Graduates and Graduates-To-Be

We were blessed this year to have three high school graduates and three college graduates:

Emma Fenton-Miller (Goshen College, with one semester to go)
Brenda Nieto (Three Rivers High School)
Jheny Nieto (Goshen College)
Ben Nofsinger (Marcellus High School)
Elisabeth Wenger (Houghton College)
Emily Wenger (Three Rivers High School)

We also welcomed Rose Lind back after her year of service in Service Adventure, Johnstown, PA.

At our potluck we also had a table for graduates to be. We are committed to helping each one imagine a future where their gifts flourish and they serve the church and the world.


The Florence Board recently approved a new service emphasis that will provide resources and support to all ages as we imagine creative service adventures, near and far.

We will celebrate service this fall.

A Tree for Bryan

A favorite quote of Bryan Shelly inspired the planting of an oak tree at the time he would have graduated from Marcellus High School. We planted this tree during our morning worship on June 6, 2010. Here is the quote by Peter Marshall:

"When we long for life without difficulties,
remind us that oaks grow strong in contrary winds
and diamonds are made under pressure"

The people of Romence Gardens, Portage, aided Kim Henritzy, Bryan's mother, and friends Martha Miller and Jo Beachy as they tearfully selected this oak tree.

May 2010 Intergenerational Sunday School

The choices for Sunday school for youth and adults were sew (as in sewing a quilt for the MCC Relief Sale), hoe (as in help in weeding and landscaping around the church) and photo (share photos and shoot photos that capture Life!).

Here are some glimpses:


Ben Nofsinger, photo group.



Jan and Jerry Warstler and Willard Fenton Miller, hoe group.




Two photos of Sean Nichols taken by his grandmother, Dallie Nichols (photo group)



Henry Miller, hoe group.

1 Peter 4:10-11
Each one should use whatever gift he or she has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, OR WORKS IN THE SOIL OR WITH THE EYE, OR WITH THE NEEDLE, they should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.

New Beginnings: Sabbatical, Season #2

I am glad to be home and back among my Florence friends/flock after rest and renewal in Costa Rica. The blog vibrantruralrr.blogspot.com records my sabbatical reflections and will continue through this church year. So here we will return to reflections on the life of Florence Church of the Brethren Mennonite.

Why sabbatical #2? As we enter summer, the congregation will take up its renewal plans promoting rural vibrancy. Since many worked very hard while I was away, activities for fun, rest and relaxation will be planned for the summer months.

A HUGE THANK YOU TO THE SABBATICAL LEADERSHIP TEAM -- JANE BOWER, NORA HARRIS, KATHY FENTON-MILLER AND TIM LIND, AND CONGREGATIONAL CHAIR, CHRISTINE NOFSINGER FOR ALL YOUR WORK WHILE I WAS AWAY.

ALSO SPECIAL THANKS TO THE LENT WORSHIP TEAM AND FRIDBERT AUGUST. I heard that worship was especially rich in your creative and soulful care.

SIMPLY SUMMER SABBATICAL...With the leadership of Christine Nofsinger and Kathy Fenton-Miller, those plans will be unfolding. Suzanne Lind will be in Michigan for the summer months, and has begun to plan for our Labor Day congregational retreat at Amigo Centre. More details will come here soon!

Meanwhils, Spring brings a flurry of artistic, musical, soccer, school, garden, farm and graduate activities. And new life.

It is a joy to welcome the newest baby, John Floyd Lichti, seen here with his brother Jesse.



It is a joy to suppport our college graduates as they take new steps. Here you see Goshen Graduates, Jheny Nieto and Emma Fenton-Miller (with Solomon Fenton-Miller). Elizabeth Wenger also graduated this spring from Houghton College.





We anticipate the high school graduation of Ben Nofsinger (Marcellus), and Brenda Nieto and Emily Wenger (Three Rivers).

This also reminds us once more of our sorrow over the loss of Bryan Shelly. We will be remembering him at church by planting an oak tree. And an empty chair will mark his place in Marcellus graduation.

Two new market farms have begun their first season with the work of Florence Families. Bair Lane Farm is being tended by Randy, Josh and Roxie Ewert.



One Straw Farm is the work of Luke Nofsinger, Daniela Zehr and family.



Both farms joined farmers Dale Hasenick (and Jo Beachy, not pictured here) with booths at the Goshen Farmers' Market opening this weekend. For Dale and Jo and White Yarrow Farm this was their tenth anniversary of selling at the Goshen market in addition to their CSA in Michigan.



So, all and all, we begin growing together again -- through change, new ventures, old sadness, new life. We commit ourselves to love of God, others, self, enemy and earth.

If you have never visited us, feel free to join us. Leave a comment on the blog and I will be sure to reply.

Nina Lanctot, pastor of Florence Church, is on Sabbatical until April 25, 2010

I have been the "blogger" for Florence Church of the Brethren Mennonite. Since I am on sabbatical in Costa Rica, returning to my pastoral role on Sunday, April 25, there may not be much new posted here.

You can follow my sabbatical at vibrantruralrr.blogspot.com

peace to all, Nina

Nina Lanctot has One Job

For the last two and a half years this has been my office at Associated Mennonite Biblcial Seminary. I was the half time Assistant Director of Engaging Pastors as well as the half time pastor of Florence Church of the Brethren Mennonite.

Well, yes, I am an engaging pastor! But there was more to it than that. The seminary had been awarded a multi-million dollar grant to foster interdependence between seminary professors and pastors. There were ten programs as part of this great experiment. And it was my job to find professors and pastors who wanted to participate and to help keep the programs running.

This was a great opportunity for me. Since I did not grow up Mennonite, it gave me a much broader window into the Mennonite Church in the United States and Canada. I especially enjoyed the opportunities I had to relate to pastors in person. Here is a sampler:

I hosted about a dozen pastors who were on sabbatical at AMBS at various times throughout these years.

I hosted six Spanish speaking pastors in a weekend visit to AMBS. Maria Montoya made tamales for this visit, and people at AMBS are still raving about them.

Two groups of new pastors came for long weekends, one in 2008 and one in 2009. I partnered with AMBS and denominational leaders in offering these pastors resources to strengthen their mininstries in the coming years.

This fall I was an organizer and participant in the Interfaith Spiritual Care Pastor Faculty Study group. Four chaplains and five pastors meet with Daniel Schipani to share about our experiences of relating to people of various faith traditions.

The culmination of the grant was a Summative Conference at AMBS in early December where about 120 professors, pastors, conference ministers, theological educators and denominational leaders reflected on what we had been learning. That kind of process will be on-going in seminary curriculum revision and in making theological education useful for the changing face of our communities and congregations.

So it is both with sadness and relief that my position comes to a planned ending along with the ending of the Engaging Pastors grant. I packed up my office last Friday following a full week of Pastors' Week on campus. And now...

Now I have two weeks to do the final preparations before I leave on sabbatical on February 14. How fortunate I have been in these tough economic times to have two jobs! It will be easier and more enjoyable to manage one.

Thanks for your grace in working with my complex schedule in the last two and a half years! We will see what the fall brings...

Pieta for Bryan Shelly

A poem/prayer arising in
Nina’s grief at worship at the seminary
with the weeping woman of Luke 7:37

January 27, 2010

The one month anniversary
of Bryan Shelly’s death.


Jesus, you became the
mother in the Pieta
holding the broken bodies
of my loved ones who now
rest in you at peace
while for me, tears
still blur bodies and presence
on this earth
yet painfully.

Bryan,
you hold him so gently that all
his own buried gentleness melts into
your limbs of love and his heart answers
yours in sorrow
resolving peace
that can bless and heal the torn bits
of heart left behind
and healing at home. At home
he is with you, O God.

Draw us, too, into that gentle embrace that
eases pain, that
tenders regret with forgiveness, that
humbles heartache as a little child
held near the beating
breast of a mother, father, whose bond, stronger
than death, sealed in pride,
beams, weeps, remembers and
loves always.