Menno Village plants seeds of heritage, justice
NEWTON, Kansas (Mennonite Mission Network) — For Menno Village in rural Hokkaido, Japan, harvest is a yearlong process. Vegetables begin to be harvested in the spring; wheat in the waning days of July; and rice by the beginning of October. Each harvest, however, begins the same way: by planting a seed. It’s these seeds that […]
Camp Deerpark provides SOOP family space to roam, soil to grow
NEWTON, Kansas (Mennonite Mission Network) — Amid an unsafe world, Katrina and Matt Eberly didn’t worry when their four children were nowhere to be seen at Camp Deerpark in upstate New York. They knew they were scampering through the woods with their new camp friends, catching minnows in the creek and stretching their bodies and […]
DOOR to host virtual check-in for youth group leaders
NEWTON, Kansas (Mennonite Mission Network) — In a normal year, youth groups from across the country would visit Discovering Opportunities for Outreach and Reflection (DOOR) Discovery sites in Atlanta, Chicago and Denver to engage in service and learning experiences. In a normal year, these groups would spend a week building relationships and discussing how racism, […]
Story 4: Persevering in Christian Service programs
The pandemic shut down many endeavors, but it did not succeed in doing so with Mission Network’s Christian Service programs. In all cases, directors are either reconfiguring service and discipleship opportunities or regrouping for 2021. Discovering Opportunities for Outreach and Reflection (DOOR) executive director Andrea Sawyer-Kirksey: Instead of canceling summer programs, DOOR, a partner agency […]
10 months of growth that keep on giving
NEWTON, Kansas (Mennonite Mission Network) — When it came time for Corinne Jager to decide what to do between high school and college, she sought distance away from where she grew up in Pennsylvania so that she could grow further on her own. Moving across the country to Oregon to join Mennonite Mission Network’s 10-month […]
On elections: Three insights from mission
Voting is a matter of urgency. Apartheid was scarcely a decade past when my family began our eight-year sojourn in South Africa. I remember the sacred satisfaction, with thanksgiving to God, of people I knew who voted in that nation’s first democratic elections in 1994. For the first time, millions of South Africa’s citizens of […]
Lifting the Lord—Missional Meditations
Looking at the scriptures with an eye toward mission. Joe Sawatzky shares a Missional Meditation entitled, "Lifting the Lord" based on the Revised Common Lectionary for November 1, 2020. Leaders are those who bear the work of God with others, and so exalt the Lord. Psalm 107:1-7, 33:37 Joshua 3:7-17 1 Thessalonians 2:9-13 Matthew 23:1-12 Thank you […]
MVS shapes career in immigration law
GOSHEN, Indiana (Mennonite Mission Network) — Peter Claassen, an immigration attorney with the National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC), never thought he would go into law until his experience with Mennonite Voluntary Service (MVS). Ten years ago, Claassen became hungry for a shift back to his passion for global issues while working a job unrelated to […]
Sawatzky named as international education liaison for Mission Network–AMBS partnership
NEWTON, Kansas, and ELKHART, Indiana (Mennonite Mission Network and Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary) — Theologian Joe Sawatzky says that while serving in South Africa with Mennonite Mission Network, he often learned as much about God from his cross-cultural engagements as he did from textbooks. It’s the potential for gift sharing across cultures that Sawatzky — […]
Webinar series fosters space for truth-telling
NEWTON, Kansas (Mennonite Mission Network) – When the Rev. Lindsey Anderson and Micah Rose Emerson wanted to illustrate the intersections of oppression faced by women of color, they emphasized their point by using a modern pop-culture artist — Megan Thee Stallion. The rapper and singer/songwriter, who is a Black woman, stated in July that she […]
Seeking wellbeing
As part of The Hope Series Prayer, Recruiter and Church Relations representative Eric Frey Martin talks about seeking wellbeing, from Jeremiah 29:7. This was initially streamed on October 12, 2020.
Colombian seminary’s restructuring useful during pandemic
NEWTON, Kansas (Mennonite Mission Network) — As COVID-19 is exacerbating and laying bare inequality and injustice throughout Latin America, Seminario Bíblico Menonita de Colombia (SBMC, Mennonite Biblical Seminary of Colombia) is uncovering and promoting the riches of online theological education. The pandemic’s social distancing realities have, in many ways, forced people in all areas of […]