Paul Nelson’s legacy: a peaceful presence
BERLIN, Ohio (Mennonite Mission Network) – Paul Nelson, former mission innovator in Ireland, died Sept. 13, 2018, at Souderton (Pennsylvania) Mennonite Home. He was 67 years old. Nelson was born Apr. 23, 1951, in Wayland, Iowa, to Boyd H. and Welma B. (Graber) Nelson. The family moved to Elkhart, Indiana, where he graduated from Bethany […]
Creating community through rookie mistakes
Soon after we arrived in Colombia, our Spanish teacher and friend, Diana, and her husband, Felipe, invited us to Felipe’s hometown to meet their family and friends. Diana did a wonderful job of helping us engage with the culture. She arranged for us to spend the day with their friends and cook a Colombian dish […]
Planting peace churches
The Holy Spirit is the architect for new bodies of believers, but it takes people guided by principles to carry out the plans. This article focuses on calling leaders, sustaining ministry, and encouraging multiplication. These principles are the core of the peace church-planting pipeline that Mennonite Mission Network is launching in January 2019. Calling […]
Face-to-face with church decline
BERLIN, Ohio (Mennonite Mission Network) – Next time you’re in church, look at the people around you. Do you see deep friendships? Do you see people who share in their daily struggles and in their spiritual life? It can be easy to see God is at work through these relationships. But in a culture where […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Experiencing God in San Antonio
What do you do to celebrate your 50th birthdays and 30th year of graduation? That was the question the 1985-1986/1986-1987 Mod 2B [Bethel College, Kansas] guys had asked themselves for the last couple years. On Saturday morning, Jan. 20, 2018, six of us loaded up into an RV and took off on an eight-day journey […]
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 […]