Ranene Schrock Ropp ’98<\/strong>, have lived through a lot in that time.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThey have raised two children, moved 16 different times, including to Canada and back again, represented their church conference in Ethiopia, battled cancer, and run a family pet store.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All of this is part of Joe and Ranene Ropp\u2019s story \u2013 but it began in 1997, when they met through church friends over Nepalese cuisine at the Indian and American Cafe in Harrisonburg. A year later, they were married.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe just rushed into all sorts of things!\u201d Ranene recalls, laughing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI was almost 30! At the time that seemed really, really old!\u201d Joe exclaims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She was going into her fifth and final year as an English major at EMU; he had just decided he didn\u2019t want to be a pastor and was taking some time off from Eastern Mennonite Seminary (a year at EMU, he had finished a Honors pyschology degree at Conrad Grebel University College in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, in 1991).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For their first date, they went to local watering hole The Artful Dodger, where Joe asked to see Ranene \u201cmore often without the rest of the group<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cWe hung out every day after that,\u201d Ranene says. \u201cSo obviously Harrisonburg and the Shenandoah Valley have a special place in our hearts.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Three weeks after she graduated from EMU, the two were married in Wisconsin in her grandfather\u2019s church. Joe\u2019s father had, just previously, had two strokes in a row, and could no longer run the family business: Ropp\u2019s Pet and Hobby, Ltd., a combination pet and crafts store in Alberta, Canada. So the newlyweds decided to spend a year in Joe\u2019s hometown to help out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
They bought a tiny, $16,000 \u201cformer crack house,\u201d sight unseen, and completely renovated it while living with his parents \u2013 whom Ranene had only met twice beforehand. They laugh as they remember the chaos of their early married life. One year turned into 14. They had two children, Josiah and Noelle; they scrapped the crafting materials and expanded the pet store; Joe\u2019s brother joined the business. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
They were active in their local church \u2013 Joe as an administration team member, Habitat for Humanity volunteer, and delegate to the Northwest Conference; Ranene as the \u201cbest worship leader\u201d in the whole church, as Joe says. But despite their busy lives a country away from EMU, he still talked about finishing his master of divinity degree. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then, about seven years ago, they sold most of their shares in the pet store to Joe\u2019s brother and returned to Harrisonburg. Joe worked various jobs, including at Seasons Bounty Farm, which is run by Ranene\u2019s brother Radell Schrock<\/strong> ’01<\/strong>, before starting his own painting and handyman business \u2013 Revive Home Services. Ranene was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. While still in recovery, she heard that her former boss, Betty Hertzler<\/strong> was retiring from EMU\u2019s mail room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cI stopped by one day and asked her if it was true,\u201d Ranene says. \u201cShe said yes, and if you want the job you’d better apply quickly.\u201d After four years in the supervisor position, she still says it\u2019s the best job she\u2019s ever had.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Joe kept taking seminary and graduate counseling courses here and there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI just enjoy taking courses periodically,\u201d he says. One day, associate seminary dean Nancy Heisey<\/strong> pulled him aside. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cYou\u2019re basically one course away\u201d from finishing an MACL, she told him. And even though Joe had decided years ago he didn\u2019t feel the call to be a pastor, he\u2019s always had \u201ca heart for the church and the workings of the church.\u201d To that end, for his ministry specialization project \u2013 the final task to earn that degree \u2013 Joe surveyed congregants at Zion Mennonite and two other churches about how they\u2019d arrived to their views on homosexuality, and what they thought of those with opposing views.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ranene explains that it was less about the issue itself, and more about \u201chow people think about the issue. What are their instinctual responses?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI personally think it\u2019s a shame when you lose diversity, both of thought and approach, within the church community,\u201d Joe says. He presented his paper on April 25 \u2013 thus completing a degree over 25 years in the making.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With that degree under his belt, and their children close to graduating high school, what\u2019s next for the adventurous pair? Well, they\u2019ve learned \u201cit\u2019s really hard to make predictions, for our lives particularly,\u201d Joe says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Overseas service work or volunteering with Mennonite Disaster Service is on their minds, though. And for two people who are nothing if not impressively energetic, they see it as \u201csort of a semi-retirement plan,\u201d Ranene says with a smile.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Finishing his master\u2019s degree in the Christian leadership program at Eastern Mennonite Seminary took Joe Ropp 25 years. And even though the 2020 commencement ceremony has been rescheduled for the ... read more about Grad’s devotion to earning his seminary degree spanned 25 years, 16 moves, and many challenges<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46555,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[266,17562,8845,265],"tags":[],"feature":[17427,17425,17426,17241],"class_list":["post-46553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-digest","category-emu-at-lancaster","category-seminary","feature-emu-home-page-feature","feature-featured-seminary","feature-myemu-feature","feature-news-feature"],"yoast_head":"\nGrad's devotion to earning his seminary degree spanned 25 years, 16 moves, and many challenges - EMU News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2020\/grads-devotion-to-earning-his-seminary-degree-spanned-25-years-16-moves-and-many-challenges\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Grad's devotion to earning his seminary degree spanned 25 years, 16 moves, and many challenges - EMU News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Finishing his master\u2019s degree in the Christian leadership program at Eastern Mennonite Seminary took Joe Ropp 25 years. 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