There’s been no shortage of headlines involving protest in recent years. The events surrounding the 2010 G20 Summit in Toronto, the Arab Spring that began that same year, and the Occupy Movement, whose gatherings first began taking place in the fall of 2011, all saw thousands of men and women engage in public demonstration.
I had an experience of God’s presence at St. Benedict’s Monastery in St. Joseph, Minnesota, in July at the Bridgefolk conference. “Bridgefolk is a movement of sacramentally-minded Mennonites and peace-minded Catholics,” says its mission statement. Every year Bridgefolk holds a gathering of Mennonites and Catholics to celebrate, explore, and honour each others’ practices and traditions.
This past August, my friend and I hosted our 10-year high school reunion. It was fun to reconnect with a number of the 60 people we graduated with from Westgate Mennonite Collegiate in 2002.
Now, if you ask me about math, science, history or language arts, there are only about three things I can easily remember that I learned while attending Westgate from Grades 7 to 12:
On June 10, Gabriella Neufeld, Sarah Pries, and I were put to work preparing supper for 100 people in Pauingassi First Nation (PFN). It marked the start of a three-day fishing derby put on by Child and Family Services (CFS), and to celebrate CFS was planning a supper at their community cabin.
The streets are packed. Hordes of people move at once, criss-crossing over the smooth stone streets and deftly navigating down many stairs. Vendors shouting in Arabic call from all sides, selling vegetables, clothes, toys, herbs and household goods. The air is heavy with the smell of people and spices.
Last year, a few of my cousins and a bunch of the friends I made growing up in church, in high school and during my time studying at Canadian Mennonite University got engaged. And when I say “a bunch,” I mean 20. Ten couples, all planning weddings for the spring and summer of 2012.
All the anticipation in the world cannot prepare someone for the experience of leaving home to live in a foreign country for a period of time, even though one understands that it will be a difficult undertaking and different from one’s expectations. This was the case for Shina Park and Laura Dueckman, who both attend Emmanuel Mennonite Church in Abbotsford, BC.
“To live in the Holy Land, you must be crazy, or you must believe in miracles,” farmer Daoud Nassar tells our group assembled in a cave just outside of Bethlehem. He is sharing the story of his family’s land and their struggle to keep it. Yet the man sitting in front of us does not seem crazy. He has quiet, intense eyes and a resolute tone. There is fire behind those eyes, but not insanity.
The streets are packed. Hordes of people move at once, criss-crossing over the smooth stone streets and deftly navigating down many stairs. Vendors shouting in Arabic call from all sides, selling vegetables, clothes, toys, herbs and household goods. The air is heavy with the smell of people and spices.
“To live in the Holy Land, you must be crazy, or you must believe in miracles,” farmer Daoud Nassar tells our group assembled in a cave just outside of Bethlehem. He is sharing the story of his family’s land and their struggle to keep it. Yet the man sitting in front of us does not seem crazy. He has quiet, intense eyes and a resolute tone. There is fire behind those eyes, but not insanity.
From Vacation Bible School to Bible camp, many children participate in a variety of different activities during the summer. This year, Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Manitoba offered a program in the hopes of fostering global awareness among young people.
It’s fairly common for young Canadian Mennonites to attend one of the Mennonite institutions for their undergraduate studies, but many young Mennonites are heading back to school to pursue the newer graduate programs at the Mennonite institutions.
Rachel Halder started Our Stories Untold to explore the topic of sexual violence in the Mennonite church (Photo courtesy of Rachel Halder)
Hannah Heinzekehr, 27, dedicated a week of posts on her blog to discussing sexual violence in the church. (Photo courtesy of Hannah Heinzekehr)
In Canada 1,397 sexual assaults occur every day, according to the Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women. In the United States nearly one in five women reported experiencing rape or attempted rape at some point in their lifetime says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In her book The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Anne Fadiman describes an autobiography that eighth-grader May Lee completed for school. Lee, a Hmong girl living in California’s Merced county, recalls fleeing war-stricken Laos in 1979 to reach refugee camps in Thailand.
Growing up in a pro-military culture like Mesquite, Texas, meant that Kimberly Rivera never thought she would leave the army. “I was pro-war, pro-life, pro-death penalty,” said the 30-year-old.
“I thought it would be like a good thing as far as I will be serving my country, I’ll be, you know, doing the patriotic American thing.”
A Guatemalan man named Byron took a political stand against the injustice in his country. As a result, his family was murdered before his eyes. Byron managed to escape to Canada, but upon arrival, he was told that he could not receive health care coverage because his country was not considered a designated refugee state.
Spring and summertime means that it’s time to till the soil, plant seeds, tend to the garden and, hopefully, watch the plants grow. For a few Ontario young adults, their community gardens mean a lot more.
For all the youths and young adults that I have talked to, it seems that most of our knowledge of Canada’s history with indigenous issues depended on our school teachers. In my part of northeast Calgary, I guess it wasn’t a priority for them. I had a very limited awareness about our country’s residential schools and the impact on Canada’s Indigenous Peoples until I finished high school.
Young Voices is looking for two young writers to fill vacancies on its blog. We want to hear from writers with thoughts about faith, art, finances, books, politics, school, the church, growing up or anything else we “young people” might want to read.
Mennonite communities have developed a rich tradition of raising hundreds of thousands of dollars each year at community events like the New Hamburg Mennonite Relief Sale. This event brings together hundreds of Mennonite families from all walks of life to enjoy each other, the food and auctions, while raising money for Mennonite Central Committee relief programs around the world.
Travelling to another country has a way of creating a new lens on life with a vivid new focus, but not in the way that I had expected. As I discovered more and more about South Africa during the three months I was there, I began to see my home in Canada with new eyes.
“That woman has really nice shoes,” said a man with whom I am acquainted.
I was at a restaurant in Vancouver with four men. Three of them were talking about women’s shoes, but, in fact, they were referring to certain parts of female anatomy in “code” so they wouldn’t appear rude or lascivious.
This was my experience a couple of weeks ago.
Laura Epp is passionate about the Mennonite church. The 22-year-old is the secretary of Mennonite Church Saskatchewan’s Ministries Commission.She has attended the annual MC Saskatchewan delegate sessions for the last eight years, and in the past has served on the Saskatchewan Mennonite Youth Organization committee and counselled at the Shekinah Retreat Centre.
It has been said that life is a highway. Sometimes that highway leads you out of the country, across oceans and completely out of your comfort zone.
This is the case for Darnell and Christina Barkman and their young children, Cody, two, and newborn Makai.
The seminary is important. For years the standard has been, “If ministry is in your future, then so should seminary.” But I’m not sure if I will be going to one because I think the seminary needs to be re-imagined.
