Speakers & Special Guests
Rev. Amy S Zimbelman
Amy thoroughly enjoys serving as Conference Minister, supporting 17 churches and many passion ministries in Colorado and New Mexico. She has served as a pastor at Mountain Community Mennonite for 3 years, and has worked in refugee resettlement for about a decade. Amy holds a Master of Divinity from Duke Divinity School, and has also served in Zambia through Mennonite Central Committee and in South Dakota with Mennonite Voluntary Service. In South Dakota, she met her husband/best friend, Matt Zimbelman, and they live in Colorado Springs and have two young sons. She loves spending time with her family, cooking/eating food, board gaming with friends, going outside to walk or hike, learning about other cultures, hashing things out in long conversations, and trying to follow Jesus.
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Daniel “RYNO” Herrera
RYNO is a sixth-generation Taoseño. His family has called Taos, New Mexico home for over 300 years. Ex-felon/ex-addict turned healer/community organizer, he has skills as an auto mechanic, ex drug dealer, snowplower, small-scale farmer, licensed peer social worker and pre-trial navigator. Today he is a core leader of Taos Initiative for Life Together, helping to grow a robust local food web, protect watersheds, encourage place-based living skills and adobe building. Daniel is also a founding member of the innovative non-profit, Taos County’s Repurposing Plastic Project which diverts landfill plastic into building material— turning waste into walls. His own non-profit, RYNO —Rewiring Yourself w/New Opportunities – helps the formerly-addicted and incarcerated find a better way to live, healing lives by rooting in traditional ways and honoring the original land of the Tewa People. With the support of family and community, a once run-down trailer park and apple grove are being transformed into a Center for Hope & Healing, with a rebuilt adobe chapel, meeting space, job training, peer counseling, a flourishing garden, transitional housing and affordable tiny homes. He invites you to be a part of it! In addition to participating in worship Saturday, Daniel’s non-profit RYNO will be included in our Passion Ministry sessions Saturday afternoon, along with Todd and TilT and Repurposing Plastic initiative.
Natalie Fields
Natalie is the cantorial soloist for Temple Or Hadash, a Reform synagogue in Fort Collins, CO. She is studying to become an ordained rabbi in order to better serve her community. Natalie has also been on the board of ISAAC, the Interfaith Solidarity and Accompaniment Coalition of Northern Colorado, since its inception four years ago. She is the mom of two young adult children, and works at Columbine Health Systems in health information management for her “day job.”