Quoting author and psychiatrist M. Scott Peck , Swartzendruber said once we accept that life is difficult, then we can transcend that fact and move forward.

Swartzendruber—who is retiring June 30—drew from the biblical story of Esther, a young Jewish woman who became queen of Persia and was called upon to save her people. Her cousin Mordecai addressed her hesitation by saying perhaps she had been called to her royal position “for just such a time as this.”

“We also live in difficult times,” Swartzendruber said, “more for some than others.” While it is tempting to “hunker down” and “shield ourselves” from challenges, he said, we are called to something more.

He continued: “In place of fear and anxiety, I invite us to proclaim a message of hope, to push back against the dark forces of negativity and divisiveness. I invite each of us to step up for such a time as this. This is our opportunity, in this time and place, on this campus and beyond, to reach out to each other with love, compassion and empathy.”

Earlier, provost welcomed more than 50 new students, faculty and staff to 91����Ƶ’s “very special learning community.” While this might not quite be “heaven on earth,” Kniss said, “what makes us different is what holds us together. We are a community bound by love.”

Some members of that community received a special sendoff later, as headed to Guatemala/Cuba and the Middle East were blessed and surrounded by prayer. , director of cross-cultural programs, said they were embarking on a “journey of transformation.”

In a broader sense, all of 91����Ƶ may be embarking on such a journey. Kniss observed that 2016 would be a “time of significant change for 91����Ƶ,” headlined by the upcoming presidential transition.

welcomed students, faculty, staff and guests with a summary of the summer’s events on the national, denominational and local levels, situating these events as sources of fear, unrest and anxiety, as well as of grace and hope.

“Our aspiration is to be a university community that embodies these signs of hope, nurtures their development, and provides an alternative to the fear, ignorance and violence that drives so much of human society,” he said. “We aspire to be an engaged community of learning that is bound together by love – the love of learning, the love for God as revealed in Jesus Christ, and a love for each other.”

President , who will after 13 years at 91����Ƶ, gave his final convocation speech, sharing his dreams for the future: “These are the dreams I have for you and my grandchildren: to serve as co-creators with God for a more sustainable world in which all God’s people can flourish, to be sustained by a faith that is grounded in hope not fear, and to be energized by an insatiable thirst for discovery and knowledge, not for ourselves but for the good of the world.”

He pointed to tangible actualizations of sustainability on the campus itself that he could already share with his

grandchildren: the recently revived by the student-run Sustainable Food Initiative, a new set to begin this fall, and the .

And in speaking to all in the community who mentor and support each other, Swartzendruber observed that too often Christians fall into argument or dissent, and are not exemplars of Jesus’ commandments: “love God with heart, soul, mind and strength, and our neighbors as ourselves.”

In a fitting intergenerational tribute, Swartzendruber was introduced by Student Government Association co-presidents Hanna Heishman and Rachel Schrock, and then promptly turned to introductions of honored guests and members of the 91����Ƶ community.

Those present included former presidents and ; and , former interim president, as well as Shirley Showalter, former president of Goshen College, and Laban Peachey, former president of Hesston College who was also a professor and dean at 91����Ƶ.

The event concluded with a sending of the China cross-cultural group and the traditional “Shenandoah Welcome,” during which the campus community forms two rows and new students walk between the clapping crowd to the sounds of traditional bluegrass music.

The students are rising junior Jeremiah Knott and rising seniors Daniel Barnhart, Rachel Schrock and Wes Wilder.

“I’m excited about the unique gifts and talents of each MIP student, and about the opportunities for experiential learning they will encounter,” said , MIP director and instructor of at 91����Ƶ. “Ministry gifts and skills are best tested and learned within the context of real life, not simply in a classroom. MIP provides a safe way for students to explore their interest in ministry.”

More than 300 students have participated in the MIP program, a partnership that includes the student’s respective Mennonite college, the student’s home congregation, the student’s home and host area conferences, the congregation where the student is in ministry, and Denominational Ministry.

At the end of the program, each student receives a scholarship of up to $2,000 toward tuition costs at a Mennonite college or seminary for the next academic year, along with a $500 stipend for living expenses from the host congregation.

A student’s placement depends on “his or her own interests in size and type of congregation, the availability of a congregation and pastoral mentor, and a fit between the intern and the host congregation,” said Schrock-Hurst.

Taking action on their calling           

This summer’s MIP participants include three students enrolled in religious studies at 91����Ƶ.

Daniel Barnhart, from Grottoes, Virginia, is a congregation and youth ministries major who will serve with his home congregation of in McGaheysville. He has been interning this last semester with , a United Methodist faith community in Harrisonburg.

Barnhart says he is participating in MIP “for the simple reason that I feel this is a call from God, but like any of us, I am tempted by the outside world,” he said, adding that this summer will “help me determine if I want to be a pastor.”

He looks forward to returning to his home church with the new intellectual skills and knowledge he’s acquired at 91����Ƶ, he said, and with a new interest in liberal and conservative biblical views.

Wesley Wilder, of Hesston, Kansas, is a double major in psychology and Bible and religion. The firsthand experience he’ll gain at in South Hutchinson, Kansas, will help him discern his path, he says. Wilder knows he’ll be working primarily with youth, joining them for the trip to the Mennonite Church USA convention in Kansas City, Missouri.

“I look forward to preaching a sermon and jumping into whatever the congregation asks of me,” he said. “I am most looking forward to finding my own niche in ministry and learning more about what I have to offer the church.”

His home congregation is in Hesston.

Jeremiah Knott, of Elkton, Virginia, will serve at his home congregation, , as well as the church he was raised in, Bethel United Church of Christ. For many years a professional musician, Knott plays guitar, sings and writes songs on the Faith Alive worship team.

A Bible and religion major who plans on going into the ministry and pursuing graduate studies, Knott says the MIP opportunity appeared while he was waiting to visit a professor during office hours.

“I saw the flier [for MIP] and I had a hunch and I listened to my hunch,” he said. “I’ve always known since I was about 13 that I was supposed to go into ministry, so I’ve had a calling, but now I’m taking action on a calling.”

Fresh lens in a spiritual setting

Rising senior Rachel Schrock, an art major, says her interest in MIP came from a “Divine moment,” while speaking during a winter break church service about her cross-cultural experience.

“It felt electrifyingly right,” Schrock said, adding that the decision to explore ministry was encouraged by her family and close friend Hanna Heishman, who participated in MIP last summer.

Schrock will head to her home state of Iowa, dividing her time between in Washington and her home congregation of of Iowa City.

“It will be a new experience for me – entering a community that I am already familiar, with a fresh lens,” she says. “I want to see the ins and outs of leadership within a spiritual setting.”

Schrock looks forward to mentorship from two female leaders she already knows well, the spiritual director at the camp and the pastor of her home church. She’ll spend her summer organizing a children’s peace camp, working in the office, giving a few sermons, and making visits to people in hospitals, retirement homes and home care.

York, a junior at 91����Ƶ, was making her for 12 hours in solidarity with local college students and others in more than 40 states and 10 countries to raise awareness of human trafficking. The Stand, which happens from April 6-10, is an outreach of the non-profit .

York, who grew up in Bucharest, Romania, is a reluctant leader who would prefer to remain out of the spotlight, but she wants to make advocacy for victims of human trafficking her life’s work.

Changed by the stories

The stories she heard during a summer internship at a shelter for sexually trafficked women in Romania have burrowed into her heart and psyche.

“I got to know them really well and fell in love with them – that really changes you,” she says.

When she returned to campus in the fall of 2014, raising awareness among her fellow students became a priority.

“I’m out here for the seven girls I live, ate and breathed with for two months,” York says. “The Stand for me is all about them and the other women, men and children who are trapped and coerced into slavery.”

In working to stage the Stand event, York says she is called by her faith and the knowledge, drawn from personal experience, that the survivors sometimes need someone to tell their story, because they themselves can’t.

One touching story she heard from 13-year-old “Ana,” who was living in a state-run orphanage when she heard the rumors. “The director has one thing in mind for the girls here,” the older girls told her. “Prostitution.”

Frightened, Ana ran away with the help of some of the other girls. She was able to find her grandparents and ended up at , the shelter where York worked.

York’s internship concluded with a job offer that she wanted to accept. However, her parents encouraged her to finish her degree. She compromised by saying she would graduate a semester early, in the fall of 2015, and then return to the shelter.

“I would love to eventually work with the justice system in Romania,” she says. “I want the police to implement justice for the poor and not against them. The current system is keeping people in the cycle of poverty in which they feel forced to sell their bodies for money because they feel like they don’t have a choice.”

Staying connected through activism

In the meantime, back in Harrisonburg, she searched for another internship, which is how she learned about International Justice Mission and Stand for Freedom.

“I thought that it would be really cool to be a part of, but I had a lot of doubts in my ability to pull it off,” she says.

York’s experiences in that shelter and her passion for serving justice were compelling to listeners, though. On a recent that she led with junior Hanna Heishman, she gained six more allies, including Heishman: Rachel Schrock, Jessamyn Tobin, Abby Hershberger, Amy Feeser, and Jolee Paden.

“I felt drawn into Stand because of the passion Rebekah has for her work,” Heishman says. “She shared with me her vision for humanity during our Y-trip: a life without the reality of trafficking. This is something she cares so deeply for, and it is where she will devote her life.”

Together the group grew the conversation from a Facebook message, to a living room meeting, lunch room conversations and finally to connecting with the James Madison University Stand group.

That JMU group heard York’s story and decided to partner their Stand with 91����Ƶ to have a united event in a centralized location. A contingent of Dukes came to Thomas Plaza for the Tuesday Stand.

JMU students with the , a faith-based group raising awareness about the human trafficking issue, also came to campus Thursday to share their work.

A vigil tonight [March 10] at Court Square will again unite students with the Harrisonburg community, which has recently seen a rise in human and labor trafficking charges. In January, Virginia’s House of Representatives passed four bills to combat human trafficking and sex trafficking, which the FBI calls the fastest growing crime in the United States and the third-largest criminal enterprise in the world.

‘In your backyard’

York planned the week-long event to include a huge dose of education about modern slavery, which has the potential to affect the nearly 4 billion people living in poverty in countries with dysfunctional or corrupt public justice systems, according to the United Nations.

After all, she herself had grown up in a country with a long and traumatic history of sex slavery, and she knew nothing about it until a few months after graduating from high school.

That’s when she saw a documentary that was also aired on campus Monday night.

“Let’s know what we’re standing for, before we make a statement,” York wrote in her campus-wide email advertising that showing.

With more than 200 signatures gathered on two petitions during Tuesday’s event, York is optimistic about the Stand’s impact.

“All I wanted to do was raise awareness about human trafficking and let people know that this is happening in your own backyard,” York says. “Being able to share that with someone is what I am called for.”

Heishman, a junior majoring in at 91����Ƶ, was part of the of . She spent 11 weeks at in a stately old church shared by three congregations and numerous ministries. She got a taste of what it would be like to be a pastor by participating in the day-to-day activities of church ministry.

Was Heishman still intimidated by the end of the summer? “No,” she said, “I was pleasantly surprised by how well we all got along.”

“Hanna brought new energy to our church office,” said Pastor Lorie Hershey. “She values self-awareness, listening and learning, and brought that into her tasks and responsibilities, such as facilitating a weekly women’s group.” Hershey, who is a 2005 graduate of 91����Ƶ’s , said she enjoyed her many in-depth conversations with Heishman.

Three other 91����Ƶ students participated in the 2014 Ministry Inquiry Program:

Nathanael Ressler, a junior major from Mount Vernon, Illinois, was a pastoral intern at in Goshen, Indiana. “My father is a pastor, so I had some idea of what to expect,” he said. His duties included visitation, planning and leading worship, writing for the newsletter, attending meetings and even preaching. “But I found that the life of a pastor is filled with miscellaneous jobs as well,” said Ressler, a transfer student from two-year in Kansas.

Chris Parks, a senior major from Philadelphia, was a pastoral intern at in Maryland, just outside Washington D.C. He spent time with the youth in their various activities, led worship and singing, preached, worked at a soup kitchen and met individually with members. One day a week he volunteered at the . “I learned that in order to truly follow God, I need to serve on my knees, live in God’s abundant gifts and grace, and ‘waste’ my life for the Kingdom,” he said.

Evan Knappenberger, a senior major from Charlottesville, Virginia, had a different kind of experience. He interned with the peace education director of and the peace/justice coordinator of Mennonite Church USA. He helped build a “prayers for peace” resource, worked on a Sunday school curriculum, wrote web content, and interviewed military veterans who are members of Mennonite Church USA or involved in the .

“This summer project was interesting both from a veterans’ community point-of-view and from a Mennonite point-of-view,” said Knappenberger, an Iraq War veteran who is now a pacifist. “My long-term project is the founding of the field of veterans’ studies.”

The Ministry Inquiry Program is typically funded by Mennonite Church USA, the participating colleges, area conferences, the students’ home churches and the host congregations. Heishman, Ressler and Parks each received a $2,000 scholarship for application to their fall semester. Their host churches provided housing and a $500 allowance. Knappenberger’s internship was funded differently, through Mennonite Central Committee, the peace office of Mennonite Church USA, and 91����Ƶ.

“Through this program, students experience first hand what ministry is, and they test their gifts and sense of call,” said , the 91����Ƶ coordinator of the program and instructor in the .