On Monday, March 23, Anabaptist and Jewish scholars and religious leaders gathered in the Strite Conference Room of EMU’s Campus Center for a consultation on Judaism, the Bible, and Anabaptism. The invite-only event was planned by Peter Dula, professor of religion and culture at EMU, and Trina Trotter Nussbaum, director of the Center for Interfaith Engagement (CIE), and included all-day discussions centering around the work of Matthew Thiessen and Daniel Weiss.

According to Dula, Thiessen, a Mennonite New Testament professor at McMaster University, is “one of the most influential voices in the ‘Paul within Judaism’ school of New Testament studies.” The discussion of Thiessen’s work at the consultation centered around four articles of his.

Weiss, according to Dula, is a Jewish professor of Jewish studies and the philosophy of religion at the University of Cambridge, “whose work at the intersection of early rabbinic literature and early Christian literature has significant resonances with traditional Anabaptist understandings of violence and the state and critiques of Constantinianism.” Weiss also had four articles discussed.

The morning began with a presentation by Thiessen titled, “What Mennonites Need to Know About Judaism,” which introduced the work of Weiss. Weiss then responded, and there was time for some questions from the audience. Following a break, a panel engaged with some of Weiss’s research, including articles on Christians and Levites, and the possibility that early Christians did not baptize their children, instead letting them be born into salvation.

After a lunch break, Weiss took a turn introducing Thiessen’s work in a section called, “Reading the New Testament within Judaism.” Thiessen then responded. A panel then engaged in Thiessen’s work, including reflections on how to read Paul with an awareness of Judaism, and whether Jesus meant to start a new religion.

Dula was the guiding force in bringing the two scholars together to have the event. “You’ve got a Jewish scholar writing really perceptively about Anabaptist themes, and you have this Mennonite scholar writing really perceptively about Judaism,” Dula said. “So, I thought we should get them together.”

Nussbaum reflected on the efficacy of the dialogue, and how it was in large part also due to the highlighted speakers. “It worked because the two scholars we were highlighting shared the spotlight so well,” she said. “How many times did we hear, ‘and now I want to open it up to you all?’”

Miranda Beidler, an EMU senior who helped coordinate the event in her role as a student chaplain with the CIE, praised the event and guests for creating “inherent dialogue.” She said, “[The speakers] were so willing and open to talk about their beliefs, their theology, in ways that were open and curious about the others’ theology and beliefs, but without imposing their beliefs on somebody else.”

Sara Kennel, another senior student chaplain at EMU, was struck by the openness and intellectualism of the event participants, saying, “It felt like a gathering of a lot of people that care about understanding differences, but also are deeply intellectual. … I don’t think that I’ve encountered that many spaces at EMU that are that level of scholarship.”

Nussbaum was struck by the impact of cross-religious dialogue, saying, “It’s something pretty amazing that we can see ourselves in another faith. … It was a spiritual love-fest.” Beidler, similarly, connected the event to CIE’s—and EMU’s—goals of interfaith work, saying, “It’s us putting into action when we say we care about learning from other people and from other cultures.”

EMU Y-Serve, a student-run organization focused on volunteer service in the community, hosted the event on Friday and Saturday in partnership with the Harrisonburg Tacos 4 Life restaurant and the Feed My Starving Children nonprofit. For every meal sold at Tacos 4 Life locations, the company donates a portion of the proceeds to FMSC to help purchase Manna Packs. These nutrient-rich bagged meals, specially formulated for children, are then distributed by the nonprofit to schools, orphanages, medical clinics and feeding programs in about 100 countries. 

In its most recent fiscal year, the organization provided 375 million meals to mission partners worldwide, according to Brian Yeich, regional development adviser for FMSC. He said that the total meals packed at the EMU event exceeded the organization’s goal of 101,088 meals. 

“We are so grateful that God brought together FMSC, Tacos 4 Life, and the greater EMU community to feed God’s starving children, hungry in body and spirit,” he said. “To not only meet but actually exceed the meal-packing goal by over 12,000 meals is a testament to the people of the Harrisonburg community and the generosity of Tacos 4 Life, which sponsored these meals.”

On Friday and Saturday, Yoder Arena transformed into a meal-packing plant. Teams of volunteers scooped vitamin powder, dried vegetables, dehydrated soy and rice into bags, which were then weighed for consistency, sealed, and placed into boxes. The boxes were loaded onto a truck bound for the warehouse, where they will be distributed to children in need. 

As she finished a volunteer shift packing meals on Friday afternoon, EMU junior Sara Kennel, a member of the Y-Serve leadership team, said she had a wonderful experience working with a group of EMU students, staff and field hockey players, as well as students from Rocktown High School. She said she appreciated how FMSC partners with local organizations on the ground.

“They’re not just handing out meals,” she said. “They’re specifically committed to children for a designated length of time and, within that time, working to find other solutions to feed and provide for them more sustainably.”

The event at EMU has sparked a trend in the Harrisonburg community. Jeremy Hunter, operating partner of the Tacos 4 Life Harrisonburg location, said that James Madison University has agreed to host a MobilePack event at the Atlantic Union Bank Center on Sunday, April 27. You can sign up for that event .

These meal-packing events are part of a larger effort by the Arkansas-based Tacos 4 Life restaurant chain to donate and pack 10 million meals by June 2025 to celebrate its 10th anniversary.

Watch of the EMU MobilePack event in its Tell Me Something Good segment with Taylor Rizzari.

Thank you to all the volunteers who participated, including those from Park View Federal Credit Union, Merck, and Carmax.

“This project was a bear to organize with so many logistics and details, and the results were truly beautiful,” said Brian Martin-Burkholder, university chaplain for EMU. “Many volunteers reported how much fun it was to pack meals together for a few hours. We’re grateful for the level of participation this project received.”

During a spring break trip to Atlanta with Y-Serve last week, as she broke bread with families from Central and South America, she was instantly transported back to those days.

“Certain food smells or conversations we would have in Spanish — they would take me back,” the global development major said. “Other meals, like the one we had with the Burundi congregation, were vastly different from anything I’ve ever experienced before.”

Kennel, along with nine other EMU students and University Chaplain Brian Martin Burkholder, spent the week from March 2 to 8 in the Peach State for a Y-Serve service learning trip. Y-Serve is the longest-running student organization at EMU and aims to “serve others as the hands and feet of Jesus.”

The Y-Serve group partnered with , a Georgia-based nonprofit that welcomes and hosts asylum seekers and immigrant families. Together, they attended multicultural worship services, shared meals with asylees from Latin America and Africa and listened to their stories and experiences.

The group met with students at the , a public charter K-5 school that educates refugee, immigrant and local children. They toured downtown Atlanta and the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Park. They then traveled about 135 miles south to Americus, Georgia, where they visited the , a racially integrated Christian community and working communal farm founded in 1942.

EMU junior and Y-Serve student leader Ruth Abera treasured the evenings they spent reflecting together as a group. Another highlight of her trip was meeting the founder of , a small coffee truck and coffeeshop in Clarkston, Georgia, that hires resettled refugees and immigrants and provides “a central place where different cultures can come together,” Abera said. 

“After hearing her story, I was like, ‘I’ve known you for five minutes and I want to be just like you,’” she said.

West Virginia

While their Y-Serve group traveled to Atlanta, another headed about 225 miles south and westward to Kimball, West Virginia. Kimball is in McDowell County, which is the third poorest county in the U.S. (2020 Census). From March 4 to 9, three EMU students and one alumnus volunteered with Sharing With Appalachian People (), a ministry program through Mennonite Central Committee, where they repaired houses, connected with local residents and reflected on how to live out their Christian faith.

EMU senior Laurel Evans, a bible, religion and theology major, served as student leader for the West Virginia Y-Serve group. Much of their work included installing metal flashing and a new roof on one side of a house, she said, as well as “lots of repainting.” 

Her favorite part of the trip was getting to know the homeowners whose house they were repairing. 

“They were a lovely couple,” Evans said. “We took long breaks from our work to sit and have coffee with them and talk about our lives and God.”

Peg and Lee Martin serve with Mennonite Central Committee as SWAP location coordinators in Kimball. After their work during the day, Lee Martin would lead the group in devotionals and reflections. That week’s focus, Evans said, was on the Kingdom of God.

“That felt really important to the whole trip — how the Kingdom of God shows up in the small things, and in things we might not consider meaningful, affected how I saw the week,” she said.

Evans, who also led a Y-Serve group with Abera to Kimball over fall break, described the service trip as a “restful and productive experience.”

“I felt really well-rested from the week,” she said, “but I also know I made a decent difference in someone else’s life.”