Author Archive for Canadian Mennonite staff

Meet Gene Stoltzfus

Published on October 5, 2009 by Canadian Mennonite staff. 1 Comment

GeneStoltzfusOur newest blog­ger, Gene Stolz­fus, comes to us with 45 years of peace­mak­ing expe­ri­ence, 16 of those years as direc­tor of the CTP pro­gram.  Now retired, he is liv­ing with his Cana­dian wife Dorothy Friesen near Fort Frances, a lit­tle known city of 8500 peo­ple that bor­ders Min­nesota in North­west Ontario.  “Our area,” he says, ” is dom­i­nated by the eco­nom­ics of pulp mills.  About a quar­ter of my neigh­bours in the Rainy River Dis­trict are native Ojib­way peo­ple who have lived here for cen­turies.   Besides peace­mak­ing I am learn­ing to make sim­ple fur­ni­ture from wil­low twigs and nat­ural bushes and trees from the forests.”  An Amer­i­can, he con­sid­ers him­self bi-national.  –Dick Ben­ner, editor/publisher

Introducing Paul Loewen

Published on August 31, 2009 by Canadian Mennonite staff. Closed

Allow me to intro­duce Cana­dian Mennonite’s newest blog­ger, PaulLoewenPaul Loewen from Win­nipeg.  An avid reader and writer, Paul has com­pleted four full-length nov­els and is work­ing on sev­eral more projects.  He works as a youth pas­tor with his wife, Jeanette, at Dou­glas Men­non­ite Church in Win­nipeg.  He grad­u­ated from Cana­dian Men­non­ite Uni­ver­sity with a bach­e­lor of the­ol­ogy in April 2009.  You may have read some of his writ­ing as a Young Prophet in our printed version.

We look for­ward to his cre­ative thoughts, his vision and pas­sion for life in upcom­ing posts.  He will likely tell you more about him­self in his first entry.

It’s the singing!

Published on July 15, 2009 by Canadian Mennonite staff. 1 Comment
  1. YouTube Preview ImageGreet­ings from Paraguay where win­ter has just begun. Spir­its soar here in Asun­cion, the cap­i­tal city of 512,000, as more than 6,000 global Men­non­ites gather once again to cel­e­brate their her­itage, their diver­sity, their com­mon bond in Jesus Christ. The gath­er­ing is of itself inspi­ra­tional but it is the music in this free-spirited Latino cul­ture that is the most mov­ing. I could speak of many things, but this sam­pling gives you a taste of this hap­pen­ing. Lis­ten to this video, com­pli­ments of Ray Dirks.

Introducing Hinke Loewen-Rudgers

Published on December 9, 2008 by Canadian Mennonite staff. 1 Comment
Hinke Loewen-Rudgers

Hinke Loewen-Rudgers

I’d like to wel­come Hinke Loewen-Rudgers as a con­tribut­ing author to this blog. Here’s how she described herself:

I am a third cul­ture kid who spent most of my child­hood in Tan­za­nia and Kenya and moved to Vir­ginia for col­lege. After a very brief career in the phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal indus­try, I switched voca­tional gears and did a mas­ters in the­ol­ogy in Man­i­toba and even­tu­ally ended up work­ing for the Men­non­ite Church. Now I am a Wit­ness Inter­na­tional Vol­un­teer with Men­non­ite Church Canada and am cur­rently in Israel. I love learn­ing about cul­tures, study­ing lan­guage and form­ing new rela­tion­ships as part of liv­ing out my faith.

Wel­come Hinke! I look for­ward to your contributions here.

Tim Miller Dyck
Editor/Publisher, Cana­dian Mennonite

Introducing Rebecca Janzen

Published on October 3, 2008 by Canadian Mennonite staff. Closed
Rebecca Janzen

Rebecca Janzen

I’d like to wel­come Rebecca Janzen as a con­tribut­ing author to this blog. Here’s how she described herself:

Rebecca Janzen grew up in Ottawa, and attended the Ottawa Men­non­ite Church. She spent most of her child­hood in Ottawa, except for two years in Cairo, Egypt. She stud­ied His­tory and Span­ish at the Uni­ver­sity of Water­loo and while study­ing, enjoyed liv­ing at Con­rad Grebel. Last year, she par­tic­i­pated in the MCC SALT pro­gram and lived in Man­agua, Nicaragua. She is cur­rently study­ing Span­ish at the Uni­ver­sity of Toronto. Cur­rently, she spends her time read­ing, writ­ing essays and drink­ing coffee.

Wel­come Rebecca! I look for­ward to your contributions here.

Tim Miller Dyck
Editor/Publisher, Cana­dian Mennonite

Introducing Cheryl Woelk

Published on October 2, 2008 by Canadian Mennonite staff. Closed
Cheryl Woelk

Cheryl Woelk

I’d like to wel­come Cheryl Woelk as a con­tribut­ing author to this blog. Here’s how she described herself:

Cheryl Woelk grew up in Swift Cur­rent, Saskatchewan and grad­u­ated with a B.A. in Eng­lish from Cana­dian Men­non­ite Uni­ver­sity in Win­nipeg, Man­i­toba. She spent six years serv­ing with MC Canada Wit­ness as a peace edu­ca­tor at the Korea Anabap­tist Cen­ter in Seoul. She is now on a “sab­bat­i­cal year” adjust­ing to liv­ing between cul­tures. Her inter­ests include eat­ing fair trade choco­late, learn­ing lan­guages, and run­ning marathons.

Wel­come Cheryl! I look for­ward to your con­tri­bu­tions here.

Tim Miller Dyck
Editor/Publisher, Cana­dian Mennonite

Introducing Will Loewen

Published on October 1, 2008 by Canadian Mennonite staff. Closed
Will Loewen

Will Loewen

I’d like to wel­come Will Loewen as a con­tribut­ing author to this blog. Here’s how he described himself:

William Loewen has at dif­fer­ent times been a play­wright, a pas­tor, and a pon­tif­i­cater. A his­tory com­mit­tee he was in decided that a play would be the best way to tell their story and he was cho­sen as the writer, mostly because he had the most free time.  He got the idea to write the sec­ond play, this time a musi­cal, when he real­ized it would allow him to spend more time with a cer­tain young lady. He also enjoys writ­ing skits for church pro­grams and wor­ship ser­vices. He served for three years in youth min­istry in Tavi­s­tock, Ontario.

One of the things he enjoyed the most about that job, besides the overnight pizza par­ties and early morn­ing donut mak­ing ses­sions, was the reg­u­lar chal­lenge of preach­ing ser­mons that pleased seniors, inspired par­ents and didn’t put teenagers to sleep.

He is cur­rently work­ing in South Korea as a Mis­sion Part­ner­ship Worker with Men­non­ite Church Canada Wit­ness and Jesus Vil­lage Church, serv­ing in an edu­ca­tion and resource devel­op­ment role.

He and his wife (the afore­men­tioned young lady) are eagerly antic­i­pat­ing the arrival of their first child lit­er­ally any day.

Wel­come Will! I look for­ward to your con­tri­bu­tions here.

Tim Miller Dyck
Editor/Publisher, Cana­dian Mennonite

Introducing David Driedger

Published on September 19, 2008 by Canadian Mennonite staff. Closed
David Driedger

David Driedger

I’d like to intro­duce our first con­trib­u­tor, David Driedger.

David is a pas­tor at Hill­crest Men­non­ite Church in New Ham­burg, Ontario. Before com­ing to Hill­crest Men­non­ite, he attended The Wel­come Inn Men­non­ite church in Hamil­ton. He grew up in the Russ­ian Men­non­ite tra­di­tion at Som­mer­feld Men­non­ite Church in Altona, Manitoba.

Wel­come David!

Tim Miller Dyck
Edi­tor and Pub­lisher, Cana­dian Mennonite

Launching the blog

Published on September 17, 2008 by Canadian Mennonite staff. Closed

Wel­come to Cana­dian Mennonite’s blog!

This is a new ini­tia­tive at the mag­a­zine to pro­vide a place for online post­ing and dis­cus­sion of faith in life from a Cana­dian Men­non­ite perspective.

Online writ­ing is often dif­fer­ent in style than print writ­ing, and a blog pro­vides a place for imme­di­ate and fre­quent pub­lish­ing, and for reader/author inter­ac­tion through com­ments that isn’t pos­si­ble in the print ver­sion of the magazine.

The posts here are exclu­sive online con­tent; you will not find them in the print ver­sion of the magazine.

I hope this is a place that helps all of us reflect on our faith and see ways to live more faith­fully to God’s calling.

Tim Miller Dyck
Edi­tor and Pub­lisher, Cana­dian Mennonite