Prayer Requests at a Mennonite Church

"Pray for the Hartzler family. Their youngest has left the church and no longer believes that Christ died for her sins. She buys clothes at the mall. Tongue pierced, nose as well. Her shirt shows her belly where a ring of gold sprouts. We pray she will remember that her Lord's side was pierced, that His crown held no gold, only the dried blood of His brow."

Poem: "Prayer Requests at a Mennonite Church" by Todd Davis from Some Heaven. © Michigan State University Press via The Writer’s Almanac by Garrison Keillor, via Jeff, and via Sherry.

This is a picture of my Mennonite family. I’m the dazed and confused kid sitting in my great-grandmother’s lap.

Beside me are my grandparents and parents; behind me is my great-grandfather, a Pennsylvania feed/grain mill operator. This was originally a slide, which I had converted into digital format.

I think the prayer request poem written for me. I have left the church. I have multiple peircings filled with gold, but I buy my clothes at the thrift store rather than the mall.

Some of my friends think that my upbringing is quaint, others find it repressive, and others think I'm some sort of freak since they can't figure me out.

This photo is such an emotional one for me to view, because it represents so much of who I am at the core (my values, my connection to my roots, my gratitude to those who raised me) and at the same time, it's the best visual representation I have of my "not fitting in." [My great-grandfather, (eldest of 12) is holding me. Beside me is my grandfather (eldest of 10), my mom (an only child), and me (eldest of two)].

There are so many other, unique facets of my identity that at times it's hard to fathom how I developed into the woman that I am today.

I write about my family and my Mennonite upbringing in Mennonite Mayo and Reverse Culture Shock: Return to the Mennonites and Split: Pennsylvania and A Trinity of Loves and Rest in Peace and  Spring is Yellow.

I'm thankful for my roots and for the core values that my Mennonite upbringing has taught me: respect for others and the land, peace and justice, non-violent activism, social justice, and non-materialism.

As for who I am now? I'm a bohemian god-seeker, looking for a new vision for what to do with the second half of my life.

Comments

[Jeff Hess]

Shalom Shamash,

This is one of the main reasons I love blogging and the Internet. Discovering the poem and making a connection like this has made my day. Thank you.

B'Shalom,

Jeff

[Mlle. Librarian]

Wow.

It's really like coming home for me to read this. I'm a former Mennonite who long ago broke with the church, but I still really value what my roots have given me - pacifism, simplicity, justice. It's hard to explain to those who DON'T have that experience that I don't regret it in any way, but just choose not to live and think as my grandparents and great-grandparents did.

Thanks.

[shamash]

"It's hard to explain to those who DON'T have that experience that I don't regret it in any way"

---- this is so true, Mlle. Librarian! I find it so comforting to find an online community of former Mennonites who share a sense of gratitude for their heritage.
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