Mennonite Weekly Review

NEWTON, Kan. — Five former participants are returning home to Service Adventure, this time as leaders.

Service Adventure leaders for 2009-2010, from left, are Gabe and Bethany Bauman Baker, Darrin Snyder Belousek, Marcos and Beth Wright Kuhns, Paula Snyder Belousek, Jonathan and Julie Fridley, Fred Killheffer, Kirsten Schlabach (holding Emma), Randall Schlabach, and Ken Regier (rear, Mennonite Mission Network director for program human resources). In front are Lori Hershberger Blair (Christian service department assistant) and Kelly Kilheffer. — Photo by Susan Nisly/MMN

A Mennonite Mission Network program, Service Adventure invites young adults to spend a year serving and learning in intentional community at six units throughout the country. Participants are encouraged to examine what God wants from their lives.

Many participants have felt called back into the program. This year, four of the six units have at least one leader who worked with Service Adventure previously as a participant.

Over its 20 years of ministry to young adults, Service Adventure also has provided formative experiences for 197 unit leaders.

“As Service Adventure has developed, we’ve really continued to recognize the value of the unit leader. Many of our leaders have pastoral training and just want to do church in a different way when they come out of school,” said Susan Nisly, Service Adventure director.

Each unit is assigned a leader or leader couple who ministers with participants in a variety of ways. Leaders and participants work together to plan learning components, work placements and worship nights throughout the year. Leaders serve as mentors to participants, meeting with them one-on-one.

Kirsten Schlabach, a leader of the Johnstown, Pa., unit with her husband, Randall, and two children, Anya and Emma, took some time off between Service Adventure stints. She was a member of the Philippi, W.Va., unit in 1994-95.

“After Service Adventure, ser­vice was just something that got in my blood,” she said. “Once I did it, I was interested in finding ways to serve continuously.”

After Randall Schlabach completed the pastoral ministries program at Hesston (Kan.) College, the couple found themselves searching for a church where he might pastor. However, a friend suggested they test out the idea of serving as Service Adventure leaders. They found themselves called to this ministry.

“We felt God calling us into something like Service Adventure. It was a ministry that we both could do as well. It wasn’t just one of us getting a job and the other staying home,” Kirsten Schlabach said.