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Web of connections
In these days of pandemic responses we are continually reminded by public health officials that our individual actions affect our neighbours and that we are responsible for protecting those around us. We are connected. This reminds me of the web of connections I witnessed during my ministry with Mennonite Partners in China (MPC). Over the…
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Some things that need to be said
As this issue goes to press, much of Canada is still practising measures to hold COVID-19 at bay. Fatigue has set in; we’re tired of thinking about it, talking about it and praying about it. Yet some things still must be said: God did not cause this pandemic COVID-19 is not God’s punishment. We do…
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Anxiety
As the effects of COVID-19 grow, I am observing a variety of emotional reactions in myself and others. COVID-19 touches everyone’s life. If it isn’t personal illness or loss, we contend with separation, loneliness, deep uncertainty, inconvenient grocery shopping and accessing services that used to be readily available. Children are at home, incomes are at…
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‘You listened to my cry’
Dear God: I’m really not sure what to pray or how to feel these days. I’ve become a strange blend of anxious and relaxed, concerned and content, grateful and restless, ambitious and listless. Nothing really changes from day to day in my little life within these walls as I stay home. My biggest news is…
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CBC graduates class online
Graduation for Columbia Bible College’s class of 2020 looked a little different this year. Rather than proudly walking across the stage in cap and gown to receive their diplomas, the graduates took part in a virtual online commencement ceremony on April 18. The college had dismissed classes earlier in the year due to the novel…
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‘We are one body’
“We are one body in Christ . . . even when scattered. We are members of one another. We can still encourage and pray for and learn from each other.” With these affirming words, Arli Klassen, Mennonite Church Eastern Canada’s moderator, drew on the theme of unity in Romans 12:5 to welcome more than 160…
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Deepening their walk with each other in spite of social isolation
After a year spent exploring the theme, “Deepening our walk with each other,” Mennonite Church Saskatchewan continued, inadvertently, to ponder what this means during its annual delegate sessions (ADS). When COVID-19 forced the postponement of the regional church’s annual general meeting, slated for mid-March, planners scheduled a virtual meeting, via Zoom, for April 25. Seventy-eight…
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A new kind of ‘whiteout party’
Over the past two years, thousands of Manitobans have gathered in the streets of Winnipeg to cheer on the Winnipeg Jets in the hockey playoffs. Many were hoping to don their all-white outfits and join these “whiteout parties” again this spring, but the novel coronavirus prevented that. Instead, a new kind of “whiteout party” has…
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Kids talk COVID-19
COVID-19 has permeated the collective psyche. And although kids may not be watching The National or spending their coveted screen time on the Health Canada webpage, COVID-19 is on their minds. I asked several parents to ask their kids—aged 5 to 13—about the new reality. Below are some of their responses, verbatim. What is hardest…
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Immigrants in crisis
According to Lule Begashaw, psychotherapist and team lead at the Edmonton Mennonite Centre for Newcomers, the mental-health team is seeing a big increase in requests for help since the COVID-19 outbreak. She says that “newcomers are a vulnerable population that has definitely been overlooked.” Due to Alberta government funding cuts, the waiting list for counselling…
