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RAY HURST ‘70 AND BRENDA MARTIN HURST ‘74 attend New Holland Mennonite Church, where they provide leadership to and volunteer in the Sprouts for Peace Garden. This one acre vegetable plot helps provide nutritious ingredients for those who are food insecure in their community, including within the curriculum at their church’s preschool program. Ray takes on the role of Garden Project Manager and works there regularly. Brenda volunteers in the garden from seed planting, to harvest, and eventually packing the food to be sent home with the families who need it. They share, “Meeting basic human needs in the spirit of Jesus is central to our Anabaptist-Mennonite understanding of faith. This is one way to actively Build Bridges of Peace with our local community.”
Before they retired, Ray and Brenda both worked as pastors. Lancaster Mennonite laid the foundation for them in their vocations and was a formative experience in their lives. They experienced “teachers who integrated their faith with their teaching and embodied what they taught.” Recently, they have also had the pleasure of working alongside other LM alumni, and current LM faculty and students at the Spouts for Peace Garden. To them, it is important for LM to teach about peacemaking because peace is “central to the good news that Jesus proclaimed and embodied.”
You don’t have to work in a specific field to make Building Bridges of Peace a priority in your life. They share, “No matter what career you choose to pursue, put into practice Jesus’ call to pursue peace for all people…Seek to actively build shalom and seek the welfare of your communities where you reside and work.”
