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Sunday, April 28, 2002

By Ervin Dyer, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Cindy King took the long road to Pittsburgh.

Eight young Mennonites are spending a year in Pittsburgh, working with arts programs and service projects. They are, top row from left: Nick Hurst, 23, of Lancaster, Pa.; Stephan Bontrager, 23, of Denver; Sandy King, 24, of Hickory, N.C.; and Neil Stauffer, 23, of Lancaster; bottom row, from left, Angie Lehman, 23, of Goshen, Ind.; Cindy King of Hickory -- and Sandy's twin; Anne Horst, 23, of Goshen; and James Eash, 23, of Wichita, Kan. (Steve Mellon, Post-Gazette)

Raised in a small town in North Carolina, she went to college in the mountains of rural Virginia and spent a year volunteering in the warm breezes of Jamaica.

All roads converged here in September at the Mennonite Urban Corps, an urban service program modeled after AmeriCorps, the national effort to get high school and college graduates to donate a year of service to lower-income communities.

John Stahl-Wert, head of the Pittsburgh Leadership Foundation, founded the program in 1994 on the belief that young Mennonites raised in rural areas could benefit from serving their city neighbors.

King was inspired to apply after hearing about it from a few friends.

Through MennoCorps, as the program is now commonly called, she was dispatched to Garfield's Thomas Merton Center, where she stuffs envelopes and works on peace-building projects, and to the United Steelworkers of America Building, where she translates Spanish-language e-mails.

King graduated from Eastern Mennonite University two years ago with a degree in justice, peace and conflict studies. She minored in Spanish and is leaning toward a career in human services work.

In many ways, King, 24, is like thousands of other college graduates trying to determine their place in the world. In the current recession, many are looking for transitional employment and internships before committing themselves to permanent work.

"I'm learning I don't like the 9-to-5 job thing," King said, looking up from her cubicle at the Steelworkers building.

Her first year out of college was spent tutoring and counseling at a school for pregnant teens in Jamaica. It taught her patience and how to adjust to a different culture. She's hoping her Pittsburgh stay will be just as meaningful.

Because MennoCorps is an urban program, it typically lures more progressive-minded young Mennonites who can ply their interests in social issues away from the church's more conservative rural backgrounds, the historical roots of the Mennonite experience.

	Cindy and Sandy King, Neil Stauffer and Stephan Bontrager tend the garden at the old mansion they share in Highland Park. (Steve Mellon, Post-Gazette)

Pittsburgh's only Mennonite church is in Greenfield and has about 150 members. Across the globe, there are a million Mennonites. They believe in Jesus Christ, and the faith, which calls for adult baptism, is six centuries old. Mennonites are known for their peace stand, and many members choose not to participate in military service.

King and the seven other MennoCorps workers who arrived with her, including her twin sister, Sandy, live in an old Highland Park mansion and move about to different assignments.

Four come from Goshen College, a Mennonite-affiliated school in Indiana. Anne Horst, 23, works with hunger assistance groups; Stephan Bontrager, 23, does marketing for WYEP; James Eash, 23, helps out with the restoration of a Highland Park church and at East Liberty's Kelly-Strayhorn Theater. Angie Lehman, 23, designs art at Loney Metal Works.

Sandy King, 24, works with photography at Pittsburgh Center for the Arts; Neil Stauffer and Nick Hurst, both 23, help out at a Washington County food bank and with an organic farm in Stanton Heights.

The program accepts college graduates from other Christian faiths, but this year, all are Mennonites. The four men and four women are by their own description a laid-back, good-natured bunch.

"We're so easygoing," Stauffer said. "If anything, when we get together, we're boring."

Stauffer and Hurst grew up in Lancaster and have known each other since fourth grade. After going to different colleges, they were looking to reconnect and spend time in an unstructured environment, much like the summers each spent working on farms.

With their surfer-cool smiles and frayed T-shirts, they say they've found a perfect fit at the Stanton Heights organic farm. There they grow tomatoes, peppers and eggplants, but they don't punch a clock.

Farming is physically challenging work, but their hours are flexible and, though the MennoCorps program ends in August, they plan to stay through the growing season. And beyond.

"I'm going to look for a research grant or to find a job for the winter," Hurst said as he painted planks for a crate to house the farm's chickens.

While in Pittsburgh, MennoCorps participants get a budget for groceries, an $80-a-month stipend for personal entertainment and expenses; plus a $100 cultural fund, which allows them to take art, dance and other classes around town.

The program provides bus tickets for the workers to get to their assignments and back. A used car and van have been donated to the house for their use.

Stauffer tools around on a 1973 Honda 350 motorcycle.

In the city, their social and religious experiences have flowed freely.

After Sept. 11, Stauffer and Hurst visited the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh in Oakland. They've been to the Mennonite church a few times, but are using this year to get away from anything too organized, including their own religion.

Sandy King has been a steady visitor to the Mosaic Community Church, an integrated, multicultural church on the North Side.

According to Heather Kropf, an alumna who now works part time with MennoCorps, the program seeks people who are interested in challenges.

"They're not afraid of conversations about faith and the search for faith," she said. "Our program does not teach a series of doctrines, and as adults, how they choose to worship is their business."

Most will work at least 40 hours a week, and every Friday, participants are required to attend seminars that explore Pittsburgh culture, including sessions on urban issues, theology and local history.

It takes about $95,000 a year to run MennoCorps, and the program is supported by a mix of local and national foundation grants, individual donations and Mennonite congregational gifts. Work site stipends help, also.

When the yearlong stint ends, some will go home. Others will not.

Of the group's 42 alumni, 14 remain in Pittsburgh and are striving to be a new generation of active, leadership-oriented urban citizens.

Most are still in Highland Park, working and going to graduate school, and are involved with the Union Project in conjunction with the Pittsburgh Mennonite Church.

The project aims to revive the shuttered Union Baptist Church and fill it with small businesses and local craftspeople. If all goes as planned, it will open next year and be a cornerstone of community restoration.

Meanwhile, this year's crop of MennoCorps workers seeks their own renewal.

"Coming out of college, you don't know what you're doing," said Cindy King. "MennoCorps gives you a chance to get ready for a real job, know your own personality -- teaches you to be on your own."