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MCC Canada appoints new executive director
After much prayer and discernment, the board of Mennonite Central Committee Canada (MCC) is pleased to welcome Rick Cober Bauman to the role of MCC Canada executive director, effective October 10, 2017. Cober Bauman has served with MCC since 1989 in a variety of capacities. For the past nine years, he has given leadership to…
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Dedicated volunteer coordinates parking at relief sale
“Wow, what well-organized parking!” is a review that few of us attending a big event will ever think to utter. But every year for the last 51 years, Paul Snyder has had the massive job of making sure thousands of cars are parked safely so that tens of thousands of people can enjoy the New…
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GAMEO finds new home at Goshen College
The Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online (GAMEO), the most trusted online source for information on Anabaptist groups around the world (www.gameo.org), has found a new home with the Institute for the Study of Global Anabaptism (ISGA) at Goshen College. On May 19, 2017, members of the GAMEO management board voted unanimously to transfer oversight of…
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More than 5,000 Congolese Mennonites in hiding
Mennonite church members report increasing violence in Democratic Republic of Congo’s Central Kasaï Province, where Michael J. Sharp died on a United Nations’ peace-building mission in March 2017. Mennonite Mission Network partners with Africa Inter-Mennonite Mission in walking alongside the three Congolese Mennonite denominations. In an Apr. 2, 2017, phone call, Joly Birakara, vice president of…
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Prosthetic limb leads to new hope for Syrian refugee
For 21-year-old Amjad, trauma led to hope and solidified his unwavering faith in God’s protection. Amjad, a Syrian refugee in Ludwigshafen, Germany, lost his leg when a bomb fell on a street in Syria. Gregory Rabus and his wife, Jennifer Otto, Mennonite Church Canada Witness workers in Ludwigshafen, met Amjad (no last name for security…
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Auction of Maud Lewis painting raises $45,000 for MCC
The thrilling and tumultuous saga of the Maud Lewis painting found in a thrift shop donation bin has come to a successful end. The online auction of “Portrait of Eddie Barnes and Ed Murphy, Lobster Fisherman, Bay View, Nova Scotia” concluded on May 20, 2017, with the winning bid reaching $45,000. The proceeds from the…
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Mass starvation—does anyone give a *%^$?
“I have three things I’d like to say today,” said American author Tony Campolo to a crowd at the 1982 interdenominational Spring Harvest church conference in England. “First, while you were sleeping last night, 45,000 kids died of starvation or diseases related to malnutrition. “Second, most of you don’t give a shit. “Third, what’s worse…
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Men’s choir fosters community, generosity
“To me, it’s always amazing how the guys come and keep coming to sing,” says Russ Regier. The guys he refers to are A Buncha Guys, an informal choir made up of young men in their early post-high school years. In late 1997, Regier and his wife Val were asked to lead a choir of…
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Eritrean church grows in spirit and godliness
Voices rise in Tigrinya, the most widely spoken language in Eritrea, and in tongues. Waves of music wash over the gathered congregation of refugees from the East African country in the sanctuary of First Mennonite Church in Kitchener. Leading the ecstatic worship is Pastor Jonathan (Joni, pronounced Yónie) Abraham, microphone in hand, backed by a…
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Grebel names new president
Marcus Shantz will serve as the eighth president of Conrad Grebel University College and will take office on Oct. 1, 2017. The Board of Governors cited Shantz’s outstanding leadership skills, his significant contributions to local business and arts organizations, his engagement in the local and global church, and his first-hand knowledge of Grebel and its…
