{"id":705,"date":"2020-02-29T01:11:57","date_gmt":"2020-02-29T01:11:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/15i.48b.myftpupload.com\/?p=705"},"modified":"2020-03-19T01:30:09","modified_gmt":"2020-03-19T01:30:09","slug":"grape-kool-aid-and-sugar-cookies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.mennonitearchivesofvirginia.net\/?p=705","title":{"rendered":"Grape Kool-Aid and Sugar Cookies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

One of Brenda (Carr) Fairweather’s\nmemories of growing up at the Chicago Avenue Mennonite Church is the\nrefreshments served to children at Vacation Bible School. During Brenda’s\nchildhood at Chicago Avenue during the 1960s, there were a couple of hundred\nkids swelling the ranks of a mission-minded Mennonite congregation in the heart\nof Harrisonburg. At break time, Brenda remembers that teachers and staff served\nher Kool-Aid and cookies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chicago Avenue grew out of the impulse of Eastern\nMennonite School students in the 1930s, the resources of Virginia Mennonite\nBoard of Missions in the 1940s, and the steady stream of young couples from\nVirginia Conference Churches who migrated to the Harrisonburg Church. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students from the EMS high school and junior college\nlaunched a ministry into Harrisonburg in 1936. Students at the school wondered\nwhy Mennonites were sending missionaries to Africa, but no outreach existed to\nblack children in Harrisonburg. Though services remained segregated, the school\nsent students and faculty to teach Sunday school to children in Harrisonburg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After meeting in a rented building on Gay Street for\nseveral years, and with numbers increasing, the Virginia Mennonite Board of\nMissions purchased a Chicago Avenue building in 1939. Out of the student-led\nwork in the city, the Mission Board helped fund the start of Broad Street\nMennonite Church and a church on Chicago Avenue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By 1948 the Mission Board stepped aside as the church\non Chicago Avenue became self-supporting. The bishops of Northern and Middle\nDistricts both wanted the Chicago Avenue church to be in their districts, and\nfolks from both Districts attended the new church. When bishops in the Northern\ngave way, Chicago Avenue became a Middle District congregation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The missions\u2019 impulse went out beyond the small\nmeetinghouse on the corner of Green St. and Chicago Avenue. In the late 1940s,\nRidgeway Mennonite Church, also in Harrisonburg, came to life with folks from\nChicago Avenue. In the early 1950s, others from Chicago Avenue helped establish\nMt. Vernon Mennonite Church in Grottoes, Rockingham County.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Young couples from Conference Churches migrated quickly\nto Chicago Avenue in the late 1940s and 50s. Among others, these included\nWinston and Phyllis Weaver, Charles and Eula Burkholder, Warren and Virginia\nBurkholder, John and Maude Lantz, and Harold and Athalyn Driver. The city\nchurch provided an opportunity to evangelize the unchurched and had more\nrelaxed standards on dress expectations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chicago Avenue Pastor Harold Eshleman married Donna and\nNelson Suter in June 1955. Married at age seventeen, Donna had five children,\nand she credits pastor Harold and key women in the congregation for giving her\ncounsel and support. Chicago Avenue had active outreach ministries, like Sewing\nCircle and Vacation Bible School, but folks within the congregation, like Donna\nSuter, were also ministered to in life-giving ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Chicago Avenue Mennonite Church Vacation Bible School, about 1960, Harrisonburg, Va.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In 1972, bursting at the seams, Chicago Avenue Mennonite Church built a new meetinghouse several miles away and became Harrisonburg Mennonite Church. Others, mainly from EMC, kept the doors open on Chicago Avenue and organized Community Mennonite Church. The church building today is used by another denomination, but fond memories of grape Kool-Aid and sugar cookies still survive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Published in Pathways, Winter 2019<\/a>, page 10
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of Brenda (Carr) Fairweather’s memories of growing up at the Chicago Avenue Mennonite Church is the refreshments served to children at Vacation Bible School. During Brenda’s childhood at Chicago Avenue during the 1960s, there were a couple of hundred kids swelling the ranks of a mission-minded Mennonite congregation in the heart of Harrisonburg. At … Continue reading Grape Kool-Aid and Sugar Cookies<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,4,92],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church","category-mennonite","category-virginia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mennonitearchivesofvirginia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mennonitearchivesofvirginia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mennonitearchivesofvirginia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mennonitearchivesofvirginia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mennonitearchivesofvirginia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=705"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mennonitearchivesofvirginia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":733,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mennonitearchivesofvirginia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705\/revisions\/733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mennonitearchivesofvirginia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mennonitearchivesofvirginia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mennonitearchivesofvirginia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}