Volume 15, Number 2
Children change everything
There is nothing like a new addition to the family to get parents and grandparents looking ahead to the future. Much of what lies ahead is unknown, but there are things like life insurance that can help secure your child’s financial future.
Financial ministry ‘a question of fair balance’
The mission of MAX (MutualAid eXchange)—creating and sustaining wholeness through preserving and restoring property, lives and communities—was very much in action during 2010, both in terms of MAX Canada’s Mutual Aid Ministry programs and its insurance operations.
An interview with Eleanor Kreider on praying with an Anabaptist voice
Herald Press: What is the purpose of this book?
Kreider: The impulse behind these two volumes is to help people to pray through Scripture, and to deepen their walk of faith.
Prayer books help people feel connected to God
For Carrie Martens, a student at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Elkhart, Ind., using a prayer book like Take Our Moments and Our Days helps her feel “connected to God, to Scripture and the greater Christian community. . . . It has helped me pray in ways that are meaningful and with words that express my faith journey,” she says gratefully.
An interview with Arthur Boers on daily prayer
Boers
Herald Press: What is daily prayer?
Uncovering ancient rhythms of daily prayer
When he was a young adult, Arthur Boers’ 17 year-old sister died of leukemia. Torn by grief, and unable to understand how God could allow such a terrible thing, he found himself unable to pray.
Welcome on the other side of the fence
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.
Protesting death in Georgia
Josie Winterfeld, missions, peace and justice worker at Stirling Avenue Mennonite Church, Kitchener, Ont., participates in the ‘die-in’ during the annual peace protest outside of the former School of the Americas at Fort Benning, Ga.
Fort Benning, Georgia—the home of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, formerly the School of the Americas—is also the home of annual peace protests each November.
Three Waterloo Region Mennonites—Nathan Gorvett, Josie Winterfeld and Richard Albrecht—took part in the 2010 protest, which stretched over a three-day weekend.
Vietnamese Mennonites lose their church centre
Eleven days before Christmas, local authorities in District Two of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, seized and demolished the home of Pastor Nguyen Hong Quang and his wife, leaders of the unregistered Vietnam Mennonite Church.
‘Mennonite’ not eaten here
As I look into the future, I find myself grieving the death of the Mennonite church. My sense is that the Mennonite church as we have known it is dying and that there is nothing that we can do to stop its eventual demise.
Subverting our bourgeois tendencies
Many of us like being rich. Moreover, many of us, myself included, like to be seen as being rich. And this, it seems, is contrary to the gospel of Jesus, who preached “woe to the rich,” and “blessed are the poor.” He also warned of leaders in “flowing robes” who liked to sit in places of honour (Luke 20:46).
New world metaphors
Human ingenuity cranks out things that are windows into the heart of the age. Our technological dreamworks become tools of convenience, toys of amusement, gadgets of annoyance, and objects of idolatry. Since Babel, every epoch has had its technological metaphor. The great tower of Genesis 11 betrayed humanity’s cultural self-understanding.
For discussion
1. What has your congregation done to help members dealing with personality disorders, addiction or family dysfunction? How effective has it been? How involved should the congregation or the pastor be in helping people cope with these types of issues?
‘Hi, my name’s Steve* and I’m a porn addict’
My first experience with pornography was at a corner store when I was nine years old. On a dare, I picked up a Playboy magazine and found that those glossy pictures aroused feelings of excitement that I had never felt before. They also triggered feelings of shame.
When the pain doesn’t go away
Jane’s nightmares kept her from getting a good night’s sleep. “They are just terrifying,” she told her doctor. “I wake up almost every night. It’s like someone is suffocating me—like a body lying on top of me—I’m holding my breath—just shaking with fear!”
“I think we can help with that,” said Dr. Shenk. “Let’s try this new sleep medication to see if that helps.”
Choosing life
Every morning I look in the mirror and do not know who might be looking back at me. I wonder what the day will hold. Will it be a day of relative calm? Or will it be a day when my voice becomes higher-pitched, and my speech speeds up, gushing out of me in staccato fashion while my mind tries to keep up with the ideas that come rushing in?
Building up God’s kingdom together
During the course of an evening of socializing with mostly pastors and deacons at some denominational committee meetings, discussion turned to the roles and practices
‘Tunnel vision’
Joe Neufeld puts his finger on an important artificial divide in our congregational care-giving (page 4) when he raises the spectre of perceiving some aspects “sacred”—and thus safe and legitimate—while others are considered “secular”—and thus suspect.
