Canadian Mennonite
Volume 11, No. 13
June 25, 2007
Jump to:
Mennonite Church Canada
Mennonite Church British Columbia
Mennonite Church Alberta
Mennonite Church Saskatchewan
Mennonite Church Manitoba
Mennonite Church Eastern Canada
From our leaders
Mennonite Church Canada
Prayer and praise
Please pray, or give thanks, for:
• International Mennonite Pastors Coming Together (IMPaCT), held from May 25 to June 7 in Alberta, which was a roaring success. Four pastors from Brazil and South Korea were hosted by four Alberta pastors and their congregations. Together they shared stories of challenges and promise in the global church. The event focused on the Holy Spirit’s moving in the church. Participants shared global perspectives of the Spirit’s work in the church. The pastors grew in their understanding of what it means to be a church around the world.
• Five young adults who will be leaving this summer to serve for one-year terms with the Connexus English language school, a ministry of the Korea Anabaptist Center in South Korea. Mark Wiehler, Vanessa Claassen, Heather Peters, Joel Kroeker and Marvin Marcial are all Canadian Mennonite University graduates serving with Mennonite Church Canada Witness.
• The Legesse family, who are Mennonite Church Canada Witness workers preparing to go to Ethiopia. Dianne, Fanosie and their two children, Zach and Lydia, will travel to Ethiopia in early August. They will serve as a bridge between the Mennonite Church in Ethiopia and Canada while Fanosie teaches at Meserete Kristos College. Please pray for the Legesse family as they prepare for departure, for their safe travel, and for their new life and ministry in Ethiopia.
• An encouraging number of seminarians who graduated this past spring and are now finding placements with Mennonite congregations.
• The current planning of a Pastor Trends Survey that is to be sent out this fall for the purpose of gaining insight into pastoral wellness and retention in MC Canada congregations. The survey will help to shape and inform practices around forming and placing pastors.
Mennonite Church British Columbia
New Mennonite women’s group forms
Ten women gathered at the Village Tea and Coffee House restaurant in Fort Langley on June 2 to launch a new initiative—a B.C. Mennonite women’s group. They plan to continue to “gather to share of themselves in a community of eager listeners.” This group was formed in March and has its roots in former members of the Mennonite Central Committee Women’s Concerns Committee, which no longer exists. Tentative plans are for the group to meet on the first Saturday of every other month.
Olivet hosting Bible prophecy conference
Olivet Church of Abbotsford will host a Bible prophecy conference on July 6 to 8 with David Hocking of Tustin, Calif., as the keynote speaker. Hocking has a radio ministry called “Hope for Today.” He will be speaking on the authority of Scripture and Christianity’s Jewish roots, current issues of leadership, authority, eldership, and homosexuality. All are welcome.
Mennonite Church Alberta
‘One finger alone cannot milk a cow’
The Bassa people of Liberia have a proverb that says, “One cannot eat a delicious meal for another.” With these words of encouragement, 80 people lined up behind tables at Holyrood Mennonite Church in Edmonton laden with mouth-watering food at “A Taste of Africa” fundraising supper promoting literacy in Burkina Faso.
The May 12 event, sponsored by Mennonite Church Canada, featured authentic African food and music by members of Holyrood’s African community, many of whom come from Liberia. The guest speakers were Lillian Nicolson, a Witness worker in Burkina Faso for six years, and her new husband, Norm, who will join her when they return in January.
Several African proverbs—including “An egg should not wrestle with a rock,” and, “When you see a turtle on top of a fence post, you know he had some help”—were read and listeners were encouraged to see if they could deduce their meaning.
After the meal Lillian led the participants in a crash course on linguistics. Upon their return, her new challenge will be to translate the Bible into Siamou.
The event raised about $3,000 for the team of Witness workers in Burkina Faso. It was a reminder that churches and missionaries need each other. This was well summed up in the words of a proverb of the Fulani people of Burkina Faso: “One finger alone cannot milk a cow.”
Mennonite Church Saskatchewan
Camping season off to good start
All three MC Saskatchewan camps are up and running for the summer season.
Camp Elim, located 30 minutes south of Swift Current, sits on the shores of a large lake, where its camping program emphasizes water sports and a nature centre. Andrew Richert will be co-directing the program with Theo Wiebe this summer. Richert recently graduated from Canadian Mennonite University with a degree in camping ministries.
“I see this as more than just a summer job,” said Richert, who has worked as a counsellor at Elim in the past.
The Youth Farm Bible Camp close to Rosthern has already received 320 camping applications for the summer.
“We’re expecting over 400,” said camp director Mark Wurtz. The camp, which is able to run five weeks of programming for special need adults on top of regular programming for the many children who attend, recently bought a 15-passenger van to ferry campers around to different activities.
Camp Shekinah, located close to Waldheim, is also seeing a change in staff for the new season. Matt and Laura Pauls are the new camp directors. A new emphasis on the environment will be shaping the camp theme this year: “God is calling.”
“It’s time to start addressing the issues,” said Laura.
Although the camp has one low-flush toilet, work is being done in the area of composting toilets. Power through solar and wind sources will hopefully come at a later date, explained Laura, who noted the camp gets a lot of wind in the spring.
A new emphasis will also be added to bring campers into the kitchen. “It’s about getting kids aware of where food comes from,” she said.
Mennonite Church Manitoba
Matheson Island hosts Indiana crew
On June 4, Darren and Kim Ringer brought their three children and four young people to Matheson Island to re-acquaint themselves and offer their support. The group came from First Mennonite Church in Berne, Ind., the home congregation of Neill and Edith von Gunten, co-directors of the MC Canada Witness Native Ministry.
The Ringers were introduced to the community in 2003 and ’04, when they worked with the camp program. This time, they came prepared to paint, repair and do general maintenance for 10 days.
“We have already painted and done some renovation in the mission house,” said Kim. “Now we are fixing the roof and doing odd jobs.”
One crew member, Andrew Lehman, plans to stay for the entire summer. As a young person, he gave up full-time construction work in Berne to spend his summer at Matheson Island. Although he anticipates it being hard seeing his fellow crew members leave, he is looking forward to putting his skills to use wherever he can. “I want to get to know the people and to show God’s love,” he said.
Mennonite Church Eastern Canada
Young adult starts prayer network
MC Eastern Canada’s Woolwich Grey Cluster of congregations has started a young adult prayer network.
Crystal Clement, a member of Zion Mennonite Fellowship, had a vision to see young adults grow together through prayer. She was at the MC Eastern Canada annual church gathering in April when executive minister David Martin challenged everyone to pray for three minutes, three times a week, for their own congregation and its leaders, the community of congregations in MC Eastern Canada, and for the staff and ministry councils. She decided to take the challenge further by encouraging young adults to start praying for each other. God’s timing was perfect, as she could introduce the idea while leading devotions at the cluster young adult sports night the following evening.
The prayer network has been going on since the end of April, and there have been positive effects in people’s lives. Friendships have begun to grow, and people have commented that it was a great way to get to know what is going on at other churches.
Each person is given a new prayer partner every two weeks. During the two weeks, the partners have a chance to learn about each other and ask for prayers for themselves, their churches and their communities.
Pastor Stefan Cherry of Floradale Mennonite, an organizer of the young adult sports nights that spawned the prayer group, notes, “I find it very helpful to be prayed for and to be praying for other young adults on a regular basis.”
Clement would love to see others get involved in this vision. Interested people can join this group or start their own network within their cluster or congregation. Feel free to contact her at crystalclement@sympatico.ca.
Celebrating peoplehood
From our leaders
On May 27, we celebrated Pentecost, the Christian festival of the Holy Spirit. In many congregations, appropriately, Pentecost is accompanied by baptisms, acceptance into church membership and sharing of the Lord’s Supper. Pentecost is a celebration of peoplehood. It is the celebration of a community that tries to be accountable to God’s Spirit that is among us.
Three images of the story of Pentecost, echoes of the experiences of God’s people in the Old Testament, are instructive and important for us:
• The strong wind reminds us of the wind that separated the sea during the time of the Exodus. The wind—or Spirit—of God creates a people of the wind—or Spirit. In both cases this is a strong wind of liberation, a wind that promises that the bonds that are oppressing us will not pronounce the last words. Wherever the Spirit of God is present, there freedom in God must be lived. This is encouraging and hopeful.
• The fire of God—in the pillar of fire in the Old Testament and in the tongues of flame described in the Book of Acts—is the ongoing presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of God’s people. We need not be afraid that God is somehow absent. We need not doubt. We need only discern how God is present and then align our spirit and our activity with this fire that is within and among us. This is good news.
• The miracle of tongues and of hearing reminds us of the experience at the tower of Babel. When we can no longer hear each other, as they couldn’t at Babel, then the peoplehood of God disintegrates. When we can hear each other, as they could at Pentecost, then peoplehood can flourish. The presence of God’s Spirit allows us to listen and to hear each other. Such hearing in the Spirit regenerates the community to its purpose in God.
In both the Old and New Testaments, the primary work of God’s Spirit is generating and re-generating peoplehood. All the many other gifts of the Spirit of God are subject to, and are designed to serve, this foundational work. When God’s Spirit is present among us, then we can liberate each other to be faithful, we can encourage each other not to be afraid, and we can trust each other to speak, to listen and to hear. These are the amazing fruits of God’s Spirit among us. Let us celebrate and be grateful to God.
Unless otherwise credited, the articles in TheChurches pages were written by Canadian Mennonite’s regional correspondents.