Watch: Great grey owls of Camp Valaqua
Did you know that owls pant to cool off, and that they fly without making a sound? Those are just two of the facts you’ll learn when you watch the latest edition of Ninety Seconds of Nature, a series of videos in which Camp Valaqua director Jon Olfert talks about the outdoors surrounding the camp.…
Witness workers embrace Indigenous names, identities
Dann and Joji Pantoja, Mennonite Church Canada Witness workers in the Philippines, are embracing their Indigenous names and identities. In a statement published on their website Waves.ca in March, the Pantojas explained the colonial history their birth names represent and why their Indigenous names are significant to them. “We, Luis Daniel Alba Pantoja and Joji…
Called to care, equipped to serve
Dr. Ela Castro always knew she wanted to spend her life serving those in need. By all outward appearances, this is what she was doing. She’d studied for years to earn her medical degree. She was working at a health-care clinic. She was helping people—but something was missing. She felt her heart calling her to…
Resettled refugees offer front-line support during COVID-19
Refugee resettlement provides a new start for the families and individuals who have had to flee their homes due to conflict or disaster. Each of the 13,000 refugees who have been resettled in Canada through Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Canada over the last 42 years has been offered a new opportunity. But when refugee sponsorship…
Bethel Church holds outdoor service, prayer walks
Bethel Mennonite Church in Langley held its first in-person service since last November, on April 25. Members gathered outdoors in the parking lot under umbrellas. “It was a wonderful time of reading Scripture, prayer and communion, and was such a blessing to be able to gather again,” said an entry on the church website. “We…
Watch: 100 years of MCC in Europe
A video published on YouTube last month chronicles Mennonite Central Committee’s 100-year history in Europe. The 11-minute video, which you can watch below, tells the MCC story, beginning with its first beneficiaries: refugees and families affected by war and famine in southern Russia in 1920. Toward the end of the video, MCC area directors James…
MC Canada: Pray for church in Colombia
Late yesterday afternoon, Mennonite Church Canada released the following call to prayer, written by Jeanette Hanson, director of international witness: This week our siblings in faith in Colombia are asking us for prayers regarding the wave of protests and violence that has broken out across the country. Protesters took to the streets and called for…
Let’s talk about our generosity
Lori Guenther Reesor, a speaker, writer and consultant on stewardship practices for churches and charities, released her first book this spring. Growing a Generous Church: A Year in the Life of Peach Blossom Church is a story of a fictional church that learns the spiritual discipline of giving. It is based on real-life interviews and…
During the pandemic, MDS-MCC project ‘shows God’s leading’
Doing Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) volunteer work in Canada during a pandemic isn’t easy—as members of the MDS Ontario Unit know only too well. Volunteers in that province were excited last December to start working with Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) to renovate its Indigenous Neighbours office in Timmins, Ont., about seven hours north of Toronto.…
Making connections through paska
Nutana Park Mennonite Church in Saskatoon came up with a creative way to celebrate Easter and care for their congregation at the same time. They called the event a paska faspa, with paska being a traditional Mennonite Easter bread, and faspa a simple bread-based meal. The church’s deacons, spearheaded by Denelda Fast, organized the event,…
