Connecting the global church

The old saying goes that it’s better to give than to receive, but Kristina Toews’ six months in Colombia have taught her differently.

The 26-year-old Eben-Ezer Mennonite Church member from Abbotsford, B.C., is doing a three-year service term working in communications for both Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Colombia and Mennonite World Conference (MWC) in Bogotá, Colombia’s capital city.

Prior to this, she was a member of MWC’s Young Anabaptist Network and served in Bolivia with an MCC Service and Learning Together team in 2007. She has also ministered as a youth pastor at Eben-Ezer.

In Colombia, Toews’s role is to connect the global church. Part of this involves visiting Anabaptist churches in the area, writing prayer requests and sharing them with the worldwide Mennonite community.

Although she has just started her term, she has already learned a great deal from the people and places she has visited. The biblical concept of sharing is one such thing, rather than merely giving or receiving. “Sometimes we think we know best, and that we need to ‘give’ that,” she says. “Other times, we might react in the opposite end of the spectrum and think we need to learn from others and shouldn’t share any thoughts or experiences.”

Being in community with others—whether it be locally or globally, by e-mail, social media or face-to-face conversations—can provide amazing op-
portunities for sharing, according to her. “Our churches have a lot of experiences, gifts and resources which we need to be willing to share,” she says. “And we have a lot to learn that we need to receive.”

This is something the churches in Colombia have taken seriously. In the congregations Toews has visited, the faith community extends far beyond the individual church. “There are always prayers for brothers and sisters in other parts of Colombia, and I’ve seen in several churches consistent prayers for brothers and sisters around the world,” she says. “It’s encouraging and has challenged me to see how churches here take these relationships so seriously.”

These churches also actively work in their areas to help and advocate for those who are persecuted. Their faith is holistic, Toews says, citing the case of Weaving Hope Mennonite Brethren Church and MCC that worked in the impoverished Chocó area. At one time, many farmers grew coca plants that are harvested to produce cocaine. Although they committed these crimes out of desperation in order to provide for their families, Weaving Hope and MCC helped more than 200 families participate in the cultivation of legal crops, like cacao and rice.

Although many farmers stopped growing the coca plants, government-ordered fumigations supported by U.S. Agency for International Development funds took place indiscriminately throughout the region without consulting communities, killing what they wrongly assumed were coca plants. This rendered the land sterile and, as a result, the farmers were left with nothing.

According to reports from MCC Colombia, those affected say the fumigations contaminated their water sources and the health of the people in the area.

Toews says that Colombian churches are intentional about sharing concerns and stories with the local and wider church. This is important to their strength as a body, and something Canadian Mennonites can learn from, she believes. “I feel like we’re all so much richer by knowing the stories and being united,” she says.

She hopes that Canadians will participate more in communicating with the global church. “It would be cool to encourage people to engage the global community through sharing or asking questions,” she says.

To build connections in the global church, e-mail her at kristinatoews@mwc.cmm.org or “like” MWC’s Facebook page to participate in a global Anabaptist dialogue. Toews blogs about her adventures at http://xtinascrossing.blogspot.com.