Amy Mellinger

Lombard Mennonite Church, Lombard, Ill.

Amy Mellinger was born and raised in Illinois and she is currently a junior in high school. Although she regularly attended Lombard Mennonite Church with her family until the age of four, there were later years where Sundays were spent racing motocross sun up to sun down. Then in 2001 Amy started attending weeklong summer camps at Menno Haven Camp and Retreat Center in north-central Illinois. It was here that she found out what being a Mennonite really meant. She became infatuated with God’s creation and greatly desired to share that joy as a member of Menno Haven’s summer staff. But there was one problem; she no longer attended church regularly. That was what brought Amy back to Lombard Mennonite, and one of the reasons she has been baptized in the Mennonite faith and the Lombard congregation. Her baptism took place at Menno Haven by the two most influential men she knows, John Stoltzfus, her pastor, and David “Doc” Johnson, the executive director at Menno Haven. She is planning on graduating high school early and volunteering from January through August 2009 and is hoping to attend Goshen College majoring in Bible and religion with a focus in youth ministry.