Summer Service program thrives in California

Mennonite Central Committee
Saturday, 26 August 2000

FRESNO, Calif. -- Monica Baez, 21, opens "Stories from the Amazon" by Saviour Pirotta and reads to 15 children seated at her feet, a group that gathers twice weekly for Faith Project Ministries' summer literacy club.

Today's activities center around Ecuador, the country Baez calls home. In the main room, decorated as the Amazon jungle, Monica Gomez hangs paper butterflies from crepe paper vines that trail the walls and ceiling. Baez gives the children a brief history of Ecuador before sending them on their way to taste llapingachos, Ecuadoran potato cakes.

Gomez and Baez are two of 80 young adults participating in Mennonite Central Committee's (MCC) Summer Service Program this year, 21 in California alone. The program allows young adults of diverse ethnic backgrounds in the United States to serve in their home communities and gain leadership experience.

"It's not just a summer job," says Maricela Bejar, coordinator of the program for West Coast MCC. "They can make more money working anywhere else, but they do it because they want to serve."

"This summer I learned to take initiative and to interact with people of different ages," says Javier Bejar, a Summer Service worker who supervised groups that traveled to Reedley to volunteer for West Coast MCC's fruit drying project. "I really enjoyed getting to know about where they're from."

Farther south in the Los Angeles area, Joshua Artono spent the summer organizing a youth music team for Indonesian Christian Fellowship Maranatha in Reseda (Calif.). Artono, who began playing the organ when he was 5, says he felt at age 15 God called him to minister through music. "The keyboard is my passion," he says.

The team practices sometimes four times a week. Artono leads in Bible study and teaches his favorite praise songs in both English and Indonesian.

Lethia Hemingway grew up just down the street from Calvary Community School in the Los Angeles suburb of Inglewood, where she worked in the school's summer program. The summer program offers Bible and academic classes, recreation, crafts and field trips.

"I love kids," she says, "In fourth grade I discovered my talent -- writing. I've been writing ever since." Hemingway hopes to one day teach creative writing.

Rega Setiawan was happy to learn more about web design this summer by creating a page for Indonesian Mennonite Church in Pasadena. He also became more involved in the church's outreach program, forming relationships with Indonesians new to the area and providing information on health and immigration services.

"This unique program brings together young people from different backgrounds with unique gifts and talents, and in various ways they learn to serve 'in the name of Christ,'" says Maricela Bejar.

Summer Service workers are sponsored by Mennonite and Brethren in Christ churches, MCC U.S. and other faith-based organizations. For more information on the Summer Service Program contact your nearest MCC office.

For more information, or to contact Mennonite Central Committee, see their website at: www.mcc.org