A Powerful, Defining Experience

 

Fellow borders (student, Peace Corps volunteer) 
with my host sister and son in Costa Rica

Coming of Age in Honduras is a fascinating memoir.  Persons who have lived abroad for a time in a culture different from their own, particularly in a developing country, are likely to find points of connection and much to identify with in Clymer's story of his two years living, learning, and serving in Honduras.  Even for persons who have not lived abroad, it offers important and interesting observations and insights written in an engaging, entertaining style with a transparency and honesty that at times can surprise.

The author's sojourn in Honduras affected him so profoundly that it became the defining experience of his life.  It captured his heart and soul and permeated his life; expanding his worldview, awakening him to poverty and injustice, informing his future life choices, and propelling him forward in his quest for God and his commitment to living out his faith with humility, empathy, integrity, and courage.

In the introduction, the author states, "My hope is that others who struggle with poverty and justice may find new insights for their journey with faith within this book.  I also hope that my story will be inspiring and entertaining." For this reader, it was that and more!  I'm sure that many readers will find it so.  

-Rosemary Hershberger

The VS house with library underneath

Town of Guanaja located on a Cay

The VS dory--our transportation

My best friend Marco Tulio

Prophecy conference at the Church of God in Guanaja

The pristine beach we enjoyed with friends on the island of Guanaja

Where to buy the book:

Masthof Press

Amazon

God is Waiting in the Silence: A Review of my Book

Guest post by Dwight Roth, Wichita, Kansas

Donald Clymer’s Coming of Age in Honduras is a memoir about his experience as a volunteer-conscientious objector to fulfill his Selective Service obligation in the years 1968-1970.  He parted from his provincial Mennonite  home to travel to Honduras at age nineteen and returned shortly before turning twenty-two. 

This narrative provides a unique look at the  intersection of Clymer’s sheltered Mennonite background and the cultural diversity during the rapid social change that was the nineteen sixties and early seventies. His gifts of anthropological insight and communication skills; especially his ability to speak Spanish, contribute to the narrative’s uniqueness.   

This distinctness is multifaceted in at least two ways. One, is the story itself.  A story about a young man, seemingly unprepared for difficult cross-cultural experiences.   Amidst his work in credit unions he knows the pathos of being tested by sexual desire and sees the pain of poverty and warfare. Clymer’s entrance on the Honduran stage is as an unknown. His exit is that of a folk hero, a Jesus man.

The other way this book is unique is largely implicit. The reader needs to look carefully and closely at what Clymer doesn’t say. The critical part of what is unspoken, is based in the best of his Anabaptist – Mennonite heritage. Too many words, the wrong words can negate narration. 

As with many people, Clymer is inspired by the Sermon on the Mount with its emphasis on peace and non-resistance. But Clymer’s life as a young adult and now as an elder and grandparent is distinguished by his Christian intuition in concert with his other gifts.

This is evidenced by his seeing God in everyone no matter their position. When the younger or older Clymer sees the face of a beggar, a woman of the night or others defined as marginal people, he sees the many faces of Jesus. 

Indeed, Clymer’s Coming of Age In Honduras is insightfully well written. Again, for me, the best part of his story is unwritten. Words are necessary - occasionally beautiful, but always limited. Without trying, Clymer connects with the collective soul. 

God is waiting in unlimited infinity. Clymer’s story given our linguistic necessity is an excellent way to hear the unhearable – to see the  unseen. Therefore, I highly recommend this insightful yet entertaining memoir. 

Link to purchase book at Masthof Press

Strangers and Aliens

Today I read the International Sunday school lesson written by Timothy J. Geddert. Geddert  writes for the Sunday school lesson on January 17, 2021, "All Christians are Exiles" (p. 40, Salt and Light, Winter 20-21). Furthermore, he writes, "[Peter] does not know these Christians (from Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 1 Peter 1: 1-2) personally. But he knows the Christian faith and their status as  exiles/pilgrims/sojourners/[aliens] (translations vary).

Mexican Old Order Mennonite children playing in a grain bin.

Coincidentally on the same day (Although Swiss  psychiatrist Carl Jung says there is no such thing as a coincidence), I read a blog post from a Jewish woman who stated: "I grew up worrying about Nazis. I was told again and again how safe my family felt in Germany; how assimilated they were; and how little that mattered in the end. The message was clear: society can turn and the neighbors who you thought were your friends will stand silent as you are pulled from your house at night. Others will spit at your feet. Others will be among the ones pulling you from your house. None of them will help you. In millions of small ways, it was communicated to Jewish children to not let our assimilation and current 'felt' safety allow us to forget the threat. So as jarring as the Nazi iconography and anti-semitic rhetoric on the far right is for us it is also, on some level, not a shock. It is a gut punch that we always anticipate." They need to keep a suitcase ready for the inevitable time when they must leave in a hurry. They feel like strangers and aliens in their adopted homeland. 

The Jewish woman was writing about the unprecedented attack on the nation's capitol on January 6, 2021, with all the Nazi and white supremacist symbols openly displayed by the rioters. My take from her post is that when we become so assimilated to our culture, people of faith can too easily become co-opted by the surrounding culture and be too easily deceived by its lies. Don't "let our assimilation . . .  allow us to forget the threat." 

The analogy of the frog in a pot of hot water is appropriate. I don't know if this is true or not, but the analogy states that as heat is increased in the water, the frog adjusts (assimilates) as the temperature of the water increases to the point that it eventually is killed. 

The Old Colony Mennonites in Mexico work hard to avoid assimilation to the surrounding Mexican culture. They don't allow their women to learn Spanish, and the men only do so in order to transact business with the locals. Planting an apple orchard is frowned upon, because of the number of years it takes for them to mature to make a profit. They need to be ready to pack up and leave at a moment's notice. They feel like strangers and aliens where they live.

My ancestors felt the same in Europe. My Clymer/Clemmer ancestors fled to Switzerland from France because of persecution for their protestant faith. Later they fled to Germany because of their Anabaptist faith and finally to the USA. They felt like strangers and aliens wherever they lived. Now my namesakes are here in the USA for over 300 years. Do we still feel like strangers and aliens, or have we, like the frog, assimilated to the point of our own cultural death?  

I'm not sure I want to be as "[un]conformed to the world" (Rom. 12:2) as the Old Colony Mennonites in Mexico. Yet it is biblical to remember not to assimilate: "For here we have no lasting city," (Heb. 13:14), and "[we are] foreigners and strangers on earth" (Heb. 11:13, et. al.). We belong to the reign of God, not to the reign of Caesar! Jesus is our leader and the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-6) is our constitution. 

The pressures to conform and to assimilate are strong. We are blind to the water boiling around us. How can we avoid total assimilation and death of our faith? How can we live as citizens of the Reign of God instead of the reign of Caesar?

Winter Solstice and Planet Alignment

Written as part Lindale Mennonite Church's Longest Night celebration. 

December 21 is the Winter Solstice and marks the longest night of the year. It stays dark for more hours tonight than any other night; around 14 and a half hours. 

Alignment November 27, 2020

Before Jesus came to bring the light of salvation, and before science, people all over the world were afraid that because the nights kept getting shorter, that the sun would never come up again. And that they would forever live in darkness! It was quite frightening for them! So, they did all sorts of things to drive away the darkness, and to try to bring the sun back again! They put wreaths of candles on their heads, they danced around huge bonfires and prayed to their god not to punish them with darkness. In ancient Mexico, the Aztecs sacrificed human beings to placate their sun god. 

Long ago, during one of these dark, dark nights, three Wisemen were looking to the sky for a sign of hope. They saw a very bright star. They followed that star and eventually found Jesus, the true bearer of light and hope for the world of darkness. If you look at the sky on the 21st, and it is not too cloudy, you will see a very bright star to the south. It is so bright because two planets, Jupiter and Saturn, have come together to form that light! The last time this happened was over 800 years ago! Many people believe that the star the Wisemen saw was this same event; two planets coming together to form a bright light. So rare, that indeed it was a sign of hope for the world.

Alignment December 12, 2020

We light candles and put lights in our windows and homes during these dark nights to celebrate the coming of the true light: Jesus! We no longer have to fear that we will forever be in darkness. Neither the darkness of the longest night of the year or the darkness of our sins. 

Notice the sequence of the pictures on the dates from the oldest to the newest. You can see the progression of how Saturn slowly moves behind Jupiter until all you can see in the picture below are the rings of Saturn. Jupiter totally eclipses Saturn. 

Alignment December 20, 2020

My Political Views Expressed to Hondurans Where I Worked

 Who are the Mennonites? Are they a sect? Do they believe in Jesus? What do you think of Honduras? What is your opinion of the Vietnam war? Why are you here instead of fighting for your country? Do you like John F. Kennedy?  Were a few of their opening questions. 

I remember 1968, the year I arrived in Honduras, as being a tumultuous year in the history of the USA. The Vietnam war was continuing with body bags returning to the states on a daily basis. Anti-war protesters poured into the streets causing confusion and frustration on all sides of the issue. Civil Rights marches pushed the country to confront its racist past, if not present. Robert Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. were assassinated. It seemed like the USA was being torn apart at the seams. What had been a model of democracy for the world was being exposed as having differing sets of laws for different groups of people and being hypocritical on its foreign policy motives. 

This wasn’t lost on Hondurans. The office staff at the hospital peppered me with questions about what was happening in the country of my birth. I was as confused as they were and being thousands of miles away from the turmoil made it difficult for me to form an opinion. I based my responses on my beliefs as a Christian/Mennonite. I belonged to the kingdom of God, not the USA, with Jesus as my leader and my church as my state. I did not participate in the politics of my country and was opposed to armed conflict of any type. My belief in Jesus’ admonition to love my enemies and to “turn the other cheek” defined my politics. My constitution was Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 5. 

These views of Christianity were completely new to my listeners since most of them were nominally Catholic and assumed that the church and the state came in one package as it had since the Spanish conquest of the Americas. 

Where to purchase:

Masthof Press

Reading During the Holidays and a Pandemic

So you want some gift ideas for Christmas? How about some reading material? Have I got some ideas for you!

If you like real life stories:

Jolted out of his innocent, isolated and comfortable world, the author confronted the cruel realities of geopolitical forces of war, exploitation and poverty when he went to Honduras as a 19-year old Mennonite conscientious objector during the Vietnam War. Although severely tested by the extreme poverty that Clymer witnessed and the temptations of the flesh that constantly surrounded him, his core beliefs in peace and “returning good for evil,” bolstered by Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, were strengthened. Sometimes funny, sometimes shocking, but always engaging, the book is filled with personal stories of Clymer’s encounters with these and other realities through interactions with the Honduran people, their culture and the Spanish language. Honduras left an indelible print on the author’s life, his faith, and his vocation.

For some comments from readers:

Comments on "Coming of Age in Honduras"

and 

Letter From Reader

Purchase here

If you like meditations on biblical themes, this one was my first book:

From the forward:

Clymer vividly defines the beatitudes in a way that opens a new circuit of thought. Because of the way he interweaves other cultures into the picture he helps us recognize our cultural blinders and encourages us to take them off. Clymer’s passionate insights override the miasmic spirituality of a prosperous society. The poignant stories which begin each chapter abruptly shift us out of our comfort zones, much like when someone jumps off the other end of a see-saw. Suddenly we force-land and take a long, hard look at what just happened. 

My hunger and thirst for righteousness grew the further I went in the book .  I found myself a sort of “Zaccheus”—wanting to rush ahead to climb a tree and actually SEE Jesus. Each chapter focuses on one of the beatitudes with a story which undoubtedly shed new light for me. Living the beatitudes, as Clymer puts it, teaches us “to walk in the light of Christ and… transform our impure impulses into life-giving action.” I welcomed the invitations to explore my own heart and experiences in order to understand those areas where I needed enlightenment, confession or healing.  The meditations invite all of us to “come down” and “dine” with the Holy Spirit who can change our course. 

Purchase here

Perhaps you are interested in discussions of spiritual formation. Than this book, written with my sister is for you!

Why do people, including Christians, feel empty, estranged and cynical?

Many of us have tired of the pat answers that the church and religion have provided about our questions about faith and meaning in life. We know there’s more—and we stand on the cusp of spiritual awakening, longing to reshape our connection with God.

In the tradition of Ronald Rolheiser’s The Holy Longing, Don Clymer and Sharon Clymer Landis (brother and sister, both spiritual directors and retreat leaders) take modern spirituality and turn it on its head to flesh out a Christian spiritualty of emptying oneself. How can I know God more fully? What does it mean to be a true servant walking closely with God: brutally honest with oneself, and true to Christ? Through riveting stories and text grounded in scripture, the book speaks to the deep cynicism of soul and despair that grip so many in this age.

Anyone wanting to become more loving, in touch with feelings, friends and family will find hope and direction in this easy-to-read book on the spiritual journey. We are all hungry for a full-flavored life, yet we ignore our deepest soul and quiet our cravings with more of everything. How does one embrace a spiritually simple life—gracious, accepting and fulfilling?

Purchase here

How about a book about a child's experiences in Mexico? These are stories about my daughter! 

The enduring cultural traditions of Mexico are magical! Experience Christmas festivities, marriage, birthdays, and even death. These are the true life experiences of a young girl living with her expatriate parents in Mexico. Even everyday experiences are magical! Visiting markets, parks, families, and learning how tortillas are made, bring Mexico alive to all levels of readers. Experience the magic of Mexico! Learn to understand and appreciate the traditions of our 120 million neighbors to the south, not to speak of the millions who live next door to us in the United States.

"Great read! It gives the reader a feel for what life is like living in Mexico, and through the eyes of a child. I appreciate it being based on a real life experiences as it adds a layer of authenticity."

Purchase here

Happy reading!!

My Heart is Not Proud

I have recently been enthralled by a choral piece based on Psalm 131. It is composed by Margaret Rizza, and has a haunting simplicity which speaks to me deeply. The text as it appears in the piece is:

O Lord, my heart is not proud,

    nor haughty my eyes.

    I have not gone after things too great,

    nor marvels beyond me.

    Truly I have set my soul

    in silence and peace;

    at rest, as a child in its mother's arms,

    so is my soul.

According to some biblical commentaries, the Psalm was composed by David while he was being pursued by King Saul who accused him of “boundless ambition and a greed affectation of the royal throne” (Poole). David expresses humility in light of this: “my heart is not proud, nor haughty my eyes.” 

David asserts that “I have not gone after things too great, nor marvels beyond me.” He shows humility about his personal goals; they are not his, but God’s. “[T]he right of the kingdom was not sought or coveted by him, but freely conferred upon him by the unexpected and undesired favour of God.” (Poole). 

David “sets his soul in silence and peace.” He is patiently waiting on God’s time by being still before the Lord, praying and meditating. Furthermore, he is at rest in his “mother’s arms,” There could be no better metaphor for quiet and patience than a baby resting in its mother’s arms; the mother as a metaphor for God. 

Many of us feel conflicting forces, much like David, in our current situation. A pandemic continues to rage, the political scene is fractured more than at any other time in my short span of life, and climate change wreaks havoc with evermore powerful storms and devastating fires. 

This is a time when we, like David, need to “set our souls in silence and peace.” Only as we sit in silence and reflect with gratitude on the goodness of God while resting in her everlasting arms, can we find "peace." Not only do we need to rest in silence and peace, but we need to surrender our “proud and haughty” opinions to God’s purposes and not our own.

Here is a link to the beautiful choral piece to which I refer. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rW5NBKT0XME&list=RDrW5NBKT0XME&start_radio=1