Nutana Park Mennonite Church member Lynn Driedger, left, has been mentoring Jamie Winder for about five years. They are pictured at a mentor/youth Halloween party in 2008. (Nutana Mennonite Church photo)
Die Jugend von Heute.
Lynette Froese displays some of her Wheat Song Bakery products that are all made from organic, locally grown grains and natural yeasts.
Lynette Froese is reluctant to call her unique career a business, or even a career. “I was raised to consider work as a form of service, so I try to see this work not just as a business, but as a way of offering a service,” she says.
Tavis Weber checks on loaves of fresh-baked whole-grain whole-wheat bread at the Golden Hearth Bakery he owns with his wife Heidi in downtown, Kitchener, Ont.
“There are some things I don’t understand,” opines Bruce Weber about his nephew, Tavis Weber. “The guy goes to school in music for four years and then he goes and buys a bakery.”
Cliff and Wilma Derksen
Candace Derksen
It has been a very long and incredibly hard journey, but Cliff and Wilma Derksen of Winnipeg have finally come to a bright and sunny clearing in their lives.
Teaching may not be an unusual career, but Willi Penner has made a unique contribution to the field. Penner is the creator of Mathopoly, a curriculum-based math learning tool. The game is gaining the attention of educators and parents, and last October it was featured on the CBC’s Dragon’s Den, a TV show that gives entrepreneurs a chance to pitch their product to potential investors.
Tiessen
Paul Tiessen answers the phone with a breathless rush of words. It’s 8:30 on a Wednesday morning and already he’s running to keep up.
Zachary Janzen, Jordan Moffatt and Olivia Siebert play a friendly game of crokinole with senior Corny Classen at Vineland United Mennonite Church, Ont.
Marty and Chelsea Misener run church youth groups at either end of the Niagara Peninsula, and have seen the impact of youths on the elderly, and vice versa.
As Bethany Mennonite Church’s associate pastor since March 2009, Marty oversees the church’s young people’s group in Virgil, where they annually go carolling at Heritage Place, the local nursing home.
Hank Friesen has followed his life’s passion, working in the funeral business in his retirement years.
When it comes to the business of death, Henry “Hank” Friesen has found life in his retirement years.
The youth group at North Kildonan Mennonite Church, Winnipeg, Man., appreciates the in-home testimony nights with the church’s seniors.
Leonora Wiebe
Brian Wiebe
Relationships between youths and seniors within congregations are often strained, as neither group understands the other. Sometimes both groups are content not to know one another at all.
The Harms’ golden wedding anniversary celebration took place on June 19, 2010, at the Lowe Farm Community Centre, Man.
A deep love for aboriginal communities in Manitoba inspired Jake and Margaret Harms to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary this past summer by honouring others. In lieu of gifts, they invited friends and family to contribute to Mennonite Church Canada Native Ministry.
Gillian Mayers, left, was mentored by Maggie Martens for six years beginning in 2002 as part of an intentional intergenerational program at Edmonton First Mennonite, Alta. Although the mentorship relationship is now officially ended, the two remain close.
It is not normally an unusual sight, good friends finishing each other’s sentences and laughing, except that Maggie Martens and Gillian Mayers have something special, perhaps even rare. They have a true friendship that transcends age barriers.
Sara Wenger Shenk, new president of Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, invites the gathered congregation to declare with her, “Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb,” during her inaugural address on Oct. 24, at Clinton Frame Mennonite Church, near Goshen, Ind
“Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb,” the congregation called out, led by Sara Wenger Shenk in her inaugural address as the new president of Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS), on Oct. 24, at Clinton Frame Mennonite Church near Goshen, Ind.
Because it’s like driving cold and restless I put my arms up and out and feel
wind pushing me pushing me pushing me like an aching like a crumbling
like an
ending
you ask if I’m conducting I am I am but
it’s like a pirate ship a sinking ship a spaceship half gone but people are on
the lookout and write about it in their news
Ens
Senior year in high school is generally busy, but Sarah Ens managed to pack more activities and achievements into Grade 12 than many do in a lifetime, combining academic excellence while pursuing her passions for social justice, writing and volunteerism.
Dueck
The passing of Henry Dueck has left a gap in the greater Mennonite community of Leamington, Ont., where he lived and served for many years. His health began to steadily decline about a year-and-a-half ago and he died of congestive heart failure at 79 years of age.
Jake Buhler of Osler Mennonite Church, Sask., stands beside a sign he erected on his land boldly declaring 'To Remember is to Work for Peace'
Jake Buhler is a man with a different pair of glasses. They reflect a steely determination to pursue peace and help others do the same. “Peace is the lens through which we see everything,” he says.
Ted E. Friesen holds the inaugural Blazer Distinguished Community Service Award presented to him by Canadian Mennonite University president Gerald Gerbrandt on Sept. 25. Looking on is Friesen’s wife, Linie.
Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) presented its inaugural Blazer Distinguished Community Service Award on Sept. 25, naming Altona, Man., citizen Ted Friesen as the first recipient.
The award recognizes distinguished achievement and service within the broader community or church, through business, leadership, artistic, political or volunteer contributions.
Ross Shantz shows off his Arizona purchase of a Mennonite Central Committee model box car.
The original Walther’s Mennonite Central Committee model box car.
Ross Shantz, chair of the New Hamburg (Ont.) Mennonite Relief Sale, is an ardent model train enthusiast, so when he and his wife Sandra were on holiday in Phoenix, Ariz., this past winter, they went to a model train show. “What should I look for” among all the train cars, engines and memorabilia?
Twila Lebold poses with Dr. Kumar, who performed liberation treatment to open blocked veins from her brain in an effort to relieve her MS symptoms. The controversial treatment is currently not available in Canada.
“Did the prayers work?” was Twila Lebold’s first question after her liberation treatment in India to relieve her multiple sclerosis (MS).
Like most CEOs, Brent Zorgdrager finds his desk at the Mennonite Savings and Credit Union head office in Kitchener, Ont., filled with work.
Brent Zorgdrager’s surname translates from Dutch to English as “sorrow carrier or caregiver,” an apt description of the new chief executive officer of Mennonite and Savings Credit Union.
Neufeld
Moyer
Sustainable communities require long-term planning
Juan Raul Junay of Guatemala City, Guatemala, poses for a photograph in a field of golden Manitoba wheat.
Juan Raul Junay, 25, never tires of explaining how Canadian mining companies are affecting farming communities in his home country of Guatemala.
Katie Penner of Vineland, Ont., stands among the art and graffiti found along the security wall between Israel and Palestine.
My first reaction to seeing the wall that separates Israel and Palestine was the enormity of it. This isn’t any little chain-link fence that marks a property line. It’s an enormous eight-metre-tall concrete wall that has a security tower every kilometre or so.
For three weeks this past May, I participated in a joint Mennonite Central Committee/Mennonite Church Eastern Canada learning tour for young adults to Israel/Palestine. Called Yella, the program means “let’s go” in Hebrew and Arabic.
Susan Pries prepares a group lunch at RiverSong, a day retreat centre along the Conestoga River outside of St. Jacobs, Ont.
The yellow warbler flits among the trees back of the patio and main building at RiverSong as Susan Pries takes a break from providing meals and snacks to a daylong retreat of pastors.
