Two weeks ago, I attended the Canadian Cancer Society’s Relay for Life event in Steinbach. As I watched my dad complete the Survivor’s Walk two and a half years after his last surgery and two years after his last treatment, I was thankful to God. Not because I believed that God saved my dad’s life. Believing that God saved my dad’s life, means believing that God chooses not to save over 200 Canadian cancer victims every day.
Long, voluminous hair has long been regarded as an archetypal feminine trait.
Anna-Marie Janzen, 25, currently has long curly blonde hair, but she won’t have it for much longer. On July 6, she is hosting a fundraiser and shaving her head in order to raise money and awareness for Mennonite Central Committee’s Pobitra program in Bangladesh.
In addition to being smart, funny, politically conservative and an entrepreneur, Jude (a pseudonym) is also same-sex-oriented, a secret he has kept from his parents and most of his community.
Now living in Winnipeg, this 25-year-old Mennonite from Winkler, Man., has a shy and humble nature, evident in his composure as he sits in a coffee shop for an interview.
In North American society, where most people have been blessed with an abundance of resources, many see short-term missions as a way to use what we have to help others. But is this actually what we are doing?
Every once in a while, I’m reminded of forgotten characters from the dusty corners of the biblical narrative, characters we tend not to read or think about much during worship. One which recently caught my eye is Hagar, thanks to womanist (African-American or black, woman-centred) theologian Delores S. Williams’s book, Sisters in the Wilderness: The Challenge of Womanist God-Talk.
A discussion among us thirty-something Mennonites has been heating up online. It’s a discussion that cuts to the heart of nearly everything the church worries about us. The discussion question is the first one you’d guess: “Why don’t we go to church?”
Zoe Matties describes the four months she spent taking groups on tours between Argentina, the Falkland Islands, Georgia and Antarctica with One Ocean Expeditions as “holy moments.”
There have been more and more suggestions for good Menno blogs - and I really can't decided between them all. So instead of choosing one this week, I'll present you with five different voices, and let you do the choosing.
I caved and bought an iPhone earlier this month. It is shiny and efficient and useful. It’s also a whole lot of fun. Addictive fun.
It is easy to imagine angry fundamentalist types in the Middle East. And they most certainly exist- thugs or bigots who grew beards. Faces that never smile. Yet your typical strongly religious Muslim is often more friendly and respectful than the average Egyptian.
A guest once asked us if we have ever received harassment or insults from fundamentalists, or if we have been told we were not welcome. To this I quickly answered no. Not once.
I am a complainer. I almost always feel cold, hungry or tired—sometimes all three at once—and I am almost always vocal about it. Most of the time, unfortunately, I don’t even realize I’m complaining, but last weekend, waiting with my poor mother and sister for the waffle iron to heat up, I was aware that my whine of “I’m hungryyyy” had turned into a memory from my summer in North Kinangop, Kenya.
Living in a Muslim country has been an amazing experience. The Islamic world had long-fascinated me as something so strange and different from my own context. I would often wonder, 'What is Islam?' Now over two years into our stay in Egypt the question fascinates me as much as ever.
I was sitting in a theology class during my first year at Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) in Winnipeg, when the question first dawned on me: Where does my professor go to church? Where did any of my professors go to church?
Some readers may only know me as Canadian Mennonite’s Young Voices co-editor. Not many know a lot about me. I have a meaningful relationship with Netflix, I’m addicted to Twitter, when I’m not in school I help on my family’s farm . . . and I have a large tattoo on my upper left arm.
I've still this great list of blogs that people have been emailing me! They share some diverse opinions, and I think they are well worth sharing - so get ready for it. May is all about the blogs too.
Today I present to you 'Sarah Bessey: Intersections of a spirit filled life'. While she isn't neccesarily a mennonite, I did find her reflections on being an uneasy pacifist quite compelling.
Take a look for yourself, and explore a little further!
It has been a busy few weeks with travel, a new set of courses, and the happy arrival of my Uncle Bob and Cousin Jon. Due to all the activity, my body finally wore down a couple days ago and I contracted a cold and sore throat. However that did not stop me from staying up to stream game 7 of the Leafs-Bruins game- my first taste of hockey in over two years. Up 4-1 with only 11 minutes to play it looked like my beloved Leafs would pull off the series upset. You probably know what happened next.
This post first appeared on Isaac and Wanda's blog Life in Egypt
We are home safe and sound in Egypt after an MCC retreat in Spain. Barcelona is a place we had never imagined we would visit, and we were pleasantly suprised by the beauty and vibrancy of our destination. We will let our photos do most of the talking, but simply put; our time in the Spanish region of Catalonia was amazing!
It’s not an original idea. Chances are good you’ve either done it yourself or you know someone who has given up Facebook for some length of time.
I have no medical training. Moving among nursing staff and doctors with years of clinical training and experience on my first day seeing patients at Cambridge (Ont.) Memorial Hospital, I felt out of place.
As leaders of the environmental movement are despairing that there is little hope for the future of our world, A Rocha, a national faith-based creation-care organization, saw a need to fill.
This post first appeared on Isaac and Wanda's blog, Life in Egypt
We are currently on holiday after a wonderful MCC retreat in Barcelona, Spain! It has been a wonderful and enriching time. We will be sure to write about our experiences once we are back in a few days.
One little tidbit of excitement- while waiting for our flight in the Cairo airport, we were passed by the famous Egyptian actress Youssra. In honour of this celebrity sighting, we have a short essay on Egyptian cinema.
As some of you will know from a previous post of mine, I enjoy Mennonite literature a great deal, so I was delighted to be able to attend a lecture on Mennonite lit. this past October by Robert Zacharias, a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Toronto.
My roommate Julia and I like to hold hands. Walking to the bus stop, walking to class, walking to a theatre, mall, or grocery store, we are almost always holding hands. We like it. It’s comforting. It’s fun. And yet, Julia and I are the vast minority. For some reason, amongst my peers, hand-holding is reserved for romantic relationships. No matter how much one friend may love and care for another friend, the affection is rarely shown physically.
I am a wonderful time-waster. My skills at procrastinating are top notch. So when exam season again reared it’s so very ugly head this month, I managed to do just about anything but actually study.
This post first appeared on Isaac and Wanda's blog Life in Egypt
Less than a week ago we bid farewell to my parents Tim and Johanna. They came to Egypt for two weeks and saw the world that has become our home. As we look back, we are once again amazed by how quickly time went with our beloved guests. After all the anticipation prior to their visit, it is suddenly over. But ilhumdulallah we have many memories to look back on and – thanks to my dad – multitudes of photos!
