Recently I stood in line-ups for two different kinds of “Mennonite” foods. In one line I waited, along with many others, for my order from the annual Laotian Mennonite spring roll sale. A week later I waited for my two dozen Russian Mennonite fleisch perishky (meat-filled buns).
Andrew Dyck, left, learned a lot about building and repairing things from Alfred Driedger, who also learned the art of patience during their weekly times together over a three-year period. (Photo by Barry Bergen)
Alfred Driedger and Andrew Dyck share a love of fixing things, and the fact that they are separated by 60 years or so only makes repair work more interesting. This seemingly unlikely pair was brought together by a set of circumstances that has proved beneficial to both of them.
Ahada Kusoco Hassan, 23, cooks breakfast for her family in the Dadaab refugee camp in northeastern Kenya.
Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) has surpassed its initial target of raising $1 million for the East Africa drought and is now expanding its response to the continuing crisis in Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia. At press time, nearly $2 million had come in, $1.6 million of it from Canadian donors and a further $300,000 from U.S. donors.
Once again, famine plagues the headlines and swollen bellies afflict the airwaves. The Horn of Africa is hungry. Babies are dying. Statistics are swirling. And the rest of the global village, wired as it is, has pulled up a front-row seat.
About 80 percent of Canadians are city-dwellers. Despite the expanse of our nation, slightly more than a third of us dwell in only three metropolitan areas: Montreal, Toronto or Vancouver. I live in one of them.
Whenever a congregation gathers to look ahead and contemplate its future, you can be sure that questions about the youth will be raised: Where are they? How can we keep them? We have all likely heard—and possibly have spoken—these concerns in various forms.
César García, at the podium, greets the Sung-Chiang Mennonite congregation in Taipei, Taiwan, in May. To his right are outgoing MWC general secretary Larry Miller, and Joshua Chang, Sung-Chiang pastor and former MWC general council delegate. (Photo by Byron Rempel-Burkholder)
Pictured from left to right are MWC general secretary-elect César García, his daughters María and Paula, and wife Sandra Báez. (Photo by Tangie Sheets)
Members of the Mennonite World Conference executive committee, MWC general council commissions, and Young Anabaptists Committee pray for César García, kneeling, following his appointment as general secretary-elect at their 2011 meetings in Taipei, Taiwan, in May. (Photo by Byron Rempel-Burkholder)
As one amateur Mennonite historian likes to point out, the only real Mennonite name is Menno Simons.
I have never met César García, but I am impressed with his story as told by Meetinghouse freelancer Kathy Heinrichs Wiest on page 4. García is the general secretary-elect of Mennonite World Conference.
