Here’s a place to start. Email jemerson@eastern.edu. She’s the contact person for Shane Claiborne w/the simple way, and can at least be a starting point.

Tim: your recollection is mostly correct. We were all religious studies and philosophy majors, and in attempting to undermine everything we had ever been taught or not taught, eventually stumbled upon nonviolence and Anabaptism, not limited to, but most importantly Yoder and his fancy book learnin’. Then, yes, while not undo-ably disillusioned, we did kind of become drifters after failing to find in actuality what was talked about in bookuality. Or at least I did.

Amy: I know of the simple way, and had looked into contacting them, but it appears that they only have a PO Box, so i am not sure how to do that from Korea, especially with limited time.

Ryan: That’s great that you got to visit us. Were you able visit Saemter, our rural community? It’s really neat. Also, I know Cheryl and Korean Anabaptist Center is one of our main partners in Korea, so i will ask her about setting me up with something with MMN, and also you I suppose. We have some very small links with several of the larger Mennonite organizations, but not being ethnically mennonite, Its not the most natural thing for me to navigate the mennoweb. Thanks for offering to help set something up for me!

You should visit Mennonite Mission Network if you come through northern Indiana. Cheryl Woelk can connect you in Seoul, or contact me at ryanm [at] mennonitemission.net and I can help make some time for staff.

If you are in the Philadelphia PA area, you HAVE to get in contact with “The Simple Way”, a group of Anabaptists living in community in parts of Philadelphia and neighboring Camden. I don’t know their info, but Google them. They are such a good match for your organization!

Best of luck!

I got to know Paco last summer on a 6 hour road trip back from a friends wedding in St. Louis. He shared about his experience of reading John Howard Yoder with some friends who had never heard much about Anabapists before. As I remember it, he said they were inspired by what they read and decided to visit some Mennonite churches. What they found didn’t really square with what they’d read in The Politics of Jesus and so they hadn’t been sure what to do with it.

My conversation with Paco was the final straw that convinced me this blog was worth setting up. I’d already had conversations with young Mennonites who were interested, but my conversation with Paco made me realize there were other young Anabaptists who weren’t Mennonite that might be interested as well.

So there you have it: the Story of how Paco helped kick-start YAR.