Canadian Mennonite
Volume 10, No. 04
February 20, 2006


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CMU student reflects on international practicum

Winnipeg

Mylène Melançon taught her students the song “My God is so Big” in Spanish, French and English during her practicum experience in Colombia with Mennonite Church Canada and Canadian Mennonite University, where she is studying conflict resolution.

Whatever it is you think you bring to people, what they remember most is the way in which it was delivered. This is the revelation I encountered while working at Venga tu Reino Church in Bogotá, Colombia, one of two placements during my joint Mennonite Church Canada-Canadian Mennonite University practicum. Through interaction with several members of the church, I came to see that they desired my friendship and companionship more than my skills and knowledge about conflict resolution.

My first task was to help ex-members of armed groups reintegrate into society through Venga tu Reino Church—a spiritual home for people displaced because of the war. Gathered here are both aggressors and victims. I learned how important it is to listen to the people you are serving.

My experience in Colombia led me to re-evaluate my interpretation of a favourite verse, I John 3:18: “Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue, but with actions and in truth.” Before, I had understood these actions to be large and worldly, like a vast contribution of money or skills. But while these have their place, I learned in Colombia that actions are more meaningful if taken on a daily basis and rooted in the reality of the pain and joy of the very people you seek to serve.

For the second half of my practicum experience I was assigned to teach English at Colegio Americano Menno, a Mennonite school in La Mesa, rather ironic for a Canadian francophone.

Having worked as a teacher’s advisor in Canada, I was thrilled to work in the Colombian educational system. I feel so blessed for having been able to get to know my students in a more intimate way than the typical teacher-student interaction. I had a chance to understand what a teacher really is and how they are most effective—not through periodic contact with the student, but through an ongoing interaction.

My time spent with the children again illustrated the importance of actions over words. The Colombian children taught me the truth of the quote, “People want to know how much you care before they care about how much you know.” They might not remember every single word of English I taught them, but I hope they will remember how much I cared.

I found it extremely rewarding to work in Colombia and be immersed in a different culture. I gained an appreciation for being able to read my Bible in another language. Each language can give a different weight to the same word, changing the meaning of a verse or a biblical context. Certain passages touched me more deeply when I read them in the local Colombian tongue.

Through this practicum experience I am grateful to God for creating such diversity. I have come to see that God calls me to work in this diversity, to walk in companionship with my brothers and sisters wherever they may be in the world. Being in a different country pointed me back to the fact that God is the provider and knows what is needed.

I felt highly unprepared to do a practicum in conflict resolution, even after having studied it for three years. And I discovered that nine months is too short a time to translate theory into practice. It is a start, but all my life I will have to repeat the exercise. My practicum made me even more passionate about peace and justice issues and to live up to it everyday of my life.

—Mylène Melançon

Long-time Parkview Home administrator will be missed

Markham, Ont.

Nighswander

Several hundred people gathered at Rouge Valley Mennonite Church in Markham on Jan. 11 to grieve the sudden death of Joe Nighswander and to celebrate a life well lived. He lived his span of 82 years fully engaged with his family, church and broader community until he passed away in his sleep in the early hours of Jan. 7 at home with his wife Elsie.

Nighswander’s active involvement with others was reflected in the comments made by those attending his funeral. Some had sung with him in the choir at Parkview Village the afternoon before his death, others recalled phone conversations and e-mail exchanges. Church members remembered his playful participation in the children’s time during the last worship service he attended. Two granddaughters shared how he took such an interest in their education and careers, and provided a constant source of encouragement.

During the funeral service a passage from Romans 12 was read. Pastor Pieter Niemeyer spoke about how Nighswander exemplified the kind of life of faith—living God’s kingdom in the here and now—that the Apostle Paul calls us to as Christians.

Niemeyer reflected that the people of Rouge Valley Mennonite Church will miss “his wisdom and insights…. Joe was a man of deep personal convictions and prophetic vision, yet he carried those aspects with deep humility and he valued community discernment.”

A fellow church member commented that “Joe functioned as the conscience of our congregation, reminding us of the needs in the broader world and thoughtfully helping us wrestle with ways we could make a helpful contribution to addressing them.”

Nighswander was well known in the Markham-Stouffville community as the administrator of Parkview Home for the Aged, and later Parkview Services for Seniors, over a 20-year period beginning in 1971. During that time, Parkview experienced significant expansion, with the purchase of additional property in Stouffville and the development of Parkview Village, offering independent living units for seniors on a non-profit basis. Parkview now provides long-term care and housing for about 380 seniors.

The decision to become the administrator at Parkview represented a major career change for Nighswander in mid-life after 22 years of farming, but he had prepared by furthering his education during the same period and had felt a clear calling from God at the age of 43 to be more active in leadership in the church and community.

In 1964, the Nighswanders were part of a group of young families in the area that left the Waterloo-Markham Mennonite group (affiliated with the Wisler group in Ontario and the U.S.) and formed Steeles Avenue Mennonite Church. Nighswander was active in that process of discernment and later commented that the decision was made “without animosity.”

In 1986, the couple became charter members of Rouge Valley Mennonite Church, a new Markham congregation that amalgamated the Cedar Grove and Steeles Avenue Mennonite churches.

Nighswander was active in the wider church, serving as moderator of the Mennonite Conference of Ontario and Quebec from 1982 to 1984, and as president of the Mennonite Mission Board of Ontario from 1977 to 1980.

David Martin, executive minister of Mennonite Church Eastern Canada, spoke a few words at the funeral to recognize the “depth of his commitment” and the contribution that Joe Nighswander made to the work of the church.

During his retirement years, Nighswander spent considerable time writing. He authored Parkview: Its People, Life and Times 1962-1994; A History of Rouge Valley Mennonite Church 1986-2004; his autobiography, My Life Story; and many articles for newsletters, newspapers and magazines.

He was buried in the cemetery at the historic Altona Mennonite Church, a short distance from the farm where he had been born and raised, and only a mile or so from the home he shared with his wife.

—Joanna Reesor-McDowell

The author and her husband Andrew live in Stouffville, Ont., and are active members of Hagerman Mennonite Church in Markham.


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