God at work in Us

‘Call to me and I will answer you’

Raised in an Evangelical Christian home in Ethiopia, Frew Zinna returned to the faith after a disastrous experience at a secular university. He is now studying at Meserete Kristos College, where MC Canada Witness volunteer Fanosie Legesse teaches.

Leaving home to attend university exposed Frew Zinna to new attitudes and lifestyles that pulled him away from his family’s legacy of faith, but the words of Jeremiah 33:3 called him back to Christ and into ministry.

Not just a stepping stone

MC Saskatchewan youth minister Anna Rehan, right, is congratulated by area church moderator Renata Klassen following the tribute to Rehan’s 25 years of youth ministry in Saskatchewan.

Anna Rehan sits behind her desk at the Mennonite Church Saskatchewan offices. This past February, during the conference delegate sessions, the area church’s youth pastor was recognized for 25 years of work with Saskatchewan youths and young adults.

Crisis leads to faith

After his life began spiralling downhill seven years ago, Len Bergen of Winnipegosis, Man., right, now is serving as a lay minister at Nordheim Mennonite Church while waiting for the Lord’s call taking him and his wife Mary into mission work.

When a crisis hit Len Bergen seven years ago, his life began to spiral downward. Now seven years later, he sees how God did not abandon him, but led him through and out of that dark valley to a place that he never could have expected.

‘From farm to fork’

So many people spend their time and energy accumulating things, but what they really want are simpler lives and deeper connections with others. Knowing that reconnecting with friends and family always involves food, the owners of Pine View Farms All Natural Meats near Osler offer grain-fed, hormone-free food products to those living in their small corner of the world.

Not a Christian . . . just a ‘follower of Jesus’

Richard Twiss, a Lakota First Nation “follower of Jesus,” speaks animatedly during an address at Peace Mennonite Church, Richmond, B.C, last month.

Mitakuye Oyasin (“All my relations”). With these words of greeting, Richard Twiss, a Lakota First Nations speaker, author and “follower of Jesus,” began two evenings of teaching and inspiration in communities in B.C.’s Lower Mainland.

‘Little by little there will be change’

Gene Stoltzfus

Gene Stoltzfus talks with Shia women in Najef, Iraq. The women were pleading for help in finding missing relatives.

Gene Stoltzfus, the founding director of Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT), died of a heart attack in Fort Frances, Ont., while bicycling near his home on the first spring-like day of the year. He is survived by wife Dorothy Friesen and many peacemakers who stand on the broad shoulders of his 70 years of creative action.

Celebrating abilities

Bonnie Sawatzky, a member of Peace Mennonite Church, Richmond, B.C., was the first to carry the Paralympic torch upon its arrival in Vancouver. She is pictured with her supporters and Leon, her service dog.

When Bonnie Sawatzky rolled her wheelchair down the student union plaza hill just after lighting the Paralympic torch at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver last month, she remembers a crowd of people surrounding her. “Go, Bonnie, go!” they yelled.

Quake hits close to home

Arisnel and Syvelie Mesidor are together at last in their Winnipeg home after a frightening separation. She was a victim of the Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti, while he was studying at Canadian Mennonite University, Winnipeg.

Jan. 12 was a day like no other for Arisnel Mesidor. On this day, Haiti, his homeland—and the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere—was devastated by a 7.0 magnitude earthquake.

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