MWR : Articles : May 9, 2005

Last updated November 24.

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Articles : May 9, 2005

Purpose driven and shaken up

Tradition can be a good thing, but one of the worst reasons for doing something is “we’ve always done it that way.” In churches, customs have power. Our traditions — the songs we sing, the committees we serve on — gain an aura of sacred rightness.

Culture shock becomes cultural exchange at Hesston

HESSTON, Kan. — Her first year at Hesston College, Mutiara Widowati, an Indonesian Catholic, questioned her decision to come to a Mennonite college in Kansas.
Puerto Rico visit brings reunion with birth family

GOSHEN, Ind. — Ruthie Saunders always knew she had another family somewhere. But it was not until almost a year ago that she found them and went from being the only child of her adoptive mother to one of 10 siblings she is still getting to know.
Words of peace with urban beat

AKRON, Pa. — Cruz Cordero still recalls how stunned he was the first time he heard a hip-hop artist rapping about Christian faith.

Leadership program will be offered more widely

ELKHART, Ind. — A nontraditional leadership training program developed by Central District and Indiana-Michigan conferences and the Church Leadership Center at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary will accept participants from other conferences beginning this fall.
Peace House won over a neighborhood

INDIANAPOLIS — Looking out a window at Indianapolis Peace House, one sees an abandoned van, a closed shop, an old couch and a dumpster routinely raided for cans.
Couple bids to get to all relief sales

BURRTON, Kan. — John and Deloris Gray have added a new dimension to “Mennonite-your-way” travel.
Vietnamese authorities release another prisoner

HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam — Imprisoned Mennonite woman Le Thi Hong Lien, 21, was released from jail April 28, one of 7,820 prisoners granted amnesty on the April 30 commemoration of the end of the Vietnam War in 1975.
Bike trips are long-distance fundraisers

This will be the summer of cross-country bike fund-raisers, if three rides either under way or in the planning stages are any sign.
Growing circle of funding expands ministry of Mennonite Women USA

NEWTON, Kan. — Rhoda Keener, director of Mennonite Women USA, wants to develop circles of connection that can be as meaningful to women in the 21st century as sewing circles were in the past.