Volume 16, Number 23
Healthy living begins with wholesome food at Sam’s Place
Volunteers, (from left) Sasha Homenko, Anna Marie Giesbrecht, Laeun Kin and Birte Wiebe get to know each other as they work in the kitchen at Sam’s Place.
Packages of beans, tomatoes, carrots, apples and pesto fill the freezers at Sam’s Place, a used book store, café and performing arts venue in the Winnipeg neighbourhood of Elmwood.
Courage for Lydia
(l-r) Meaghan McCracken, Rebecca Campbell, Carol Ann Weaver, Ben Bolt-Martin and Willem Moolenbeek perform Winter Prayers and Blessings from Weaver’s Three Seasons for Lydia Herrle, on Oct. 31 at Conrad Grebel University College.
Elementary school student Lydia Herrle was thrown 25 metres after being hit by a truck as she stepped off her school bus in front of her family’s Country Farm Market on Erb’s Road near Waterloo in May. It took months before she came home from hospital and she has years of rehabilitation ahead of her. She and her family attend Waterloo Mennonite Brethren Church.
‘Job’ sings the blues
Job (Mark McKechnie) refuses to be convinced by Sonny (Dan Bieman), the fundamentalist Christian, while the “High and Mighty” house band play in the background in Ross Muir’s Job’s Blues.
Ross Muir, managing editor of Canadian Mennonite, penned the lyrics to his blues’ opera, Job’s Blues, during one of the happiest times of his life, in 1988. The idea had been in his mind for a dozen years, ever since he had heard a twelve part sermon series on the Biblical book of Job while at the University of Victoria, B.C.
A compelling narrative of Russian Mennonites’ darkest hour
This personal narrative of one of the darkest hours for Russian Mennonites, suffering unspeakably under the repression of a ruthless regime, is one of the most compelling I have read.
“My great-grandfather was a Mennonite:”
Mukanzo
Although Odette Mukole has surely told her story hundreds of times, she speaks softly. She is patient, humble and gracious.
Ukraine oak ‘grandchild’ planted at M.E.I.
With the oak sapling in the background, Art Friesen addresses the group gathered to recognize the gift of the tree grown from the famous Chortitza oak to M.E.I.
The Chortitza oak, a large tree that has stood in Ukraine for over 700 years, continues living on in a new generation on the campus of Mennonite Educational Institute (M.E.I.) in Abbotsford, thanks to a gift from Art and Marlyce Friesen.
Mothers and daughters learn about HIV in Tanzania
Dinah John (left) and Angel Mathew are part of an intergenerational team of women learning and sharing information about HIV and AIDS in Arusha, Tanzania.
Tears flow freely at Binti Mama (daughter/mother) gatherings as mothers and their teenage daughters talk openly about issues such as HIV and AIDS. Led by an intergenerational team of students, teachers and women, the gatherings provide a safe setting for listening and learning across generations.
Snow, warning letter and study enthusiasm
Cheryl Pauls (right), president of Canadian Mennonite University and Terry Schellenberg, vice-president external, were among those who attended the Mennonite Church Canada leadership assembly in Edmonton where winter came early. They also met with pastors, parents and students in Edmonton and Calgary during their trip.
A blast of winter welcomed Mennonite Church Canada leaders to Edmonton’s First Mennonite Church for the annual fall leadership assembly Nov. 7-10. Most travellers managed to be on time, and laughter about inadequate footwear, lack of coats, and snow-covered signs was common fodder at coffee break.
Jubilee is the standard for both business and pastors
Proclaiming Jubilee is the mission and vision of both the congregation and Mennonite-owned business, David Miller told a workshop of business leaders and pastors when Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA) met here for their annual meeting focused on “Business as a Calling.”
The paths and ditches of Biblical interpretation
Path # 7 Holy Spirit and interpretive community
By Robert J. Suderman, Being a Faithful Church Task Force member
Beyond politics
I’m a sucker for politics. I read the papers, stay up late on election nights and get far too emotionally involved. But at the same time, I maintain a fundamental suspicion of partisan politics. While I know and respect people in the political sphere, I will never buy a party membership, go door-to-door with pamphlets, or bang a sign into my front lawn.
More room for awe and wonder
“Are you excited about the new IKEA store?” asked the woman I was visiting. Sheepishly I confessed that I was and then added, “Even though there is nothing I need in my house from that store.” Her husband offered that he was looking forward to enjoying some meatballs, and we discussed the food possibilities in some detail.
Who’s talking to your kids?
We are bombarded with thousands of advertising messages every day. As we approach the holidays it seems everywhere we turn we’re being targeted. Radio, TV, billboards, newspapers, magazines, pop-up ads all deliver a relentless plea to spend more and more on what are often frivolous items marketed as necessities.
‘Sir, we would like to see Jesus’
The above request came to Philip from “Greeks” who had come to celebrate the Passover in Jerusalem. Whether the question came out of their curiosity about the triumphal entry or the resurrection of Lazarus (John 12:17) is unsure, but this was their request.
Readers write
New Mennonite building can provide synergy
Re: MCC’s big building rationale not compelling.
For discussion
1. What are some of your warm “waiting for Christmas” memories? What is it about Advent and Christmas family traditions that make them so special? Do you have negative memories mixed with the nostalgia? What role does gift-giving play in Christmas nostalgia?
Coming home
In my first year at Canadian Mennonite University, my first year away from home, I kept a running countdown to the Christmas holidays on the whiteboard stuck to my dorm room door. Only 12 days until I fly home, 19 days until Christmas.
A father’s perspective on Advent
Our childhood returns to us through our children—especially in the season of Advent.
What Advent means to me
Advent means memories, traditions, plans, lists, emotions and thoughts. In my youth in western Canada, growing up in a Mennonite Brethren (MB) community, Advent was a season. It was not marked by a number of Sundays, but by particular songs sung or lessons read.
Advent hymns and texts are disturbing.
“O come, O come Emmanuel,” a stock dirge of Advent, comes from a house of pain that once was, still is, and shall be again. The hymn is haunting. (HWB #172)
Practice the peace we proclaim
While I appreciate the widespread support for Canadian Mennonite when we broke the story in our last edition regarding Canada Revenue Agency reminding us about “political partisanship” cited in two editorials and four articles, I want to clarify and correct some misinformation reported by the public media.
