Take a banjo-pickin’ preacher, a new visual arts facility, a humorous chemistry professor, and an improv comedy team, and what do you get? You get 18 and 80-year-olds laughing in the aisles. You get bluegrass music and Paul Friesen art. You get a unique life lesson from Swaziland. You get a creative muse, weaving its way through Hesston College’s 2008 Homecoming Weekend September 26-28.
Dave Foncannon, a 1980 Hesston College grad and pastor of Pueblo (Colo.) Mennonite Church, kicked off the weekend with his non-traditional approach to sharing a message during the Friday morning chapel. By the time he was done, several dozen college students had participated in a skit illustrating Jesus’ feeding of the 5,000, and the whole audience had sung an original bluegrass song about that biblical story. Hope Weaver (a sophomore from Nederland, Colo.) was one of the students called upon to enact the story. Using an apple that had been part of a previous skit, she improvised when Dave read the words about Jesus breaking the bread and handing it out to the disciples. After biting small pieces out of the apple, she handed them out to the “disciples.”
“She was amazing,” Dave said. “She was funny, creative, and it was so cool that she was herself and free to share it. She dances like her father Herm (Weaver), who was one of the ‘Putney Gulch Pickers’-the group of guys who prayed with me about attending Hesston.
“I came to Hesston (as a student) with a guitar and suitcase,” Dave said. “I had no art background. At Hesston I found friends to make music with, professors to learn from, and I discovered art. Today, the three streams in my life are song, art, and ministry. Paul (Friesen) has been such a mentor for holding these together!
“I came to Hesston with what I had. We come to Jesus with what we have. He says ‘Put it in my hands and see what happens.’ Miracles happen. You and people around you get fed.”
The creative spirit was celebrated in another setting Friday afternoon as the Art Department hosted a reception in the new Friesen Center for the Visual Arts. “We are proud of our studio space,” Lois Misegadis, art faculty member said. “The light is wonderful and the volume of space is freeing-very conducive to creating art. This facility also houses one of two art galleries on campus, and we also have a new kiln facility. We are truly grateful to all who have invested in the arts for the Hesston College community.” The facility was dedicated Saturday afternoon, September 27.
On Saturday evening, the alumni banquet’s featured speaker was Jim Yoder, chemistry professor at Hesston College, and a 1962 Hesston graduate. Jim and his wife Phyllis spent ten months during the past school year in Swaziland on a Fulbright grant. Jim taught chemistry and supervised research for students at the University of Swaziland. “Be careful what you dream for,” Jim stated at the beginning of his presentation. “I was stretched beyond my comfort zone.”
After listing a number of factors that made the Swaziland experience a challenge, he said, “But Phyllis said it was good for me. And I agree. I became less arrogant, a better person, a better teacher and husband. I learned a lot about myself.
“But that’s not the end of the story,” he said, then went on to name a number of highlights from their time in Swaziland. He concluded by challenging listeners to “Make your dreams rich and important (and global)-they just might come true. If you get stretched beyond your comfort zone, remember, Phyllis says ‘it’s good for you.'”
Creative humor was on tap next as alumni followed a candlelit walkway to the Hesston Mennonite Church, where the 321 Improv Comedy team brought smiles and side-splitting laughter to the audience. “We like to think of our shows as a joint venture between us and the audience,” Carl Crispin said. “During the show, we get information and ideas from the audience, and make everything up as we go. We’re winging it the whole way. You never know what might happen. No two shows are alike.”
Crispin explained the significance of the group’s name. “The name comes from the idea that we’re three (3) Christian guys, combined in-to (2) one (1) ministry to glorify the One who makes it all possible,” he said. “We try not to draw attention to ourselves, but to share joy and laughter with the audience that glorifies God.”
Sunday morning’s worship service featured music by the Bel Canto Singers, a worship team, and the bluegrass duo of Lisa Yoder and Larisa Miller. Lisa (Swartzendruber) Yoder, Hesston, Kan., is a 1997 graduate of Hesston College; Larisa Miller, a college faculty member, graduated from Hesston in 1993.
It also was the setting for a serendipitous connection between Lisa Yoder and speaker Dave Foncannon.
“Lisa is the granddaughter of the Valentine Swartzendruber who taught me how to sing harmony at Limon Mennonite Church,” Dave said, his voice breaking. “To be able to sing with her here just fills my heart with awe, memories, and joy.”
In his morning message, Dave’s theme of “There’s More?” focused on Ephesians 3:14-21. “Once we think we get to the edge of Christ’s love, no!!!…you gotta go down, you gotta go up; then you realize there’s way more back over here where you started, so you gotta go figure out what’s over there, too!” Dave said. “Christ’s love is huge! And it takes all of us together to figure that out. . .it’s together that we explore the breadth and height and width and depth of Christ’s love.
“God gave us an imagination,” Dave said. “If we are in the image of God, we create. Everybody has the God-given potential and challenge to create good in their lives. And every time we create good, God says ‘I can create something even better with this.’ God will do even more than you can ask for or imagine. God will surprise you!”
The 2008 Homecoming Weekend schedule also included an alumni art exhibit and reception; opportunities for alumni and prospective students to visit classes; class reunions for Hesston Academy and Hesston College classes; men’s and women’s soccer games; the Hesston Invitational Volleyball Tournament; varsity vs. alumni baseball and softball games; a Homecoming “1st Tee” event at Hesston Golf Park; a tailgate picnic and festival; children’s activities; and story-telling (and listening) times.