‘It was just helping people’
For 34 years, Keith Wagler lived out his Christian faith by serving others through the Appliance Repair Program of the House of Friendship (HoF), a social service agency in the Waterloo Region of Ontario. His job involved servicing and repairing appliances for people living on a low income, who could not afford to pay for…
An exciting opportunity
Annalee Giesbrecht is getting more than she bargained for when she agreed to serve with Mennonite Central Committee (MCC)—and she wouldn’t have it any other way. When she arrived in Haiti to work with the relief organization, she planned to be away from Canada for a year. A few months later, however, she was offered…
MDS volunteers build second cabin at Shekinah
Ike and Priscilla Epp aren’t quite sure how many people volunteered to help build the second timber-frame cabin at Shekinah Retreat Centre, but they know there were many. The project took place during the month of August at the Mennonite Church Saskatchewan-owned camp north of Waldheim, and was designated a Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) Family…
Travel company and MCC collaborate for mutual benefit
Recognizing shared values and an overlap between TourMagination travellers and Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) donors, the for-profit business and non-profit organization recently signed a memorandum of understanding signaling their desire to collaborate more closely for mutual benefit. TourMagination is a travel company that has led faith-based group tours in more than 50 countries and to…
MCC celebrates 75 years of service work in India
This year, Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) is celebrating 75 years of relief, development and peace work in India, making it one of the oldest international aid organizations in the country. MCC began work in India in 1942, in response to severe famine in Bengal province in which more than two million people died from starvation,…
Women’s groups changed focus since 1970s
The golden age of Mennonite women’s organizations in Canada and the United States came in the years between 1940 and 1970, writes Anita Hooley Yoder in Circles of Sisterhood. In both the Mennonite Church and the General Conference Mennonite Church, women were highly involved, getting together to work at sewing projects on a monthly basis.…
Unintended Consequences
Today I read a post from the Globe and Mail highlighted by Dan Dyck on the MC Canada facebook page about a retired teacher and church member who decided to start helping people file their taxes. As a result, many people received tax returns from tax credits they hadn’t used and from not filing in…
