Wildfire near Camp Valaqua in July causes concern but no evacuation
When Camp Valaqua director Jon Olfert received a text on July 23 from a friend working with Alberta Wildfire saying that there was a three-acre fire 25 kilometres northwest of the camp, he didn’t think much of it. Olfert, who also works as deputy fire chief with the local Water Valley Fire Department, knew three…
The sky ablaze
Art Koop was cleaning up after teaching his last class of the day when the emergency alert blared from his cell phone. The message called for an immediate, mandatory evacuation. A wildfire threatened Edson, Alberta, the community where Koop lives and works. The sky was an eerie orange colour and thick with smoke. ‘I didn’t…
JoinHands grant approved for Calgary Chin Christian Church
Church discernment and decision-making can be challenging at the best of times. Making critical decisions about the purchase of property in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic is monumental. For the congregants and leaders of Calgary Chin Christian Church in Alberta, the culmination of their dreams for the purchase of a church home landed right…
Engaging with ‘people not like us’
A group of Mennonite young adults from Alberta has been gathering on Zoom for six Sundays in a row to learn about engaging with “the other.” Topics included “Engaging the religious other,” with a focus on Islam, and “Engaging the culturally other,” with a focus on connecting with people from other races and cultures, and…
Edmonton-Calgary trivia rivalry continues
Edmonton and Calgary have been rivals for decades, but for the past three years this rivalry between Edmonton First Mennonite and Foothills Mennonite in Calgary has been for a good cause: raising money for Camp Valaqua with a trivia night. The last two years involved live streaming between multiple Edmonton and Calgary locations. Edmonton First…
The servant heart
Over the past few years Menno Simons Christian School in Calgary, Alta. has taken the students on a spiritual journey to explore an upside down kingdom, a world that is the complete opposite of the one that our society promotes today; PEACEKEEPING, our school’s foundational acronym with each letter describing an attribute of a peacekeeper;…
‘Won’t you be my neighbour?’
Presbyterian minister Fred Rogers asked the question, “Won’t you be my neighbour?” every day for almost 40 years on Mr. Roger’s Neighbourhood. In the 2018 documentary of his life, Rogers says that asking this question is “an invitation for someone to be close to you.” Five years ago, Foothills Mennonite Church drew close to the Calgary…
Sharing about our holy books
As part of an effort among Alberta Mennonites to bridge understanding between Christians and Muslims, Christian-Muslim dialogues have been organized annually since 2013, under the banner of “A Common Word Alberta.” These have been taking place in Edmonton, but will soon be organized in Calgary as well. Out of this grew an interest in having more…
MC Alberta embraces new life, hope and possibilities
It was an unusual delegate session, with the bulk of the time dedicated to discussion rather than business. “Discerning God’s call,” Phase 3 of Mennonite Church Alberta’s Vision 20/20 process, engaged participants in reflection on what was heard in congregations during the previous phase, “Season of prayer.” The reflections were then used to guide discernment…
‘Tapestry of uprooted cultures’
Authors Joy Kogawa and Rudy Wiebe speak of their ethnic histories at the Mennonite Historical Society of Alberta’s Fall 2017 meeting in Lethbridge. (Photo by Dave Toews) What would bring 200 people out on a windy, grey afternoon last November to the Southern Alberta Ethnic Association Centre for the fall conference of the Mennonite Historical…
