinner and a time of fellowship.
“For us, it has become a little slice of what heaven will look like when we get there,” said Jeff Delp, Atlanta city director for DOOR. According to Delp, not only did the service provide space to remember and celebrate the past year’s good work, but it has become a time when four churches that typically do not gather together to worship on a normal Sunday morning in Atlanta can come together to praise, celebrate and fellowship.
The churches are united in their common support of DOOR Atlanta. Each of the congregations plays a role in helping DOOR to run smoothly by providing board representatives, staff members, volunteers, housing, and support for DOOR participants.
The DOOR program, a part of Mennonite Mission Network’s Christian Service ministries, is designed to help participants see the face of God in the city. Opportunities to serve and explore are currently available in Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Hollywood, Miami and San Antonio and range in length from one weekend to a year. This past year, DOOR hosted 469 participants in Atlanta.
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