Our Staff

Staff who bring you The Mennonite
(left to right):

Anna Groff, assistant editor

Celina Romero, bookkeeper

Gordon Houser, associate editor

Rebecca Helmuth, circulation and advertising manager

Everett Thomas, editor

Dee Birkey, designer

 

Everett Thomas

Everett Thomas is the second of six children and originally hails from Willow Street, Pa., a small town three miles south of Lancaster. He began as editor of The Mennonite in November 2000 and currently works out of the magazine’s Goshen, Ind., office. Thomas came to The Mennonite after serving 11 years as president of Mennonite Board of Congregational Ministries in Elkhart, Ind.

Thomas graduated from Goshen College in 1972 with a degree in English and spent 15 years at Bethany Christian High School in Goshen, first as an English teacher and later as an administrator. Thomas also squeezed three years of seminary courses into 20 years, receiving the M. Div. degree from Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart in 1998.

Thomas and his wife, Barbara, are members of College Mennonite Church in Goshen and have two young adult children: Matthew, who lives in Bay City, Mich., and Michelle, who lives in nearby Union, Mich., with her husband Ryan Brenneman.

Thomas is an avid sailor and has enjoyed bareboat charters on Lake Michigan, Chesapeake Bay, and in the Caribbean. Thomas currently serves as president of Goshen's City Council, having first been elected to represent his district in 1991.

Gordon Houser

Associate editor Gordon Houser is the youngest of seven children in a family that includes two sets of twins (he’s one of the singles). He grew up in Emporia, Kan., eventually graduated from Wichita (Kan.) State University in 1976, then moved to Newton, Kan., where he joined a Mennonite congregation, New Creation Fellowship Church, at the time an intentional community.

He says he first encountered Mennonites when he met some while helping clean up after a tornado hit Emporia in 1974. But what moved him in the direction of becoming a Mennonite was reading John Howard Yoder’s The Politics of Jesus.

He began working for The Mennonite, the magazine of the General Conference Mennonite Church, in 1978 as an editorial assistant. He became assistant editor in 1984, then editor in 1992, the position he held when the magazine merged in 1998 with Gospel Herald to form the current The Mennonite.

Before his knee said, No more! Gordon used to jog. Now he walks and occasionally rides his bike. He’d as soon read as eat and enjoys a variety of literature, from theology and history to classic and contemporary fiction. He also writes fiction and is part of a writers group in Wichita.

He is married to Jeanne, who grew up in a German Catholic community in western Kansas. They have two children: Ethan, born in 1983, and Abri, born in 1987. They also have a cat, Lucy.

Rebecca Helmuth

Having grown up in a small Mennonite community in Plain City, Ohio, Rebecca Helmuth is the oldest of three sisters. After finishing high school Rebecca took time to travel around Europe visiting historical Anabaptist sites. By the fall of 1990 she was enrolled as an English major at Goshen College and enjoyed playing infield on GC's pioneer women's softball team. Rebecca married fellow GC student and Goshen local, Todd Helmuth, in the summer of 1993 and earned a degree in English from Goshen in 1994.

With a baby on the way in early 1995 Rebecca took a job working as the secretary for Todd’s home church, North Goshen Mennonite, and is now an active member teaching Sunday school and serving on several church committees. In May 2005 Rebecca left her job of ten years at North Goshen to accept a subscription fulfillment position at The Mennonite.

Rebecca and Todd have two children, Joshua & Jordan, and are eagerly waiting for child number three. The Helmuths will travel to Thailand in December 2005 to adopt their one-year-old daughter, Emma Palida. Family is central in Rebecca's life which is evident when looking at the family calendar. Their schedule is full of the children's baseball and soccer games, family camping trips, bike rides, picnics and an occasional game of Carcazone.

Anna Groff

Anna Groff, the middle of three children, grew up in Lancaster, Pa. A daughter of Marlin and Sue Groff, Anna shares her name with four grandmothers. Graduating from Goshen College in 2006 with a communication degree and a concentration in journalism, Groff edited The Record, the student newspaper, during her senior year. She began as assistant editor at The Mennonite June 2006 and is developing the digital side of the magazine’s operations.

Groff has written for a variety of publications including the Lancaster New Era in Lancaster, Pa.; the South Bend Tribune in South Bend, Ind.; and The Truth in Elkhart, Ind.

In the fall of 2005, Groff taught English in Chengdu, China, as part of Goshen College’s Study-Service Term and then traveled to Cambodia for several weeks to visit relatives who serve with Mennonite Central Committee.

During college vacations, Groff worked at Friendship Community, an organization to support adults with developmental disabilities in Lancaster, Pa. Groff enjoys singing with her family, running, and reading newspapers and magazines.

Celina Romero

Celina Romero is originally from Aibonito, Puerto Rico. She began working for The Mennonite in December 2006. For the last seven years she has served as bookkeeper at Clinton Frame Mennonite Church, in rural Goshen, IN. Currently she also works as a resident account representative at Greencroft Retirement Communities in Goshen.

Romero graduated from University of Puerto Rico in 1982 with a degree in accounting. She previously served as the business manager at Academia Menonita and treasurer of the Puerto Rico Mennonite Conference. For six years she also served as treasurer of the board for the Goshen Ten Thousand Village store.

Celina and her husband, Carlos, and children Elise and Cristian attend Clinton Frame Mennonite Church. Her daughter, Elise, is an avid volleyball player and enjoys gymnastics. Her son Cristian enjoys baseball, basketball and soccer. As a family they served a short term mission assignment in Burgos, Spain and opened the first Goshen College Study-Service Trimester unit in Cuba.