God at work in the World

Five lessons from Africa

Sister Sophia was full of thanks for the work that Mennonite Central Committee had done in her commu-nity and for the work it would do in the future.

Dan Unrau

Last year, a Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Learning Tour group—including the author—visited Ethiopia and Uganda to get a grasp of MCC’s work and its effectiveness in the holy work of being the church as Jesus’ hands and feet in places of need.

• “Oh my God! Oh my God!” gushed Sister Sophia meeting us as we disembarked from our bus.

Dealing with difference

Frederik de Klerk, left, and Nelson Mandela shake hands at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum held in Davos, Switzerland, in January 1992.

I was on Chapter 10 of Alan Paton’s defining South African novel, Cry the Beloved Country, when Nelson Mandela died. The story of the man and the story in the book—published in 1948, the year apartheid became official policy—are versions of the same story.

Saying goodbye to Madiba

Three hours before the memorial service for Nelson Mandela began, people gathered to honour their beloved past-president and peacemaker in a celebratory manner. The gathering included singing, dancing, clapping and shouts of ‘Mandela ,you’re my president!’

Andrew Suderman, left, director of the Anabaptist Network in South Africa, and his daughter Samantha attend a memorial service for Nelson Mandela on Dec. 10, 2013, at the First National Bank Stadium in Soweto, near Johannesburg. Seated next to them, from left to right, are: Suderman’s brother, Bryan Moyer Suderman, his son Matthew and wife Julie.

After a lifetime spent struggling for the emancipation and equality of all, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela can finally rest, his long walk at an end. “Madiba,” as he is affectionately known, passed away on Dec. 5, 2013.

Heinz closure shocks community

After being an integral part of the town of Leamington, Ont., for more than a century, the HJ Heinz Corporation will shut its processing plant next June, putting 740 employees out of work and leaving more than 40 local tomato growers wondering what they will be planting come spring.

After being an integral part of the town of Leamington for more than a century, the HJ Heinz Corporation will shut its processing plant next June, putting 740 employees out of work and leaving more than 40 local tomato growers wondering what they will be planting come spring.

Figuring out 'better ways of sharing'

Ovide Mercredi, former grand chief of the Assembly of First Nations of Canada, was part of an indigenous delegation that travelled to England for the 250th anniversary of Royal Proclamation of 1763, a rather grandiose document whereby King George III of England went about the imperial business of colonizing a big chunk of North America.

Oct. 7 marked the 250th anniversary of the Royal Proclamation of 1763, a rather grandiose document whereby King George III of England went about the imperial business of colonizing a big chunk of North America.

A bloody satisfying hassle

All I knew about pig butchering before I did it myself was the Low German saying that translates as, “good weather for slaughtering pigs,” which somehow surfaces from my subconscious on brisk sunny days in the fall. I also knew that if people learn you plan to turn three pigs into sausage, a good number of them want in on the action. We could have charged admission.

Standing together with First Nations

On Oct. 7, 2013, Idle No More held a rally at the Manitoba Legislative grounds in Winnipeg to mark the 250th anniversary of the Proclamation of 1763. About 10 percent of those in attendance to show solidarity with indigenous brothers and sisters were Mennonite.

When Moses Falco heard the words, “We never gave up our sovereignty,” at an Oct. 7 rally held in Winnipeg to mark the 250th anniversary of the Royal Proclamation of 1763, they struck a chord. “I realized that I, by the way I continue to live, am not just suppressing a people, I am suppressing nations in my own country. I’m not okay with that.”

‘Settlers’ warned against feeling guilty

Grace Smallboy sits among the decimated residents of North America/Turtle Island after many years of settler activity in the blanket exercise at a Kairos event held at Valleyview Mennonite Church, London, Ont., on Sept. 28.

Grace Smallboy, an Indian Residential School (IRS) survivor, sat on a small folded blanket in the middle of the Valleyview Mennonite Church sanctuary while around her others—including London area Mennonites—stood on their own blankets representing a variety of Canada’s indigenous people groups.

Waste makes haste

Brad Reimer with MCC Manitoba’s waste vegetable oil-powered vehicle.

When Ken Rempel stopped for a construction delay on Highway 2 near Winnipeg, the flagman asked if he was the guy who ran his car on vegetable oil. The flagman had confused Rempel with another Highway 2 commuter, but just the same, Rempel’s interest was piqued.

Mending the sacred hoop

Kitchener’ Nish Singers—from left to right: Bonnie Misquatis, Marylin Sutherland and Heather Mujoury—drummed and sang at ‘Healing the sacred hoop,’ a two-day Mennonite Central Committee Ontario event in mid-September that focused on Indian Residential Schools run by Mennonites.

Andrew Wesley, left, a residential school survivor, and Merle Nisly, a worker at the Mennonite-run Poplar Hill Development School in northwestern Ontario, embrace at ‘Healing the sacred hoop,’ a two-day Mennonite Central Committee Ontario event in mid-September that focused on Indian Residential Schools run by Mennonites.

The “sacred hoop” is the circle of nations. While it originally referred to indigenous nations in North America, the hoop has been broadened to include settler nations with whom the indigenous people groups now share the land.

‘The hands and feet of Jesus in a broken world’

Elizabeth Wiens tries out her new hula hoop that she got at the children’s auction at the MCC Festival. The auction allowed kids and their parents to bid on kid-friendly items and brought in $1,876.

Jennifer Forbes is the first female auctioneer in the history of the MCC Festival. She is pictured auctioning the loaf of bread, which sold for a cumulative total of $172,250 from a number of bidders. Volunteer Tim Kroeker holds the bread.

It was a fun-filled, exciting weekend at the annual Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Festival for World Relief held at the Abbotsford Tradex on Sept. 6 and 7. The annual event raised more than a half-million dollars to support MCC’s relief, development and peace work in more than 60 countries around the world.

Born at the border

A dinner of Palestinian food was provided by Mamduh Saedam, left, who opened a restaurant in Hamilton only three years after being sponsored as a refugee to come to Canada. Helping out is Moses Moini, MCC Ontario’s refugee program coordinator.

Omar Alawasaje’s story of being invited by his Canadian sponsors to “go camping,” and his immediate and reactive response of “No!” led to general laughter in the group gathered at the “Torn from home: My life as a refugee” exhibit at the Waterloo Regional Museum in Kitchener this summer.

B.C. church takes VBS to Guatemala

The Cedar Valley Mennonite Church mission team members (dressed in orange T-shirts) from Mission, B.C., play in the streets of Santa María de Jesús, Guatemala, to attract neighbourhood children to the VBS program at nearby Bethel Church, a local congregation.

This young boy, who is bald due to cancer treatments, is happy to receive a handmade card with his gift bag from the mission team from Cedar Valley Mennonite Church, Mission B.C., during a two-week visit to Guatemala that included a stop at Kairos House, a ministry by a family that has opened its home to care for families of children with cancer.

An ongoing discipleship and partnership program with a Guatemalan congregation led a team of 12 from Cedar Valley Mennonite Church in Mission, B.C., to travel to the Central American country for two weeks in July, putting their faith into practice while learning about missions and making new friends.

What is the ‘settler problem’?

By the end of a long day of hearings, there are few adjectives—short of “monstrous”—that can do justice to the plain words of old men who face the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) commissioner with tears in their eyes and disclose the intimate shame of their residential school experiences to a room filled with strangers, grandchildren and people they have known their whole lives.

‘Who can we trust?’

Steve Plenert, left, peace coordinator for Mennonite Central Committee Manitoba, prays at Winnipeg’s Honour the Apology rally on July 25.

Pam Peters Pries; Karen Martens Zimmerly, MC Canada denominational minister; Dora Dueck; Byron Rempel-Burkholder; Steve Heinrichs, MC Canada’s director of indigenous relations; and Arlyn Friesen Epp, MC Canada’s Resource Centre director attend an Honour the Apology rally at the Forks in Winnipeg on July 25

Of the approximately 150 people who attended an Honour the Apology rally at the Forks in Winnipeg on July 25, more than 20 were members of the Manitoba Mennonite community.

One milk crate of debris at a time

Flood damage in High River, Alta., is the worst Mennonite Disaster Service Canada has ever experienced.

“It was extremely daunting, knowing it was only one small basement on one street,” says volunteer Nancy Thiessen, one of about 250 people who volunteered with Mennonite Disaster Services (MDS) to help with clean-up in High River, Alta., after a flood devastated the city of about 13,000 in late June. “All we could do was take one milk crate of debris up the stairs at a time.

Peacekeepers receive mixed reception in Haiti

Masonry students such as 25-year-old Ronald Sadou Zami benefited from a 2012 MCC seminar on disaster-resistant construction.

Members of 5 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group are welcomed to Haiti as part of the United Nations Stabilization Mission there.

In a decision that could have a direct impact on the work of Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) in Haiti, the Canadian government has stepped up its contribution to the United Nations-led military peacekeeping mission in this Caribbean nation.

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