Valentine cookies are a sweet reminder to pray for peace
Valentines Day, with its themes of love and compassion, is an event celebrated around the world. Jae Young Lee and Karen Spicher are mission associates with Mission Network in Namyangju, South Korea. Spicher wrote that for Valentine’s Day, their family made sugar cookies. "Hearts, dinosaurs (Lena insisted), and the Korean peninsula, because it’s so easy […]
A Guatemalan mountainside was exactly where I needed to be
Sara Kennel served in Guatemala, through an internship with CASAS (Central American Study And Service). CASAS is a program of SEMILLA (Seminario Anabautista Latinoamericano), which provides biblical and theological education for 13 Anabaptist/Mennonite conferences in Central America and Mexico. SEMILLA is a partner organization of Mennonite Mission Network. To read more from Sara’s gap year […]
Service illuminates good in the world
Zaden Issah is a participant with the 2021-2022 Anchorage Service Adventure unit. To learn more about Service Adventure, a program of Mennonite Mission Network, click here. When I first decided to participate in Service Adventure, I wanted to serve somewhere as different from where I grew up as was possible. That decision led me to […]
Understanding the world through the lens of Mississippi
Cynthia and Roger Neufeld Smith were the unit leaders at the Jackson, Mississippi, Service Adventure unit from 2018-2020. This blog was originally published through Open Door Mennonite Church, in Jackson, a partner of Mission Network and the host congregation of the Jackson Service Adventure unit and Youth Venture and Civil Rights Learning Tour groups. […]
The roots of colonization are buried deep
Jae Young Lee and Karen Spicher are Mennonite Mission Network mission associates in Namyangju, South Korea. Spicher serves as the communications coordinator for the Northeast Asia Regional Peace Building Institute (NARPI). Jae Young directs the Korea Peacebuilding Institute (KOPI) and provides leadership to NARPI. Lee, Spicher and their four children work and live in community […]
Episode 06: You Must Remember This
How do the stories of mission become the history of mission? Anicka Fast shares about why some stories get preserved and remembered, while others become forgotten. Plus, Rod Hollinger-Janzen gives insight into how AIMM (Africa Inter-Mennonite Mission) worked with Fast to unearth forgotten narratives from a century ago. To learn more about Anicka Fast’s ministry, […]
Episode 05: Where’s this mission from, anyway?
Does Christianity change a culture, or is it the other way around? A conversation with James Krabill on the Biblical impetus for mission, and what North American churches can learn from mission practiced around the world. Krabill is a co-author of the new book, Unless A Grain of Wheat: A Story of Friendship between African Independent […]
Episode 04: Parts and Service
When does service become mission? Marisa Smucker and Andrea Sawyer-Kirksey weigh in on how their experiences leading MVS (Mennonite Voluntary Service) and DOOR(Discovering Opportunities for Outreach and Reflection) have informed the way they see the connection between service and mission. ‘MissionWary?’ is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and anywhere you listen to podcasts.
Mission-wary to Missionary: Witness as with-ness
NEWTON, Kansas (Mennonite Mission Network) — Even before becoming the executive director of Mennonite Mission Network, Mike Sherrill had plenty of practice explaining how the agency "does" mission. Sherrill and his wife, Teresa, first became connected with Mennonite Board of Missions, a predecessor agency of Mission Network, in 2000 as mission workers in Japan. Sherrill […]
Unless a Grain of Wheat chronicles relationship-building in Africa
Whenever I hear that White missionaries have gone to Africa, I suspect less than healthy motives. Therefore, I was initially skeptical of the relationship between Mennonite Mission Network and the African Independent Churches (AICs) in western and southern Africa. We cannot separate AICs from their colonial and Indigenous contexts. The AIC movement was birthed in […]
Breaking borders to build God’s kingdom
At Mennonite Mission Network, I hear countless stories about people leaving their local congregations to serve in the United States and around the world. But it is rare for me to hear a story that describes how a vision caught in one part of God’s kingdom and was released back home, where it stretched hearts […]
Doing two-way mission more than one way
NEWTON, Kansas (Mennonite Mission Network) — Because of a COVID-19 disruption to their typical Mennonite Mission Network service plans , Jane and Jerrell Ross Richer are learning that there is more than one way to do two-way missions. Even as they’ve been derailed from the usual cycle of their ministry, the Ross Richers have made […]