Froese was politician and community servant

Winkler, Man.



Photo: Froese


Jacob M. Froese, farmer, community leader and long-time memberof the Manitoba Legislative Assembly, died on June 14 at the age of 85.

A member of the Old Colony Mennonite Church, Froese represented the Municipality of Rhineland in the Legislature from 1959 to 1973. He was the sole Social Credit Party member, but this didn’t stop him from influencing decisions with his relentless research and principled stands. Some considered him the conscience of the Legislature.

Froese served on the boards of Mennonite Central Committee Canada and Eden Mental Health Centre, and of many agricultural and community organizations, such as the hospital and seniors’ home. He served nationally and internationally in the Credit Union League from 1950-70, and was president of the Winkler Credit Union for a time.

Froese supported both public and private education. As vice-chair of the Manitoba Mennonite School Association, with children at Mennonite Collegiate Institute, he was instrumental in getting provincial funding for private schools. He was also vice-chair of the Manitoba School Trustees’ Association for 15 years, where he worked successfully to get improved pensions for teachers.

In a recent Winnipeg Free Press interview, Edward Schreyer, former New Democratic Party premier and Governor General of Canada, remembered Froese warmly. The two sat next to each other on the same side of the Legislature, recalled Schreyer, noting that “Froese had a caucus on one, and I had a caucus of five.” Schreyer said Froese was an atypical politican, soft-spoken and concerned primarily about issues affecting his and other rural ridings.

Schreyer and his wife recently attended Froeses’ 60th wedding anniversary party. “I think our showing up pleasantly surprised him.”

Froese made headlines in 1961 when he pitched a tent in the rotunda of the legislature after being denied an office as a lone Social Credit MLA. Peter Liba, Lieutenant-Governor of Manitoba, was then a Winnipeg Tribune reporter and said the story he wrote helped get Froese an office.

“He was always a gentleman and he was always courteous. He did his homework for his constituents,” said Liba in a Free Press interview.

Schreyer confirmed that at one point Froese turned down the NDP government’s offer to be Speaker of the House. Earlier this year, in an interview for a history class, Froese explained why: “Electors voted me in to represent them.”

Froese’s obituary stated, “It was his faith that sustained him and caused him to respond...to constant demands and requests for assistance from people in all areas. He lived out his lifelong motto ‘to serve and to be of service’ without expecting or receiving anything in return.”

He is survived by his wife Mary (Peters), seven daughters, three sons and their families.
—From report by Elmer Heinrichs

Quilt connects young cancer patients

Winnipeg, Man.


Photo: Lisa Remple Boschman and Sandy Plett made this quilt together while encouraging each other through cancer treatments.

A few months ago, 26-year-old Sandy W. Plett and nine-year- old Lisa Rempel Boschman were strangers. Today, they are friends whose relationship developed while making a quilt for Mennonite Central Committee Manitoba’s relief sale here. Their friendship, however, is about more than a quilting project.

Diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in fall 2002, Sandy’s ability to work decreased as she progressed through treatment. During the winter, she began sewing to keep herself busy and her mind off being sick.

Shortly after her diagnosis she heard about Lisa who had been diagnosed with the same disease. Sandy called Lisa’s parents and made herself available to answer questions Lisa might have.

“I wanted to make a connection with her but I didn’t want it to feel contrived,” says Sandy. “I thought working together would give us something to focus on.”

Sandy’s husband, Barrette, suggested quilting. Lisa agreed to try it. The two began the project in April and met whenever they had enough energy. Sandy attends Bethel Mennonite Church; Lisa and her parents attend Douglas Mennonite Church.

Both have valued their time together. Lisa giggles as she remembers times with Sandy and her husband.

“We don’t sit around and talk about having cancer,” says Sandy, “but one of us will say something about a test or treatment in a conversation and we just know what the other is talking about. It’s nice being around a young person like Lisa. It seems like she just forgets about being sick and goes on with being a kid. I think adults often have a harder time not dwelling on things.”

Then, with a playful glance at Lisa, Sandy jokes, “And it’s helpful to talk with someone who has less hair than me!” They both laugh.

In addition to the new friendship, Sandy says that learning to quilt is a way of connecting with her heritage. Donating the quilt to MCC has been a way of giving something to the community when she is unable to work.

This year’s relief sale brought in approximately $117,100 for MCC’s Generations at Risk project. Sandy and Lisa’s quilt was bought by Sandy’s uncle for $250 at the silent auction.—MCC Canada release

Alberts prison ministries connect with Uganda

Akron, Pa.



Photo: Norm Bourget, left, and Roy Trace, ex-prisoners who work with MCC Alberta’s Community Justice Ministries, met Bonney, centre, a former prisoner who volunteers with Ugandan prison ministries.

Norm Bourget of Alberta knows well the struggles Canadian prisoners and ex-prisoners face. He spent 11 years in prison himself, and now runs support groups for prisoners and ex-prisoners through Mennonite Central Committee Alberta’s Community Justice Ministries.

This spring, Bourget learned first-hand how MCC also supports prison work in central Africa. Six Community Justice Ministries workers and board members travelled to Uganda March 24 to April 4 on an MCC “learning tour” that connected them with Ugandans involved in prison ministries. The tour also introduced them to Ugandan struggles with HIV/AIDS and an ongoing civil war.

The Alberta group met people like Rachel Nantongo, who supports Ugandan prisoners’ families, and Everest Bizimungu, who visits prisoners in Kampala, the capital city.

Bourget learned that in Uganda most ex-prisoners “have virtually no support network once they are released.” In prison, he said, “they simply do time. They aren’t trained there in (vocational) skills.” A criminal history makes it especially difficult to find work once they are released.

The learning tour visited Build-Up Again Prisoners (BAP), a Kampala-based group who help resettle ex-prisoners and offer temporary shelter. MCC supports 45 children of prisoners through BAP, and MCC provided startup costs for a BAP car washing bay that employs ex-prisoners.

Although the conditions vary, all prisoners experience similar psychological struggles, Bourget said. “It doesn’t matter what country you’re from.”

Elly Klumpenhouwer, who coordinates a mentoring program at Edmonton Institution for Women, met prisoners in Uganda housed in “an old worn-down building with heavy wooden doors held together by a pair of handcuffs.” They rarely receive contact with the outside.

“The men’s prison is way out; I don’t see how anyone could get there to visit,” Klumpenhouwer said. Yet Ugandan families are expected to provide clothing and other items for prisoners, she said.

Other aspects of the Learning Tour were, in the words of one participant, “emotionally charged.”

The group heard from two Ugandan women who were abducted as teenagers by the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army and given to army commanders as “wives;” both have borne children as a result. One escaped after three years with the army, and the other escaped after 10 years.

The women now study at Stella Matutina Girls’ Secondary School, run by Catholic sisters. Most of the students have experienced war-related trauma, especially displacement and abduction. The MCC Global Family Program provides $5,500 per year for school fees, counselling training for staff and school equipment.

The tour group also met a woman in the late stages of AIDS and saw a funeral service for a widow who had just died from AIDS. A challenge for the community was deciding who would take care of her orphaned children.

Despite the struggles they witnessed, participants were encouraged by the energy evident in the churches, in AIDS programs and other organizations. They visited a high school where students demonstrated their HIV/AIDS education, and attended a worship service in a packed church building.

As a learning tour exchange, two Ugandan prison ministries workers plan to visit Alberta in October.
—MCC release by Maria Linder-Hess