A special section on Mennonite education

In eighth grade, Rachel Roth Sawatzky came back to the United States from Africa with her mission worker parents Lynn and Kathleen Roth.

Because finances were tight, she helped pay tuition at Lancaster (Pa.) Mennonite School (LMS) by babysitting and waitressing. She wasn’t seeking a Christ-centered education that focused on academic excellence, community, service and discipleship. She simply wanted a good social life.

But now she sees the impact that decision had on her later choices. She went on to attend Goshen (Ind.) College and graduated from Eastern Mennonite University (EMU) in Harrisonburg, Va. Most recently, she’s become director of admissions for Bethany Christian Schools in Goshen.

“Making the transition was brutal for me socially,” says Sawatzky, who attended Hinkletown (Pa.) Mennonite School for a year before entering LMS as a freshman. “I believed a Mennonite high school would be more accepting of me as a third-culture kid. I didn’t know all the social rules, and I was very much outside the mainstream.

“But I see now that Mennonite schools reinforced what I was learning at home and at church. It provided a holistic perspective. It is easy for kids to have a church self and a social self. Mennonite education helped me integrate my life and make more integrated choices later on.”

She is only one example of her family’s commitment to the church. Her father is director of the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at EMU, and her mother is director of EMU’s Intensive English Program. Her three siblings graduated from Mennonite colleges, and a couple of them now work at those colleges.

This legacy was shaped largely by the example of her parents. After their longtime work with Mennonite Central Committee overseas, Lynn Roth served as director of East Coast MCC, and Kathleen Roth taught at Hinkletown and then became director of a Mennonite day-care center.

Several years ago, they began at EMU. “We both work with international students at EMU, and so our work is a natural transition from MCC,” Lynn Roth says.

Kathleen Roth says: “I feel strongly about Mennonite education and so I wanted to pass that value on to our children. Education is one of the things the Mennonite church does very well. It is our gift to the world.”

Gifting generations with a Mennonite education

Many Mennonite families believe Anabaptist schools give gifts to the world through their students. For example, the extended family of Peter and Reta Mae Wiebe, Glendale, Ariz., represents a half-century of attendance at Anabaptist schools, ranging from high schools through seminary.

As graduates of Goshen College, they encouraged their eight children and 18 grandchildren to attend Mennonite schools, including Central Christian School in Kidron, Ohio, Hesston (Kan.) College, Goshen College, EMU and Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Ind.

The couple has provided a portion of the funding each year a child or grandchild attended. It is not an investment calculated in dollars, because its dividends are spiritual, says Peter Wiebe, a longtime Mennonite pastor who has also served in many other roles throughout the church.

“There is no good way to nurture a thriving Mennonite Anabaptist expression in our world apart from our schools,” he says. “They pass on a deep understanding of Anabaptist theology and history and foster a discipleship rooted in Jesus.

“We weren’t just buying years of education,” he says. “The investment extends into their vocational choices and their decisions to remain in the Mennonite church.”

Grandson Nick Meyer is a recipient of their blessing. A graduate of both Central Christian and EMU, he is now a landscaper at EMU. He attends a local Mennonite congregation, Early Church, which ministers to the homeless, and is taking some classes at Eastern Mennonite Seminary in Harrisonburg.

More than being grateful for funds, he is grateful for the faith they fostered.

“The faculty and staff at these schools care about the whole person—not just about classroom learning,” he says. “Chapels, cross-cultural experiences and a focus on peacemaking and creation care formed me to engage with the world in the context of Anabaptist faith.”

Generations learning together

The Wiebes attended college a generation before their children. But Rafael and Pilar Barahona attended Goshen College simultaneously with their daughter, Anita, an art student. In 1993, they left pastoral ministry in Canada to enroll in the former Hispanic Ministries Program at Goshen College.

“I had planned to go back to Canada when I graduated to be involved in pastoral work again,” says Rafael Barahona, (pictured) associate director of the Hispanic Pastoral and Leadership Education office of Mennonite Education Agency (MEA). “God had other plans that have become a win-win situation for everyone because now I am involved in helping other Hispanics get pastoral training right in their churches.”

For the past 10 years, Pilar Barahona has worked at Goshen High School as an English learner collaborator. She believes her children’s involvement in a Mennonite college has helped them remain engaged with the church.

Their son, Rafael Jr., also a Goshen graduate, confirms her viewpoint. He lives in Charlottesville, Va., where he is a member of Charlottesville Mennonite Church.

“To be uprooted was very difficult,” he says. “In retrospect, I am thankful for how the experience shaped me, even though it was hard at the time. Throughout all the transitions, my parents were very supportive. The message they sent was that they loved us and were proud of us and hoped we would remain faithful to the Lord, no matter where our path led.”

Entire families engaging in the church

Remaining faithful to the Lord can mean a simultaneous family-wide engagement within Mennonite Church USA. For example, Bryan and Anita Kehr recently moved to Newton, Kan. She is the new lead pastor at First Mennonite Church, and he is Hesston College’s women’s soccer coach and director of intramurals.

Their eldest daughter, Hannah Heinzekehr, is a graduate of Bluffton (Ohio) University and is now a church relations associate for Mennonite Mission Network in Claremont, Calif., where she is also in graduate school. Their second daughter, Mayeken, will graduate in December from Bethel College in North Newton, Kan. Elias is a sophomore at EMU. Every family member graduated from Bethany and collectively they have attended four of the five colleges/universities affiliated with Mennonite Church USA.

Heinzekehr believes it is no accident that her family is committed to the church, given the amount of Anabaptist formation they’ve experienced. “I had incredible mentors, including my parents, who called me to think about using gifts in church and to see how those gifts are valued by God and by others.”