Mennonite Mission Network–Ranita Shenk’s favorite week of her Service Adventure experience was one she spent in the dark.
As part of last year’s Service Adventure unit in Philippi, W. Va., she and her housemates spent a week living without electricity after 7 p.m.—an experiment that was part of the set of weekly “challenges” the unit chose.
One week, they chose to spend only half of their food budget and donate the rest; another week, they did random yard work for a church member; and in another, they chose to forego meat.
“Not using electricity was possibly the hardest challenge,” Shenk said “but it was also one of the best weeks of the whole year.”
Shenk, from Waynesboro, Va. (Springdale Mennonite Church), and her housemates, Christina Weaver, from Bath, N.Y. (Valley Mennonite Church); and Tara Corey, from Dewey, Ill. (Dewey Evangelical Mennonite Church), took the opportunity to dye each other’s hair by candlelight, tell stories, and compete in a weeklong game of rummy. It was the most relaxing week of her entire year.
“I feel like we all were really close that week,” she said. “It was really interesting to see how we have so many electronic things that are supposed to provide us with so much fun and enrich our lives, but, really, we had the best week when we got away from all of that and just enjoyed each other and the calmness.”
Service Adventure is a yearlong Mennonite Mission Network service opportunity for young adults.
Corey said the week without sweets was her most challenging. Her co-workers at World Vision made her prepare desserts for guests who were visiting the office, trying to tempt her to give in. She stayed strong until the week’s end and then took home a plateful of cookies.
“On Friday night, my roommates and I stayed up until midnight just so we could eat the sweets,” Corey said.
In Albuquerque, the Service Adventure unit decided on a list of monthly challenges, including taking only cold showers in August (when the average high is above 90 degrees), collecting the used water from the sink and shower and using it to water the lawn in September, and avoiding meat in December. They also refrained from using electricity two days a week for a month.
Janae Speigle (Kaufman Mennonite Church), who works on her neighbor’s dairy farm in Boswell, Pa., said that collecting her grey water and pouring it out on the lawn made her realize how important the resource is, especially in the arid and drought-ridden southwest.
“Having to water our lawn with grey water in order for it to grow makes me appreciate the rain even more,” she said. “Living here when rain doesn’t come too often has made me realize that we are very blessed back home.”
Ben Kreider, a participant in the Albuquerque unit from Newton, Kan. (Bethel College Mennonite Church), said that the monthly challenges, while tough at the beginning, became normal.
“I hope that now that our unit has parted ways, we can continue to be challenged to find things that should be normal, even if they appear to be challenging or unusual at first,” he said.
Most importantly, he said, the challenges were object lessons in how people often consume resources without thinking much about it.
“They were great reminders of how precious certain resources—like water, meat, food, electricity and time—are,” he said. “It’s important to be mindful of how we use them.”
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Mennonite Mission Network, the mission agency of Mennonite Church USA, leads, mobilizes and equips the church to participate in holistic witness to Jesus Christ in a broken world. Media may contact Andrew Clouse at andrewc@mmnworld.net, 574-523-3024 or 866-866-2872, ext. 23024.