DownloadJuly 6, 2009 issue
Meadows’ legacy
By Janeen Bertsche Johnson Goshen, Ind.Thank you so much for Melanie Zuercher’s article on the pipe organ that was given to Shalom Mennonite Church in Newton, Kan., after the Meadows (Ill.) Mennonite congregation closed.
I am delighted that this instrument will continue to enhance the worship life of a Mennonite congregation, and I pray God’s blessing on the Shalom church as it makes music to God’s glory.
In its closing as in its life, the Meadows congregation enriched many ministries. Financial assets were distributed to over a dozen church-related agencies. Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary received the Meadows communion set, offering plates and footwashing bins, and our chapel services have been enriched by those gifts. A sister congregation, Pleasant Oaks Mennonite in Middlebury, has twice borrowed the footwashing bins to continue their Maundy Thursday tradition. Two of the offering plates have been passed along to a new congregation, Emmaus Road Mennonite Fellowship in Berne, Ind.
I am grateful for all of these gifts, and even more for the gift Meadows was in my life: nurturing my faith as a child and youth, and encouraging my call to ministry.
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