Bomen Women & The Fellowship of the Cloth

Bomen Women & The Fellowship of the Cloth
Cloth connections open face to face fellowship at Bondeko Mennonite Church in Kinshasa (May 2012) -- photo by Nancy Myers

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

"Journey to Congo and Back"


A wall hanging “Journey to Congo and Back”, donated by Jenelle Buschur will be sold at the 2012 Black Swamp Benefit Auction, June 15-16. Thanks to Carolyn Snyder for piecing, CaraLou Grieser for marking, and the MCC Tatter Club at Care & Share in Archbold for quilting this piece.

I keep returning to this quilt and its intricate interplay of design, coming and going, intensity of color, care in hand work, women joining women. It is an excellent metaphor for the deep turning and re-turning of my soul after our Congo Cloth Delegation to Kinshasa in May of this year.

Since internet access was limited during our stay in Kinshasa, we posted most of our photos and reflections on Facebook at the Congo Cloth Connection page.

However, my sister pilgrims in The Fellowship of the Cloth continue to write beautiful reflections in their blogs.

Please read June Mears Driedger's day to day account blog of our journey here:

Nancy Myers will be returning to Congo in July for the Centennial celebration. It has been one hundred years since the first Mennonite missionaries from the US traveled to Congo. You can read her reflections on returning and go back to read Nancy's blogging while in Congo here:

Cover photo for The Jesus Tribe: Grace Stories from Congo’s Mennonites, 1912–2012, to be published later this summer and translated from French to English by Nancy Myers.

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

The Beauty of Women Theologians -- and connections





“The body of Christ is a unique organization in all the world. We do not have the power of weapons of destruction, but we have the power of healing and hope. And I feel and know that power when I am with you all here today.



In the light of the first day in Kinshasa, Suzanne Lind took Nancy Myers and I to a gathering of women theologians at the Christian University of Kinshasa. (Our fellow pilgrim, June, stayed and rested in the Lind apartment, not feeling well.)

I have heard that it is common to be called upon the “give a word” in such gatherings. The quote above was what the Spirit brought to me. Reviewing my visits with some of these women at Mennonite World Conference gatherings, and bearing witness to the strength of their testimony to us there, felt like a way of completing a circle –
circulation in the body of Christ.

They provided a wonderful Congolese feast for us, presented us with flowers, and shared some of their hopes and questions. It was powerful to be in the classroom where theology is taught and imagine these women making the many sacrifices they do to serve the church.

I promised to bear the gift of their power – song, ululating, honoring of one another and us, sharing their successes and struggles – in my heart to you.

Friday, April 20, 2012

Cloth Delegation to Kinshasa April 30-May 16

Nancy Myers, June Mears Driedger and Nina Lanctot are so grateful to have been invited for a church to church visit by the Bondeko Mennonite Congregation in Kinshasa, DR Congo. As part of Congo Cloth Connection we will stay in homes, spend time with friends who visited with us here in the US, and visit the BOMEN Sewing Group. We are grateful for Christine Nofsinger and Suzanne Lind who have helped us prepare. My granddaughter's friend, Curious, will be a travel companion! You can follow our adventures on Facebook at Congo Cloth Connection as well as here at congocloth.blogspot.com. Thanks to all of you who have helped us make this trip -- April 30 through May 16 -- a reality.

It all began here, with Christine Nofsinger going to Congo for Rose Lind's graduation. I will refresh this story of this project in the coming days.