About Springs Forth!

Springs Forth! creates and shares innovative faith resources that:

-bring a new awareness of God’s love and God’s involvement in the lives of individuals and congregations.

-energize those individuals and congregations to share God’s love and be love in their communities.

Our materials grow out of and reflect our Anabaptist understanding of the Scriptures, and the values we communicate are based on the life and teachings of Jesus.

Springs Forth! Staff + Board of Directors

  • Doris Unruh, Chair

    Doris Unruh is a retired high school English/German teacher and lives near Peabody, KS. She is now an avid gardener and provides produce to local farmers’ markets. She enjoys working with children at Tabor Mennonite Church, rural Goessel, KS where she is a member along with her husband, Harlin.​ ​They have three married children who have blessed them with three grandchildren.

  • Beth Lichty, Vice chair

    Beth Lichty lives in Wichita, Kansas and is a member of Lorraine Avenue Mennonite Church. She is a former elementary school teacher, and is on the Board of Christian Education for Lorraine, assisting with all aspects of children and youth programming. She is a wife to Jonas and stay at home mom of three children that keep her very bu

  • Yvette Nickel, Treasurer

    ​Yvette lives near Newton, KS with her husband Kevin and their two children. She is a member of Tabor Mennonite Church, and has done accounting work for The Citizen’s State Bank for more than 15 years. She enjoys chasing after and cheering for her husband and children at their sporting and academic events.

  • Gordon Houser, Secretary

    Gordon Houser retired in September 2020 after 42 years working for The Mennonite in editorial positions. Cascadia published his book Present Tense: A Mennonite Spirituality in 2011. He’s written hundreds of book reviews for various publications and writes fiction (unpublished). He’s a member of New Creation Fellowship Church in Newton, Kansas.

  • Susan Janzen, board member

    A transplanted Kansan, Susan Janzen has lived in Iowa since 2004. She started taking seminary classes during her first career in church publishing. Following graduation from AMBS (MDiv), Susan spent 20 years in congregational ministry, first in Omaha, Neb., and then in Cedar Falls, Iowa. She has three daughters-of-the-heart and five delightful grandchildren, all of whom live in northeastern Iowa. Susan has served Central Plains Mennonite Conference as Conference Minister for Ministerial Leadership since August 2019. She lives in Tiffin and is a member at First Mennonite Church of Iowa City.

  • Michael Unruh, board member

    Michael lives in Newton, KS with his wife and two young children. He is currently the campus pastor at Bethel College in North Newton, KS where he oversees Campus Ministry. Michael also has a background in camping ministry, having been the executive director at Camp Mennoscah and working there previously as a program director, summer staff, and counselor. Michael enjoys spending time with his wife and kids going on walks, playing in the yard, and planting and caring for their garden. Michael is a member of Tabor Mennonite Church.

  • Carol Duerksen, staff

    Carol Duerksen shares a working farm near Goessel, Kansas with her husband Maynard Knepp, exchange students, and an assortment of animals. She is a freelance writer/editor, and the state coordinator for Share, a high school exchange organization. She’s old enough now to be teaching the children of the youth she and Maynard had in youth group at Tabor Mennonite Church years ago, and that is a little bit scary but a whole lot rewarding!