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Watch: MDS looks back at 2020

Mennonite Disaster Service personnel present a homeowner with keys after rebuilding her home. (Photo courtesy of YouTube)

Mennonite Disaster Service didn’t let the COVID-19 pandemic stop it from having a banner year.

In a seven-minute video released on YouTube last Saturday, the binational organization—which cleans up, repairs and rebuilds homes that have experienced a disaster—outlines the unexpected opportunities and unexpected blessings that 2020 brought.

Transcending borders

Francine Mukoko, standing at right, a public health graduate and the first university graduate from the Communauté Mennonite au Congo community in Bateke, presents public-health advice in Teke, the local language. (Photo courtesy of Seraphin Kutumbana)

Congregations across Mennonite Church Canada have matched a $50,000 donation made by the nationwide church to a COVID-19 relief fund operated by Mennonite World Conference (MWC).

The fund, which is part of MWC’s Global Church Sharing Fund, helps MWC-member churches struggling because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

MDS Canada offering Spirit of MDS Fund again

Bob Ratelle does cleanup in the kitchen at Scott St. Church in St. Catharines, Ont., after making meals made possible by support from the MDS Canada Spirit of MDS Fund. (MDS photo)

After a successful first year, Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) Canada has announced a new round of funding from its Spirit of MDS Fund.

The 2021 round of funding started Jan. 31 and runs to April 30. It will provide grants up to $2,500 to Canadian Anabaptist/Mennonite congregations.

Boxes of food help people affected by Beirut explosion

Hayat Mohammad, 10, and Ali al Sheikh, 11, participate in psychosocial activities sponsored by the Popular Aid for Relief and Development to help children deal with the trauma of the massive explosion in Beirut last summer. (Photo courtesy of PARD)

Eight of Alice Joubanian’s grandchildren—all under eight years old—lived with her and her daughter in a Beirut camp for Armenian refugees when a massive explosion of ammonium nitrate rocked the city on Aug. 4, 2020.

Deep dive into theology

Colin Friesen, far left, participates in a panel discussion at Conrad Grebel University College in early 2019. (Conrad Grebel University College photo)

Christian theology, ministry and the Bible are complex topics that can be studied using various approaches at Conrad Grebel University College (Waterloo, Ont.), whose master of theological studies (MTS) program offers students three distinct paths to complete their degree: course work, applied studies and thesis.

New ways of learning for a new time

Nindyo Sasongko, pictured in 2019, is one of the founders of a theology discussion channel on YouTube called “@Theovlogy.” (Photo courtesy of Facebook.com/nindyo.sasongko)

Nindyo Sasongko believes theology should be publicly available to a wider audience. His experiment in online discussions began in late 2018. When the pandemic hit last year, “@Theovlogy” increased in frequency to meet the demand for online means of connecting.

Watch: A tour of Voices Together

Waterloo Region music teacher Melinda Metzger with her copy of Voices Together.

It may be aimed at children, but everyone will learn something from a video exploring the new Voices Together hymnal.

The video walks viewers through everything that is on a hymnal page, as well as many of the hymnal’s indices. Melinda Metzger, a Waterloo Region music educator, created the video for the Sunday morning children’s time at St. Jacobs (Ont.) Mennonite Church.

MCC initiates research into historical connections with National Socialism

High-profile Nazi officials toured the Mennonite colonies in occupied Ukraine. During his 1942 visit to Molotschna, Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS and an architect of the Holocaust, exchanged greetings with Mennonite surgeon Johann Klassen. (Mennonite Heritage Centre photo [Alber Photo Collection])

Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) has initiated research into how national socialism (Nazism) shaped the contexts in Europe and Paraguay where MCC operated in the 1930s and ’40s, and how, at the time, MCC engaged with the German National Socialist government and worked to resettle Mennonite refugees from the Soviet Union.

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