This Is My Story is an evening of personal stories from people of faith, and this year’s storytellers are Regina Cysick Harlow of the Church of the Brethren and Harvey Yoder of the Mennonite Church USA. The format for the evening is four distinct 5-minute personal stories from each storyteller, without interruption or comment, with time for fellowship and connection over the stories at the conclusion of the event. The storytellers are invited to share stories connecting to any of the four themes of the Heritage Center: Peace, Covenant Community, Alienness / Non-citizenship, Neighborliness.
A free-will offering will be received to support the mission and programming of the Brethren & Mennonite Heritage Center.
Regina Cysick Harlow was raised in the Old Order (horse and buggy) Mennonite church near Dayton, and eventually found her home in the COB where she earned her credentials for ordination. Besides being actively involved in her first COB home at Beaver Creek, she has also served as interim pastor for various churches and has provided pulpit supply for multiple congregations. She is a retreat and event speaker and workshop presenter. She is currently serving as interim for Mountain View Fellowship COB.
Regina has participated in rides and events with the John Kline Memorial Horseback Riders and wrote “The Kline Rider’s Ballad” as a tribute to the life and ministry of Elder Kline. She has served on the District’s Congregational Care Advisory Team for three years and is passionate about organizing opportunities to empower congregations and bring people together.
She and her husband, Lee, co-founded the Sadie Rose Foundation in their daughter’s memory, a non-profit organization that provides a non-clinical peer community for those in grief.
Regina loves Jesus, family, singing, cooking/baking, nutrition, eclectic music, mountains, humor, and amazing grace. She currently lives in Grottoes with her husband and four children ages 13, 10, 6, and 3, all of whom she homeschools. They are in the process of moving to Bridgewater this month.
Harvey Yoder was born in Nowata County, Oklahoma, and grew up as the eighth of nine children in a family that migrated to eastern Kansas and then to the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, all before he was 7 years old. At 21 he enrolled in Eastern Mennonite College and after graduation taught part time at Eastern Mennonite High School in Harrisonburg while also serving as pastor of Zion Mennonite Church for over 20 years. He was director of Highland Retreat Camp for three summers, and did an interim two years as principal of Western Mennonite School near Salem, Oregon, in 1972-74. He earned a masters degree in counseling from James Madison University in 1979, and studied at Associated Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Indiana, during a sabbatical year in 1984-85, completing his seminary degree at Eastern Mennonite Seminary in 1994.
In 1988 Harvey became a full time counselor and church resource person at the Family Life Resource Center in Harrisonburg and serves as pastor of Family of Hope, a Mennonite house church congregation. In 2007 Herald Press published his book "Lasting Marriage: The Owners' Manual."
Harvey married his college sweetheart, Alma Jean Wert, in 1964, and they have three children and six grandchildren.