March 1, 2010 issue
Honeymooning at Goldensun
By Laurie Oswald Robinson For Mennonite Weekly ReviewPage:
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GLENDALE, Ariz. — Two days after they were married last June, Jared and Angela Stauffer Widmer came to Glendale to “honeymoon” as housemates to developmentally disabled women.
Jared and Angela Stauffer Widmer — Photo by Laurie Oswald Robinson
People at Trinity Mennonite Church in Glendale were awed. What motivated this couple in their mid-20s to leave their extended families in southeast Iowa to live their first year as a couple in a residence operated by Goldensun Peace Ministries?
The Widmers insist it wasn’t a sacrifice but a joy-filled choice. It allowed them to heed God’s call and be part of a loving community.
“I’ll never forget the first day we got here,” Angela said. “The residents were just so happy we had come and had no big agenda for us. They don’t pretend to be something they’re not, and they don’t expect us to be super people, either.
“They’ve taught me I don’t have to be ‘holy’ to be loved by God. At church we all tend to play roles. Here, I can be completely who I am.”
The couple had lived in this setting before. In 2006 they participated in DEO, a former voluntary service program sponsored by Mennonite Mission Network, which placed them both as housemates for Goldensun. During that year, they fell in love with the residents, and with each other.
After dating long-distance while finishing college — he at Bethel in Kansas, she at Goshen in Indiana — they got married and came back.
A month before their wedding, after they had committed to Goldensun, a physical education teaching job opened up at Iowa Mennonite School in Kalona. It was a dream job for Jared. He applied, and the school offered him the position. What now?
“It was really gut-wrenching, and Angela and I prayed a lot about it,” he said. “But something deep down told us the timing wasn’t right.”
Part of his discernment came from working in a group home in Kansas while at Bethel.
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