Volume 21, Number 20
In praise of reading
A formative experience for my childhood faith was the reading of C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia series. Set in the fictional land of Narnia, the seven books tell stories of children from our world who are transported to a land of mythical creatures and cosmic struggles.
A hoof and heart both need mending
Doug Klassen's horse Dolly had a visit from her farrier. (Photo courtesy of Doug Klassen)
Doug Klassen's horse Dolly is kindly and carefully cared for by her farrier Morgan Girletz, who spent a hour-and-a half making a delicate repair to her hoof. It inspired Doug to write this feature article. (Photo courtesy of Doug Klassen)
Doug Klassen
He was a welcome sight when his truck and trailer pulled into the yard. Even before the truck stopped moving, he jumped out the passenger side and started walking toward me.
“Doctor Klassen?” he said as he held a cigarette at the side of his mouth. He reached out his tattoo-laden arm and introduced himself: “Morgan Girletz. Good to meet ya. Let’s see yer horse!”
Readers write: October 23, 2017 issue
‘Shared land’ event deserved front-page coverage
Re: “Shared land’ event photo, Aug. 28, back cover.
I was rather set back by the minimal attention you gave to an event at Ancient Echoes Interpretive Centre in Herschel, Sask. This is of front-page importance, not a back-page afterthought.
Maple View insert: Canadian Mennonite responds
The Sept.
Meta-morphosis
For Mennonite Church Canada Witness workers and national office staff, preparations for restructuring have created challenges over the past few years. Reality hit home as beloved colleagues and friends were released from their jobs and others left voluntarily for new employment, leaving those who remained with a sense of loss and additional responsibilities.
A hermeneutic of suspicion
In a previous Family Ties column on sexual ethics (June 19, 2017), I wondered, “Where does the Bible help us [in this regard]? And where is it limited?” As I wrote, I imagined some readers might share my questions, while others would be puzzled, even disturbed, by them.
The ‘yes’ perspective
When I was a very young girl, I realized that the coloured papers in my mother’s purse could get you things. That was my introduction to money. Growing up, I remained fascinated by the intense influence money has on human behaviour.
You’re getting worked up over nothing
Jesus and his disciples were invited to Martha’s house for dinner.
Martha was toiling away in the kitchen by herself while everyone else, including her sister Mary, was in the living room huddled around a fascinating rabbi named Jesus, a man some were calling the Son of God. Stressed out and frustrated, Martha finally marched into the living room and interrupted the conversation.
Cooperative
Photo courtesy of Abe E. Ens
Cooperatives allow community members to pool their economic resources and were quickly adopted in many Mennonite communities as a continuation of the Mennonite mutual-aid tradition.
Pioneer Park celebrates 175 years of change
When Ed Snider left Kitchener to farm in the Hanover-Chesley area of southwestern Ontario, Pioneer Park Christian Fellowship, then known as the Weber Mennonite Church, was nearly five kilometres from the city limits.
‘We need legislated protection’
“My people don’t believe in coincidence,” Sylvia McAdam told her audience, “so you’re meant to be here today.” McAdam was speaking at a teach-in at St. Thomas More College in Saskatoon.
Bringing people and food together
Gord Enns leads a bicycle tour of five farms in the Osler, Sask., area that sell meat, vegetables, fruit and baked goods directly to consumers. (Photo courtesy of Gord Enns)
Participants check out the produce available for sale on the Local Food Trail. (Photo courtesy of Gord Enns)
Curious pigs come to check out the Local Food Trail bike tour participants. (Photo courtesy of Gord Enns)
Local Food Trail bicycle tour participants chat with the farmer at this market garden. (Photo courtesy of Gord Enns)
Cyclists begin their tour of the Local Food Trail at Farmyard Market. (Photo courtesy of Gord Enns)
On a sunny Saturday in early September, 13 cyclists set out to explore the Local Food Trail near Osler, Sask. Gord Enns, who is executive director of the Saskatoon Food Council and who lives on a farm in the Osler area, organized the tour in conjunction with the town of Osler and the rural municipality of Corman Park.
Mennonites walk for reconciliation
The 2017 Walk for Reconciliation recognizing First Nations peoples drew an estimated 50,000 people in Vancouver on Sept. 24. Some two-dozen Mennonites from several Lower Mainland congregations walked together under a “Mennonite Folks” sign organized by Garry Janzen, Mennonite Church B.C.’s executive minster.
Remembering the ‘forgotten people’
As a teenager, Ghada Ageel had heated debates with her grandmother at their home in the Khan Younis refugee camp in South Gaza.
“I asked my grandmother many questions: Why didn’t you stay in Beit Daras and die there? Why do I have to be a refugee and live this misery?” Her grandmother was forced to flee in 1948, when Israel occupied and destroyed her village.
‘Participation, not performance’
Brandon Leis, the new music director for Menno Singers, in his studio in the Music Building at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ont. (Photo by Dave Rogalsky)
Brandon Leis, the new music director for Menno Singers, holds up a piece of art he created. The church, founded on sacred music and filled with it, exudes music through the cross on the steeple. Or is it receiving heavenly inspiration through the cross and being filled with spiritual music? Or maybe both. Only visible when held up to the light are the Alpha and Omega, God’s beginning and end. The piece hangs over his desk—and coffee maker—in his studio in the Music Building at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo. (Photo by Dave Rogalsky)
Like most musicians and artists, Brandon Leis uses his gifts in many places and in many ways to make a living.
‘Where do we go from here?’
Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen / Nobody knows my sorrow / Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen / Nobody knows but Jesus
By entitling his book with the words of the African-American spiritual, one known by whites through popularization in modern entertainment, Drew Hart puts his thesis front and centre.
How to avoid ‘a tense faith’
Humans have a long history of elevating knowledge over trust. Consider Adam and Eve. They had God’s full attention and companionship—and Eden—but they couldn’t resist the off-limits “tree of knowledge.” What did that get them? Misery.
2017 Fall List of Books & Resources
Theology, Spirituality
Approaching the Divine: Signs and Symbols of the Christian Faith. Margaret Loewen Reimer. CMU Press, 2017, 96 pages.
Writing that 'really, really works'
Justin Rempel has been making up stories ever since he learned to write. The animals on his parents’ hobby farm near Gretna, Man., and the stories he heard while attending Sunday school at Blumenort Mennonite Church in Rosetown, Man., were his initial inspiration.
From Mexican Quaker to Canadian Mennonite
Andrea De Avila enjoys her role as associate pastor at Sargent Avenue Mennonite Church in Winnipeg. (Photo by Aaron Epp)
Andrea De Avila is pictured at her graduation from Eastern Mennonite University. To the left are her grandparents, Ana Victoria Aguilera Martinez and Juan Manuel De Avila Perez. To the right are family friends Nancy Peachy Bontrager and Marion Bontrager. (Photo courtesy of Andrea De Avila)
Andrea De Avila is pictured at the Forks in Winnipeg with her husband Nate and their friend Carina Contreras. (Photo courtesy of Andrea De Avila)
Andrea De Avila, second from left, celebrates Christmas in 2013 with, from left to right, her sister Isabela, mother Norma, father Rodrigo, sister Laura, and brother Rodrigo. (Photo courtesy of Andrea De Avila)
Participating in a Quaker youth pilgrimage to the U.K. was a formative experience for Andrea De Avila. (Photo courtesy of Andrea De Avila)
Ask Andrea De Avila when she first wanted to become a pastor and her answer is simple: “I didn’t.”
