{"id":599,"date":"2021-10-12T23:09:58","date_gmt":"2021-10-13T03:09:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/easternmennonite.org\/today\/?post_type=article&#038;p=599"},"modified":"2021-10-12T23:09:58","modified_gmt":"2021-10-13T03:09:58","slug":"celebrating-alumni-stories-kathryn-and-john-fairfield-66","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/today\/article\/celebrating-alumni-stories-kathryn-and-john-fairfield-66\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating Alumni Stories: Kathryn and John Fairfield \u201966"},"content":{"rendered":"<div title=\"Page 2\">\n<div>\n<p>Much has changed in the 55 years since John Fairfield and Kathryn Stoltzfus Fairfield earned their high school diplomas, along with 75 classmates, at EMHS in 1966.<\/p>\n<p>But some core elements remain steady, the couple \u2014 now married nearly 52 years \u2014 observes. EMS remains true to its Anabaptist roots, they say, and continues to challenge students to wrestle with what it means to be followers of Jesus, committed to peace and nonviolence.<\/p>\n<p>They got to know each other their junior year, working on the Ember yearbook, volunteering with the Young People\u2019s Christian Association, and singing in Touring Choir.<\/p>\n<p>John\u2019s family moved to the Shenandoah Valley from Ontario, Canada, so his father could pursue studies at Eastern Mennonite College. Kathryn came from a family involved in Mennonite education for generations. EMS alumni include her parents, Grant and Ruth Brunk \u201934 Stoltzfus, and siblings: Eugene \u201964, Allen \u201961, Ruth \u201967, and Helen \u201974.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>All four of the couple\u2019s sons are alumni, three married alumni, and several grandchildren currently attend, or are alumni.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was \u2018first generation Mennonite,\u2019\u201d says John. \u201cBut I\u00a0feel just as much part of the EMS story as anyone.\u201d His advice to people who may be new to the community and feel they don\u2019t belong? \u201cPut time and energy into the community,\u201d he says. \u201cSoon you will feel you belong.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/2021\/08\/celebrating-alumni-stories-john-66-and-kathryn-stoltzfus-66-fairfield\/\">John and Kathryn\u2019s journey<\/a> from\u00a0EMHS around the world and back to the Valley again, as teachers, learners, justice advocates, and entrepreneurs committed to Kingdom building.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Much has changed in the 55 years since John Fairfield and Kathryn Stoltzfus Fairfield earned their high school diplomas, along with 75 classmates, at EMHS in 1966. But some core elements remain steady, the couple \u2014 now married nearly 52 years \u2014 observes. EMS remains true to its Anabaptist roots, they say, and continues to&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":600,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"issuem_issue":[30],"issuem_issue_categories":[],"issuem_issue_tags":[],"class_list":["post-599","article","type-article","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","issuem_issue-fall-2021"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=599"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/599\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":601,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/599\/revisions\/601"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue?post=599"},{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue_categories?post=599"},{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue_tags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue_tags?post=599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}