A Holdeman Mennonite Youth Reunion

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After two years of regulations and travel restrictions preventing them, the Church of God in Christ, Mennonite finally held a youth reunion in Belize. Visitors from various Central American countries as well as Mexico and the US were present.

  The pattern remained the same. Visitors arrive Thursday night and Friday morning; activities on Friday and Saturday are usually only for baptized members. On Sunday the youth group presented a program (during these events Sunday school is always skipped much to my relief) which was open for anyone to attend but in the program itself only baptized youth were allowed to participate. Typical yet understandable.




 I thoroughly enjoyed meeting old friends, watching the youth group interacting with each other since it goes without saying that these reunions are also a time for the single young men to "spy out the land", listening to the acapella singing, and of course partaking of the Belizean specialty, BBQ chicken with flour tortillas and potato salad. I was impressed.

  By the finger-licking BBQ and two other items: the way the Holdeman youth girls' dress style contrasted with their black headcoverings (baptized Holdeman females use a second prayer covering during worship services) and the clean-shaven faces of the young men.

  Regarding the girls' dresses, it was clearly visible that two trends were on display. The loose, casual "summer" dresses of the North American girls and the tight narrow ones of the Central American ones. Unlike the flapping many-layered windmill dresses of other traditional Mennonites, the Holdeman youth girls appear to be seeking pasture as close to the fence as possible, so to speak. This is what I referred to earlier when I stated that their dressing appeared to contrast with what their headcovering represents. Or perhaps it's because many years ago I used to be a Holdeman.

  And the young men with shadow beards while others didn't even have a shadow of one caused me to wonder if perhaps it was a trending fashion among Holdeman young men nowadays. While their doctrines encourage a baptized male to have a beard, it does not specify any particular style or length yet it appears their stance on the beard has shifted towards the Old Order Amish and Hoover Mennonites. Unmarried men are clean-shaven; married ones let theirs grow.

  Observations aside, it was a memorable occasion. To gather with people from other races and countries without any concerns for social distancing, masks or police presence. Not caring whether you caught Covid simply because the person next to you blew her nose, no hostility towards vaccinated persons (the Covid vaccine never became a divisive issue in the Holdeman church). The sermon was soul-stirring, the singing soothed me, and the theme of the youth program was certainly very inspiring:

  "I press toward the mark." Philippians 3:14


















A. Mendoza


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