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A business built more by accident than by arrangement
Chris Steingart’s journey to owning a professional web-design business was unanticipated. In 2005, he was working as a youth pastor at Waterloo-Kitchener Mennonite Church in Waterloo, Ont., and he decided that the church needed a website. When efforts to get volunteers for the project failed, he ended up doing it himself. “How difficult could it…
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‘Walking together, doing things together’
Although the focus was on the Roman Catholic Church when the Pope visited Canada in late July, Mennonites also have a role to play in promoting reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples in this country. That’s the view of Norman Meade, 78, an Anglican minister and Métis elder-in-residence at the University of Manitoba, who directed the Aboriginal…
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Music builds bridges to Africa
A chance connection on social media led Heidi Epp, a music teacher from B.C., to travel to Africa this summer to teach music and peace and conflict transformation. Kendri Mastaki Mushagalusa, founder and director of Peace Foundation DRC and the Peace Music Academy in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), had invited Epp,…
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Biking and hiking raise funds for Alberta organizations
This summer, Alberta supporters of Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) and Camp Valaqua got physical to raise funds. MCC Alberta The group that calls itself Wheels of Waterton grew out of Ernie Engbrecht, Ron Esau and Dave Neufeldt’s love for cycling and support for MCC. In 2020, COVID-19 put a stop to the annual relief…
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Emmaus House concludes decade of intentional community living
Rod and Susan Reynar made a huge life change in 2014 when they moved from Alberta to Manitoba and started Emmaus House, an intentional community for university students in Winnipeg. This spring, they said goodbye to their last group of students and closed their doors. Emmaus House brought ten university students together each year from…
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Saskatchewan churches celebrate marriage and refugee sponsorship
Special celebrations were held at two congregations in Saskatchewan this summer. Osler Mennonite Church If a 50th wedding anniversary is golden, what would 150 years be? Three couples at Osler (Sask.) Mennonite Church—Garry and Jean Harms, Dick and Kathy Braun, and Diana and Ben Buhler—recently celebrated 50 years of marriage. Not only was…
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Missionary to Argentina dies
Delbert Erb, who served God in Argentina for more than seven decades, died June 14, in Buenos Aires. “He decided that his heart and ashes would remain in Choele Choel, [Argentina],” said Rafael Stábile, pastor of the Mennonite church where Delbert and his wife Frieda Schellenberg Erb were members. Beginning his ministry in 1951, when…
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Bursary helps recipients develop and explore
In 2021, there were three recipients of Mennonite Church Alberta tuition bursaries, which offer an incentive for young people who attend an MC Alberta congregation and have enrolled in a Mennonite/Anabaptist post-secondary institution. Bryant Neufeldt of Foothills Mennonite Church in Calgary and Danika Warkentin of Springridge Mennonite Church in Pincher Creek were asked what they are…
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A gift to share
“Well, I am a strong believer that all people have been given a gift,” says Reuben Unger of Clavet. “Whatever it is, everyone has a gift. If you have a gift, you use the gift, and don’t be afraid to tell people that you think it is a gift.” The member of Pleasant Point Mennonite…
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Humble confessions, compelling stories
As Neill von Gunten and his Black companions departed an increasingly volatile Chicago rally at which Martin Luther King Jr. had taken a brick to the head, KKK members and other whites attacked their bus at a red light. Bricks flew through windows. Rioters rocked the bus. Amid panic, the driver ran the red…
