Canadian Mennonite
Volume 5, number 11
June 4, 2001

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Calgary, Alta.-Twenty years ago, the Calgary Chinese and Vietnamese Mennonite churches had their beginnings as daughter churches of the Foothills Mennonite Church. On April 22, the daughters came home to celebrate the anniversary.

Over 200 people crowded into the Foothills church to sing, listen to choirs, tell stories and view slides of the beginnings. Nhien Pham of the Vietnamese church said repeatedly, "Foothills is a good mother!" He cited how the church offered support, teaching, worship space and money.

Members of the Chinese church spoke of beginnings as well as dreams they are pursuing-dreams that would not be possible were it not for Foothills and the conference missions committees.

Jake Krahn of Foothills and Menno Epp (former Foothills pastor) spoke about receiving the first Chinese pastor, Ezekiel Wong, and his family at the train station. Three men came to the first meeting of the Chinese group. Seven people attended the first meeting of the Vietnamese.

"Today, as we look around this room, we can see how God has been faithful and has blessed these churches," said Epp.

The celebrations ended with a potluck meal. The foods were as diverse as those in attendance.-Doug Klassen

God is so faithful. The Calgary Vietnamese Mennonite Church has seen God intercede in remarkable ways over 20 years and we celebrated that on May 19. Ray Landis, conference minister, brought us a message, translated by Nhien Pham, senior pastor for 14 of the 20 years.

The choir led us into the afternoon worship service with songs such as "Great is thy faithfulness," sung in both Vietnamese and English. The children sang as well, illustrating the promise of God to be faithful to them as he has been to their parents.

The service also celebrated God's leading from Vietnam and refugee camps to Canada and Foothills Mennonite Church. Foothills opened its doors for us to worship in during the early years. God was faithful in helping a small but determined church grow and even build their own building 10 years ago. God has provided solid leaders to shepherd the congregation and help the group to grow and survive challenges.

After the service, the group went to a banquet where several hundred people from area churches and community celebrated together. We looked at videos of our church being built, viewed the yearbook we made celebrating God's faithfulness and miraculous work in our congregation. Members have aged (gracefully) and former babies in the church are now leading our youth into new adventures in their walk with God.

We face several changes-our beloved senior pastor will be moving on to a new church-planting project in B.C. at the end of July and we are still looking for a replacement. We are in a conference that is changing and adjusting to issues, and we face the challenge of reaching out in faith and love to the expanding Vietnamese community. We look forward with faith and assurance of God's continued faithfulness to us!

-Randy Burtis, pastor of English ministry

Photo: David Mah (left), pastor, and Albert Trang, chair of the board of deacons, speak at the Calgary Chinese church's celebrations on April 14.

About 350 people from area churches enjoyed an 11-course meal at the Emperor's Seafood Restaurant here April 14 to celebrate Calgary Chinese Mennonite Church's 20th anniversary. The program, in both Chinese and English, included several choirs and a presentation of the church's history by pastor Daniel Kong.

The church's roots go back to 1978 when Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) and the Conference of Mennonites in Alberta (CMA) began sponsoring refugees from Vietnam. CMA hired Ezekiel Wong from Vancouver for church planting and ministry to the refugees. In April 1981, Chinese and Vietnamese groups began meeting at Foothills Mennonite Church.

There were only three members at the beginning of the Chinese church. After five years, membership increased to 50. The present chapel was purchased in 1986, with a mortgage from the Mennonite Foundation. By 1989, membership had grown to 85 people.

Raymond Wong was pastor while Ezekiel went to study at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary. Around 1990, membership decreased to 30 people, but later it increased to 75. Stability came when the church called Daniel Kong for Chinese ministry and David Mah for English ministry in 1998.

The church is facing a lot of challenges and has great hopes, said Kong in his presentation. It needs not only mature leaders but loyal members. The church's four aims are as follows:

1) To become a prayerful church, as the way to receive strength and guidance from God; 2) to become an evangelical church-to train members to become leaders in evangelism; 3) to become a mission church, and 4) to become a mature church.

Every year, the church has at least one retreat for the whole group and three devotional meetings. To strengthen the deacons and other workers, the church is planning training courses in evangelism and care.

-From report by Daniel Kong

New Hamburg, Ont.-If I move to Canada, will my children have faith when they grow up? a student in Egypt asked William Janzen. The man's excitement on getting a visa was tempered with uneasiness about sustaining Christian faith in the West.

Janzen, of Mennonite Central Committee's Ottawa Office, added that the most common question MCC exchange visiters from the Middle East hear on their return is, "Are there any real Christians in North America?"

This sceptical view of western Christianity jarred seniors at the May 15 and 16 retreat at Hidden Acres Mennonite Camp, where Janzen was guest speaker. The fact that there are 15 million Christians in six Middle Eastern countries (Palestine, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and Iraq), compared to only 5 million Jews, also surprised them.

Christians have been a minority but constant presence in this Muslim part of the world for the past 1,000 years, noted Janzen, who spent 1993-95 in Egypt where he taught and did research. An example of their vitality is the gathering of 5,000 people in a Cairo church on Wednesday evenings for Bible study. Janzen recalled similar Bible studies-with a much smaller crowd-in Saskatchewan where he grew up.

About 40 seniors participated in each of the two days where Janzen addressed two major issues: the Palestinian/Israeli conflict and Christianity in the Middle East, the subject of his upcoming book. His sweep through 2,000 years of history included the divisions of the church (Coptic, Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Reformation), the Crusades, the Ottoman Empire, the missionary movement, two world wars and the recent Gulf War.

United Nations sanctions against Iraq, supported by the Canadian government, have created deep resentment throughout the Arab world, he said, particularly since there is no comparable action against Jewish settlers occupying Palestinian land in Israel. Janzen traced the story from Old Testament times, citing injustices suffered by both sides.

"The issue is not about one people or the other being inherently evil," said Janzen. "The issue is about land. Whose is it?"

While he didn't give a definitive answer, he related story after story of Israeli harassment of Palestinian residents. He also noted the positive work of dialogue centres, MCC and Christian Peacemaker Teams in addressing the conflict.

He ended with two videos, one produced by Evangelicals for Middle East Understanding, and Brother, Brother by Mennonite Media. The day concluded with worship. Planners for this year's annual event were Eva and Vernon Brubacher, Elaine Leis and Joy Scheifele.

-Ferne Burkhardt

Photo: Christian Schneeberger, a Mennonite Central Committee volunteer from Quebec, with children at a centre he operates in Tibungco, on the Philippine island of Mindanao. Schneeberger created the centre in an abandoned house as a place where young people from struggling families can play, read, or get help with their homework. A member of the Reformed Church, he recently returned to Quebec for a wedding and collected more than $10,000 from local churches. "This was a real miracle, considering I made presentations to small congregations of 20 to 30 members," he said. With the money he bought encyclopedias, dictionaries, chairs and tables. He turned one corner of the centre into a library and another into a matted play area.-From MCC release