MWR : Articles : Jan. 2, 2012

Last updated December 27.

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Articles : Jan. 2, 2012

To redeem the time, be a servant

After ending the year by celebrating God’s coming to Earth in the flesh, we tack up a new calendar with the hopeful thought that Jesus is still with us in spirit “to the very end of the age” (Matt. 28:20).

Running the race together

Ken Yoder broke two major rules of race day at his first marathon — and he paid for it.

Reading Revelation

I enjoyed “Revelation Links to Advent” (Faith Matters, Dec. 19) by John A. Esau. I attended a fundamentalist Bible college in the 1950s. It was very strong on prophecy and end-time studies. The end of the world was surely going to happen in our lifetime! Later at Bethel College, I found quite a difference in teaching of the Bible. One morning in chapel President E.G. Kaufman said St. John was too long on the Isle of Patmos by himself; that’s why he wrote the Book of Revelation. I about fell out of my chair. Keep writing, John Esau!
The true church?

In response to the Nov. 28 article, “Should One Issue Define Us?”: When I joined the Mennonite church I knew it was a welcoming church. But I also knew it was a “such were some of you” church, but “you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of God” (1 Cor. 6:11). Later I read Menno Simons’ sermon on “The New Birth,” in which he said: “Do you not know that the holy Christian church is a gathering of the righteous and a fellowship of the saints? But you really have to confess that you are an assembly of the adulterous, the unrighteous, the carnal, the murderous, the sodomitical … Therefore it follows you are not of the true church of Jesus Christ” (page 48, translated and edited by Irvin B. Horst, published by the Mennonite Historical Society).

Store closes; quilt center given to MCC

The World Handcrafts store in Reedley, Calif., a fair-trade outlet connected to Ten Thousand Villages, closed Dec. 31.
Peruvian villagers welcome health team

CUSCO, Peru — Mary Dunn and her Eastern Mennonite Missions team recently took a break from clinics and lessons about nutrition and sanitation to distribute something just as important — sweets and gifts.
Canadian leader attends U.N. meeting on climate

WINNIPEG, Man. — For Mennonite Church Canada executive director Willard Metzger, the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Durban, South Africa, began with a twist of irony.
Former Lancaster assistant principal charged

Former Lancaster (Pa.) Mennonite High School assistant principal Steven Geyer was charged with 11 counts of sexual offenses Dec. 22.
Bolivian colonists try to move past trauma

In the isolated Manitoba Colony of Bolivia, Old Colony Mennonites are beginning to move on with life after the conclusion of a trial that focused global attention on the community.

Dramatic reunion

To catch the full impact of this climactic passage, read chapters 42-44. Little is said about the seven fertile years during which surplus harvests are stored. But when the lean years begin and famine spreads far and wide, news travels fast: “Egypt has food to sell!”