Garden Spot townlively.com
MARCH 20, 2024
SERVING THE LOCAL COMMUNITIES SINCE 1954
VOL LX • NO 13
The makings of a ministry BY ANN MEAD ASH
D
orothy Cavalcanti of New Holland remembers the first prayer pillow she ever made. “Isaiah (Metcalf) is now 17, and I made the first one for his fourth birthday, so that would be 13 years ago,” recalled Cavalcanti. Isaiah’s parents, Drew and Cindy Metcalf, are the founders of We Help Children and now the driving force behind a family restoration center - The Haft - located in Bradford County. The pair has been integral in the formation of Dorothy’s Prayer Pillows, a ministry that Cavalcanti said began with her wish to visit the Metcalfs’ ministry in Central America. “The women’s group at (my) church (Christ First Church in Downingtown) bought a lot (of pillows from me), and that’s how I paid for my first trip to Guatemala,” reported Cavalcanti. Creating the pillows financed about two trips to Guatemala each year for several
years, ending with her final trip in 2017. The prayer pillows also raised money for the Metcalfs’ ministry over the years. In May of 2020, Cavalcanti nearly died from acute pancreatitis. “I knew I was dying, and God said, ‘I am sending you back to finish the work I have for you,’” stated Cavalcanti. “God healed me. It was a miracle.” Since that time, Cavalcanti kept stocking supplies and wondering exactly where the pillow ministry was headed. She asked God for guidance. “I had my closet filled with fabric, but I didn’t make pillows when I wasn’t selling them, and I wasn’t taking them to Guatemala because I wasn’t going there,” said Cavalcanti, who continued to feel that God was instructing her to make more. By fall of 2023, Cavalcanti had closets filled with prayer pillows. “I started to think, ‘What is my vision for them?’” said Cavalcanti. “I felt that God wanted me to use them as a ministry to children from
hard places, (such as children who have lived through) trauma.” She wrote to Drew at The Haft to ask what he thought. “Drew had encouraged me to make them, so I asked if he had any ideas of where I could go with this,” she noted. Drew wrote back quickly saying that the children of the families he and Cindy counseled could use the pillows. Cavalcanti also realized children involved in the Matters of the Heart Support Group for foster and adoptive moms she organizes in East Petersburg could use the pillows. She plans to send nearly 50 pillows to an orphanage in Guatemala through a trip a friend’s church is taking in June, and she hopes to make pillows to take to Guatemala and Colombia when her cousin Donna Pittman’s ministry visits there to set up health clinics. “I envision taking them to other countries,” said Cavalcanti, adding that her church often visits Senegal. Cavalcanti makes the prayer Dorothy Cavalcanti (left) and Cindy Metcalf of We Help Children hold prayer pillows Dorothy makes for children who have lived through
See Prayer pillows pg 10 trauma.
Connecting to the community: EPC at 70
Pastoral growth Associate joins St. John’s Center staff GDN
BY ANN MEAD ASH
Israel “Izzy” Zilinski is the associate pastor at St. John’s Center United Church of Christ.
Asked about his impressions of Lancaster County, Israel “Izzy” Zilinski, associate pastor of St. John’s Center Church, 432 Reading Road, East Earl, noted the similarities with his hometown of Halifax, located about 30 minutes north of Harrisburg. “It’s not too different from Dauphin (County),” said Zilinski. “Where I grew up, it was country, but the farmland is spread out more than here, and here you have things to do.”
Zilinski joined the staff of St. John’s, a United Church of Christ congregation, in late April 2023. Zilinski graduated from Messiah University in December of 2022 with a degree in ministry. He worked in warehousing until being offered the newly created position at St. John’s, where he said his job is varied. “I do a lot of different things,” he noted, adding, “Anything Ken (Evitts, lead pastor), needs me to do.” According to Zilinski, that includes preaching, teaching a children’s Sunday school class,
BY CATHY MOLITORIS
Over the past seven decades, Engle Printing & Publishing Co., Inc. (EPC) has grown from one couple producing one paper to a company that employs 150 people, distributes 16 community newspapers and multiple specialty publications to close to 200,000 people, and provides printing services for numerous clients. Although the scope of the business has changed, one thing has remained constant: community.
“We want to make that connection to our local merchants and to our community members,” said Charlie Engle, company president. As EPC marks 70 years in business this year, Charlie and his daughter Jocelyn Engle looked back on what started in 1954 in the basement of Alvin and Pauline Engle’s Mount Joy home. “My dad bought his own little press and put it in our basement,” Charlie said of Alvin. “He was working full time in the printing
See Associate pastor pg 5
See EPC pg 6
EXCITING BUS TRIPS AWAIT.... Holland, MI Tulip Festival & Mackinac Island May 1st-7th
BOOK ONLINE @ FUNCOUNTRYTOURS.COM or CALL 717-823-2086 for more info.
Ark Encounter Tour June 5th-8th R104824
POSTMASTER: PLEASE DELIVER MAR. 20, 2024
PRSRT STD ECRWSS U.S. Postage Paid Engle Printing Co
Postal Patron