Jackson and Katrina (Lehman) Maust have been rescue squad members since they were ��ݮ���� undergraduates six years ago.

The pagers connecting them to Harrisonburg-Rockingham County emergency dispatch are never far from their side – especially on Friday nights, and even more so when that Friday night happens to be both Halloween and the beginning of Homecoming Weekend at James Madison University.

Such a cosmic coincidence often makes pagers crackle with incoming calls and the all-volunteer crew at the Harrisonburg Rescue Squad (HRS) busy in response.

In times like that, the Mausts – Jackson is a physical therapist and Katie an emergency room nurse – come to lend their capable hands.

“Sometimes I think about what normal people do on a Saturday night,” Katie said. “We sometimes end up helping the rescue squad. In situations like that, I think it’s easier that the two of us share that common commitment and that common interest.”

Helping people in need, and walking with them through those times, is a calling to the Mausts, and in their work, they are sustained by their faith, their family and friends, their colleagues, and each other.

“Both of my jobs are high stress, intense places to work where sometimes horrible, awful things happen,” says Katie. “You see very raw human emotion and the human experience right there in front of you. It’s a gift to experience those things, but it’s also a challenge, too. It’s a way that we serve God, being with people and walking through.”

Growing at EMU and in the community

Both Jackson and Katie became involved at the rescue squad while undergraduates at EMU (the two had met as freshmen, but started dating as seniors). Jackson, a major from Michigan, was interested in physical therapy. Katie, from Ohio, was also a biology major interested in healthcare.

Their majors and pre-professional interests required clinical exposure and contact hours, but both Jackson and Katie fulfilled that requirement before volunteering with the squad. They joined together to gain more experience, but not with an equal sense of certainty, Jackson recalled.

“I didn’t think of myself as someone who would have any interest in high stress, emergency situations,” he said.

While he may not have had any interest, he certainly had plenty of experience in high stress situations: as a three-year starting goalkeeper on the Royals soccer team, Maust had more than 225 career saves to his name. Blocking a goal, though, is a minor and simplistic act compared to saving a life. Yet Jackson eventually found a calling, thanks to the rigorous training and the strong support network provided by HRS.

“This agency does a great job of preparing you and training you,” Jackson said, adding that the squad’s trainers teach not only medical skills, but provide emotional support as well. “It’s not a natural thing to be able to do some of the things we do and see some of the things we see and then move on. Coping is something you learn. It’s not something you naturally know how to do.”

After graduation, he and Katie stayed in Harrisonburg for a year. That time solidified their commitment – both to volunteering in medical services and to each other.

The couple married in 2011 in Columbus, Ohio, where Jackson was working on a doctorate in physical therapy at The Ohio State University, and Katie, who was accepted to medical school but decided not to pursue the profession, was completing a second bachelor’s degree in an accelerated nursing program at Capital University. They also volunteered with a small one-ambulance squad in Columbus. (For comparison, Harrisonburg has nine.)

Coming back to Harrisonburg

Fast-forward to Harrisonburg in 2014, and a similar life, carrying pagers and running calls for the rescue squad, but to this new era, add full-time careers, a warm and wide circle of friends, and a growing sense of rootedness to Harrisonburg.

Now Katie, 28, and Jackson, 27, are seasoned members among the 160 volunteers. From its headquarters on Reservoir Street, R40 responds to approximately 8,000 calls per year.

The couple has taken on mentoring, training and supervisorial responsibilities. Katie was recently voted to a one-year term on the board of directors and also sits on the training committee.

Jackson serves as one of three fleet maintenance officers and also one of four deputy chiefs (each chief is in charge of the squad’s operations on a rotating four-week schedule). He is one of a small group of volunteers certified to drive the squad truck and operate its heavy equipment at accident scenes requiring extrication equipment.

These responsibilities are in addition to the minimal 48 hours a month of shift work required of all members. Shifts vary from six hours on the weekdays to 12 hours on the weekends. When Katie and Jackson work a shift, they usually fill the role of duty officer, or shift supervisor – assessing calls and determining which crews will be sent.

“There’s a lot of people who pour themselves into this place,” Katie said, “far beyond the minimal requirements.”

“Once you get involved with the agency and care about it, you get involved,” Jackson added. “That’s one way we stay volunteer. All the members put in their hours and a lot more.”

Spending so many hours at the rescue squad, and working together in traumatic situations, builds strong bonds, Katie said. “You go through a lot together, and you have fun, too. That’s a huge part of what brings us back.”

As college students, Katie and Jackson appreciated that volunteering with the rescue squad got them out of the Park View community and into greater Harrisonburg. Learning the city’s street names and meeting people who lived and worked on those streets connected them more deeply with their adopted home.

But with rootedness comes a different perception, Jackson says. “This work does not discriminate. We end up in every type of house and business and out in the street. You appreciate different parts of the city. When we moved back indefinitely with no plans to leave, it feels a lot different …this place is a lot more mine than it used to be.”

When driving through Harrisonburg, Katie says the city and its residents evoke “intimate” memories. “I think, ‘I’ve been there and I’ve been there. I’ve been in that office and in that school.’ I’ve been in people’s homes. It feels like a privilege to be the person someone calls when they need help and they open the door and say come in. You see things no one else will see.”

The couple admits to sometimes feeling exhausted by their busy schedules and stressful jobs.

That’s when they head outside for some biking, running, or gardening. Jackson plays upright bass with , a close-knit group (some of whom are fellow EMU grads). Their faith community at also sustains them.

Katie says that each shift always brings affirmation for both her and for their commitment as a couple to this special kind of service. “Seeing it as a calling and an opportunity to serve gives this a different meaning than something we’re signed up to do and we should keep doing because we’ve been doing it a long time.”

“Is this where we still feel like God’s calling us to be?” she asks.

The answer is yes.

Many EMU alumni volunteer with Harrisonburg Rescue Squad, including Steve Higgins `03, Jordan Good `09, Courtney French `10, Noel Johns `13, Christina Dickerson `14, John Bethune `14, Sara Rieman `14, and Andrew Kniss `14.  Current student volunteers include graduate students Matthew Tieszen `10 and Mavis Britwum (both in the ); undergraduates Evan Roth and Hannah Weaver, class of 2016; and Emily Foltz, accelerated second degree student.

The Walking Roots Band, formed when many of the members were students at EMU, will soon issue its second album of church music, titled “Light: A Hymn Reclamation Project,” in which they take old – sometimes ancient – hymn texts and set them to folk melodies and other new arrangements.

“The writing of this album has been such a beautiful process of articulating Good News musically and lyrically in our current context,” says Seth. “This is an enduring Good News, and these songs connect us to so many who have lived before us as Jesus’ disciples through the ages.”

For music teacher and band member Greg Yoder, the album is an opportunity to “emphasize discipleship and what it means to truly follow Jesus.”

And the band’s sound resonates with a wide audience, with guitars, harmonica, accordion, violin, upright bass, mandolin, banjo and minimal percussion, along with rich vocal harmonies. The sound is best described as folksy, Americana, roots music.

“At our shows there are often people who are our age, in their 20s and 30s, but also grandparents and grandchildren,” said Crissman.

Yet they don’t limit themselves to church music.

“We are equally comfortable giving a concert at a coffee house or bar on Saturday night or at a worship service on Sunday morning,” said Yoder. “We want to be in both places because we believe that God is in both places.”

In addition to “Light” the band hopes to record a six-to-eight song EP called “Prayers for the Church.” They plan to give this music away for free, as a gift of encouragement and admonition for the church.

“The church is Christ’s body here and now, and we want to encourage everyone to pray that the church may continue to be Christ to the world,” says Yoder.

Eastern Mennonite Seminary and University have pledged support for “Prayers for the Church”  through the band’s online Kickstarter campaign. Kickstarter is a crowd-sourcing platform that encourages artists to collaborate with their supporters to undertake projects that might not otherwise be possible.

“We love the example EMU/EMS set,” said Yoder, “and we think it’s a great way for churches, conferences, businesses and other organizations that are committed to the church to get involved in our project. We would love to have many more partners in helping us make Prayers for the Church available as a gift, mostly because of what it would look like to have that many people saying, ‘Yes, we believe in the church and want to see it continue and strengthen.’”

Crissman’s seminary studies serve as catalyst for many of the songs in the new hymn collections. The prayer practice of using music to connect to and spend time with God is one his professors have encouraged.

“I have been able to learn from and study with incredible professors and students who have walked with me as I have encountered God in new, and also ancient, ways,” says Crissman. “I really appreciate EMS’s commitment to equipping students to become ‘wise interpreters, mature practitioners, discerning communicators and transformational leaders.’ It’s been a beautiful place for me to grow into my call.”

To contribute to the Kickstarter campaign of The Walking Roots Band, visit . Or visit and search for “.” Watch their for updates, or email: thewalkingrootsband@gmail.com with comments and questions.

EMU’s online Advent greeting for 2013 features the the music of alumni and friends who are part of , a Harrisonburg-based folk/bluegrass band.

The band formed when four friends started playing music under the name The Federation during their time at ��ݮ���� (EMU). It’s been together in some form or fashion for more than five years, but the last few months have been big for the local band.

The group now includes Seth Crissman, Greg Yoder, his wife Kristina Yoder, Jackson Maust, Mitchell Yoder and his wife Lauren Yoder, Adam Schmid and Mike Yoder. Most of the band mates are EMU graduates.

“We’re friends and we play music together,” Crissman said. “It’s sort of in that order.

“[It] just sort of naturally progressed and emerged from friendships,” he continued, adding “On a given night, we’ll get together and play bocce [ball] in someone’s backyard, we’ll get together and cook or we’ll get together and play a show.”

Sacred Space

The Walking Roots Band released its first album this month – a compilation of 11 “reclaimed hymns,” or spiritual songs that “had fallen out of the general circulation of being sung in churches,” Crissman explained.

The new album, “Shelter: A Hymn Reclamation Project,” is a patchwork of centuries-old, lesser-known sacred texts, more identifiable hymns and the band’s own unique touch.

For example, the song, “Come Down, O Love Divine” is based off text written in 1367 and arranged into a song in 1906, while the new album also includes a rendition of “It is Well With My Soul” with lyrics tweaked to reflect the Shenandoah Valley.

Crissman, 27, of Harrisonburg, wrote eight of the album’s songs, which is just the first of three albums the band hopes to produce in the upcoming months.

The next project will consist of folk songs, while other albums will be a collection of “farming songs.”

“A lot of the people in the group have connections to agriculture,” said Greg Yoder, a band member who has worked for a local farmer the past two summers.

“We think that connection to the land is really important; it’s sacred in some ways.”

Finding A Niche

Greg Yoder, 26, of Penn Laird, describes the band’s musical offerings as acoustic Americana that’s not exactly bluegrass, but rather “blue-ish grass.” It’s “folky” music with some rap intertwined, he explains.

“We’re hoping for a new category at the Grammy’s,” he said.

Bands such at The Avett Brothers, Mumford & Sons and The Steel Wheels influence the local group.

Group Effort

While the band’s style is hard to pinpoint, it’s also difficult to identify the lead singer or who plays which instrument.

The Walking Roots Band shows likely include six to eight instrument swaps, with all the members adept at some combination of the guitar, mandolin, banjo, harmonica, accordion, Cajon – and the list goes on.

For more information on the band, the new album and upcoming tour dates, visit thewalkingrootsband.com.

Article courtesy Daily News Record, July 20, 2013

Their first album “” was released in June 2013.

“There are many really meaningful texts in old hymns,” said Seth Crissman, a 2009 EMU graduate, who is also a current student at . They have deep profound spiritual truths that are sometimes inaccessible because of the music.”

Greg Yoder, a 2009 graduate of Goshen College added, “Seth found these great hymn texts that he wanted to use at , where many people who come to worship didn’t grow up singing hymns.”

Eastside Church is a recent church plant in Harrisonburg where Crissman serves as a music pastor.

“Music is incredibly formative,” Crissman said. “We are being shaped in our theology and our understanding of who we are by music.

“In churches where ‘praise music’ is the main music, we generally only sing things written in the last 10 to 15 years, when thoughtful writers have been writing music for churches for 1,500 years. There is rich theology that can be accessed by arranging these hymn texts so that they are appealing to a more modern ear.”

One example is a hymn called “Come Down, O Love Divine.” The text was written in 1367 by Bianco da Siena. Crissman encountered this song in the “Hymnal: A worship book.” The arrangement was written in 1906, but most members of the band had not sung it often despite many of them singing hymns in their congregations.

“It’s a good introduction to the richness of the text,” said Mitchell Yoder, a 2009 EMU alum.  “For people who have grown up singing traditional church hymns we chose a lot of texts that people tend to not sing.”

Several of the band members started playing worship services at EMU in 2007. In 2010, they added band members Greg Yoder and Michael Yoder. In 2012, they became The Walking Roots Band, which they describe as “acoustic Americana, faux-folk, blue-ish-grass, roots music.”

“Even though we are mostly a folk band, faith and church music is definitely where our roots are musically and personally, so it made sense to do this album first,” said Jackson Maust, a 2009 EMU alum.

They will be touring Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana in early July. The group intends to release a folk album in the fall of 2013.

“We aren’t just a band that plays reclaimed hymns,” said Greg Yoder. “If you come to a concert you’ll hear some of our folk music, some silly songs and some reclaimed hymns. We are Christians in the world, and we’re also complex people and we want our music to reflect that.”

To see The Walking Roots Band tour schedule, order a CD, or hear a sample of “Shelter: A Hymn Reclamation Project” visit their website at . The band will be playing in Harrisonburg on . Tickets are available at the door.