Living the call: Q&A with Sent 2018 attendees
NEWTON, Kansas (Mennonite Mission Network) – Pastors, church planters, and people from all over the country gathered in Chicago May 4-6 for the Sent 2018 peace church conference to worship and share how God is moving in their churches and communities. I caught up with two attendees to talk about their experiences. Hendy Stevan is […]
Letting God lead
NEWTON, Kansas (Mennonite Mission Network) – It was early September 2017, and Kendra Selzer was bound for Puerto Rico for a year with Mennonite Voluntary Service (MVS). Then Hurricanes Irma and Maria made landfall. Selzer had planned to live and work as a teacher’s aide on the campus of Academia Menonita Betania, a school that […]
Recognizing the Spirit in others
Jesus calls us to follow the rules of the upside-down kingdom. That means we don’t follow the colonial model of mission. We try not to impede God’s work through local leaders. Instead, we work alongside them. Why? Local leaders know the culture. They know the language. They know what their communities need. And most […]
Adella Brunk Kanagy: “We served by being learners.”
ELKHART, Indiana (Mennonite Mission Network) – Adella Brunk Kanagy read from both her English and her Japanese Bibles each morning. She and her family served in Japan for 22 years with Mennonite Board of Missions, a predecessor agency of Mennonite Mission Network. Kanagy, 95, died in Belleville, Pennsylvania, July 8. "We served by being learners […]
Advice to my younger me
In my lifetime, I have been the recipient of all kinds of advice – good and bad, solicited and unsolicited, helpful and hurtful, and some that was just downright strange (the English professor who was convinced I should work for the FBI comes to mind). Even the Bible has something to say about why we […]
The “nitty gritty” of Anabaptism
While I have been giving presentations and workshops on Anabaptism I have started to realize how little I really knew growing up. People would always ask, "Who are the Mennonites?" Or "How are Mennonites any different from other Christian groups?" I wouldn’t say much more than we are pacifists and we also do this thing […]
MVS alumna uses passion for social justice in immigration law
NEWTON, Kansas (Mennonite Mission Network) – Some people are hesitant to integrate their identity into their vocation, but for Lisa Koop, a passion for advocacy and social justice is not just part of who she is – it’s her day job. Koop works at the National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC), a nonprofit organization with offices […]
In two short weeks
Throughout this trip, there have been multiple ways that a deeper meaning and knowledge has come to light. Our experiences in Ecuador have taught us to rethink our impact and choices in this world. We’ve learned to slow down, take a breath, and open our eyes. Not only has it been an amazing trip because […]
Founding member of Mennonite Church Nigeria dies
IKOT OBIO AMA, Nigeria (Mennonite Mission Network) – Ime Udo Nsasak, 87, a founding member of Mennonite Church Nigeria, died at home on November 26, 2017. The funeral and burial took place on May 12, 2018, at Nsasak’s compound in Ikot Obio Ama. Nsasak served as national secretary of the church during most of the […]
Returning, but not going back
When our service term in Indonesia with Journey International wrapped up in 2015, all three of us on the team knew that we would return someday. Granted, none of us could articulate exactly how or when, but we could feel it; the tug of inevitability. That feeling helped dull the sting of the last church […]
Voice of youth helps life-seasoned couple find new meaning through service
I, a Bethel College-educated woman, speak from a place of many kinds of privilege, including White privilege. I received the blessings of being born to a hard-working Kansas farm family with Christian values. I experienced family as people who take care of each other. My Mennonite community will never stop loving and showing grace […]
Part 2: Overcoming Imposter Syndrome
Last month I talked about my own struggle with Impostor Syndrome – the roots of which I can trace back to my childhood. To recap: The Impostor Syndrome is a collection of feelings of inadequacy and fraudulence that keep us from internalizing our successes; it is chronic self-doubt despite evidence to the contrary. It is […]