Volume 27 Issue 16D

All or none 

Jakob Rempel and his family a few years before he was arrested and sent to the Solovky prison camp in 1929. (Photo courtesy of Mennonite Heritage Archives)

While Jakob Rempel was being transferred by train from one Gulag camp to another, he jumped from the train in a snowstorm. Ultimately, he ended up in Uzbekistan, near the town of Ak Metchet, made famous in Sofia Samatar’s celebrated 2022 book, The White Mosque.

Growing in the right direction: Grebel’s pollinator garden

Eva Booker (left) painting the pollinator garden's picnic table with student volunteers Anna Miller-Buza and Claire Treacy. (Photo by Margaret Gissing)

Black-eyed Susans growing in Grebel's pollinator garden. (Photo by Tim Saari)

On a bright morning in April, Eva Booker and a team of student volunteers rolled out a 25-foot-wide tarp across Grebel’s front lawn in preparation for the College’s recent green initiative: a pollinator garden.   

Birding with Alvin

‘I’m still learning all the time,’ says birder Alvin Dyck, pictured at Oak Hammock Marsh near Winnipeg. (Photo by Aaron Epp)

I don’t get out much.

That’s true for my personal life. My wife and I are homebodies and we jokingly refer to ourselves as “indoor kids”—a nod to the kind of children who choose watching TV or reading a book over getting outside and running around.

Consider the birders

An eastern bluebird prepares to feed its chicks. (Photo by Merri-Lee Metzger)

Birders flock to the bus windows during an excursion as part of the 2023 Camps with Meaning birding retreat. (Photo by Christina Janzen)

A Nashville warbler. (Photo by John Pries)

When Gordon Janzen was searching for a way to unwind, he found it by looking up.

Around 10 years ago, the Winnipegger realized he was working a lot and didn’t have many hobbies. Looking to develop his interests outside of work, Janzen got a pair of binoculars and started birding.

Learning about waiting

(Unsplash photo by Ümit Bulut)

I’ve been learning about waiting.

After avoiding it for three years, I tested positive for COVID-19 at the beginning of July—just in time to disrupt the return of the Grand Wallace Road Trip.

Each year we pile the kids into our vehicle and drive hard from Saskatchewan to Montana to Michigan and back to visit family. Or at least, we did until the pandemic started.

Vibrant, powerful book explores family violence

Arthur Boers’ new book unpacks the ways his father’s violence shaped the person he became. (Supplied photo)

Shattered includes vibrant, emotional vignettes. (Supplied photo)

In his new book Shattered, Arthur Boers writes, “I realized that I never understood my father, our relationship, or even myself.” In this coming-of-age story, Boers explores his relationship with his father, trying to make sense of why he both feared and loved him. How did his father’s violence shape the person that Boers became?

The gift of limited options

Springridge Mennonite Church attendees sing together on Christmas morning last year. (Supplied Photo)

Tany Warkentin (Supplied Photo)

This past spring, Mennonite Church Alberta held its first in-person annual delegate sessions in four years. Representatives from across the province were in attendance. Who hosted this grand gathering? One of the smallest churches in the province: Springridge Mennonite.

Anabaptism at 500 seeking story ideas for book

John D. Roth, project director of Anabaptism at 500. (Jace Longenecker photo for MennoMedia)

Anabaptists around the world are gearing up to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the Anabaptist movement in 2025. To mark this historic occasion, MennoMedia’s Anabaptism at 500 project has announced the creation of a commemorative story book that will capture the diverse and inspiring stories of Anabaptist witness from around the globe.

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