LocalChurch

During last month’s “World Fellowship Sunday” at First Mennonite Church in Edmonton, young people were given the opportunity to share with the congregation their insights of living abroad in other cultures. Rob Heinrichs spent two months in Uganda during the summer of 2004, working at the Azur Christian Clinic in Hoima, and Paul Neufeldt attended the Mennonite Global Youth Summit in Zimbabwe the summer before.

Edmonton, Alta.

Rob Heinrichs

Recalling the day when a father, his frail daughter and some baggage arrived at the clinic from the village on a motorcycle taxi, Heinrichs spoke about the need for compassion even when it can be costly.

“The girl was so thin, her arms like narrow rails that hung at her sides,” he said. “Her neck so small, her cheeks drawing her lips to a tight, pursed line.

Many of us in the more developed world are so busy...that we don’t take the time to completely observe and grasp our surroundings.

“They sat on the bench across from me and waited.

“I smile at the girl, hoping she’ll smile back and ease the direness of the situation, as looking at her I wonder if death sits as close to her as I do. She does not smile, but locks my eyes in a gaze, so deep, so black and so absolute that I might be looking into the very void past this life, as though she were by some means a vessel to what lay beyond. After a few moments I fail to continue and cannot face her, so I glance away and lamely begin to look about.”

The girl, whose name is Annet, was brought to the clinic suffering from congenital heart defe

cts after her father learned that they were being denied government funding to send her to Kenya for a life-saving operation.

“Thirty thousand dollars US is required to fly Annet to Kenya for her operation,” Heinrichs told the congregation.

“Suddenly I find myself thinking about the $60,000 I’ll be spending to do my master’s degree…or that if I buy a new car someday I’ll need at least $20,000,” he admitted. “All of my possessions and costs of living in Canada rush to my mind.”

“That was in June. Now, it’s January. I’m back in Canada, and I’m going to university. I didn’t give my money to help in that situation.”

“Do I give only as far as I’m comfortable giving?” he wondered.

“I pray that I would discover how it is I am called to help, to serve, and how I can use my time, my resources, and my abilities, in faith, to act as a vessel of God’s love in the world around me. And also that I may find the courage, and the faith, to do what I haven’t had the strength to do before.

“Please pray for all of us gathered here today, for Annet, and for myself,” he concluded.

Paul Neufeldt

During his time at the Global Youth Summit, Neufeldt discovered innumerable differences between African and North American cultures. The most noticeable difference for him was the concept of time.

“In Africa, things will happen when they happen,” he explained. “Until you accept that fact, you will be continuously frustrated with the African people. In Africa, things don’t happen on time; because of this it becomes very difficult to schedule tours and other events too closely together.”

Neufeldt soon learned that “the time that you spend waiting for such things to happen allows you to take a look around and interact with your current surroundings. By playing a game, talking to your neighbour, or just watching what’s happening around you, you will find out something more about the African culture.”

During the Global Youth Summit, continental caucuses were used as a forum for discussing various issues. “It was interesting to note the differences in how each continent ran their caucuses time-wise,” he said, noting that the Asians quickly got down to business and moved rapidly through their agenda. The North Americans were nearly as punctual, and the Europeans would have also finished quickly, he said, except for some apparent language barriers. On the other end of the spectrum, the African and Latin American groups took the longest to get both started and finished.

“Many of us in the more developed world are so busy, stressed out and rushed, that we don’t take the time to completely observe and grasp our surroundings,” Neufeldt observed. “We miss the little things in life that make the big differences. In Africa, the time allows you spend that extra minute or hour to look around and fully reflect on what surrounds you.”

Lisa Klassen built houses for Habitat for Humanity in Uganda last summer, and had a chance to share her experiences with her congregation at First Mennonite Church in Edmonton during last month’s “World Fellowship Sunday.”

Working in the remote Ugandan community of Bughaya—“found at the end of a long, red, dirt road beyond the supplies of electricity and running water”—Klassen discovered that the people in Bughaya were “warm and friendly, greeting us with a lavish welcome ceremony complete with local songs and dances.” We were treated to delicious African cuisine, and the children were always eager to play, sing, and dance with us.

Lisa Klassen made some good friends while building homes for Habitat for Humanity in Uganda last summer.

Despite the remoteness of the community and the ingrained cultural traditions, Klassen “sensed a drive and progressiveness in the village.” Not only did she learn that Habitat had built 25 houses in Bughaya in the past two years, but she discovered that the community has been moving slowly forward in terms of women’s rights.

“Traditionally, women have been oppressed as they depended on their husbands for support in a polygamous society,” she said. “The insecurity which comes with being one of many wives has been a prohibitive force in women’s rights. However, now girl education has been made mandatory—at least through the primary years—and many churches are speaking out against polygamous practices, which gains special importance in the face of the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa.”

Klassen later spent time in South Africa with her relatives who work as SIM (Serving in Mission) missionaries. “The pandemic of HIV and AIDS in Africa became a reality for me,” she said. “One day walking through a graveyard, I found myself surrounded in fresh graves. The majority of the people lying there had died of AIDS…. I knelt down to look at the simple crosses scattered across the cemetery. One of them caught my eye; it was the grave of a girl who had been born the same year as I.… The injustice of the situation overwhelmed me.”

Back in Canada for half-a-year, Klassen admitted “the passion…has begun to dwindle.” Wondering if she made a difference in Bughaya or how she can now “follow Jesus’ teachings of feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, and caring for the sick,” she concluded on a positive note, saying, “The cries of pain from our sisters and brothers resonate in our hearts, and, in turn, our caring and concern transforms their lives.… The spirit of God flows through this network and drives us on.”

Kitchener, Ont.

Three high school students from Stirling Avenue Mennonite Church joined the throng of peaceful demonstrators on November 19-21 at the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation at Fort Benning, Georgia. The students were Marshal Hett, Ewan Stringer and Rachel Collins, and they travelled with four others from Ontario.

Ontario protesters at Fort Benning, Georgia, from left: Jim Hett, Ewan Stringer, Chris Buhler, Rachel Collins, Marshal Hett and Kristen Mathies.

The institute is the former U.S. Army School of the Americas (SOA), which trains Latin American soldiers in combat, counterinsurgency and counter-narcotics. Each year, SOA Watch, a nonviolent movement standing in solidarity with the people of Latin America, organizes a protest at the site. This year’s event drew 16,000 protesters.

With the rally, SOA Watch hopes to force the American government to close the training school and change what it sees as oppressive U.S. foreign policy. According to SOA Watch, SOA graduates—including notorious dictators Manuel Noriega and Omar Torrijos of Panama, Leopoldo Galtieri and Roberto Viola of Argentina, Juan Velasco Alvarado of Peru, Guillermo Rodriguez of Ecuador, and Hugo Banzer Suarez of Bolivia—have been responsible for some of the worst human rights abuses in Latin America. Critics of the training school agree that any changes to the school in 2001, when the name was changed, were purely cosmetic.

Besides the peaceful rally at Fort Benning and a funeral march to remember the hundreds of victims of the SOA graduates, the weekend activities included seminars on peacemaking and nonviolence training, along with displays by a huge variety of international justice organizations.

For Hett, the idea of attending the protest began about a year ago. After seeing films produced by SOA Watch, he was stunned. “It was shocking to see the extent of the brutality,” he said.

At Fort Benning, Hett was struck by the diversity of the groups represented. Besides the numerous religious groups (ranging from Buddhist monks to Mennonites), there were secular groups such as Veterans for Peace and a number of celebrities, notably Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking. Hett’s favourite quote from the event came from a Catholic priest: “A pacifist works with time, where governments fight with money. As long as the dream stays alive, our time will outlast their money.”

Hett described the protest as very calm, “definitely not what I expected a protest to be.”

Stringer’s perspective on protest was also changed by the event. In his experience, people use protest was used as an aesthetic—an attitude without much meaning behind it. At this rally, he said, “The people were there truly to protest and did so by their behaviour.” More than any one speaker or cause, the atmosphere and the constant music-making inspired him. There was a “vivid, life-filled ambience because of the music.”

For Collins, the experience was “completely overwhelming,” particularly the funeral march on the Sunday morning. As the thousands of people marched slowly along the street leading up to the army base, the names of those dead at the hands of SOA graduates were chanted. Near the end of the march, a number of protesters climbed over the razor-wired walls of the fort to be arrested by police who, after 15 years of such protests, seemed confident that the protestors would be entirely nonviolent.

“To have that many people in the same place who believe the same way as you do...it’s incredible,” said Collins on meeting so many other protesters.
—Ben Bolt-Martin