Featured Saturday workshop

Annual Gathering 2019

Cross-cultural healthcare service is not only overseas. Sometimes it can be among the Plain groups which are a part of our rich Anabaptist heritage in the U.S. and Canada. This workshop will help explore the complexity of serving among the Plain people. 

We hope you will join us at Annual Gathering 2019 for this and other exciting workshops!

Plain Complexity: Serving the Old Order Amish and Mennonite Communities

Janelle M. Zimmerman, RN, BA

Presented by a nurse and former horse-and-buggy Mennonite, this is a forum for healthcare professionals to explore the complexity, rewards, and challenges of serving the Plain community (horse-and-buggy and other conservative Anabaptists). The didactic portion of the workshop explores a research-based framework for understanding plain community members’ beliefs about health and healthcare and how these beliefs affect norms of decision making around preventive, emergency, and rehabilitative healthcare. The interactive portion includes time for questions and for learning from each other, focusing on co-laboring with the community to reflect Kingdom principles on earth.

Janelle M. Zimmerman, RN, BA

Reinholds, Pennsylvania

Janelle Zimmerman works in pediatric home care and does health coaching as a ministry. She grew up in an Old Order Mennonite community in rural Wisconsin, and moved to Pennsylvania in 2011 to attend nursing school. The inevitable culture clash led to an exploration of sociological concepts in an attempt to make sense of her experience. Since 2012, she has been presenting to academic and professional audiences about various aspects of Amish and Mennonite culture. Her hobbies include guitar playing, reading, and continuing education. She loves and serves Jesus together with an eclectic group of believers in a house fellowship.