Photo: Grace Tijerina, a member of the prayer team, anoints participants in the July 4 adult worship service. Photo by Hannah Heinzekehr. 

During the opening adult worship session on July 4, attendees received anointing, blessing and reminders that God’s love is present.

“God is love,” said Sarah Bixler, co-worship leader, from Princeton, New Jersey. “Love exists before we see what it does. This is a love we cannot be separated from.”

Bixler noted that throughout the week, worship services will explore variations on the convention theme, “Love is a Verb,” starting inward, with individuals, then moving outward.

After doing a dramatic reading of Psalm 139, co-worship leader Shannon Dycus, from Indianapolis, invited attendees to come forward for anointing as a reminder that they were “known down deep and loved by God.”

Welcome and remembrance

As they welcomed adult attendees to Orlando, Bixler and Dycus acknowledged that the convention meetings are taking place on land that was originally inhabited by “unconquered people who were given the name Seminole by their conquerors.” They acknowledged the history of displacement and extermination that the Seminole tribes (over 100) in this area faced at the hands of the U.S. government, and they honored the indigenous people still living in Orlando today.

Dycus also noted that “Orlando is a place of complexity,” holding together both excitement as well as deep pain and violence.

“We, too, enter this place holding a complex mix of feelings about our world and our church,” she said. “What does it mean to be a peace church gathering in Orlando?”

Juanita Nuñez, pastor of Iglesia Cristiana Ebeneezer in Apopka, Florida, brought greetings from Southeast Mennonite Conference, the area conference of Mennonite Church USA that includes congregations in Florida and Georgia.

Willard Metzger, executive director for Mennonite Church Canada, also brought greetings and shared with adults about the restructuring process MC Canada is undertaking. Despite challenges for both MC Canada and MC USA, Metzger said, God’s presence is ongoing.

“The transforming power of God to restore and redeem is real,” he said.

A song of awakening

Nohemy Ruth Garcia, a member of the worship team, brought greetings from the Mennonite church in Burgos, Spain. Garcia provided special music, singing a song she wrote in 2014 as part of an event commemorating a 2004 terrorist attack in Spain and calling for peace and hope across the country.

She talked about her experience of having writer’s block and hearing God tell her, “Finish the song.” Garcia did, and her song was chosen out of many submissions to be sung at the event.

“That was the moment God awoke this call in me,” she said. “You’ve been sending missionaries and support to Europe for many years, and I really feel that this is our time to bless you.”

“We’re singing for awakening in this land,” she sang.