Thankfulness in a taxicab
Eva Klaassen lives in a seniors housing complex in Prince Albert. She doesn’t own a car, so every Sunday morning she takes a taxi to Grace Mennonite Church. Many of the drivers are new to Canada, she says, but all are very friendly. Often, when they find out that she wants them to take her…
A deep love for the church
On Nov. 4, tears and well wishes were intermingled at Foothills Mennonite Church in Calgary when Pastor Doug Klassen told his congregation that he had accepted Mennonite Church Canada’s call to the position of executive minister. “While I grieve the thought of leaving the congregation that I have loved deeply for 20 years, I look…
Mennonite Church Canada thanks Willard Metzger
A farewell celebration was on the agenda for the Mennonite Church Canada Joint Council and Executive Staff Group, that were both meeting over the weekend of Oct 21, 2018. Along with other friends and well-wishers, they gathered at Canadian Mennonite University in Winnipeg to thank Willard Metzger for his years of service as executive minister of…
Congratulations, Simon Eng
Every Tuesday, the bell at the front desk of the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Alberta headquarters in Calgary dings incessantly, whether a receptionist is sitting there or not. “Hi, Simon!” someone says, and Simon wanders off to get a coffee and a snack, and then he ambles down the hall to the material resources warehouse.…
Reflecting the image of Christ
Oliver Heppner was born on Feb. 11, 1929, to Cornelius and Gertrude Heppner, the fourth of their six children. In a written reflection on his early life, he said, “I search my past to try to find strands of events constituting the fabric of my faith and life journey. If there is a warp and…
Canadian Mennonite bids farewell to Dave Rogalsky
Over the past 12 years, Dave Rogalsky has been a prolific writer for Canadian Mennonite. Since the summer of 2006, when he was hired as the Eastern Canada correspondent, replacing Maurice Martin, Rogalsky has written a total of 868 articles. That is an average of 71 articles per year and nearly three articles per issue.…
To serve and to give
I was born in Santander in north-central Colombia. My husband and I married when he was 17 and I was 15, and we decided to come to Bogotá to look for a better life. In about 2005, Iglesia Cristiana Hermanos Menonitas El Progreso had an evangelism campaign, and my husband went. That’s how I got…
Learning to rejoin the world
On the weekend of May 11, Jennifer Symonds, a participant at the Westview Centre4Women, shared her story as part of a conference hosted by the Niagara churches of Mennonite Church Eastern Canada. Held at Westview Christian Fellowship in St. Catharines, Ont., and at Vineland United Mennonite Church, “The End of Us and Them” explored stories…
Putting words into actions
The Spruce River Folk Festival is held annually at Ray Funk’s farm north of Prince Albert. Mennonite Church Saskatchewan and Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Saskatchewan help sponsor the event, which raises awareness of, and support for, landless Indigenous bands, in particular the Young Chippewayan First Nation. Wilbur Sargunaraj, a cultural intelligence facilitator from India, performed…
Good food enhances camp ministry
Every summer Melita Penner and her daughter, Denelda Fast, spend a week cooking for summer camp at Shekinah Retreat Centre, north of Waldheim, Sask. They’ve been doing it for 15 years. In the early years they volunteered for children’s or teens’ camps, cooking for up to 65 people each week. But for the past three…
