Witness workers in China return to Canada
After 30 years of serving in Hong Kong, Macau and the mainland of China, Witness workers Tobia and George Veith are returning to Canada. Tobia most recently taught at a Chinese university and George developed Anabaptist resources for use in the church in China. The Veiths have been spending time over the past few weeks…
Witness workers embrace Indigenous names, identities
Dann and Joji Pantoja, Mennonite Church Canada Witness workers in the Philippines, are embracing their Indigenous names and identities. In a statement published on their website Waves.ca in March, the Pantojas explained the colonial history their birth names represent and why their Indigenous names are significant to them. “We, Luis Daniel Alba Pantoja and Joji…
MC Canada: Pray for church in Colombia
Late yesterday afternoon, Mennonite Church Canada released the following call to prayer, written by Jeanette Hanson, director of international witness: This week our siblings in faith in Colombia are asking us for prayers regarding the wave of protests and violence that has broken out across the country. Protesters took to the streets and called for…
Peace Africa nurtures relationships between Christians and Muslims
“Peace Africa explores how the global Mennonite community can support peacebuilding initiatives between Christians and Muslims in African countries,” says Tany Warkentin, Mennonite Church Canada’s liaison to ministry in Africa. Dave Hubert from Lendrum Mennonite Church in Edmonton started the initiative after hearing Siaka Traoré, a church leader from the Evangelical Mennonite Church of Burkina…
Postures of trust and openness to transformation
Tany Warkentin and her family served as Mennonite Church Canada Witness workers in Burkina Faso for six years, until 2011. Warkentin brings that experience to her role as liaison to ministry in Africa for MC Canada. In this interview, Warkentin shares about the relationships between MC Canada congregations and the church in Burkina Faso, and…
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…
Coffee for Peace employees affected by COVID-19 shutdown
The shutdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting employees of Coffee for Peace, a social enterprise managed by Joji Pantoja, a Mennonite Church Canada International Witness worker in the Philippines. Joji and Dann Pantoja. Pantoja, who is CEO of Coffee for Peace, and her management team decided to temporarily close down the Coffee for…
Where are they now?
When Mennonite Church Canada Witness workers Greg Rabus and Jennifer Otto landed in Lethbridge, Alta., in 2018, with their sons Alex, and Ian, they were not sure what their new home was going to be like. From 2012 to 2018, the young family had served as church planters and then community builders together with the…
Coronavirus: Prayer encourages Chinese church leaders
With the coronavirus continuing to impact people around the world, Mennonite World Conference (MWC) has called for Anabaptist and Mennonite congregations everywhere to unite in prayer and to exercise precautionary measures in the church. “Pray for people who are isolated, afraid or ill, especially in Wuhan, Hubei Province and mainland China,” César Garcia, MWC’s general…
