The Journey Begins

Hello and welcome to my blog. As you can gather from the name, this is a blog by a Mennonite Momma who thinks she has become liberated (you can be the judge of that). This is a blog by a first-time mom who is living far off, away from her safe and sheltered Mennonite community. This is a blog by a woman who loved the Mennonite church, then left it and is not sure if she’ll ever return. This might be a blog for you.

First let me tell you about myself. I’m a Gen-Xer who grew up in a predominant Mennonite community in the Midwest of the United States. I went to a Mennonite high school, much to the happiness of my Mennonite father, but the chagrin of my Mennonite mother. After I graduated from my Mennonite high school, I traveled to the other side of the world with a legitimate Mennonite mission agency. I “felt called” to go to a Mennonite college far from my home (and at the same time, desperately needed to avoid my hometown). Four years later, I graduated with a little more life experience, handfuls of wonderful friends and a curiosity to take on more of the world. I took that curiosity to two more stateside “volunteer” assignments, thus fulfilling the unspoken “call of duty” towards voluntary service.

Then I made “the leap” and moved to a predominant Mennonite community in the east coast. I worked for several years in Mennonite institutions, traveled the world, was deeply involved in my new church, developed wonderful relationships with fellow Mennonites – my age, and younger and older than me – and thought that’s what life would be like. Then things took a drastic turn. I won’t go into what was involved in that drastic turn. Not yet. I can’t give it all away. I’ll just say that one relationship totally changed my life…and my life as a Mennonite.

After the onset of that relationships, I moved across the world. And that’s where I am writing this from now. I’m more settled, I’m less angry, I have perspective that I didn’t have when I was immersed in the Mennonite Bubble. And that’s why I’m writing this. To share what I’ve discovered outside of the Mennonite Bubble. For some of you it will be shocking. For some of you it will be refreshing. You tell me.

So, that’s me and a bit about me. I will post as the spirit of inspiration moves. I welcome your comments, and in fact need them, otherwise I will seriously think I am writing into a black hole.

So, I hereby christen www.LiberatedMennoMama.blogspot.com to begin. Actually, Mennonites wouldn’t christen now, would we? : ) We would dedicate…so I hereby dedicate this blog and bless it! Amen.