Focus on Books & Resources

Laughs at book launch

Manitoba humorist/author Andrew Unger introduced and signed books at an April 2 event at Abbotsford, B.C.’s, Mennonite Heritage Museum. (Photo by Wendie Nickel)

After several years of pandemic-induced Zoom book launches in B.C., satirist Andrew Unger winged his way to Abbotsford to face a living, breathing audience at the Mennonite Heritage Museum on April 2.

‘I wanted to know more about it’

Marion Roes’s book tells the history of funeral businesses in Ontario’s Waterloo Region. (Photo by Barb Draper)

This hearse, acquired by Chris Dreisinger about 1915, was the first motorized funeral vehicle in the area. (Photo courtesy of Marion Roes)

When Marion Roes began researching her family history, she came across some surprises connected to her family’s business. Intrigued, she tried to find out more about local undertakers, but there was almost no material available. So she began collecting information and doing interviews.

Writer’s struggles offer reassurance to young mothers

The title of the book is never directly explained, but Zook finds herself licking peanut butter as a way of getting physical nourishment while rethinking the relationship between spirituality and the physical body.

When it comes to motherhood, Shari Zook asks, “Why don’t we get more training for the hardest job of our lives? Why do we feel that we have to do it alone?”

Because she is so open and honest about the challenges of raising young children, this book can provide comfort and reassurance for others who are feeling inadequate.

Podcast creator shares insights into his craft

Ken Ogasawara (facing camera), the producer and host of the podcast Undercurrents, interviews Ly Vang for Episode 10, which was just recently released. (Photo courtesy of Ken Ogasawara)

A screenshot of Ken Ogasawara’s timeline, in the middle of editing an episode of the podcast Undercurrents, which he hosts and produces as part of his communications role at MCC Ontario. (Screenshot by Ken Ogasawara)

Ken Ogasawara counts it a “sacred gift” when he is trusted with another person’s story. As he shapes that into a podcast episode, he is mindful of “doing justice to their story.”

Digital corner

(Graphic by Betty Avery)

To watch

“Who cares? The elderly among us... ” (length 1:27:30).
In the light of COVID-19, a panel explores how the pandemic has challenged systems that care for elders and offers insight into the experience of seniors. Part of the Face2Face series offered by Canadian Mennonite University at cmu.ca/face2face.

New hymnal will be ‘part of the fabric of our lives’

The Mennonite Worship and Song Committee, pictured in Winnipeg in July 2019, from left to right, front row (kneeling): Adam Tice and Anneli Loepp Thiessen; middle row: Mike Erb, Paul Dueck, Darryl Neustaedter Barg, SaeJin Lee, Tom Harder, Allan Rudy-Froese, Katie Graber, Sarah Kathleen Johnson, Bradley Kauffman and Cynthia Neufeld Smith; and back row: Benjamin Bergey. (Photos courtesy of MennoMedia)

Voices Together includes close to a thousand hymns and worship resources that were chosen from a body of work more than 10 times that number. Read about the efforts—and fun—of those who curated the new worship resource. (Photo courtesy of MennoMedia)

The new hymnal is the successor to 1992’s Hymnal: A Worship Book and its two supplements, Sing the Journey and Sing the Story.

It’s the result of an idea proposed over a decade ago and the culmination of more than four years of intense work. It includes close to a thousand hymns and worship resources that were chosen from a body of work more than 10 times that number. It represents the efforts of hundreds of Mennonites from across Canada and the United States.

Pastor channels love of stories into children’s books

Kevin Drudge, pastor of Covenant Mennonite Church in Winkler, Man., published his first two children’s books in August. (Photo courtesy of Kevin Drudge)

Kevin Drudge’s children’s books are fun, relatable stories with a simple yet meaningful biblical message. (Photo courtesy of Kevin Drudge)

When Kevin Drudge needed a children’s story for his church’s Sunday morning worship service, he decided to write one himself. But what began as a one-time occasion has become more than two dozen stories and a deal with a publisher.

A story that ‘wanted to be told’

Susanna Compton holds the recently published novel she wrote based on stories she heard during her gap year experience of living and volunteering in Botswana. (Photo by Janet Bauman)

Susanna Compton holds a neighbourhood child in the village of Latlhakane, Botswana, where she spent part of her gap year in 2008, an experience that inspired her first published novel, A Grandmother Named Love. (Photo courtesy of Susanna Compton)

After high school, Susanna Compton took a gap year before heading off to university. She turned that experience into her first published book.

Shaped by our essential book

'What does it mean if we see the Bible as the book above other books?' (Image by StockSnap/Pixabay)

The name Arab Christians use for the Bible translates literally as “The Holy Book,” and they often shorten it to “The Book.” Article 4 of the Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective states: “The Bible is the essential book of the church.” What does it mean if we see the Bible as the book above

The world in colour

‘Face painting phantasm’ (mennopix Digital art by Ross W. Muir)

If the Bible is a story, it is also something more: It’s a book that dares to make an authoritative claim on life. Between the poems and proverbs and parables, a portrait is taking shape of who God is and what exactly God desires. The Bible suggests that to learn to walk with God and love the things that God loves is to begin to live in sync with the world’s true design.

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