Saskatchewan church receives funding from larger community
It’s a nice problem to have. Grace Mennonite Church in Regina currently has almost $30,000 in donations and pledges designated for helping refugees. The donations come from a variety of sources, both within and outside the church. The congregation has a long history of refugee sponsorship. Peter Neufeldt estimates that over the past four decades…
Bearing witness effectively
Dr. Harvey Chochinov and his team at the University of Manitoba have been working to quantify the effects of psycho-social interventions in the care of patients in palliative care situations. As UofM distinguished professor of psychiatry and director of the Manitoba Palliative Care Research Unit, he chaired the federally appointed panel on physician-assisted death struck…
CMU pledges to bring indigenous knowledge into classrooms
Late last month Canadian Mennonite University president Cheryl Pauls signed an unusual document, one that commits CMU to bringing indigenous knowledge and history into its classroom as well as creating a racism-free campus and working to better serve the needs of indigenous students. In December nine Manitoba colleges and universities and the Manitoba School Boards…
‘What’s that in your hand?’
Thanks to a question from Tom Roes, Mennonites in Botswana are thinking creatively about launching small businesses to support their families and the local church. As a short-term worker for Mennonite Church Canada, Roes is engaged with an income-generation ministry. He offers entrepreneurship training to help participants start small businesses, which he begins by asking…
Making peace through service
Peter Neufeldt lives out his commitment to Jesus’ way of peace as a member of his church and as a member of the Rotary Club. “There are so many different ways of making peace,” he says. An active member of Grace Mennonite Church for many years, Neufeldt recalls a time when the congregation chose names…
‘What if there is no precedent?’
It wasn’t the premiere of The Elmira Case. That happened earlier at the Peace on Earth Film Festival in Chicago, which led to the film being shown in Mongolia. But on Nov. 19, 2015, the local premiere of a local story by a local institution and local film makers finally took place. Jon Steckley, Ken…
Sharing his gifts to help others
When Manitoba photographer Jay Siemens partnered with Friesens Corporation to create a 2016 calendar to benefit Syrian refugees, he had no idea they would print 1,000 copies and raise $20,000 for the cause in a matter of weeks. But that’s exactly what happened last month in the lead-up to Christmas. Siemens, a 23-year-old based in…
The geek shall inherit the earth
Allison Barron developed an interest in computer games and science fiction at an early age. Reconciling her pop culture interests with her Christian faith has not always been easy, though. “I’ve never felt very ostracized or pressured because of my [interests],” says Barron, 26. At the same time, “I did not feel like that was…
