Three generations of mission within a lifetime
ELKHART, Indiana (Mennonite Mission Network) – Connie and Dennis Byler, serving with Mennonite Mission Network, watched Anabaptism take root in Spain in their 37 years of ministry there. They helped tuck seeds into the ground tilled by the Catholic renewal movement of the 1970s. They tended the young growth of church plants. And now they rejoice […]
Mission Network helps equip congregations for reentry ministry
ELKHART, Indiana (Mennonite Mission Network) – Yanette Freeman is an Indiana Department of Corrections officer "with a heart" said Don French, the main presenter at a Dec. 16 workshop on reentry organized by Mennonite Mission Network in collaboration with Center for Community Justice based in Elkhart, Indiana. "With all I have done, I should be […]
A radical text for our times
Heading to the airport for an early morning flight, I grabbed the most radical, subversive, counter-cultural peace book I own to read on the plane. What was it? How to win friends and influence people by Dale Carnegie, of course. Hear me out – Yes, How to win friends … was first published in 1936, […]
Elkhart agencies come together in training local leaders to serve people formerly incarcerated
Elkhart, Indiana (Mennonite Mission Network) – Mennonite Mission Network and Center for Community Justice (CCJ) of Elkhart, Indiana, have come together to resource local leaders in supporting people formerly incarcerated and their families. The first workshop, named "Reentry," is planned for Saturday, Dec. 16, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Mission Network offices at […]
Peace on earth, piece by piece
Newton, Kansas (Mennonite Mission Network) – As tensions between nations rise and world leaders threaten war – even nuclear war – peacemakers all over the world continue to work to make peace on earth a reality. Jae Young Lee and Karen Spicher, Mennonite Mission Network mission associates in Namyangju, South Korea, are two of those […]
Argentina Mennonite Church commemorates 100 years of ministry, still innovating
Elkhart, Indiana (Mennonite Mission Network) – When leaders of Iglesia Evangélica Menonita Argentina (Argentina Mennonite Church, IEMA) imagined an outdoor centennial celebration near the docks in Buenos Aires, they were thinking of the future as well as the past. They wanted their celebration to be a testimony of God’s faithfulness while commemorating their denomination’s history, […]
Be involved, be the Gospel
God invites us, Jesus sends us, and the Holy Spirit empowers us to discover and share the message of reconciliation around the world.
Training tomorrow’s Mandelas and Tutus
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (Mennonite Mission Network) – Students trained by Southern African Development and Reconstruction Agency (SADRA) are the next generation of Desmond Tutus, and follow in the footsteps of giants like Nelson Mandela. They have become peace ambassadors in their homes and in their communities. Four years ago, I launched SADRA with the […]
Mennonite team in Argentine Chaco continues to evolve
Elkhart, Indiana (Mennonite Mission Network) – Under bright blue skies, around 400 people gathered on Saturday, Sept. 16, for a celebrative centennial service near the Buenos Aires port where, 100 years earlier, the first Mennonite missionaries in Latin America stepped off the ship onto Argentine soil. In 1919, the first baptisms took place in the […]
Vers une formation mennonite francophone en ligne
ABIDJAN, Côte d’Ivoire (Mennonite Mission Network) – Du 27 au 29 septembre, 21 personnes venant de trois continents et huit pays se sont réunies dans le cadre d’un projet du « Réseau mennonite francophone » (RMF). La consultation a eu lieu à Abidjan Côte d’Ivoire à la Faculté de Théologie Evangélique de l’Alliance Chrétienne (FATEAC). Le RMF, […]
My personal awakening to God’s work
In 2006, when I came to Elkhart, Indiana, the "M" word—mission— was certainly not part of my vocabulary. Mission, in my view, was the method used to accomplish the goals of colonialism—cultural genocide, coercive baptisms to Christianity, wealth, and resource extraction. I vividly remember reading an issue of Mennonite Mission Network’s Beyond magazine in 2004 […]
Planting water
Once upon a time … there was a 21-year-old, recently-graduated-from-Eastern-Mennonite-University, young woman, who had spent the previous four years learning all sorts of fancy things about herself and the world and her passions. She was READY to "go out in the world … and do things for the good of all …" And … she […]