Canadian Mennonite
Volume 10, No. 09
May 1, 2006


WiderChurch

AMIGOS commits to 2009 youth summit fundraising

Pasadena, Calif.

AMIGOS vice-chair Amandus Reimer of Paraguay, left, Barbara Kärcher of Germany, and Sarah Thompson of the U.S., discuss ways to raise $100,000 to help enable youths from around the world attend the next Global Youth Summit in Paraguay in 2009.

The Mennonite World Conference (MWC) global youth committee, AMIGOS, concluded its meetings with a commitment to raise $100,000 US to help Mennonite, Brethren in Christ and Anabaptist-related young people from all over the world to attend the Global Youth Summit (GYS) in 2009 in Paraguay. The summit will be held in conjunction with the next MWC world assembly there.

The funds will partially subsidize about 50 delegates and cover AMIGOS’ operational expenses between 2006 and 2009.

AMIGOS chair Elina Ciptadi called her experience as a delegate to the first youth summit in 2003 life-changing. She encouraged churches and individuals globally to support the 2009 event to equip their young leaders with directions and global perspective.

“In GYS 2003, young leaders discerned their roles for the church, the contributions they could make to the church at large, and shared experi-ences of grief and joy in serving the Lord,” Ciptadi said. “These young leaders…went home encouraged and with clear directions as to what they need to do to make a difference. It is definitely an event to continue to support and send delegates to.”

“Based on such positive results, the MWC agreed that Global Youth Summit needs to continue,” said MWC associate executive secretary for events Ray Brubacher.

Fundraising will take place through many forms on each continent:

• Calls for donations;
• Church or individual sponsorships—especially to fund a delegate from the southern hemisphere;
• Matching funds; and,
• The sale of goods.

Conferences interested in sending a delegate will be challenged to fund, or partially fund, their own delegate.

Before the conclusion of MWC General Council meetings in March, AMIGOS received a $2,000 commitment from a young professional.

The donor stated, “In our family, we have the habit of giving 100 percent of our first month’s salary for God’s work. This is our way of offering the first fruit of our labour. When I received my first salary seven years ago, I told my family that I would do it, but never actually did. However, the thought never left my mind. Therefore, in affirmation of AMIGOS’ vision, I commit my latest month’s salary as a delayed ‘first’ offering to God.” AMIGOS was established in 2005 to maintain and build on the momentum arising from the 2003 youth summit. The committee consists of one representative from each of the five continental regions, and is responsible for:

• Exploring ways for youths around the world to share important faith and life issues, both to their own generation and to the senior church leaders;
• Expanding networks and other avenues of youth communication locally, regionally and globally; and
• Incorporating youths more meaningfully into the life and leadership of the church.

—MWC release

Plett estate funds new library

Chihuahua, Mexico

Franz and Anni Harms read from selections in the Biblioteca Colonia Manitoba book store at the opening of the library project in March.

The opening of a community library in a conservative Mennonite colony in Mexico signifies changing attitudes toward literacy and education, according to Peter Enns, a civic leader (Vorsteher) in the Old Colony church.

“We are noticing that there is a better understanding of the Scriptures when people can read it themselves,” said Enns, speaking in Low German in a telephone interview following the official opening of the Biblioteca Colonia Manitoba library.

The library project was started in response to a $100,000 gift from the estate of Delbert F. Plett, a Manitoba attorney and Mennonite historian and writer. In addition to designating this monetary gift for a library in Manitoba Colony, Plett had also requested that books from his personal collection be donated to the library. About 1,000 of the library’s 1,500 books come from Plett’s collection.

Enns, one of four men elected to serve as civic leaders of the Manitoba Colony, said Plett’s generosity had taken the colony leadership by surprise but they felt comfortable accepting the gifts. The library, which opened in March, will improve literacy skills and raise the educational level of people in the Manitoba Colony, he explained.

The 260-square-metre library is located in Lowe Farm, a village in the Manitoba Colony near Cuauhtémoc.

The civic leadership invited Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) to assist with the building project, cataloguing of books and staff training. Short-term workers Mina and Harold Fehr of Winkler, Man., spent five months in Mexico providing this assistance.

In consultation with the school committee, the library project evolved to include a resource centre for teachers, a storage area for school supplies and a retail store for the sale of school supplies and books.

Kennert Giesbrecht, editor of Die Mennonitische Post and a member of the Delbert F. Plett Historical Research Foundation Inc., said the presence of ministers from the Old Colony church and other congregations at the opening ceremony were visible indications of the widespread support for the project. A plaque acknowledging Plett’s contributions has been placed near the entrance.

Johan Harms, a minister of the Old Colony church, is managing the Biblioteca Colonia Manitoba library project, and his children, Anni and Franz, are the first employees.

Die Mennonitische Post offices in Manitoba, Ontario and Alberta have been designated as collection depots to help fill the shelves of the lending library and book store. The library accepts books in German, English and Spanish. A committee will be established to screen the books.

Manitoba Colony has a population of 17,000 people, making it the largest Mennonite colony in Latin America. The colony was organized in the 1920s following the mass migration of Mennonites from the Old Colony church in Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

—MCC release by Gladys Terichow

Sheltered workshop a boon to community

Cuauhtémoc, Mexico

Participants at a Mennonite-run sheltered workshop in Cuauhtémoc, Mexico, keep 80 percent of the profits. The workshop is part of an outreach program begun by Conference of Mennonites in Mexico workers Isaac and María Bergen.

In contrast to coverage in the Chihuahua Herald of a “drug bust,” which the paper suggested brought shame to many in the Mennonite community, Mennonites in Colonia Reforma are demonstrating the “grace and peace” mentioned in a number of New Testament letters.

After several years of ministry in the town of Anahuac with the Conference of Mennonites in Mexico, Centro Evangélico Menonita de Teología Asunción (CEMTA) graduates Isaac and María Bergen felt drawn to begin an outreach program in one of the most violent and poverty-stricken areas of Cuauhtémoc—the “Reform Colony.”

A lot was purchased to construct a church. Upon seeing the work the Bergens were doing with street children and physically and mentally challenged people, the municipality donated land for a sheltered workshop.

Those who participate in the workshop receive 80 percent of the profits from the articles made, including separators for apple trees made from scraps donated by Mennonite construction firms.

The corner lot that adjoins the workshop had been set aside for a police station. But when the local authorities saw the positive effect the program was having on the neighbourhood, they offered this land to the Bergens to expand the workshop, saying that with their presence a police station was no longer necessary there. The extension of the shop will enable persons with allergies to dust, or with other disabilities, to work in a suitable environment.

From 50 to 60 persons attend the weekly church services and the sanctuary is filled when there are special meetings. The second floor houses four classrooms and a fellowship room where needy children will soon receive a noon lunch.

One Saturday a month, the Bergens offer classes to a group of adults that meets for theological education by extension, a three-year program to prepare leaders for the Spanish Mexican churches.

—Henry and Helen Dueck

The authors are former teachers at Centro Evangélico Menonita de Teología Asunción (CEMTA); the Bergens were their students.

Mennonite church recognized by authorities

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

The Ho Chi Minh City Committee for Religious Affairs has recognized one of the Mennonite congregations in the city. In a document signed March 6, the committee approved the request for registration of religious activities of the Vietnam Mennonite Church represented by Rev. Nguyen Quang Trung.

This represents a significant development in a process begun by Trung in the mid-1980s. The earlier Mennonite church property was appropriated by the local government in 1976, so Trung’s home in Binh Thanh District is designated the temporary headquarters of the church. A nearby rented property where the congregation meets is also designated as the temporary place of meeting.

Reports indicate that a prominent Baptist congregation in Ho Chi Minh City and some Adventist congregations were also recognized at the same time.

Trung, president of the Vietnam Mennonite Church, and leaders of the Baptist and Adventist groups were contacted by the Religious Affairs Committee in August 2004 and invited to submit documents in preparation for registration. Trung was committed to doing this, but many members of the Mennonite Church’s administrative committee objected to his conversation with government officials at a time when six Mennonite leaders were imprisoned and awaiting trial. After action was taken to remove Trung from church leadership, he formed a separate church administrative committee and continued the process.

Recognition by Ho Chi Minh City government officials of the Binh Thanh congregation currently applies only to the city. But Trung says that city officials have indicated they would guide the Mennonite, Baptist and Adventist churches in a process so that the government’s top Religious Affairs Committee would authorize national assemblies granting official legal status.

A government visit in January to the Binh Thanh church conveying official New Year’s greetings was followed by a similar gesture by authorities to the Mennonite congregation in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho. The Mennonite church in the central Vietnam city of Hoi An also reports new freedom.

Even though a number of churches and denominations have gained legal status, the majority of evangelical Christians in Vietnam are still related to unregistered house churches. While many of these churches are seeking government recognition, some Christian leaders still prefer non-registration, expressing concern that reporting activities to the local government and seeking permission for new branch churches would stifle church life.

—MWC release from Vietnamese Ministries


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