Many Eastern Mennonite University alumni have some connection to Virginia Mennonite Missions, which celebrates its centennial this year. It was organized in 1916, and incorporated in 1919 as an agency of Virginia Mennonite Conference. Virginia Mennonite Mission’s president is Aaron Kauffman ’01, MDiv ’12, and a number of alumni also serve, including three recent graduates who were commissioned at a July 18 centennial worship service: DaVantae Dews ’19, Christina Hershey ’17 and Oksana Kitrell ’18.
The following article was contributed by Aaron Kauffman.
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More than 450 people gathered at Lindale Mennonite Church July 18 to kick off a series of events celebrating the 100-year history of Virginia Mennonite Missions. The evening’s theme was “cultivating good soil,” based on Jesus’ parable in Mark 4:1-9. The images of sowing and harvesting offered an opportunity to acknowledge the fruitful efforts of previous generations to share the gospel through VMMissions, while also drawing attention to new ways the good news of Jesus is reaching the next generation.
The service began with a welcome by Clyde Kratz ’86, MDiv ’89, executive conference minister of Virginia Mennonite Conference (VMC), and Aaron Kauffman, president of VMMissions. Local workers Seth Crissman ’09, MDiv ’15 and Rachel Yoder led worship through music, including both classic hymns and more contemporary songs. A centennial video featured ten leaders and missionaries past and present, focusing on the theme of catching the wind of God’s Spirit.
Crissman led the children’s lesson, accompanied by fellow Kids Club worker Melody Tobin Zimmerman ’14. Energetic songs and storytelling soon had both children and adults involved in acting out Jesus’ parable of sowing seed on different kinds of soil. Crissman encouraged all to be good soil, responsive to God’s word in their lives.
In the main message, Kauffman reflected on what he said should be called the Parable of the Soils, since it is about how people respond to the gospel. He challenged listeners to recover confidence in the goodness of the gospel seed, to sow the gospel indiscriminately, and to “soften our hearts to receive the Word of the Lord to bear gospel fruit for his glory.” In response, Crissman and Yoder led the audience in singing “Seeds,” a song inviting God to cover the seeds sown in one’s heart “with love.”
Testimonies from missionaries past and present followed the message. Willard Eberly ’65, MA ’92 shared how seeds of the gospel sown in the 1950s through children’s ministry in Italy sprouted years later in the life of an Italian man who is now a pastor. Richard Keeler ’60 spoke of his work in Trinidad, where the door to the gospel was opened initially through his medical ministry to leprosy patients. His wife, Margaret, herself an adult convert to faith in Christ, recounted her move from Scotland to her native Trinidad in obedience to God’s call. She soon met Richard, and “Scotland lost its luster.”
Current VMMissions workers included Alfonso Alvarado, planting a Spanish-language church in the Shenandoah Valley; Jason Wagner MDiv ’18, who ministers in the local jail; Dini and Klementina Shahini, who returned to their homeland of Albania to start a Christian school in 2011; and a family serving in South Asia, where fewer than one out of every thousand people even knows a Christian.
To close the service, 21 VMMissions workers and 22 VMC ministers were commissioned to begin a new year of serving Christ among “neighbors near and far,” a phrase mentioned in the mission statements of both VMMissions and VMC. Among those commissioned were five young adults new to ministry: DeVantae Dews ’19, Kyle Glenn, Christina Hershey’17, Oksana Kittrell ’18, and Anna Renfro, all of whom will serve in VMMissions tranSend internship over the coming year.
Following the service, cake and ice cream were served to all in celebration of VMMissions’ one hundredth birthday. Additional centennial events, as well as photos and video, are available at 100.vmmissions.org.