With colorful bags of snacks and thank you cards, about 180 children went to five hotels to recognize the hard work of the hotel staffs during the convention, and give something back to them.

“This is our way of saying thank you to a group of people that oftentimes aren’t thanked and to tell them they are special,” said Carol Grieser, the convention’s children coordinator.

At the Hyatt Regency Hotel, connected to the convention center, about 44 children in kindergarten and first grade offered their bags to nine hotel workers.

Before giving the staff their bags, the children sang “I’m gonna sing,” “This is the day that the Lord has made,” “God is good” and a “thank you” song. With smiles, the appreciative staff applauded after each song. The children also offered a prayer for the staff.

And after the songs and prayer, the children said “thank you” one last time as loud as they could while people looked on from the balcony hanging over the lobby.

Maurice Cunningham, a lobby attendant, said this is the first time anyone had ever done anything like that for the hotel staff in his 12 years working at the Hyatt.

Along with the Hyatt, the second and third grades went to the Crowne Royal Hotel and the Drury Inn, and the fourth and fifth graders went to the Hampton and the Red Roof Inn.

This is the third convention that children performed a “random act of kindness” by thanking hotel staff; it first took place at the 2005 convention in Charlotte.

“This is the children’s service progject,” Grieser said.

“I wish all our groups did this for us,” one hotel worker said with a smile.

123 convention registrants from Canada

1 Mennonite from Burkina Faso

500 members of Eglise Evangélique Mennonite du Burkina Faso

1,513 attendee from Ohio

1,784 people from Pennsylvania

1 person who traveled from China to attend the convention

22 hours on flight to Hong Kong to Columbus, Ohio

237 people who traveled to Ohio from the West Coast

“The funny thing is that they’re disappointed that we don’t look much different from them,” said Kerry Strayer, media liaison for the convention. “They ask: ‘Will there be bonnets?’ And I say: ‘I might be able to find you two or three.’”

But local reporters aren’t interested only in Menno clothing: they are especially curious about issues of homosexuality and the church — a lightening rod topic for numerous Christian denominations in the U.S.

“I think the local press is trying to figure out where Mennonites are on the issue of homosexuality,” Strayer said. “A lot of congregations are dealing with this but each one draws the line differently. The fact that a congregation can be disciplined for being open and welcoming to LGBT is interesting to them … that’s been a tricky one to explain.”

The Columbus Dispatch, Associated Press and Fox News 28 were present at the Pink Menno press conference and are filing stories. The AP story was even picked up by The Guardian newspaper in Great Britain.

As the media spokesperson for Mennonite Church USA, Strayer said that representing Mennonites to the press can be difficult “without making huge blanket generalzations.” After all, she continued, “there is diversity among Mennonites, even within Mennonite Church USA, without making huge blanket generalizations.”

Strayer, who is an associate professor of communications at Otterbein College (Westerville, Ohio), prepared local media for the convention by sending out packets of information with descriptions of Mennonite Church USA and its people and an overview of what would happen at the gathering. While representing Mennonites to the world can be daunting, this isn’t Strayer’s first dance: she did the same work at the Charlotte, Atlanta and Nashville aseesmblies, drawing on her doctoral dissertation about the General Conference and Mennonite Church merger to help her explain the history of the Mennonite Church to media.

Along with interest in important topics within the church, media is also drawn to the interaction of Mennonites with Columbus-area communities. “There’s a real interest in why we are doing so much service and trying to understand the motivation for all of that,” Strayer said.

37 T-shirts stamped by Mennonite Mission Network

10 frisbees to be given away at the Canadian Mennonite Education booth

12 rose bushes and 12 rocking chairs, from Dutchmen Hospitality, in the living landscape display

217 outfits from Goodwill at Eastern Menonnite University’s display

100 Starbucks gift cards hidden in 450 Hesston College tumblers

46 leaves on the Prayers for the Nations tree

11,000 U.S. dollars to attend Canadian Mennonite University for one year

1,700 purple gumballs in Bluffton University’s display

20 hammers used to help build the Mennonite Disaster Service house

5,000 patches at the Goshen College display

From the loading docks outside the exhibition hall, Mennonites with hammers in hand will help a family rebuild their lives in Mississippi.

Youth groups and congregations are helping Mennonite Disaster Service build a house there that will go to Kristy Barnes, a single mother with three children whose house in Delisle, Miss., was destroyed during Hurricane Katrina.

Throughout the week volunteers can sign up, in groups of up to 15, to work specific time slots between 10:45 a.m. and 5:15 p.m. There are plenty of slots available. Jerry Grosh, director of field operations for Mennonite Disaster Service, said that no previous construction experience is necessary, “just willing hands and hearts.”

The goal of the house project is to get people interested and involved in M.D.S. “This house demonstrates what a congregation can do to build a house,” Grosh said.

Congregations can do similar building projects at their home churches, through the Partnership Home Program.  Instead of the entire congregation traveling to a disaster site, they can build the home at their church, ship it to the location and reassemble it.

“If a church does this in their parking lot 100 people can hammer a nail in,” Grosh said. “This is a way to let a lot of people know what M.D.S. is in terms of responding to disasters.”

Only about 10 percent of the house will be built at the convention. Group volunteers will work with six skilled workers — who are devoting the whole week to the house — to build its shell. “The goal is not efficiency; the goal is to connect people with home owners … and allow people to participate who wouldn’t have the time to go to California to build a house,” Grosh said.

The shell of the house is expected to be completed on Friday. There will be a dedication at 11 a.m., on Saturday, at the house site outside by the loading docks. Following the dedication the house will be put on a semi-truck, bound for Mississippi.

Tuesday evening’s opening adult worship focused on the theme “Gathered in God’s Spirit.” Juana Nuñez told the gathering that the same Spirit that was present at creation and in Jesus’ life and ministry is the same Spirit present with us today.

Nuñez, a certified part-time chaplain with Marketplace Chaplains USA and moderator of Iglesia Menonita Hispana, presented her message in Spanish, while her daughter Alexandra Bucher translated.

In Jesus’ ministry, Nuñez said, the Spirit rested on Jesus; acknowledged Jesus as the authentic Son of God; and was present in Jesus’ daily life and in his sacrifice, death and resurrection. “The same Holy Spirit that worked in Jesus’ ministry works among us today.”

When Jesus came among the disciples after his resurrection (John 20:19b-21), his presence calmed their fears, and he breathed on them. Then at Pentecost (Acts 2:1-11), the Spirit came in fire and wind upon the newborn church. “The same Spirit that initiated Jesus’ mission,” she said, “is the same Spirit that initiated the mission of the church.”

With the power of that same Spirit, the church today is called to practice mission, Nuñez  said. “Mennonite Church USA has been greatly blessed, and we are to bless others,” she said. The method used by God to change the world has not changed, she said. The key is to spread the good news of Jesus.

Nuñez, the first woman to be elected as moderator of Iglesia Menonita Hispana, is also co-pastor of Iglesia Cristiana Ebenezer in Apopka, Fla., with her husband, Eligio. Nuñez was born in the Dominican Republic, while her daughter was born in the United States.

Meeting in Columbus, Mennonite Church USA Convention 2009 is hosted by two area conferences, Ohio and Central District. Conference ministers Tom Kauffman (Ohio) and Lois Kauffman (Central District), who are not married to each other, welcomed participants.

The worship leaders, Regina Shands Stoltzfus and Joel Miller, went on to welcome the span of people from various backgrounds as well as interchurch guests from Mennonite Church Canada, Conservative Mennonite Conference, Brethren in Christ Church of North America, Church of the Brethren, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee) and Christian Churches Together.

Stoltzfus and Miller invited a representative from each of the 21 area conferences in Mennonite Church USA to bring a vessel of oil and pour some of it into a single vessel at the front, where an oil lamp burned. Miller called the lamp a reminder of the one Spirit in the church.

Talashia Keim Yoder did an interpretive dance during a reading about the Spirit’s work in creation and in Jesus’ life. Ted and Co. (Ted Shwartz and Trent Wagler) performed a drama about Peter and John meeting Jesus after he was resurrected.

71 average temperature inside convention center

649 bathrooms in the Hyatt Regency hotel (connected to the convention center)

1 Irish dancing competition hosted in this space last year

239 volunteer meals served on Monday night

1 vegetarian and gluten-free meal served at the volunteer dinner

4” x 3” size of name tags

3.5” x 2.25” size of plastic name-tag holders

Mike Yoder/Photo
J.D. Nafziger, left and Lynelle Yoder, both of Goshen, IN., trim their ID cards and toss the trash in the convention center’s recycling bins Tuesday, June 30. The recycling bins take unsorted plastic, glass, paper and metal making it easier for people to recycle all their trash in one location.

Sharing a songbook with your pew partner is nothing new, but at this convention there will be more sharing with the elimination of specially printed songbooks – one of the many ways Columbus ‘09 is trying to make less of an impact on the environment.

“Sustainability has not been largely on our radar until the last two to three years,” said Rachel Swartzendruber Miller, associate director of convention planning. “Part of that has been brought about by the [Mennonite] Creation Care Network. … [They] really started encouraging us to look at sustainability.”

The Mennonite Creation Care Network – a network of people engaged in sustainability efforts within the church – created a “Green Guideline for Conference Planners” that encourages planners of regional and national assemblies to hold gatherings that place less of a strain on the environment.

“It has been good to see the convention planners thinking and working more at greening a large gathering,” said Luke Gascho, chair of the Creation Care Council, a leadership arm of the network. “We worked as the MCCN council in encouraging the planners to use the Green Guidelines which we developed about two years ago.”

Along with asking people to bring their own songbooks, planners ordered convention bags that are made out of recycled material.

“[In previous years] we went with the most affordable options but now we’re willing to pay a little extra to have recycled materials,” Swartzendruber Miller said. “And that’s something that’s becoming more of a priority.”

Also, unlike in years past, there will be no off-site events that require buses to haul thousands of youth and their sponsors.

Swartzendruber Miller recognizes that some of the changes – like the discontinuation of the convention songbook – might be a difficult for some people, “but we really hope that having sustainability as more of a focus, they’ll understand why we want to make that switch,” she said.

While planners may not have been as mindful of sustainability concerns at previous conventions, Swartzendruber Miller said they were ahead of the times in some respects.

“One of the things we did before it was cool was not to change linens every day,” Swartzendruber Miller said. “It was difficult at some points to convince hotels to do this because it was just not on their radar at all, and so now it’s becoming much easier to do this because it’s in the media and it’s hip and trendy to be green. … In that way we’re ahead of the curve, but in other ways we still have a ways to go.”

And with thousands of people in one building, choosing the convention center was also a priority.

The Greater Columbus Convention Center is in the application process to become certified in Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). LEED is a nationally recognized third-party program that recognizes the operation of high-performance green buildings.

One way the convention center will become more sustainable is by using a single-stream recycling system.  Instead of separating all recyclable materials, they will be able to go into the same container: plastic with glass, for example.

Lighting will be managed more efficiently, with Neptun induction lamps; which save electricity, contain no mercury and last up to 10 years; motion detector switches; and a centralized lighting system controlled from one computer.

The convention center also uses an HVAC system that monitors heating and cooling from one room, adjusting the temperature according to occupancy. And for cleaning materials, the convention center uses Green Seal products that have less of an impact on local water systems and indoor air quality.

A day into the convention, however, there have been a few complaints about sustainability practices.

Many conventiongoers are wearing long-sleeved shirts due to the air-conditioned convention center, which is kept at an average temperature of 71 degrees.

Additionally, some attendees are complaining about the volume of waste generated by Aramark food services, which uses Styrofoam trays and cups and disposable plastic silverware in the dining hall.

“We’re kind of talking baby steps this time and making some noticeable changes,” Swartzendruber Miller said. “Our hope is to be classified as a green convention by 2011, which will be held at Pittsburgh. In Pittsburgh you’ll start to see major shifts.”