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Kutuzovka (formerly Petershagen) Mennonite Church in Ukraine celebrated Christmas 1999 in its newly renovated church building. For 70 years, the building was used as barn and granary. On Nov. 12, 1998, it was returned to the congregation by government officials. Walter Myers, the construction supervisor for the project, hands out candies to children after the worship service. George Schroeder (above, left) sings a German hymn with Katja Funk, who is in her 80s. Sara Schroeder, his mother, was Funk’s Sunday school teacher when she was five years old.
“Godsmission.commUNITY” is a conference designed to bring the global mission community from across North America together for the first time in over 40 years. A Web site (www.Godsmission.com) will open in the near future. The conference, scheduled for Sept. 20-23, 2001 in Orlando, Fla., is designed to discuss new ways to collaborate in global missions. It is expected to attract 1500 mission leaders from about 15 mission networks. The conference will include a celebration of what God is doing in world missions, and sessions designed to deepen trust and exchange ideas between various ministries. Time will be given for participating organizations to meet independently. The conference is coordinated by the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College. Sponsors of the conference include Advancing Churches in Missions Commitment, Alliance for Missions Advancement, Artists in Christian Testimony, American Evangelical Relief and Development Organization, Antioch Network, Coalition on Supporting Indigenous Ministries, Evangelical Fellowship of Mission Agencies, Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, Evangelical Missiological Society, International Christian Technologists Association, Interdenominational Foreign Mission Association, North American Council of South Asian Christians, Willow Creek Association International and World Evangelical Fellowship Missions Commission. – Evangelical Fellowship of Canada
A Baptist church leader who had been held in prison by Turkmenistan’s secret police since Feb. 2 was deported to Russia with his family Mar. 11. Anatoli Belyayev was a leader in Ashgabad Baptist Church, which belongs to the Council of Churches of Evangelical Christians/Baptists. His wife Natalya was placed under house arrest and her passport was confiscated. No charges were ever filed. Two other families who have been active in the Baptist church in the town of Mary, southeast of Ashgabad, were expected to be deported in March. Last December, Turkmen authorities deported a Baptist couple from Turkmenabad to Russia and another Baptist couple from Ashgabad to Ukraine. All those deported are Russian or Ukrainian citizens, and all had legal residency in Turkmenistan. Turkmenistan has the most repressive religious policy of all the former Soviet Union republics. The Muslim Board is the major registered religious group in this predominantly Muslim country. The Russian Orthodox Church is the only other religious community allowed to register. The secret police raid and close down Christian meetings and routinely fine and imprison Christians. Apparently, the Turkmen government plans to close down all non-approved religious activity. – Compass Direct
Justice (Man.) MB Church is planning to celebrate its 70th anniversary Oct. 8 in its newly replaced sanctuary, marking God’s faithfulness over the years. The vision of the church is “A lighthouse on a hill”: Just as a lighthouse saves ships from danger, members of the church want to send out Christ’s love to their neighbours to show them safe passage to salvation. – Dorothy Falk, Justice MB Church
The Appropriations Committee of the US House of Representatives has passed a $1.7 billion US aid package for Colombia. The recommendation, still to be approved by Congress, is $400 million more than US President Bill Clinton had asked for. Clinton’s Jan. 11 proposal, “Push into southern Colombia”, targets the coca growing regions of southern Colombia and is intended to stamp out the drug trade by force. Most of the aid would go to the Colombian security forces, which have links to paramilitary groups responsible for assassinations, massacres and an estimated 70% of human rights abuses in Colombia. The package contained no aid for Colombia’s 1.8 million people displaced by the country’s 40-year-old civil war. Mennonite Central Committee’s Colombia partners believe the money from the US aid package would seriously undercut the already delicate peace process. A letter to the US Congress from the National Council of Churches and Church World Service, co-signed by MCC, states: “We ask you to honestly assess the possible negative effects of US military aid on those peace efforts. It is our judgement that such aid will undermine them.” In November 1999, the World Food Program asked governments to come up with $9 million US for a two-year food program for those displaced in Colombia. That program was cancelled due to a lack of interest; no money was ever given. – MCC, World Pulse
Two Mennonites joined a group of Roman Catholic leaders from the Chaco region in Paraguay Jan. 22 for a one-day dialogue about inter-church relations, especially between Mennonites and Roman Catholics. The seminar had 40 participants. Werner Franz, director of CEMTA, a Mennonite seminary in Asunción, and Gundolf Niebuhr, a lay minister in the Mennonite church in Filadelfia and chair of the recently formed Historical/Cultural Society in Paraguay, talked about Anabaptist-Mennonite origins, beliefs and ethical and missionary principles. Niebuhr read a paper about some of the characteristics of the Radical Reformation and the later Mennonite traditions as they were influenced by other evangelical movements. He offered suggestions as to the issues on which Roman Catholics and Mennonites might begin their dialogue with each other. Franz reported on his experience with the Commission of Churches, which worked to influence the new constitution of Paraguay in 1992. Roman Catholic missionaries have been active in the southwestern half of the Chaco since 1925, shortly before Mennonites moved into the area. After the Chaco War in 1935, the first converts among the Nivacle (Chulupi) Indians were baptized. Since that time, the Roman Catholic Church has been growing among tribal groups at about the same rate as Mennonite mission and church planting efforts. Mennonites are the largest group of evangelicals in the Chaco. Cooperation and interaction between Roman Catholics and Mennonites are not common in Paraguay, and competition and tensions within indigenous and Campesino communities, sometimes caused by itinerant missionaries (Mennonites and others), have strained relationships. Mennonites and Roman Catholics have discussed meeting together since 1985, but until now no formal sessions had been held. – Mennonite World Conference
The Gerhard Lohrenz Publication Fund Committee invites applications for publication grants to be made in February 2001. The Fund was established to assist in the publication of works dealing with Mennonite life, with preference given to those relating to the Canadian Mennonite experience. Consideration is given to manuscripts under the broad categories of memoirs, biography, literature (drama, fiction, poetry) and history (not including family and community histories). Interested authors should submit a letter of application, along with a copy of the manuscript, to: Gerhard Lohrenz Publication Fund Committee, Attn: Paul Friesen, 600 Shaftesbury Blvd., Winnipeg, Man. R3P 0M4. Applications must be received by Dec. 31, 2000. – Gerhard Lohrenz Publication Fund Committee
A Christian Arabic Web site, with access to the Bible, a radio program, music, a correspondence course and questions and answers, is available at www.inarabic.org. This Web site, maintained by Samir Youssef, receives several thousand hits each month, with many contacts lasting half an hour. Youssef is working among Arabic-speaking people with MBMS International and MB Communications/Family Life Network. – Samir Youssef
Burundian pastors from the Alliance of Evangelical Churches provided a 25-day food supply in March for 17,300 people in three camps around Bujumbura, Burundi’s capital. The Burundi government had moved farm families into camps as a way to clear the countryside and flush out rebels. By the beginning of 2000, 320,000 people were in these camps. Residents built their own shelters, were restricted from going to their fields, and had to rely on relief food. In October 1999, several United Nations officials were killed, and many foreign agencies withdrew. Camp conditions worsened. The Burundian pastors were concerned about malnourishment and the spread of cholera and malaria in the camps. Mennonite Central Committee, through Canadian Foodgrains Bank, provided $122,000 for the relief effort. Because the Alliance pastors had no experience with large relief projects, Gustav Guenther, who works at the MCC material resources centre in Ephrata, Pa., spent a month in Burundi, helping with the aid distribution. Aid consisted of beans, rice, cassava flour, palm oil, salt, soap, plates and cups. Recently, Burundi’s government announced that it would close some camps. MCC is continuing the relief efforts in Burundi. The civil war in Burundi has not abated over the last seven years. Burundi’s population is believed to be 95% Christian. The Alliance of Evangelical Churches, made up of 11 denominations, has fewer than 13,000 members. – MCC
Groupe Action Mennonite, a group of Mennonite businesspeople from Congo, asked Mennonite Economic Development Associates to faciliate several container loads of clothing from an exporter in Ontario. The clothes quickly sold in Congo. Plans call for further shipments at the rate of one container per month, with the possiblitity of other goods such as retreaded and blemished tires, dried fish, and water filtration systems also being shipped for re-sale. MEDA is working in cooporation with Congolese Mennonites for guidance as to what products are needed. At the moment, clothing is in high demand. – MEDA
Impaired drivers kill 4.5 people and injure more than 300 people every day in Canada. One out of five drivers on Canadian roads at night has been drinking, and one in 25 is legally impaired. Approximately four times as many fatal crashes occur at night compared to daytime driving. – MP Randy White
80% of Japanese older than 65 lived with their children in 1970; today, about 55% live with their children. In the US, 20% of those over 65 live with their children. – World Pulse
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Last modified May 5, 2000.
© 2000 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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