Programming
Lauren Weaver
Children’s Session – meets 1 – 4pm Saturday, location TBD. Part of the time will be spent with one of our conference Passion Ministries.
Lauren Weaver lives in Colorado Springs, where she attends Beth-El Mennonite Church. After years of babysitting, she recently started as a Kindergarten Teacher’s Assistant and absolutely loves it! She has years of experience with kids and just loves to play, have fun and see how children learn and grow!
Colin Roynon – Youth Coordinator
Youth Session – meets 1 – 4pm Saturday, 1st floor Hedley Hall conference room.
- Making Creation Care a Way of Life – Todd Wynward and Daniel “Ryno” Herrera will introduce “The Watershed Way,” an earth-honoring, people-dignifying, despair-crushing, Jesus-following covenanted way of life that roots you in yourself, in your community, in the sacred earth, and in the Holy Spirit. The duo will facilitate guided questions paired with excerpts from their podcast to share personal stories and generate lively discussion, and invite you to see how the Watershed Way might fit for your life.
- The group will take a trip across from the Abbey to Jumpin’ Java Cafe for drinks and social time. Each participant will receive a gift bag that includes t-shirts, backpacks and a couple of gift cards.
Elsa Goossen
Young Adult Hike – As a former RMMC summer staffer and Alamosa MVSer, Elsa is always on the lookout for a good hike. She currently lives in Albuquerque, where she works on civil rights litigation as a legal assistant and enjoys exploring the New Mexico landscape year round. Join her on Saturday morning for a leisurely 4-mile walk along the Tunnel Drive Trail with views of the Arkansas River and several tunnel passes.
In order to make sure there is plenty of time for an enjoyable hike AND lunch, we have made arrangements with The Abbey to provide boxed lunches for everyone to take along on the hike. If you plan to join the hike, we need the final boxed lunch count by Friday registration. If you are not arriving until Saturday morning, please email your boxed lunch request to administrator@mountainstatesmc.org by Friday, 7pm.
Passion Ministries & Art Workshop
Session with TiLT – Becoming People of Place
Todd Wynward and Daniel “Ryno” Herrera will facilitate guided questions paired with excerpts from their podcast to share personal stories and generate lively discussion about how “re-placing yourself” is a key mark of Jesus following today for adults and their communities.
Casa Volunteers Ted and Lisa Lytle will present an overview of the Casa de Paz history and how it began. You will learn more about visitation to the Aurora, Colorado immigrant detention center pre-pandemic. There will be discussion of the evolution of new programs created during the pandemic shutdown and the all new and rapidly expanding pen-pal program, remote video visits, ‘Casa on Wheels’ program and all the various ways that folks can get involved. Additionally, there will be sharing from Sarah’s book, The House that Love Built: Why I Opened my Door to Immigrants and How We Found Hope Beyond a Broken System.
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We will be showcasing some of our conference’s Passion Ministries at Assembly Saturday afternoon. The list includes Prayerstream, Casa de Paz, TiLT, Repurposing Plastic initiative, RYNO and our traditional Saturday evening time with RMMC. To read more about some of our passion ministries, visit mountainstatesmc.org/passion-ministries/
Brenda Fox
Brenda Fox, a long-time member of Boulder Mennonite Church, has a heart for public ministry, social justice and prayer. Through her work with refugees, survivors of torture, film-making and hospice chaplaincy, she has grown in her life’s mission to “pray without ceasing.’
The Prayerstream team and mobile sanctuary are looking forward to seeing you all in person for our MSMC Assembly! Beulah, our vintage airstream, serves as a tattered tabernacle commissioned to bring prayer in many forms to communities in crisis. We have shared virtual meditations, ceremony, informal prayer and support to the evacuees of the Cameron Peak fire as well as the folk living on the streets in downtown Denver. This experimental and unconventional ministry will be onsite to share a sacred space and mindful meditations.
Todd Wynward
Todd is a community organizer, public school founder, small-scale farmer, wilderness educator and MSMC Minister for environmental justice and watershed discipleship. He has been engaged in social change movements and education reform in Taos County for twenty years. He is the founder and Executive Director of the Taos Initiative for Life Together ]TiLT], a place-based incubator for personal and systemic change that seeks to bring our multi-cultural community together through projects that promote watershed health, community rights, hands-on building projects and local food for local people. Most recently he and his allies at TiLT kickstarted The Repurposing Plastic Project, diverting plastic from the Taos landfill to use it as building material, turning waste into walls. His recent book, Rewilding the Way: Break Free to Follow an Untamed God, points the way toward an earth-honoring, people-dignifying, society-changing, despair-erasing Christianity that works humbly with other spiritual lineages in common cause to make a better world. Find more of his writings and doings at taostilt.org and reach him at toddwynward@gmail.com.
Sidney Nuñez
Join us for a painting workshop with professional artist and ministerial intern Sidney Nuñez. You’ll start with a paintbrush, a canvas, and paint, and she’ll guide you in connecting your spiritual life to the work of your hands. You’ll leave with your very own masterpiece. No artistic experience necessary. If Bob Ross were considering going into ministry, he would give workshops like this one.
➡ If you are interested in this activity, you will sign up during the Assembly Registration process – there is a $5 supply fee. Any interested Youth and Delegates will need to sign up for the Friday evening session; all other adults can sign up for the Saturday afternoon session. There is limited capacity, so sign up today!