Ann Graber Hershberger, professor of nursing at EMU, and her husband, Jim Hershberger, led 22 students in experiencing the world of Guatemala, Nicaragua and Honduras. They spent a sizable block of time with CASAS (Central American Study and Service), a cross-cultural study program in Guatemala. Read the blogs and see photos from their journey.

Lindsey Grosh (with cap) and Andrew Derstine lead an original rap song that hits the high notes of the group’s experiences in the Guatemala cross-cultural program.

The first two months, group members lived with families in Guatemala City while learning Spanish and studying the culture, history and current issues including immigration, trade and economics. Special focus was given to relating to and understanding the Guatemalan Anabaptist churches.

Students began their presentation on a creative note by performing an original rap music number that summarized the sights and sounds of Central America. Several read journal entries reflecting seminar highlights and observations, noting the “importance of relationship-building across language and cultural barriers.” Listen to their chapel presentation!

Several participants demonstrated the versatile uses of the corte, a fabric used for everything from decoration to dress. They performed another song, “Swift as a Tuk-Tuk,” a common form of transportation used for their travels throughout Central America. The refrain: “Wherever we go, we’re always late.”

EMU junior Michael Showalter from Clarkston, Mich., reported on a “significant” visit to a fair trade coffee farm and “the sense of hope” he felt the project provided to local communities. He noted, however, that “most small farmers must supplement that income by growing organic fruit and vegetable crops to sell at market.”

A highlight for EMU sophomore Anna Rogers from Richmond, Va., was participating in the Semana Santa, a Good Friday processional and worship service that included a time of confession and footwashing.

EMU sophomore Jonathan Lamb, Luray, Va., welcomes people to the India cross-cultural chapel Apr. 23.

Kim Gingerich Brenneman, professor of psychology at EMU, and her husband, Bob Brenneman, led 24 students on a semester-long program in India, where they explored the country’s history, government and culture, studied and interacted with differing religions and learned fundamentals of the Hindi language. They lived with host families and kept daily journals. Read their blogs and see photos from their journey.

Seminar members applied a red dot to each person’s forehead as they entered Lehman Auditorium for the chapel service, a traditional Indian decoration. Listen to the chapel presentation!

Through music, sketches and reading journal entries, the students presented “ten unbelievable things” from their study experience in India:

– The “variety of ways” students traveled around towns, cities and rural areas of the country – from walking or riding rickshaws, elephants and camels to riverboats and jeeps.

– The organizations visited: Mennonite Central Committee programs, Mother Teresa’s orphanage, a polio hospital and SIDH (Society for Integrated Develop of Himalayas), an educational and development program.

– Recurring sickness, treated by a host of colorful pills.

– The nature excursions, from the snow-capped Himalayan mountains to river rafting to a desert safari.

– The food, not always certain what was being eaten, but included catching the featured fowl (chickens) that became the next meal.

– Bathroom adventures; learning to use the ubiquitous “squat pot.”

– The “amazing sites” seen throughout the group’s journey.

– Animals everywhere, and the elephant and camel rides.

– The South of India that included working in rice paddies and a CNN India news team wondering what a group of American students was doing in such an unlikely place; taking Hindi classes and a 24-hour houseboat ride.

– The “diversity of people” from all walks of life in India: upper class students, rickshaw drivers and beggars. Students presented a monologue, asking what is the most helpful, appropriate response in these encounters.

Both chapel presentations closed with striking slide shows with indigenous music summing up a host of indelible impressions of these “life-changing” experiences” from the ever-shrinking global village.

Lee F. Snyder, EMU interim provost, asked these questions of the campus community at a convocation service Wednesday, Jan. 7, the opening week of second (spring) semester.

Lee F. Snyder, EMU interim provost, speaks to the campus community during EMU’s spring convocation Monday, Jan. 5. Photo by Jon Styer

Speaking with an enlarged image of the Earth projected on to a screen behind her on the Lehman Auditorium stage, Dr. Snyder noted that “this globe suggests the infinite mystery of God’s creation. But, it also represents a sphere with boundaries and – we now acknowledge – increasingly scarce natural resources.

“We refer indirectly to the world in the university mission statement, ‘EMU educates students to serve and lead in a global context.’ By that we suggest that we have a responsibility, a God-given mandate to relate to the world in some particular way – by serving and leading,” she said.

“Here at the beginning of 2009, from a magnificent, but scarred and scorched earth, we honor the God of enduring love; of unstinting mercy and grace. We raise our heads for a few minutes from the computer screen, we pull the head phones from our ears, we look up from our text messages, we push the book aside and think about the God of the Cosmos; of those vast reaches of space and time; God the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. For God so loved the cosmos,” Snyder continued.

“As we begin the year 2009, we simply remind ourselves that the cosmic God also gets very personal,” Snyder said. “It is neither presumptuous nor arrogant to stand back from this magnificent image of the planet and see ourselves as part of an ineffably beautiful but needy world – as significant partners with God in the work of peace and reconciliation.

And, there is something you can do now,” the provost told the assembly. “Students, take this opportunity for study and vocational preparation as the only world you inhabit at the moment. Discipline yourself in your work, ask questions, open yourselves to possibilities which might take you in new directions.

“Our responsibility is to be attuned to the ways that each of us personally is being called to be involved in God’s project of loving the world,” Snyder added.

“My prayer for you students, particularly, in a time of economic fears and unabated violence around the world, is that you would be willing to live on the edge of uncertainty while remaining compassionate and curious; that you would be propelled by a vision of healing and hope for the world which still receives God’s love.”

Cross-cultural Prayer and Sending

The service concluded with a commissioning and prayer led by associate campus pastor Byron Peachey for EMU cross-cultural groups who will spend second semester in Central America and India, respectively.

Kim Gingerich Brenneman, professor of psychology, and her husband, Bob Brenneman, are leading 24 students on a semester-long seminar in India, where they will explore the country’s history, government and culture, study and interact with the differing religions and learn fundamentals of the Hindi language. They will live with host families and keep daily journals.

Dr. Beth Aracena, director of the cross-cultural program, invites friends of the cross-cultural students forward for a parting prayer. Photo by Jon Styer

The Brennemans led EMU’s first semester-long cross-cultural to India the spring of 2007.

Ann Graber Hershberger, professor of nursing, and her husband, Jim Hershberger, will lead the 22 participants in experiencing the world of Guatemala, Nicaragua and Honduras. Students will spend significant time with CASAS (Central American Study and Service), a cross-cultural study program in Guatemala.

The first two months, members will live with families in Guatemala City while learning Spanish and studying the culture, history and current issues including immigration, trade and economics. Special focus will be given to relating to and understanding the Guatemalan/Mayan Anabaptist churches. Students will then participate in a service-learning opportunity in rural Guatemala or Honduras.

EMU’s second (spring) semester runs through Apr. 24.

Walter Ceballos

Walter Ceballos will speak on campus during EMU’s Mission and Service Days Feb. 13 and 14.

A leader of the Mennonite Church in Armenia, Walter Ceballos surfaced as an important community and peace ministries leader after the 1998 Columbian earthquake, during which he helped organized rebuilding efforts for thousands of homeless citizens.

He now focuses on overcoming trauma with victims of Colombia’s armed conflict as part of the national Coalition for Managing and Overcoming Trauma as well as with Justapaz, the justice and peace ministry of the Colombian Mennonite Church.

Ceballos will be speaking during EMU’s Mission and Service Days on Monday, Feb. 13, at 8 p.m. in the and on Tuesday, Feb. 14, at 9:30 a.m. during chapel at .

Cynthia Peacock

Cynthia Peacock, shown here speaking at an MCC staff retreat in India, will speak at EMS chapel on Feb. 16.

Community members and students will also hear stories from Cynthia Peacock, who will be concluding a 38-year career with Mennonite Central Committee India in May of 2006.

Peacock began working with MCC Kolkata in January of 1968 and since then has served as country director, supervisor of various women’s empowerment projects, and as a board member of Extending the Table, a project of the publishing branch of the .

Beyond her work in MCC, Peacock has long been involved with the Mennonite churches of India and has acted as president of the All India Mennonite Women