COLUMBUS, OHIO – Rosedale Mennonite Missions (RMM) of Rosedale, Ohio, has purchased a nearly 33,000 square foot training facility on the east side of Columbus near the airport. The former nursing home, built in 1963, will house the REACH and City Challenge programs, as well as additional short term training and ministry programs.
REACH is a missions experience for young adults that includes three months of discipleship training in Columbus followed by six to nine months of cross cultural outreach in locations around the world. Participants serve in a variety of situations, including orphanages, English teaching, and youth outreaches. Currently, teams are serving in Southeast Asia, Thailand, North Africa, and South Africa.
City Challenge is a weeklong opportunity for youth and school groups to experience life and ministry in inner city Columbus. The schedule includes ministry opportunities, creative teaching sessions, and service projects.
Todd Miller, director of RMM’s SEND Ministries, which operates REACH and City Challenge, notes that the current “SEND House” facility is maxed out. “If we would have had one more female applicant for REACH this year, we would have had to turn her away,” Miller says. “And we’ve already had to turn away youth groups that are too big for us to handle for City Challenge. We need a larger facility.”
In addition to the current ministries that are now bearing fruit in our local churches and around the globe, RMM will develop additional training opportunities that have been impossible with the current facilities. RMM President Joe Showalter envisions a training center for missionaries on their way to the field. “We would like to do more to prepare new missionaries before they go to the field. If we’re going to ask them to make disciples in Asia or the Middle East, why not make sure they’re successful at it here before they have the added challenges of language learning and cultural adjustment? This facility will allow us to better prepare people for what they’ll be doing overseas.”
“We believe God has clearly led us in this,” Showalter says. “We’ve prayed all along the way, asking God to open the doors if this is for us. As we’ve moved forward, the doors have kept opening. It’s been exciting to see God answering our prayers.”
The building will need some renovation to bring it up to current code and to make it more energy efficient. Bob Stauffer, RMM property manager, will be giving leadership to the renovation, which will eventually include some space reconfiguration to allow for larger groups to use the facility.
RMM expects to sell the two properties in Columbus that this facility will replace, and will be initiating a capital campaign to make renovation and occupancy possible. Watch for further announcements of opportunities for involvement by groups and individuals. Needs will include a general contractor/supervisor and work teams and individuals for a wide variety of tasks such as painting, plumbing, electrical, and drywall, serving for as little as a day or two or as much as 3-6 months. Gifts in kind and monetary contributions will also be needed. For further information about this project and how you might be involved, please contact Bob Stauffer at bob@rmmoffice.org. You will also soon be able to obtain regularly updated information at www.rosedalemennonitemissions.org.
RMM has purchased a training facility in Columbus, OH and is working hard toward preparing it for use. One of the steps in that process is finding resources, whether human, financial, or material, to accomplish the “extreme make-over” that will be needed to turn a nursing home into a hive full of REACH, City Challenge, and other program participants. We’ve hired Mark Vincent of Design for Ministry to help us pull together some of those resources. Mark has put together a brief survey as part of a “feasibility study” to help us know how to move ahead.
Recently, RMM missionaries Leon and Naomi Zimmerman and their children stopped by the RMM office to share about their ongoing work in Albania. 