MWR : Articles : Jan. 5, 2009

Last updated November 24.

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Articles : Jan. 5, 2009

Photo by Vada Snider/MC USA

Steward program engages youth

ELKHART, Ind. — Ray and Lillian Bair were there when Belmont Mennonite Church hired a full-time community worker to reach the working-class community surrounding their building. They were there when the church decided to create a separate evening fellowship that better met the needs of new Christians and inquiring visitors. Ray Bair also served as pastor for 17 years.

Seven years ago Bair initiated the Youth Steward program, which is having a profound impact on dozens of families.
Youth serve, counter-recruit and learn a catechism

October saw the wrap-up of the youth summer/fall service project at Cincinnati Mennonite Fellowship. The service project focused on food issues, both local and global, and involved a series of projects and learning events.

Neither war is a good one

The view of Iraq as a bad war and Afghanistan as a good one appears fixed in the minds of most Americans, including the president-elect. It is time to recalculate the Afghan side of that equation. The war that Barack Obama has promised to escalate is no better morally or strategically than the one he has vowed to end.

Unofficial church the other story in Vietnam

The Vietnam Mennonite Church’s new legal status — celebrated at a government-approved general assembly in November — does not include all those in Vietnam who have been drawn to the Mennonite family of faith.
Churches reach out to members of the military

James Branum, minister of peace and justice at Joy Mennonite Church in Oklahoma City and an attorney, helps soldiers who want to leave the Army.
Elkhart neighborhood ministry becomes a church

ELKHART, Ind. — Like many city churches, Belmont Mennonite Church saw the neighborhood around its building change over the years.

Women’s trailblazer

The death of Ruth Brunk Stoltzfus prompts me to write a tribute to this noteworthy trailblazer for Mennonite women. I have many letters from her in my files, each with several documents detailing her study of the Scripture regarding the varied contributions women made in Bible times. She made a ministry of sending such materials to people she thought would have interest in them. She did not want anyone to think her efforts on behalf of women were of human design. She modeled ministry in many ways, and above all, she encouraged as well as informed.
Room for strangers

I applaud Carmen Schrock-Hurst for “Hallmark Holidays.” I have never aspired to the Hallmark style of life. I agree that we need to free ourselves from comparison to the Hallmark myth and get down to reality, which means, as Henri Nouwen suggests, “to live a compassionate life.” He says this “requires us to follow the example of Jesus and enter into the suffering of our fellow human beings, becoming weak with the weak, vulnerable with the vulnerable and powerless with the powerless.”

First Peruvian church marks 18th anniversary

LUCRE, Peru — Eighteen years ago, shortly after Eastern Mennonite Missions workers John and Cindy Kreider first arrived in Peru, the little Mennonite church plant in Lucre held its first Sunday service.
Amid economic blockade, MCC gives Gaza food aid

JERUSALEM — The Israeli economic blockade on the Gaza Strip, home to 1.5 million Palestinians, continues to push people deeper into poverty.