The Messenger Vol. 54 No. 06 June 2016

The Messenger a publication of the Evangelical

Mennonite Conference

Volume 54  No. 06 June 2016

The Ascension of Christ ISTOCK

page 6

$2.00

Editorials

Significant events that can’t be printed

T

here are significant missions happenings that will not appear either in print or digitally.

Gone are the days when crosscultural workers could write stories about specific people in detailed ways for magazines published far away in a language rarely understood.

Today, governments and individuals search through the Internet, English is the best-known language globally, and Christian efforts are concerned suspect in various circles.

Cross-cultural workers (the term “missionary” is unhelpful in some settings) need to be cautious about on whom and what they report. Significant events must go unreported.

Even beyond caution, though, there’s a trust or common sense factor. Suppose you have a Hindu friend and that friend wants a photo taken with you. Then suppose

that photo appears in a Hindu magazine with the indication that you are a Christian, but, stated openly or not, it is hoped that you will become a Hindu. Would you think that your friendship was violated when a friendly photo is used publicly for another reason?

Prospective cross-cultural workers search through years of this magazine to determine if past references to them will hinder their future service. Discussion happens among editors, cross-cultural workers, Board of Missions staff members, and church reporters about how much can be said about people.

Please read the lines and between the lines. Even if some of the good stuff can’t be printed, it’s happening anyway.

– Terry M. Smith

Gone are the days when cross-cultural workers could write stories about specific people in detailed ways for magazines published far away in a language rarely understood.

••

Global warming and forced changes

D

enying global warning isn’t, actually, an article of faith among evangelicals. Proper rejection of atheistic evolution is no reason for some Christians to dismiss what scientists say about our warming planet. Christian stewardship includes looking deeply at this troubling topic “in our concern for all of God’s creation” (EMC Constitution, 11).

When prime minister, Stephen Harper, an economist by training, once said that no government will accept energy emission restrictions if it hurts their country’s economy. With all due respect, the planet’s changing climate will have a devastating impact on people’s lives, including economically. We are working at damage control.

Gas and oil are needed. I rely on them. We must become less dependent upon them.

Will North American middle-class evangelicals choose, or be forced, to reduce our lifestyle expectations? Will we,

2 The Messenger • June 2016

for instance, select smaller houses, smaller vehicles, and do less international travel? When gas prices go down, will we forego larger vehicles that burn more gas?

I suspect that many Canadians— including many Christians—will make few changes unless they are forced on us. Too many people seem content to sit in a line of idling vehicles while waiting for a coffee at a drive-through window. Some leave their vehicles running, in winter or summer, while going inside a store for a purchase. Canada is wide and often cold, yes, but when does this become an excuse, rather than a reason, for some of the choices we make?

When Christ returns, his planet will be restored (Rom. 8:21). Of the damage it sustains in the meantime, though, how well will we account for our stewardship (1 Cor. 3:10-15)?

– Terry M. Smith

Will North American middle-class evangelicals choose, or be forced, to reduce our lifestyle expectations?

Table of Contents Features

Columns

6

4

The Ascension of Christ – Dr. Arden Thiessen

10 The Christ of the Immigrant – Angel Infantes

13 To Help the Church, We Must Remember Education!

– Russell Doerksen

Departments 2

Editorials

3

Pontius’ Puddle

5

page

19

Writings Shared Young People, Churches and Chaplains – Terry M. Smith

34 Here and Far Away

page

Defining Personal Joy – Jocelyn R. Plett

25

35 Stewardship Today

Reducing the Potential for Drama: Managing Heirlooms and Personal Effects – Peter Dryden

22 With Our Churches 31 In Memory

Fatted Calves for the Church Organist – Layton Friesen

16 An Education App

17 With Our Missionaries 27 News

Further In and Higher Up

36 Kids’ Corner

page

28

A Special Diet – Loreena Thiessen

33 Shoulder Tapping

page

27

page

30

www.emconference.ca/messenger • The Messenger 3

The Messenger

Column • Further In and Higher Up

Volume 54 No. 06 June 2016

Fatted Calves for the Church Organist EDITOR TERRY M. SMITH

ASSISTANT EDITOR ANDREW WALKER

Submissions to The Messenger should be sent to messenger@emconf.ca.

The Messenger is the publication, published nine times per year, of the Evangelical Mennonite Conference. It is available to the general public. Its purpose is to inform concerning events and activities in the denomination, instruct in godliness and victorious living, inspire to earnestly contend for the faith.

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THE MESSENGER schedule: No. 07-08 - July/Aug. 2016 issue (copy due July 04)

4 The Messenger • June 2016

I

magine. Say you had a son, a prodigal son whom you had long lost. He caused you pain and the last you

by Layton Friesen heard he was doing prison time in Albuquerque. Every night you knelt down and prayed to God to save your son and bring him rest and wholeness in God. But as the years passed with no contact, hope became difficult.

One Sunday you are in your regular pew before the worship begins and you glance over the bulletin. You cannot believe your eyes. Someone with your son’s name is doing a musical number that morning. You look up and instantly recognize the shoulders sitting in the front pew. Stunned, you wait trembling. At the given time your son (!!) goes to the stage, straps on a guitar, offers a short testimony to the grace of God, and sings Amazing Grace. All you can do is sit with your head in your hands and sob in shock and joy.

After the service you stumble back into the crowded foyer, still shaken by what has just happened.

But now you over-hear troubling talk. Here some teenagers are talking about how music in this church needs to be more culturally relevant.

Who listens to that left-over hippie stuff any more? A couple of ladies are vowing to talk to the pastor about guidelines for what people wear when they do music on stage. Those ripped jeans were so disrespectful.

A music teacher is declaring herself about people who take perfectly fine John Newton texts and bowdlerize them into folk-ditties.

Suddenly, it’s all you can do not to jump on the brochure table and shout: “Do you people not get it! My son was dead and has come to life!

He was lost and has been found!”

Now back to real life. Every person involved in your church’s worship last Sunday was your son.

Do you know what a stunning miracle it was that your pastor was not sleeping in a back lane that morning?

That the song leader was married for another week? That the sound tech swallowed his depression enough to set up the mikes? That the drummer, after all the dung he’s been through, still cares about worship?

All of these people should not have made it that morning. All were there by the same impossible grace of God. The deaconess setting out the bread and wine for communion again should have merited feasting on a fatted calf.

Why is it that we get used to grace? Why is it that when a person becomes a staff member in the church, gets a salary, or becomes the head of a committee, we no longer gasp in amazement that he or she is saved? Lifted by some unfathomable act of God to do this work!

This, I hope, is also why our pastors are not as receptive as we like to our complaints about fellow members not doing their church work up to our standards. Because pastors often have a front-row seat to the towering challenges that people face in their walk with God, they are less inclined to criticize a person for wearing the wrong pants on stage.

Those who know the mighty challenges that daunt the faith of all sorts of people in the church will often say, “Yes, but we had to celebrate and rejoice because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life.”

Why is it that we get used to grace?

Column • Writings Shared Judges For You, Timothy Keller (Good Book Company, 2013) 217 pp. $11.40 USD. ISBN 978190876863.

Reviewed by Jocelyn R. Plett, whose home churches include Prairie Rose, Heartland, and Tana City Church (Antananarivo, Madagascar) where "I currently do church with my husband and three sons."

K

eller’s book on Judges does an exemplary job of outlining how people are at heart idolatrous, how we need a saviour, how God provides Christ-type judges to guide His people, yet how they continue to slide further away from the ideal. The book impressed the truth that, though there are many men and women of God imbued with spiritual gifts of leadership and other impressive skills, they are still human and show themselves fallible. We need a deliverer, yes, but by the end of the book we come to realize that a mere human leader will never be enough.

I found Keller’s Judges For You to be surprisingly engaging, despite earlier impressions of Judges as a dour book on war and punishment.

Keller’s way of writing is at once highly intelligent, easy to read, and spiritually convicting, which is what I am looking for in pursuit of spiritual maturity. Keller’s Judges For You is profoundly applicable to my own life and that of the modern church as we strive to live in the world, yet apart from it.

The For You series, including Tim Keller’s books on Galatians and Romans, are easy to read as a personal devotional book and can act as a companion to the group study material by the same author. Galatians, especially, instilled in me such a thrill of the Gospel I have never experienced before! I would highly recommend Keller’s Judges For You.

•• Benefit of the Doubt: Breaking the Idol of Certainty, Gregory A. Boyd (Baker, 2013). 272 pp. $18. ISBN 9780701014925. Reviewed by Abe Berg, pastor of Straffordville EMC.

B

enefit of the Doubt is all about taking a biblical look at what faith actually is and how it actually works. Contrary to the widely held belief that faith is being absolutely certain about something, Boyd says that “certainty” has actually become an idol for many.

He says that faith in not about being able to conjure up enough certainty in our minds in order to convince God that we believe or have faith. Rather, faith is about a covenantal trust in someone who has proven themself trustworthy; God is trustworthy because of His character and His manifestation in the redemptive work of Jesus Christ.

I found it refreshing that Boyd used many personal stories to illustrate the faith for which he advocates. He admits that the book is probably his most autobiographical work to date.

Boyd’s personal journey of doubt and questions is what leads him to refuse textbook answers to complicated questions.

Because of advances in technology, science, and accessibility of information, Boyd says that Christians no longer have the convenience of giving shallow answers to difficult questions, or respond as though they have everything figured out when really they don’t.

Boyd strongly suggests that we simply trust in the proven character of God and walk in faith in the midst of the unknowns. He does suggest that Scripture may have more errors through translation and writer fallibility then we would like to admit, although he is clear that it doesn’t change the truth or reliability of God’s Word in the whole story. This may be a concern or possibly a slippery slope.

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The Apostles’ Creed Through 2016

The Ascension of Christ ISTOCK

by Dr. Arden Thiessen

6 The Messenger • June 2016

“H

e ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.” Christian attitudes to the ascension of Jesus have ranged from benign neglect by preachers who don’t know what to say about it to fierce criticism by those who say the event is completely at odds with the accepted modern heliocentric worldview. They say there is no place in space for a place like heaven.

Important Details

place. Mormons say heaven is in the vicinity of the mythical star “Kolob.” That is probably no more fanciful than the sermon by an EMC minister that I remember in which heaven was located near Polaris, the North Star. He based that little bit of esoteric knowledge on Isaiah 14:13 (KJV), completely ignoring the fact that Isaiah was blasting the king of Babylon with his diatribe. (By the way, Polaris is around 323 light years from the earth, by one astronomical measurement).

In recent years I have noticed theologians refer to heaven as being a “different dimension of reality.” Most notably that concept has been used by N. T. Wright.

Recently I’ve noticed the term also in the writings of the American Baptist Millard Erickson and the German theologian Wolfhart Pannenberg. Wayne Grudem agrees, “We cannot now see where Jesus is, but that is not because he passed into some ethereal ‘state of being’ that has no location at all in the space-time universe, but because our eyes are unable to see the unseen spiritual world that exists all around us” (Systematic Theology, p. 617). ➢

Interpreting the event is difficult because the New Testament uses the same word for what we call the sky and for the eternal presence of God.

One could wonder, why didn’t Jesus simply vanish as he did after his evening encounter with the believers in Emmaus? However, it was notable event, and I suggest the disciples were expected to see some important details of God’s relationship to the world in that event.

The ascension is reported in Luke 24 and Acts 1, at the end of Luke’s story of Jesus’ earthly life and at the beginning of his story of the Spirit’s work in the world. It marks the transition from what God did here in the person of Jesus to what he will do as Holy Spirit.

Luke 24:51 simply says Jesus was carried up into heaven. Acts 1:9 reports that he was lifted up and then a cloud took him away. I imagine Jesus rising in front of their eyes, as if sucked up by an unseen cosmic magnet. When he reached a height of half a mile or so, a cloud floated by to cover him and then when the cloud moved on he was gone. Later the apostles said and wrote that he had gone to the Father’s right hand. However, nobody saw that; they just saw him disappear, quite inauspiciously. And that was that.

Interpreting the event is difficult because the New Testament uses the same word for what we call the sky and for the eternal presence of God. The disciples stood there, looking at the empty sky (heaven), but Jesus had transitioned to the Father’s right hand (heaven).

I am not surprised that Christian believers have often thought of heaven as having a specific celestial location. After all, it is hard to talk about heaven without referring to it as a

DESIGNPICS

A Location?

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ISTOCK

Randal Rauser concludes, “The ascension does not consist of Jesus moving to a spatially distinct part of the universe (let alone another universe) but rather of entering a higher spiritual reality in our midst” (Faith Lacking Understanding, p. 129). Heaven is the other, the spiritual dimension of eternity.

A Dimension

I used to think that the ascension was the reversal of the incarnation.

I’ve changed my mind.

I think the scholars mentioned above are helpful.

Their approach helps us with a New Testament feature that has puzzled thoughtful readers. When Jesus concluded instructions to the disciples, he assured them, “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matt.

28:20). We have wondered, how could he be with us, having officially, visibly departed.

If we accept the view above, then the ascension was simply moving from the visible to the invisible dimension. That’s how the apostles could speak and write as if they continued to live in Jesus’ presence. And then we understand why the future event that we have been taught to call “the second coming” (that term is never used in the Bible) is usually referred to as the appearing (parousia) of Jesus. One day he will appear again, step back over the line into our dimension.

8 The Messenger • June 2016

The view above helps us with another biblical phenomenon, the occasional presence of angels.

They are at home in the other, the spiritual or eternal dimension. Occasionally they are seen here with us. When Jesus arose he came out of the tomb with a new physical body, a body that would fit into the other dimension of reality. However, he could choose to be visible here, as did the angels occasionally. So, he came and went for forty days and then departed.

I used to think that the ascension was the reversal of the incarnation.

I’ve changed my mind. Jesus went to heaven as a human. He left no human detritus on that mountain top. He was, of course, now a human with a transformed body. So one of us has already entered eternity.

Karl Barth says, “Christ is now, as the Bearer of humanity…in the place where God is. Our flesh, our human nature, is exalted in Him to God” (Dogmatics in Outline, p. 125). Rauser asserts, “Christ was made eternally man” (p. 121).

C. E. B. Cranfield summarizes, “For we believe that he is still human as well as divine, that in assuming our humanity he joined it to his divine nature forever” (The Apostles’ Creed, p. 45).

DESIGNPICS

Thirdly, the right hand is the place of intimacy. Jesus has the Father’s ear. Stanley Grenz emphasises this primarily, that Jesus is at the Father’s right hand interceding for us.

And then there is Jesus talking about going to prepare a place for his disciples (John 14:3). He was probably not referring to a construction or renovation job or to some neglected housecleaning that he had to look after. Let’s assume he means he will be there ahead of us, praying for us and waiting for us to join him there in the heavenly dimension (See John 17:24). I think it’s probably a sign of healthy spiritual growth if we can appreciate that hope as well.

The Right Hand of God

The theologians of the New Testament say that Jesus sat down at the right hand of God. Originally, that line was spoken to the king of Jerusalem (Ps. 110:1). To the writing apostles this seemed like the right image to use for Jesus’ present position. It became the most used Old Testament quotation, used or alluded to seven times.

Theologians say the figurative image of sitting at God’s right hand reminds us of the three roles of the ascended Jesus. First, the right hand is the position of honour.

By taking that position Jesus assumed the relationship that he declared when he said, “The Father and I are one” (John 10:30).

Secondly, the right hand is the position of authority. Karl Barth saw this as signifying that Jesus was supervising the gospel work of the disciples. He is Lord of the world and has the authority to send his followers everywhere. We should note that when the disciples came down from that mountain they rejoiced and prepared to go to work.

Arden Thiessen, DMin, has combined a life of academics, pastoral ministry, EM Conference duties, and writing. He is phasing into retirement, but has most recently served again as adjunct professor at Steinbach Bible College. Arden and Helen make their home in Steinbach.

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www.emconference.ca/messenger • The Messenger 9

DESIGNPICS

The Christ of the Immigrant

by Angel Infantes

H

e leaves his homeland for parts unknown. He doesn’t know exactly where he will go, what he will do when he gets there, or how it will all unfold. He leaves beloved family far behind, uncertain as to when he will see them again, if ever.

His new home is as dangerous as it is welcoming. Different customs, different beliefs, open arms, hostile intentions.

He is an immigrant.

He is Jesus.

In the Old Testament we find many stories of immigration, people fleeing their land for other places, sometimes due to natural disaster, sometimes war, sometimes the very call of God Himself. In the New Testament, the idea of immigration takes a new turn, not one toward “the land of milk and honey” (Ex. 33:3), but toward a place where there will be “no more death or sorrow or crying or pain” (Rev. 21:4).

And here is a surprise: it is an immigrant Himself who describes this new homeland, who provides the path to reach that place.

immigrant? Listened to their stories of the place from which they came? Have you ever wondered who they are and how they came to be in this new place? When they describe their homeland, words cannot always do it justice.

Such is the case when Jesus had a conversation with Nicodemus, a man who would one day become a follower and a friend. But in the beginning, Nicodemus did not understand. Although the two men had much in common, spoke the same language, were familiar with the same customs and language and place, the conversation seemed almost frustrated.

Jesus intervened at one point, saying, “You do not understand me even though I carefully use a language that you know, so how then you will understand me if I share with you about the wonders of the place where I come from?” (my paraphrase, John 3:12).

Jesus wasn’t speaking of His earthly origins, although He had already traveled great deal.

Born in Bethlehem, He did not get to grow up there. When Jesus was small, His adoptive father Joseph was warned that his family was in danger, and they moved south, crossing the border to Egypt.

When they describe their homeland, words cannot always do it justice.

Ever Met an Immigrant?

Merriam-Webster defines migrate as the move from one place to another. Have you ever met an

10 The Messenger • June 2016

Jesus spent His first days there, made His first friends. But He wouldn’t stay. Soon He would travel back to Nazareth, and eventually His ministry would take him to the regions of Galilee, Samaria, Judea, Perea and Sidon.

A Continuous Journey

we came from. It is the same with the laws from the Kingdom of God. They were are already established; we can’t adjust them to our lifestyle but only fulfill it.”

The law of the Kingdom became real in Jesus, things like “love your enemies,” “do not resist an evil person,” “forgive men their trespasses,” “do not store up treasures on earth,” “do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink.” Jesus was teaching about customs and laws from the Kingdom of heaven. The Anglican theologian Graeme Goldsworthy summarizes the Kingdom of God as “God’s people in God’s place under God’s rule.”

During His ministry Jesus invited people to migrate to a new lifestyle, not an earthly one, but a celestial one. Jesus’ Kingdom is not on Earth (John 18:36). Many were up for the challenge, but few lasted. The effort of the believers, to live according to the rules of the Kingdom, allows them a glimpse of eternal life with God in the “new city.”

"We come to this country where the laws were already established; we can’t change it to make it similar from where we came from. It is the same with the laws from the Kingdom of God."

It was a continuous journey, meeting people on the road, going from place to place, healing and teaching. With no earthly means of providing for Himself, during the journey Jesus received shelter and food from generous people. It was with good reason He could say, “I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home” (Matt. 25: 35).

It is easy for a foreigner to appreciate Jesus’ words. Most immigrants are vulnerable and in need of basic necessities. They come to appreciate the “new” food as the best food, the “new” clothes as the appropriate ones, the “new” place as their home, and the people who provide these things as their own “family.”

A Guatemalan friend, who now lives in Winnipeg, likes to say, “We come to this country where the laws were already established; we can’t change it to make it similar from where

An Immigrant From Heaven

On many occasions Jesus referred to heaven as His place of origin (Matt 26:64; Luke 22:69; Mark 14:62; 16:19; John 6:62; 8:23; 13:33, 14:2, 19, 28; 16: 5,17, 28; 17:13; 20:17; Heb 1:9).

Jesus was not from this world, not from Palestine, and not from Bethlehem.

Jesus came from heaven; the prophets announced His coming, and the evangelists provided details of His arrival. Jesus existed before coming to Earth.

Jesus migrated to Palestine in an unconventional way (Luke 1:35). After His temporary residence on Earth,

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Jesus returned to His homeland; the disciples saw Him returning to heaven (Acts 1:9,10).

Jesus, the immigrant. And His disciples followed in His steps.

Jesus’ followers looked for refuge when they were persecuted (Acts 8:1). They lived as pilgrims in this world, knowing there was a better place prepared for them (John 14:2).

Empowered by the Holy Spirit, they hit the road, sharing the message entrusted to them by the “foreigner.”

Even the fiercest of opponents, Saul (later to become Paul), met Jesus on the road and embraced His message. Soon Paul was also crossing borders, settling in different places.

Sometimes he too was the refugee, running for his life. During his travels Paul experienced diverse cultures, customs, food and languages. But none of those places held his attention permanently.

Similar to Abraham, Paul was also on a pilgrimage to the “heavenly homeland” (Heb. 11:16).

Peter referred to Christian believers as pilgrims and strangers (1 Pet. 2:11) who have customs very different from earthly customs.

And the book of Revelation gives us a glorious vision of the place where these Christian pilgrims are headed (Rev. 21). It is the place for every follower from every tribe or nation.

A Christian believer is like an immigrant looking for a better life and place to live. Believers

make an extra effort to reach their destination.

They overcome the obstacles in their way, they travel lightly, they trust something better awaits.

Jesus embodies migrants around the world, in their lonely journey, and in their hope. Jesus is the Christ of the immigrants.

So when you come across an immigrant, think about Jesus as immigrant, and about your journey. See your life as a pilgrimage similar to that of a myriad of others who are looking for a better life. Share Jesus, the Christ of the immigrant, and show others the way to that “heavenly homeland.”

A Christian believer is like an immigrant looking for a better life and place to live.

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Angel Infantes, from Peru, met his wife Blanca, from Mexico, while they were studying at the Rio Grande Bible Institue (Texas, USA). Angel served as an associate pastor at Braeside EMC. He is enrolled in the MATS program at Canadian Mennonite University. He says, “Mennonites have a rich history; they migrated from one place to another.

Mennonites were able to overcome the obstacles in search of a new land. Somehow the journey is over for some, but for those seeking a ‘better place’ the journey still continues.”

To Help the Church, We Must Remember Education!

by Russell Doerksen, Chairman, the Board of Church Ministries

T

he article that you are about to read is about the importance of Christian education, education in the biggest of ways the term can possibly be taken. I am not going to be talking specifically about Sunday School or youth groups, Christian post-secondary or primary schools, but instead about what all of these things are together.

In this article I am going to be talking about why it is so important that we as the Church place a priority on any form of programming or institution that seeks to teach those who are already in the Church more about God. What I will say will be an oversimplification to be sure. What I will say will be just three small parts of a much larger whole. However, what I will say will be beneficial to think about the next time you find yourself discussing matters of programming or budget, and so I hope you will find it useful.

We as Christians in the West are living in the time of a declining Church. To combat this, a lot of money and effort has been put into missions and outreach, and I would argue rightfully so. We live in a largely unchristian world and we are called by Christ to reach out. However, often this outreach is achieved by negatively affecting both the budgets and the programming of education in our churches, and this should be a cause of concern.

Christian education is a major driver of retention in the Church. People engage with things that they know about. To make the next generation of church leaders, teachers, missionaries, pastors, deacons and enthusiastic laypeople, there is no better first step than to teach deeply what it means to be a Christian.

Christian education also helps to stave off one of the major causes of people leaving the Church. The world at large has a very poor understanding of the Christian faith. In popular culture, Christians are at best seen as against social change and at worst as deviants.

DESIGNPICS

Education Aids Retention

Imagine you did not already know what Christianity was at its heart. Imagine you were a child, or fresh out of high school, or a new believer. Imagine if you were like the countless other believers who take at face value the things that you hear on television and read on the Internet as the truth about Christianity.

How long do you think it would be before you lost your faith if that was what you thought your faith was in?

Society passively says that our faith is at best misguided. Short of withdrawing from the world, something that is hard to do in one increasingly connected, Christian education is the most effective way for churches to deal with this issue. To give our members the knowledge and the tools to answer is what Christian education both does, and, if done right, does well.

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While I will never downplay the importance of missions and outreach when it comes to attracting new members, to focus on these things at the expense of Christian education is to me like trying to keep water in a cup with a hole in it by only adding more water. It works sure, but plugging the hole would make it a lot easier.

Education Benefits Missions

However, by even talking about Christian education and missions as separate things I have been doing a great disservice. If thought of properly, Christian education and missions should be considered as different parts of the same whole.

Christian education helps produce the next generation of missionaries and evangelists. The more someone learns about their faith and engages with it, the more likely it is that they are going to express it outwardly. After all, when continuing to dwell in the glory of God, how could you not?

Christian education helps to equip the next generation of missionaries and evangelists. Whether it be in church or through Christian post-secondary institutions, Christianity has in place vast structures that can help train and equip both missionaries and evangelists. We have at our disposal millennia of information of what has been tried in missions, and what has worked and what hasn’t.

Also, Christian education helps to keep missionaries and evangelists effective in their outreach. The world is a constantly changing place that causes the mission field to be in constant flux. But both missions and the Church are vast, creating a knowledge base of effective solutions to most every problem, often as they arise.

Christian education can help to share these among those in the field.

14 The Messenger • June 2016

This is not even taking into account the majority of the Church who serve every day as evangelists through their daily work. Christian education can equip and enable laypeople to serve more effectively as they go about their lives.

To say that to undercut Christian education is to undercut missions and outreach is the simple truth. What is more, to undercut Christian education creates a strong barrier to the work of the Church, hurting not only retention, but also hampering the effectiveness of its missions.

Education Aids Unity

Christianity is a vast religion that has billions of people whom all belong to different groups with differing understandings and beliefs. As those on the inside, we know this to be the case. However,

what if you were on the outside looking in?

Would you see all of the intricacy and detail, or would you see many different people all claiming to be followers of Christ squabbling with each other about things that to a non-believer would seem like nonsense?

While I am not trying to say that Christian education would stop the in-fighting present in Christianity, something that historically has certainly not been the case, I do earnestly believe that it is a step in the right direction.

This is because Christian education gives us all a common language in which to speak of our experiences and beliefs. To talk about things such as “the blood of Christ” would sound like nonsense to someone outside of the faith.

However, by simply saying this term, another believer, who knows nothing about me or my beliefs, can instantly be on the same page that I am if they also have been taught its significance.

In my experience, many of the more heartrending arguments that we get into as Christians are not due to holding vastly different beliefs, but are, instead, from misunderstanding what others are trying to explain.

In a denomination such as the EMC, where all of the churches operate somewhat independently from one another on all but what we deem to be of the utmost importance, it can be very easy to run into this trap of

misunderstanding. I would say we have done so multiple times in the past.

This is why common Christian education has to be seen as particularly important to us in the EMC. With a group such as ours, covering so great a geographic area and encompassing so many people all with their own beliefs influenced by different experiences, it is of the utmost importance that we know how to speak to each other about our faith in a way that the other can understand.

If we do not always strive to do this as best we can, if we do not always seek to learn how best to talk with one another about our faith, it will mean bad things one day. But I want to see better things, and we can make choices to help these come about.

Russell Doerksen (Fort Garry) is the chairman of the Board of Church Ministries, which has a wide mandate in education and publication within the EMC. He is a double graduate of Providence University College and Theological Seminary (BA, MDiv) and is the Managerial Editor of Providence’s theological journal Didaskalia.

Further Reading Scripture

1 Kings 10:24; Job 6:24; Proverbs 4:13, 11:14, 14:15, 22:6, 23:12; Ecclesiastes 7:12 Luke 1:17; Romans 12:2; 2 Corinthians 10:5; 2 Timothy 2:22-26

Other

http://www.theomag.com/2011/09/the-end-of-the-bible-college/ http://www.biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/anvil/19-2_099.pdf http://www.modernreformation.org/default.php?page=articledisplay&var2=1110 http://www.evangelicalfellowship.ca/bibleengagementstudy http://www.christianweek.org/bible-engagement-canada-confidence-conversation-community/ Jens Zimmermann, “The Passionate Intellect: Christian Humanism and University Education,” Direction 37 (Spring 2008): para. 20. Online: http://www.directionjournal.org/article/?1505

www.emconference.ca/messenger • The Messenger 15

Column • An Education App

Young People, Churches, and Chaplains

A

DESIGNPICS

Terry M. Smith Executive Secretary

s college and university graduation ceremonies were held, how did your church connect with its young people who studied there? As high school graduations were held, what was your church’s plan to remain connected with young people who move to study?

Whether you are their home church or a local church near to where they study, how do you connect? Do you call, text, send e-mails, use Facebook, provide care packages with bulletins, visit, pray? Does your home church contact a local church to make it aware of particular young people? Is it unfair to ask?

Leaving home is a critical time in a young person’s faith. Pollsters, pastors, and parents highlight disturbing statistics about young people who disconnect from their faith and church.

Perhaps Gerald Reimer, our conference youth minister, is accurate in suggesting that the EMC’s retention rate is higher than in some other contexts. Some EMC young people do, though, disconnect from the faith after high school. Too many.

The reasons vary. Some Christians blame secular institutions for raising questions and offering different ethics and perspectives. Others suggest that some churches do not well prepare young people for what they will face. Each has stories to reinforce their views. Both are likely partly right.

To help young people stay connected with their faith and the church, the EMC co-sponsors a part-time Mennonite chaplain on the University of Manitoba campus. The choice is strategic since the U. of M. is the post-secondary institution most often attended by EMCers. Mark von Kampen, our chaplain, cares for young people and is a good resource. The Inter-Mennonite Chaplaincy Association is worth more than the $3,600 it receives from the EMC. It could use more help from Manitoba’s churches (EMC and beyond).

As well, Fort Garry EMC, near the U. of M., has a pastor, Len Harms, involved in campus

As high school graduations were held, what was your church’s plan to remain connected with young people who move to study?

(This column was prepared before Mark von Kampen was approached for his thoughts, published in May.)

16 The Messenger • June 2016

ministry. In its corporate life, Fort Garry reaches out to university students in general; Len has a special responsibility toward graduate students.

Mark von Kampen and Len Harms have complementary ministries. The U. of M. is a big place.

Chaplaincy ministry is important. However, no chaplain sees his or her role as a substitute for local church involvement. They want young people to stay connected with their home church or find another local church. They are delighted when home churches and local churches connect with young people.

In this discussion, certainly keep in mind many young people who remain connected with the Church throughout their study, work, and questions. This is an act of faith to be commended. A time of answers early in the church if followed by a time of questions after high school is to result in a more mature faith—that is the goal in staying connected or in reconnecting.

Recently Marlin Reimer read Psalm 73 during a worship service. I suspect that some young people at college and university can relate to it.

The writer of Psalm 73 was quite puzzled at life as he encountered it. It seemed so unfair.

Questions arose and the person’s faith was seriously challenged, but the writer kept connected with his community of faith during that time—a crucial decision. And through that participation, insight came.

Insight still can.

With Our Missionaries

God Speaks Zapotec!

Grace Thiessen

BOM

Poses and pictures accented the ending, and somehow extend it ever so slightly as tables and chairs were now being packed away. Yes, it was time to go, but festivals like this deserve their resonance. Some members of our original entourage were already making their way back home, while we accompanied Joan and her companions to her village house.

It was time to say “good bye” to the house, the village, this life. Standing by the outhouse Grace and Joan had built, the first of its kind in the village, Joan smiled and reminisced for a moment with her landlord of 37 years.

He reluctantly accepted the keys after letting Joan know this was their house, Grace’s and Joan’s.

With a shuffle and a step, an awkward glance at the street and neighbouring houses, we all climbed back into our vehicles. It was quiet. Poignant. This moment, too, took resonance.

Winding our way between house and hut, we found our way back to the ridge, over to the mountain on the other side, and the meandering logging road which would lead us back home. As we began our descent and the clouds lifted, the conversation turned towards the road ahead. What does the future hold for you? What will you do next?

– Garry Koop Garry Koop is the senior pastor of Steinbach EMC. Grace Thiessen began working with the Zapotecs in 1979 and passed away in 2014.

SEMC

BOM

MEXICO

The entire village council of Santa Ana Yareni was in attendance—remarkable for so many reasons. They began assembling at the head table, when Odilon, Grace Thiessen’s trusted translation helper from the village and designated organizer, came to bring me and Ken Zacharias, EMC Foreign Secretary, to the head table. I would have preferred a different seat, but I wanted to respect culture and protocol. As the band behind me began to play and the program was underway, I glanced over the small sea of faces in front of me.

I felt like I was sitting at the shoreline of emotion, as waves rolled over me. At times I was overcome, seeing these villagers, thinking of Grace and the Yareni Zapotec New Testament, her life’s work without exaggeration, which we were about to hand out person-to-person. But I am a bondservant sent here for a purpose, so the waves will have to wait.

It is my turn to speak, offering greetings, representing connections for Grace, Steinbach EMC (her sending church), the EMC, and Canada too. Marilyn, another of Grace’s translation colleagues, stands at my right, translating extemporaneously as I speak, occasionally looking at my notes to ensure we are literally on the same page.

Again the waves roll. It is good to sit down.

The program now accelerates to the climax as the chairs empty, giving way to a line up on our left of villagers eager to receive their free Yareni Zapotec New Testament. Free, because Grace and long-time co-worker Joan Smith have paid for them out of their own goodness, generosity, and pocketbooks. One by one they file by. We shake hands and smile and extend greetings, a bag of mementos, and, of course, the New Testament. God speaks Zapotec!

With the formal proceedings completed, the courtyard is quickly transformed into a banquet hall thanks to the village police and the many men and women, filled with joy, now lending a hand to set up tables and distribute cases of pop to the tables. Sitting shoulder to shoulder, visitor and villager alike, we eat our fill of homemade corn tortillas and mole.

www.emconference.ca/messenger • The Messenger 17

With Our Missionaries

The Word’s Out

Ready to Join the Team?

Mexico

Ministry involvements among the professional demographic include sports and recreation, marriage and finance workshops, grade-school employment, evangelism and discipleship, prayer ministry and much more.

Bolivia

Ministry involvements include guesthouse services, community development, grade-school employment, evangelism and discipleship, marriage counselling, prayer ministry and much more.

Terms Start January 2017 Find more information at: www.emconference.ca/ministries

18 The Messenger • June 2016

BOM

PARAGUAY

In Guavira Poty, the neighbourhood where our church plant is in Minga Guazú, most people clearly prefer speaking more Guarani than Spanish, having moved there from more rural area. Some people, who have been coming to church for a few years, joke that they have learned their Spanish from the missionaries.

Paraguay is unique among Latin American countries in that it has two languages that most of the population speak. Guarani is the other official language here, one that more than 90 percent of the population speaks to some degree, and one that unifies the people of this small nation.

Most people speak “Jopara,” which is Spanish with Guarani mixed in, or Guarani with Spanish mixed in, depending on the family. The farther you go from the large cities, the more Guarani is mixed in the Jopara. It is clearly the preferred language for a large percent of the population. Yet most Guarani speakers cannot read their language; for many years it was not even taught in the education system.

This why we are excited that in May we had the opportunity to go door to door in the community and offer each household an mp3 player that has the whole Guarani Bible recorded on it. Thanks to a donation from EMC Project Builders, we were able to get the audio Bibles from SIM Paraguay, a project with which they have been working for several years. Now each household can listen to the Word

The Guarani Bible has been made available, thanks to a donation from EMC Project Builders and devices from SIM Paraguay.

of God and perhaps understand it in a new way by hearing it read to them for the first time.

On the day we handed them out, a group of eight adults and some children met at the church and from there we spread out, each with a bag of audio Bibles and an invitation to come to church. We clapped at the gate of each house and them offered the free audio Bible to them. After showing them how to use it, we went on our way.

Many people simply kept the audio Bible playing as we left, wanting to hear what was on it. No one turned down the gift, and many asked for another one to give away to a friend or relative who lived somewhere else. Unfortunately, we did not have too many extras.

Two of the most excited people to get the audio Bible were older women who hardly speak any Spanish. They have probably never learned to read in any language, and it was obvious that they were excited to now have a Bible that they could listen to.

Once we were back at the church cleaning up, two young women drove up on a motorcycle. They had not been home, but they wanted audio Bibles too! Did we have any left to give them? Later that evening, Chris and Revita Kroeker got a phone call from another young couple who had also not received the gift, asking if they could have one.

While it’s easy to see the majority of people who live as though God did not exist, apparently there are lots who do want to listen to His Word. Pray with us that it would penetrate deep and grow in receptive hearts.

– Travis and Rosey Zacharias Travis and Rosey Zacharias (MacGregor) serve with EMC Missions in a church planting ministry near the border of Brazil.

With Our Missionaries

A Leap of Faith

BOM

PNG/ARIZONA

In 2013 NTM Aviation realized they could not maintain their aging fleet of six fixed-wing aircraft in Papua New Guinea (PNG) any longer. They had hoped to replace them with three Quest Kodiaks at $2 million each, but saw no way to financially accomplish this. When they were forced to shut down medical evacuation service from PNG to Australia, they realized that their only option was to move ahead by faith and ask God to do the impossible.

Step one was to train pilots for the new aircraft they were trusting God to provide. NTM Aviation began training Jon Leedahl, an experienced pilot, in Fall 2013. When they only had 10 percent of the money for one Kodiak, they sent him to PNG to begin his on-field training.

It was April 2014, a month after Jon and his family arrived in PNG, that a sponsor stepped forward and offered the first Kodiak if they could pick it up within a month. In response to the prayers of God’s people, a second Kodiak was donated in July.

In October of that same year, Jon was hit by a truck on his way home from the hangar. Another mission aviation organization was able to medivac him to Australia in their Kodiak, where he miraculously survived the accident but lost his left leg, seemingly ending his flying career. Everyone was asking, “Why, Lord?”

With two Kodiaks on their way to PNG, NTM Aviation didn’t have a check and training pilot to head up the flight training for the other pilots waiting in line. Again God answered their prayers when a former PNG chief pilot stepped forward to make trips overseas to train those waiting pilots.

Today two new Kodiaks are already serving with NTM Aviation in PNG. Jon Leedahl, recovered from his injuries and with a high-tech prosthetic leg, is back in PNG flying. Our former Cessna 206 pilots, plus all our new pilots on the field, are being trained to fly the Kodiaks. A third and final Kodiak departed for PNG on April 30, 2016, to complete the fleet conversion. A promise fulfilled!

This story started in 2006 when NTM Aviation was in the early stages of our venture with Quest, and a grade three class committed itself to provide one Kodiak for them. That plane has been flying in Asia-Pacific since 2012.

But the exciting thing is that the sponsors who provided the funds for the next three Kodiaks first heard about this project through this grade three class.

It is all a testimony to God’s gracious provision that started with a group of nine-year-old children. It is all a

Phil and Ellen Koop

demonstration of how God honours obedience demonstrated by a leap of faith, whether by a children or by a large organization like NTM Aviation. God still does the impossible. Are you willing to count on that? The children did. NTM Aviation did. How about you?

To God be the Glory!

– Phil and Ellen Koop Phil and Ellen Koop (Kleefeld) serve in Arizona with New Tribes Mission Aviation.

www.emconference.ca/messenger • The Messenger 19

With Our Missionaries

What have we been busy with?

GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY AND MINISTRY The GSTM is a special place that helped me—by its faculty who care and think, students from different traditions, and subject matter that stretched the soul— to serve in the Church. The bursary for EMC students helped a lot, too.

David Kruse MA (Theological Studies), 2011grad

A bursary for graduate students from the Evangelical Mennonite Conference is available.

For more information contact mkrohn@cmu.ca.

cmu.ca/gstm CANADIAN MENNONITE UNIVERSITY

20 The Messenger • June 2016

BOM

BOLIVIA

On Easter Sunday we had a church service here and I was in charge of providing the meal for the people. What a wonderful day with over 70 people. Since church services in Haciende had started, everything would take place there. We had been wondering if the Casa would ever be used again. It was such a joy to have all the laughter and fun here again.

We have gone shopping for more Bibles and books and restocking the bookstore shelves. This is not as much fun for Henry as it is for me. Rachel helped me make a small handout in Spanish that I have started giving to people in San Jose. I still want to make a Plautdietsch one.

I enjoyed substitute teaching for Irna while she did paperwork in Santa Cruz. I love being with the children in the school setting again. I try to get all the workdone that Irna has planned for me to do with the students, but I always rush it a little so that I can tell the children a story from one of my English storybooks.

The first day I subbed, it rained quite a bit and so one of the dads had come to pick up his children at the end of the morning. Well, I was in the process of reading in Low German the story of “Grandpa Toad’s Secrets” to the class when he peeked in and I invited him to stay. He later

Caroline and Henry Krahn

admitted that he had really enjoyed the story, and I knew because I could see it on his face. Great fun.

Our full time live-in guests were gone, but the company kept coming. Henry was sworking a lot at Haciende, rerouting wires and putting in new electrical for the teachers’ showers, washing machines, fridges, and outside lights. These buildings were schoolrooms before. He got the electrical working in the school's lights, inside and outside, and fans.

I stayed home and sewed curtains for the teachers’ houses and cooked a lot of meals for the MEM invited visiting guests. It has taken me like two months to get all the curtains done; the sewing machine has finally left its permanent position on our kitchen table last week. I think in total I made 15 sets of curtains in varying degrees of detail.

This included four roman blinds which I had never done before. It was definitely stretching, and many times I wondered what had gone on in my head the day I volunteered to sew them, but even in that I could see the Lord helping me. The teachers were very satisfied and, well, then I made a new set for Room One and today working on a new set for Room Four at the Casa.

Thank you once again for your awesome prayer support for us and God’s work here in Bolivia.

– Caroline Krahn Caroline and Henry Krahn (Picture Butte) serve with MEM.

With Our Missionaries

Schmidts begin ministry in Ciudad del Este PARAGUAY

BOM

“So there is a complete rest still waiting for the people of God. Christ has already entered there… Let us do our best to go into that place of rest” (Heb. 4:9-11).

The definition of “rest” here is definitely not “retirement” because things just keep getting busier for us. We have just been in Ciudad del Este just over two months (arriving Feb.) and already the pace has picked up notably.

Monday to Wednesday mornings are particularly important to be present at the National HIV/AIDS centre where people come to consult with the doctor and get their medications. That’s where I meet new people and invite them to our home/centre located about two blocks from the hospital.

We already have a considerable amount of donations such as food supplies, clothing, and medication, which we can offer those who need it. We have also begun with support group meetings. First only three came, but by the last meeting we already had nine attending.

We have also had the privilege of helping people with their particular needs, like a mother with two children

Dave and Judy Schmidt

who was sick in bed and needed to see the doctor. It took us an hour of searching at night to find her place, then take her to the doctor, then help her get the medication and leave her some food supplies as well. She is better now and makes every effort to be part of the support group meeting, which is the first place where she has been able to talk openly about her situation.

We have met many people that we have known before, either at Alto Refugio or from former church planting.

Another part of this growing ministry is doing HIV/AIDS education talks in the local schools. I already have a number lined up, including a university. We are still praying that we can get entrance into churches as well, to dispel some of the taboos that abound around the HIV/AIDS topic.

We have had enjoyable visits with family and friends, and a memorable visit with OMers that have been on the Logos Hope ship. We did a lot of visiting while working with painting and cleaning. We ended the day with a prayer walk around the area where we live and work. We were encouraged by their visit.

We take kits to the patients in the hospital. Thanks to, we are able to offer practical help. Some of the donations come from Burns Lake IGF ladies (bags).

Thank you for your interest and prayers in this ministry. We are privileged to be the hands that extend your love offerings to those in need. May God be glorified.

– Dave Schmidt Dave and Judy Schmidt (Rosenort EMC) serve with OM.

www.emconference.ca/messenger • The Messenger 21

With Our Churches Pelly Fellowship Chapel

Pastor Hyoungjin Kim, part two because there is public school in Pelly even though it is small. It is a really great gift for us. My wife really enjoys being involved in the women’s ministry. Also, she started to attend a Bible College in Swan River and she has already finished the first semester. I believe that even though Pelly is small, the opportunities are more than in Toronto or Calgary.

– Vivian Anfinson

PFC

PELLY, Sask.—We, as a congregation, are thankful that the Lord led the Kim family to pastor at our small church in Pelly. Terry Smith requested that we interview our pastor, Hyoungjin (Frankie) Kim. Here is part two.

By now you are acquainted with the pastors from our Region 3. How do you feel now about the EMC? Pastor Kim: I really appreciate that the EMC accepts me as a pastor in Region 3. While I was participating in the Regional meeting in February, I felt comfortable and warmly welcomed. The other pastors accepted me as their friend and we had really wonderful fellowship through the meeting. Now I am expected to participate in the annual Conference in July.

Tell us about your family and how they have adjusted to the change.

Pastor Kim: They enjoy life in Pelly. My daughter Choah loves to go to school, and she already made a lot of friends through her school. We are really thankful to God

Pastor Hyoungjin (Frankie) and Minju Kim, with their daughter Choah, enjoy life in Pelly.

•• Peace River Bible Institute

Region 1 Retreat considers ‘Living Stones and Chosen People’ SEXSMITH, Alta.—So who is EMC Region 1? We are Island Gospel Fellowship (Burns Lake, BC), Vanderhoof Christian Fellowship, La Crete Christian Fellowship, Hillside Christian Fellowship (28 kms southwest of La Crete), High Level Christian Fellowship, and Westpointe Community Church (Grande Prairie, Alta.).

On April 29 and 30, 2016, approximately 45 people in leadership of these churches met at Peace River Bible Institute for a time of reconnecting, spiritual refreshing, and fellowship. During our three sessions, Ward Parkinson, EMC conference pastor, was invited to talk to us about “Living Stones and a Chosen People.”

22 The Messenger • June 2016

We also heard stories of faith journeys from lay leaders of each church. We enjoyed hearing how God is working in lives and churches in our region. It was a real blessing to spend time, to fellowship through praying for each other, a bit of volleyball, great food, and listening to God’s Word.

The challenge that I took away from this weekend is what Ward shared from 1 Peter 2:4-5: “Come to the Lord Jesus, the ‘stone’ that lives. The people of the world did not want this stone, but He was the stone God chose, and He was precious. You also are like living stones, so let yourselves be used to build a spiritual temple” (NCV).

– Betty Brandt

With Our Churches Roseisle EMC

ROSEISLE, Man.—Terry Smith asked me to interview our pastor, Paul Walker. Here is the second half.

How has your life experience impacted your faith?

Paul: In my early years, you could say that my faith has impacted my life more than my life impacting my faith.

My faith led me to make critical decisions around my vocation to pastoral ministry. It led me to move to the U.K. to serve as a youth and young adult pastor.

Yet I recognize many ways in which life has impacted my faith, especially in pain and trials. Trials deepen our faith and maturity as Christians—just as an oak in a drought grows its roots deeper to find water.

James reminds us, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything” (1:2-4).

How has your theology changed over the years?

Paul: It has changed and grown over time! Many a pastor friend would be afraid to admit it publicly. My theology has grown and matured drastically over the past nine years. My early years were immature and marked by a reactive sectarianism that craved a post-modern certainty and left little room for doubt or mystery.

I am becoming more eclectic, contemplative, ontologically sacred, and Christocentric.

Eclectic: I love to read theologians from almost every tradition. I love all my Anglican, Eastern Orthodox, Catholic, Evangelical, and Charismatic brothers and sisters. I may not always fully agree, but I learn much.

Contemplative is the journey of becoming less reactive, less angry, less tribalistic, less consumeristic, and less ego driven. I don’t claim to have fully arrived.

A sacred ontology knows that this is our Father’s world, and that in God we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28). A prayer, a moment of silence, moments of laughter, a sunset, a piece of bread and a cup of wine—all allow for holy moments in the midst of the ordinary.

Christocentric: Jesus must be at the centre of all my theological assertions and ponderings. The life, teachings, death, resurrection, and accession of Jesus are the turning point and culmination of everything in our Scriptures and

PAUL WALKER

An interview with Paul Walker, part two

Olivia, Kaylee, Benjamin, and Pastor Paul Walker

world. As Karl Barth allegedly said, “Jesus is the answer.

What’s the question?”

Can you please tell us your thoughts of the EMC? Paul: I have met some incredible people through the EMC. I’ve witnessed firsthand the incredible love and grace that leaders in the EMC demonstrate. I was particularly stuck by the kindness of newfound friends such as Layton Friesen, Russell Doerksen, and Ward Parkinson.

I am learning a lot about the EMC. I am excited for the future ahead of learning and growing together.

What have you learned about God in the past year?

Paul: God is at work in this world in more ways than I can possibly imagine or fathom. God is far more amazing and beautiful than I could ever give words to. I must not rely only on words, but give space to silence, mystery, and awe.

– Michelle Cenerini

Join with Christ in shaping our

WORLD

Evangelical Mennonite Conference Board of Missions 204-326-6401 info@emconf.ca www.emconference.ca

www.emconference.ca/messenger • The Messenger 23

With Our Churches Wymark EMC

CHORTITZ, Sask.—Membership Sunday, March 13, 2016, was a day of celebrating and thanksgiving at Wymark EMC. Three couples transferred their memberships to our church and with them brought 10 children to supplement on Sunday School program.

Kevin Peters is the athletic director at Millar College of the Bible in Panbrun, Sask. Kevin grew up in our church.

He and his wife Darcie and their four sons recently moved to his parents’ farm in our district.

David and Julene Manjoo moved to Saskatchewan from Ontario. Julene grew up in our church. We are so blessed that she returned “home” with Dave and their four daughters.

John and Helena Braun returned to Saskatchewan from La Crete, Alta. They have built a beautiful home in

WEMC

Three couples, 10 children connect with Wymark

Wymark members are delighted to see three families become part of the congregation. Membership Sunday was a day of celebrating.

Rosenhof, Sask. Helena is a local girl who is great addition to our church along with John and their two sons.

– Marvin Allan

•• Ridgewood EMC

Renovations finished, history celebrated RIDGEWOOD, Man.—The Ridgewood Church is located some six miles northeast of Steinbach, Man. It is named after the school district in which is it located—Ridgewood. The church had its beginnings with a little over 100 members some 58 years ago (1958) as an outgrowth of the Blumenort EM Church.

Lack of Sunday School room, as well as driving distance, contributed to the decision to start another congregation in the Ridgewood area. The first sanctuary seated close to 200 and was dedicated on Oct. 12, 1958. In 1970 the church was enlarged to a seating capacity of 224 and a Sunday School hut was added in 1977 to 1980.

The year 1979 saw a new sanctuary being built alongside the old one, adding 12,000 square feet of floor area with a seating capacity of 400. Dedication services were held on Feb. 24, 1980. With the new church building, the former sanctuary was converted into a fellowship hall.

In 2004 the exterior of the church received a makeover tying the original buildings together with some additions.

24 The Messenger • June 2016

A new kitchen was built on the east side of the building as well as another entrance for dining room rentals. A west wing was added that included a much needed foyer space, a church office area, a library, and washrooms.

In February 2016, the church, once again, started a sanctuary renovation. The ceiling was stripped and painted, rug and windows were replaced, walls were painted, and chairs replaced the benches. The sound booth was moved to a more convenient spot, which now includes the PowerPoint equipment that projects to three screens.

Two screens are on the front sides of the sanctuary and one is on the back wall.

Two months later, the renovation was completed. April 10, 2016, was the date for the first service in the new sanctuary. It was a time of celebration and thanksgiving. The theme of the service was Psalm 100:4 “Enter His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise.” On April 24, 2016, the congregation enjoyed a potluck lunch to praise God for His faithfulness.

– Gwen Reimer

With Our Churches Rosenort Fellowship Chapel

‘We would do it again in a heartbeat’

RFC

ROSENORT, Man.—At Christmas in 2008, we, Neil and Judy Schellenberg, went on a Live Different build to Vicente Guerrero, Baja California, Mexico, with a group from Rosenort, including our oldest son Harvey and his family. On our way back, as we were reliving some of the highlights of that experience, Neil mentioned, “Wouldn’t it be good to do this as a family?” The seed was sown.

A number of times we discussed it as a family and finally realized that in order to make it happen, we would need to set a date. Christmas 2015 worked for everyone! Plans for fundraisers began to happen; pizza sales and a family music concert were the bulk of it.

With the generosity of many individuals the dream became a reality.

On Dec 19, 2015, we, 24 of our family in total, met with the Live Different coordinators, Andrew and Dawn Bernardi, in San Diego. On Dec. 20 we travelled roughly five hours south across the Mexican border and met the families we would be building with. Neil and I, with our daughters and their families, were assigned to

The Lord, the wider church, and 24 family members made two houses.

build with Jesus and his family of four children. Our sons and their families were assigned to build with Arturo and Rosa and their daughter.

The houses built were 20-by-22 feet on a concrete slab that was already in place. It would not have been a big stretch for us to have completed these homes in two days, but a large part of the Live Different mission statement is to build relationships. With the help of interpreters, we got to know our families and allowed them to get to know us.

We were also introduced to other families in the area that had received homes in the past and those anticipating homes in the near future. Just to see the way these people lived made us realize “Stuff does not matter; people do.”

With a celebration meal, the key to the houses were handed to the owners! What a highlight to have built houses, furnished and stocked with groceries, to give these families a hand up, to encourage them to go on. The Live Different staff, who are residents of the village, hosted us in a home in a compound. They were a pleasure to get to know, as they shared some of their dreams for their community with us.

We travelled home on Dec 26 and are grateful to have had this experience. Should you ask any of our children or grandchildren, all would say, “We would do it again in a heartbeat.”

– Judy Schellenberg Reporter: Rose Cornelsen

www.emconference.ca/messenger • The Messenger 25

With Our Churches Heartland Community Church

LANDMARK, Man.—Terry Smith suggested an interview with our pastoral couple. Here is the second half.

What other denominations have you been a part of?

Andy: I was born, raised, and educated within the Wesleyan Church, a Methodist denomination. In 1996, I was part of an experimental church revitalization project in Belleville, Ont., when we merged two congregations a Wesleyan congregation and a recently formed Brethren in Christ congregation. In 2001, I formally joined Brethren in Christ (Canada) and stayed with them until I started my work here at Heartland and was granted credentials with the EMC in November 2015.

What were you doing before you came to Heartland Community Church?

Andy: For two years I was working with a Christian based foster care agency in Eastern Ontario, and pastoring a café style church that met in downtown Belleville. The foster care agency I worked with offered specialized care homes which sought to meet the needs of children with behaviour needs such as FAS (Fetal Alcohol Syndrome), ADD/ADHD, Autism, and victims of childhood trauma.

My role was to create specialized programs for the children and serve as a resource for the foster parents. Over half of my caseload involved First Nations children from Northern Ontario, which opened my eyes to the very real needs emerging from those remote communities.

What do you hope the Kingdom of God would look like in your new context?

Andy: My hope is that we identify and embrace our calling as a local church, and become really good at welcoming people in their raw state, helping them find peace within the grace of God, and seeing them transformed by the renewing of their hearts and minds into active followers of Christ—as disciples.

What is your biggest challenge in your new context?

Andy: Within any culture there are the spoken and unspoken expectations. When you come in from the outside, you have to learn to listen to what is being said, and hear what is not being vocalized but is certainly implied, without over-thinking everything.

What challenges you personally about the EM Conference’s statement of faith and practices?

Andy: I have always been challenged with the peace

26 The Messenger • June 2016

HCC

Interview with Andy and Stephanie Woodworth, Part Two

Stephanie and Andy Woodworth

position, not in terms of whether or not I accept it, but in wrestling with how it is applied in a world that keeps changing. Just before going for my interview with the BIC church, for ordination, I had settled the peace issue by rationalizing “what’s the likelihood that we will actually go to war anyways,” just a week before September 11, 2001.

Anyone who truly embraces Anabaptist theology must wrestle with its implications for a lifetime because things just keep changing all around us.

Based on your past experience in ministry, what advice would you give new pastoral candidates?

Andy: When you enter into ministry, you need to have first established an anchor point, a symbol of God’s leading where you know, without a shadow of doubt, that God spoke, led, or in some way made His will be known to you.

Because, there will come times in your ministry where you will question why you ever chose to go down this path, and at those times you have to be able to return to your symbol of remembrance, see it, and be reminded that: “Oh yeah, this is why I chose this path.”

– Brigitte Toews

Free for Sunday School!

Contact info@emconf.ca or 204-3266401.

News

National staff members travel, make connections

TERRY SMITH

SOUTHERN ONT.—When the EMC’s half dozen executive staff members fan out within the five provinces in which our conference churches reside, news gets shared: the five national boards, which serve by delegated authority from you, are busy on your behalf.

Take a recent case in point: Ken Zacharias, foreign secretary to the Board of Missions, spent May 7 to 16 in southern Ont. (Region Nine), visiting pastors, leaders, and churches, speaking on Sunday mornings and making presentations in each of the six churches. Terry Smith, executive secretary to the Board of Church Ministries, joined him from May 13-16. His four days saw him meet with three pastors in a joint coffee time, speak to the youth at Leamington EMC, preach at New Life Christian Fellowship, and, with Ken, make two joint BCM/BOM presentations to NLCF and LEMC leaders.

Ken Zacharias with host Jacob Enns (Leamington)

KEN ZACHARIAS

Coming soon to a region near you

Terry Smith visits with some Region Nine pastors: Albert Loewen (Mount Salem), Abe Berg (Straffordville), and Randy Fehr (Grace).

Visiting happened in various ways, including by staying with host families—Lowell and Marlene Friesen and Kevin and Emily Wiebe (for Terry) and Jacob and Anna Enns and Dave and Anna Froese (for Ken). Pastors, leaders, and members showed much interest in the wider work of the EMC. Ken and Terry were grateful for the visiting, interest, and gracious hosting.

To learn about the travels of the other executive staff members, Tim Dyck, Charles Koop (who holds the record for nights away from home), Ward Parkinson, and Gerald Reimer, contact the national office. To increase their travels, contact us at the same place, though some of us might be on the road.

– EMC

••

89 graduate from CMU on April 24 Sacouman urges ‘compassionate and principled leadership’ WINNIPEG, Man.—Canadian Mennonite University honoured 89 graduates during the university’s annual commencement exercises that took place on April 24.

The Sunday graduation service culminated with CMU President Dr. Cheryl Pauls conferring 84 undergraduate degrees, four Master of Arts degrees, and one graduate certificate in Biblical and Theological Studies.

Pauls awarded President’s Medals to Jonas Cornelsen, valedictorian, and Kathleen Bergen in recognition of their qualities of scholarship, leadership, and service.

Earlier in the service, Sister Lesley Sacouman delivered the graduation address. Sacouman, who co-founded Winnipeg’s Rossbrook House, which has provided a safe haven for tens of thousands of children, urged listeners to consider the question: “Where for you does your deep gladness and the world’s hunger meet?”

“Graduates, the world needs you. The world needs compassionate and principled leadership,” she said. “May God’s merciful gaze embolden you to walk through the door of mercy and embrace the…suffering Christ in your midst.”

– CMU

www.emconference.ca/messenger • The Messenger 27

News

46 graduate from SBC Class of 2016 noted for generosity

SBC

STEINBACH, Man.—Embrace the call! SBC’s theme for 2015-16, based on Genesis 3:1-9, is also a fitting send-off for our graduates as they explore their options after SBC. Whether they pursue further studies, a vocation, or ministry opportunities around the world, God’s call to serve Him, wherever they are, continues.

A total of 46 students graduated with a one-year certificate, two-year Associate of Arts diploma, or three- or four year BA. An additional eight students also completed the pilot for our new discipleship program Activate.

Celebrations began Friday evening with the Spring Concert, showcasing the hard work and accomplishments of our music and drama groups.

Graduation ceremonies took place on Saturday, April 23, at Steinbach EMC. The sanctuary was filled with family and friends who took in the commencement address by Dr. Chris Marchand, valedictory by Andrew Friesen, and the pre- EMC grads: (back) James Driedger (Blumenort EMC), BA, Christian Studies; sentation of diplomas and degrees to the graduates.

Markus Buhler (Steinbach EMC), BA, Christian Studies; Jessica Harder (Stony The Steinbach Bible College class of 2016 has been Brook Fellowship), BA, Christian Studies; Jared Dyck (The Church of Living noted for its generosity and for intentionally caring for Water), AA, Bible-Theology, (front) Zach Friesen (The ConneXion), AA, Bibleand leading the student body. We are excited to watch Theology; Monica Fehr (Rosenort EMC), BA, Christian Studies; Adam Friesen as these graduates follow Jesus, serve the church, and (Steinbach EMC), BA, Christian Studies. engage the world with the empowerment and training they received at SBC.

– SBC

•• Providence Theological Seminary

Canadian Mennonite University

Kimberly Anne Reimer Rosenort Fellowship Chapel Bachelor of Music (shown with CMU President Dr. Cheryl Pauls)

28 The Messenger • June 2016

CMU

PROV

Darryl G. Klassen Kleefeld EMC Doctor of Ministry

News

A coffin maker overcomes evil with good COLOMBIA—When missionaries arrived in Colombia to establish the country’s first Mennonite congregations, Tulio Pedraza and his wife Sof ía became two of their first converts, baptized in June 1949. Only a year earlier, Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, a political candidate, was assassinated; his death ignited a civil war. Protestantism was seen as another threat to Colombia’s strained unity.

Tulio was a coffin maker in the town of Anolaima. He was blind, but, as its only coffin maker, successful enough to provide for his family.

When the local Catholic priest learned about Tulio’s baptism, he declared his coffins unfit for Catholic use and refused to officiate at any funeral with such a coffin. Business plummeted.

The priest even convinced a carpenter to move to Anolaima to begin a rival coffin business. Tulio could no longer pay his suppliers and closed his business.

Tulio never abandoned the love and decency he learned by imitating his Lord. When his business collapsed, he sold his competitor his tools. Through this kind gesture, he helped establish the business of the man whose presence finished his.

MWC

Tulio Pedraza imitated his Lord

Tulio Pedraza, a witness bearer

Tulio and his wife tried to start a bakery, a chicken farm, and a candle-making business, but with little success and not enough income to provide for his family. Yet his faith gave him the strength to persist despite his children being humiliated in the public school, the family and property threatened, and shunning by people and businesses.

Tulio died peacefully in 1964. The rival carpenter donated a coffin for Tulio’s burial and attended the Mennonite service, risking his reputation to honour a man who had shown him such unusual love, born from a deep faith.

—MWC This excerpt is from Bearing Witness: Stories of Martyrdom and Costly Discipleship (Plough Publishing House, 2016). Used with permission.

Weddings JOHNSON-DEAN—Margaret Johnson and Matthew Dean were married May 21, 2016.

The couple lives in Winnipeg.

www.emconference.ca/messenger • The Messenger 29

News

BOGOTA, Colombia—Mennonite churches in Europe are responding the violence and displacement in the Middle East that is affecting their society. Arbeitsgemeinschaft Mennonitischer Gemeiden (AMG, Mennonite church in Germany) and Algemene Doopsgezind Societeit (ADS, Dutch Mennonite Society) each wrote a letter to their governments urging peace.

The AMG recognizes its country’s compulsion to respond to terrorism with action, the obligation to show solidarity to France following November’s attacks, and the desire to use the state’s power to protect its citizens and others who are vulnerable. “From our perspective, however, it does not follow from all of these motivations that military action in Syria is the appropriate response,” writes Doris Hege, AMG board chair.

“We are in no way convinced that military action will achieve greater security,” Hege writes. The development of a political future for people in the affected areas “would involve working toward a future for the region that is economically just, providing adequate support, initially through relief organizations, and also long-term in the development of democratic civic and social structures.”

To their respective government’s military actions, the ADS and AMG declare: “Not in my name.”

MWC

‘Not in my name’—European Mennonites reject violence

Dutch Mennonites wrote against military action.

In February 2016, Canada’s government ended its direct participation in the bombing mission over Iraq and Syria.

MCC Canada executive director Don Peters wrote to the prime minister to “affirm the significant steps Canada is taking,” while expressing concern about its continued onthe-ground support for airstrikes and expanded role in military training in the region.

– MWC

••

Renewal decade to commemorate 500th anniversary 10-year celebration of Radical Reformation BOGOTA, Colombia—On Feb. 12-19, 2017, Anabaptist-Mennonites from around the world will gather in Augsburg, Germany, to celebrate the opening event of Renewal 2027 in conjunction with meetings of the Mennonite World Conference Executive Committee.

Renewal 2027 will be a 10-year series of events, culminating in 2027, to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the beginnings of the Anabaptist movement. MWC representatives from Europe have planned a day-long public conference 12 Feb. 12, 2017: “Transformed by the Word: Reading the Bible in Anabaptist Perspectives.”

Occurring 500 years after Luther’s famous appeal to sola scriptura launched the Reformation, the conference

30 The Messenger • June 2016

will explore how AnabaptistMennonites around the world have engaged Scripture in the past and how Scripture continues to be relevant today.

“After 500 years,” says Alfred Neufeld, Faith and Life Commission chair, “it is time for us to ask the challenging question: Do we still have anything in common with the founding mothers and fathers of the Anabaptist church? Should we? Can we?”

– MWC

In Memory

Kurtis William Friesen 1992-2015

On May 30, 1992, Kurtis William Friesen was born in St. Thomas, Ont., to happy parents Bill and Helen Friesen and big brother Kevin.

From a very young age, Kurtis showed heart and passion. He was feisty as a baby, and seemed to want to leave his mark on the world.

To the marvel of his teachers, whenever he received a candy as a reward, he would always ask for a second candy, because he had two sisters. He never kept treats for himself, but would always divide them into two piles—one for Shayna and one for Sabrina.

His older brother Kevin led him to

Christ at the tender age of five. Kurtis was baptized by his dad on June 12, 2011, when he was 14 years old.

He grew into a tall young man, eventually wearing size 14 shoes, which his family promptly labeled as “canoes.” His shy but mischievous smile belied his out-going personality; he could make a friend anywhere with anyone.

Kurtis loved listening to music.

He found expression in writing many songs and playing the guitar.

Gifted with words even as a kid, he would coin phrases that became family favourites never to be forgotten. Such as, when he was around four years old, he claimed he had "dark white hair, almost black."

This way with words would be carried over into his teens and early adult life, landing him a spot as a blogger for Editor in Leaf. It was a perfect fit, as sports were a huge passion for him.

Any sport, even tennis—he watched them all. It didn’t matter which team was playing. When he watched the sports channel, he would wear the jersey of whatever team was playing, often rooting for the underdog teams. His

Pastor sought for Bolivia A long-term pastor is sought for the church in Hacienda Verde, Bolivia, a small but vibrant congregation with about 70 to 80 people attending.

The applicant will speak and write Low German. Spanish is an asset. Good Bible knowledge and some pastoral experience are needed.They must come with good references from their congregation and wider community.

People need to hear that there is forgiveness from sin through Jesus Christ and of a more abundant life.

We preach sure hope through Christ.

Filling this position by the end of 2016 provides time for training and introduction to the community.

For information, please contact Bill Kehler, Bolivia field director, bill@gomission.ca; Abe Giesbrecht, missions facilitator, abe@gomission.ca; 204.253.7929.

love for hockey resulted in many games of mini sticks with his young cousins.

Kids held a soft spot in Kurtis's life.

He could never turn away from any child looking for a sponsor. At times, this landed him in a tough spot, as his heart was bigger than his wallet, and so his parents would have to help him out. He left such a legacy and an impact on so many children out of the generosity of his heart.

In the past year Kurtis was taken to the Emergency Room several times with suspected Athletes Heart Syndrome. Unexpectedly, on Tuesday, Dec. 22, 2015, Kurtis went to be with his Saviour. He passed away at home in Thamesford, Ont. In recent weeks and months, Kurtis had grown increasingly closer to his Dad, Bill, and they had many good heart-to-heart talks. Kurtis had his struggles, but in one of their conversations he reassured his Dad that he and God had a good relationship, that he should never worry about that.

What a gift you have given to us, Kurtis! The comfort of knowing that you are with Jesus helps us carry on even as we grieve your too-short life.

– His Family

LIVE OUT YOUR FAITH

Open your home or workplace to an international volunteer ivep.mcc.org International Volunteer Exchange Program

Commit a year to serve alongside others in Africa, Asia, Europe, Middle East and Latin America salt.mcc.org Serving And Learning Together

Programs of Mennonite Central Committee

www.emconference.ca/messenger • The Messenger 31

In Memory

Lena (Lillie) C Bartel (nee Loewen)

1931-2015 “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21).

Our mother, grandmother, and great grandmother, Lillie Bartel, passed away peacefully on Wednesday, June 24, 2015, at the Red River Lodge in Morris, Man., with her children by her side.

She was predeceased by her husband, George Bartel, on June 22, 2002; her oldest son, Dudley Bartel, on Dec. 8, 1995; and by two granddaughters, Felina Kornelsen on Jan. 2, 1985, and Lilly Kornelsen on May 31, 2015.

Cherishing memories of Mom are her children: Marcy and Abe Kornelsen; their children Lucy Friesen, married to Willie (Shoreh, Janaya); Tony Kornelsen; Joe married to Shelby; Lilly’s children Ethan and Quillan Rempel. Clare and Allan Nernberg; their children Tyson;

Nolan; Jordan; Ariesa; Legna Nernberg. Chester and Ruth Bartel; their children Carissa, married to Ryan Tates; Leah; Gina Bartel. Lynnford and Betty Bartel; their children Maria; Evan; Olivia; Sophia; Hannah Bartel.

Arletta and James Boulton; their children Tori; Megan; Katrina Boulton.

Gaylene and Leighton Siemens; their children Trent; Savannah Siemens.

She is survived by her sister Anne (Henry) Bartel; her brother Abe (Annie) Loewen and many nieces and nephews; her sisters-in-law Marie Bryant, Sara Reimer, and Margaret Bartel in Meade, Kansas, and a brother-in-law, Dick Bartel, in Reedley, California.

Mom was born in Rosenhoff, Man., on May 26, 1931, to Abram K and Helena C Loewen. She met her American husband in Rosenort and they were married on Oct. 24, 1954.

Shortly after their wedding they moved to Denver, Colorado, as part of 1-W service.

We children helped Mom and Dad on the family farm in Riverside. Our earliest memories of Mom include her homemade meals, buns, and chiffon cakes, and her love of gardening. Thank you for growing our food and for the endless five-gallon pails of peas, which we had to shell. Mom enjoyed feeding people and didn’t complain about extras at the table.

Inner City Youth Alive

Thank you for exposing us to other cultures by hosting international exchange students in our home.

We want to thank Mom for demonstrating a humble life, a life of hand-me-down clothing, for cutting our hair and in this way instilling humility into our lives. All the family trips instilled a love of traveling in us kids. It won’t have been easy to pack up seven children in a car with no seatbelts for a visit to family in Kansas and California. With little money, we picnicked beside the road and slept five to a motel bed. It wasn’t about the money, but the time spent with family.

Mom and Dad enjoyed researching together their history in Ukraine and volunteering with MDS in the USA. Mom sewed many quilts for her family, for MCC sales, and to send overseas. They volunteered for many years at the Morris MCC Relief sale, showing us the value of service to God and community.

The last few years, Mom suffered from memory loss, which eventually required her move to the Red River Valley Lodge in Morris. Although she couldn’t remember our names, her eyes would light up when we would enter the room.

– Her Family

Calendar Manitoba July 1-3 EMC National Convention

September 24

32nd Annual MCC Relief Sale 8:30 am - 2:00 pm Keystone Centre, Brandon, MB www.mccmanitoba.ca

October 28-30 TRU 2016

32 The Messenger • June 2016

Shoulder Tapping *With any applications for EMC church pastoral positions, candidates are expected to also register a Ministry Information Profile with the EMC Board of Leadership and Outreach, which can be obtained through Erica Fehr, BLO Administrative Assistant, at efehr@emconf.ca or 204-326-6401.

do some practicum while still in college, or to allow someone to transition to retirement on a part-time flexible schedule. If you are interested in church leadership and outreach and feel God calling you to this type of ministry, please contact Leonard Plett at 204-824-2475 or at lplett@mts.net.

EMC Positions*

Abbeydale Christian Fellowship, Calgary, seeks a full-time lead pastor to work alongside our current associate pastor and leadership team. The ideal candidate has served at least ten years as pastor (five as lead), is a good preacher and communicator, and relates easily with people of all ages. He works well in a team and as a mentor, has relevant education, and will require EMC approval. The ministry focus is discipleship through preaching, teaching, encouraging small groups, and prayer. He will also lead in pastoral care. We are an urban congregation of 125 with an informal atmosphere. We are committed to love through service to one another and to our community. Please see the full profile at http://abbeydale. org/index.php/careers, and then apply in confidence to search@abbeydale.org.

Ridgewood EMC, in southeast Man., is seeking a full-time youth pastor. The youth pastor will provide spiritual leadership and direction to the junior high, senior high and young adult programs. The youth pastor will also be expected to participate in the regular preaching schedule. College or seminary training is a definite asset. Starting date is flexible and salary will reflect EMC guidelines. Send resumes to Stan Hamm at stan.hamm@prov.ca or call 204-326-6304.

Taber EMC is seeking a full-time youth/associate pastor. Candidate should have the ability to plan and oversee a comprehensive youth ministry and oversee associate pastor ministries as arranged by the church leadership. Valuable assets would be skills in sports and music. Contact church board chair Abe Klassen at 403223-0588 or 403-331-9563. Send resumes to Taber EMC, Box 4348, Taber, AB T1G 2C7 or taberemc@yahoo.ca.

Mennville EMC, a rural congregation with an attendance of about 90, located in Manitoba's Interlake region, seeks a full- or part-time pastor. The pastor will work within a ministerial team as the church seeks to renew and grow. College or seminary training and pastoral experience are definite assets.

Starting date is flexible and salary will reflect EMC guidelines. A candidate should be a collaborative leader (team player), comfortable in the pulpit and in pastoral care, familiar with the EMC Statement of Faith, and respectful of various cultures and rural living. Contact minister Terry Dueck at frontier104@ hotmail.com.

High Level Christian Fellowship (HLCF) is seeking a full-time pastor. HLCF is a diverse but well established congregation serving in a community where oil and gas, farming and forestry are the driving industries. HLCF has an average attendance of 130 members and adherents. The successful candidate would be able to relate and work well with people working together towards building an active community of believers. If God is directing you in this mission please forward your resume to either Jake Neufeld at j.neufeld@peacecountrypetroleum.com or Greg Derkson at gregderkson@gmail.com or by phone Jake (780-821-9432) or Greg (780-926- 9553).

Treesbank Community Church is a small rural church in southwest Manitoba that is seeking a pastor to lead our congregation and outreach in our community. This could be on a full- or part-time basis. It could be on a flexible schedule to allow a student to

Vanderhoof Christian Fellowship (VCF) is seeking a permanent full-time youth/associate pastor.

The candidate should have leadership aptitude along with excellent communication skills (including preaching), the ability to support a multigenerational church and have the ability to work with others in teams and unity. The candidate must have a personal commitment to following Jesus; a passion for youth; and have experience in leading and training volunteers. The position would include planning and developing an effective youth ministry and a discipleship program that will teach and strengthen commitment to faith in Christ. It would also include being able to mentor, teach and coach Ministry Team leaders and volunteers in leadership principles. Please see the full job profile at www. vcfemc.com. If you sense the Lord leading you to consider becoming a part of VCF’s ministry team please submit your resume to vcfemc@telus. net or Box 377, Vanderhoof, BC V0J 3A0.

MacGregor EMC in MacGregor, Man., is seeking a full time lead pastor. Applicants must have a love for God and the Church, a commitment to Anabaptist beliefs centred on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, and be characterized by an attitude of servant leadership and personal integrity in following Jesus.

The successful candidate will preach regularly; visit and support individuals in the congregation; advise the ministerial, board and other participants on matters of faith. This position is available starting summer 2016.

We are a church of about 100 attendees in a town of about 1000, located on Hwy 1 halfway between Winnipeg and Brandon. For further information, feel free to browse our church's website www. macgregoremc.com and check out www.northnorfolk.ca on what our town has to offer.

To submit an application, please email a resume with three references to Dan Sawatzky at dsawatzky@gmail.com. To request information, email Dan Sawatzky or call him at 204-685-2252.

Blumenort EMC is inviting applications for the position of full-time youth pastor. We are looking for someone who has a heart for reaching out to young people, with a vision to see them grow and mature in their faith. Experience in youth ministry and Bible college training would be preferred. The candidate must be in agreement with our EMC Constitution and Statement of Faith. For a full job description or to send in a resume, please contact Anthony Reimer at anthony.reimer@blumenortemc.ca or 204-326-1644.

Rosenort EMC, a church in southern Manitoba, with an attendance of 150, seeks a senior pastor. The candidate should be a servant leader, modeling faithfulness and love for the Lord and the community, caring for those with needs while guiding, correcting and unifying the church with sound biblical teaching. The candidate should be a team player, working alongside lay ministers, deacons and a youth pastor. The candidate should be familiar with the EMC Statement of Faith. College or seminary training and pastoral experience are definite assets.

Check the church’s website for a full job description (www.rosenortemc.com). Send resumes to Larry Eidse: leidse@hotmail.com.

Other Positions Altona EMMC seeks a lead pastor. Located in Altona, Man., we are a vibrant church with an average of 450 people attending our dual Sunday morning services.

The successful candidate would serve with our multi staffed pastoral team. For a complete job description visit www.emmc.altona.mb.ca. Resumes can be submitted to pastoral search committee chair Harv Toews: harvjtoews@gmail.com.

Morrow Gospel Church (EMMC) in Winnipeg, Man., seeks a half-time pastor of member care. This pastor will help us develop and oversee small group ministries into which people will be integrated, nurtured and cared for.

Applicants should agree with the Confession of Faith and core purpose and values of Morrow Gospel.

The Confession and a detailed job description are available upon request.

This will begin as a half-time position and could become full-time. Submit resume to Discernment Team 2016, discernmentteam@morrowgospel.org, 755 St. Anne’s Road, Winnipeg, MB R2N 4G6.

Where are position ads to be sent?

Please send all position ads, including pastoral search ads, to messenger@emconf.ca. All ads are to be 150 words or less. All ads can be edited.

Please advise us when it is no longer needed.

www.emconference.ca/messenger • The Messenger 33

Column • Here and Far Away

Defining Personal Joy

“U

DESIGNPICS

by Jocelyn R. Plett www.writewhatyousee. wordpress.com

nless we define for ourselves the specific, personal ways we experience joy and deliberately make room for these pleasures, happiness will escape us” (Mike Mason, Champagne for the Soul, 154).

This is the phrase our counselor reiterated to us every other time we met with him. It obviously had resonated within his heart, and it definitely resonated in ours. It is a statement that encourages living intentionally, something the Christian life is all about.

It is a declaration to pursue a joyous life no matter the circumstances. It’s about enjoying the good gifts God has given us, about realizing He blesses us personally and corporately, it’s about receiving graciously.

Yet this phrase, when I chew on it, scares me a little. It’s the potential for excess, I think, that frightens me—of taking Scripture’s mandate to “eat, drink, and be merry” too far to the extreme.

Dangers lie, like in many areas of the Christian life, in falling off the path on either side: ultra conservative asceticism, where I deny myself all pleasure in pursuit of works-righteousness; or ultra-liberal permissiveness, where nothing is off limits in the pursuit of hedonism.

I’ve come to the conclusion that, for myself, my marriage, my family, we must define the specific, personal ways we experience joy and deliberately make room for these pleasures as a way of drawing nearer to God, enjoying Him, honouring Him, and casting out that which distracts us. While we don’t ever want to make an idol of what God gives us for our pleasure, we do want to appreciate the gifts rather than dismissing them as “bad.”

Like, • Spending time as a family enjoying good food, and playing games together • The birds in my garden • Having weekly coffee dates with my husband to really talk together, and identify with him what brings joy into our marriage, and

While we don’t ever want to make an idol of what God gives us for our pleasure, we do want to appreciate the gifts rather than dismissing them as “bad.”

34 The Messenger • June 2016

deliberately making room for those things!

• Taking time to write, because God has given me the joy of writing • Taking time to dance, because it brings me joy, and a great aerobic workout!

• A clever book that I can’t bear to put down • Standing in worship with my church • Going on holiday • Afternoon naps • The creative process • The thrill of learning a humbling lesson… once it’s over • Being intellectually challenged • Good music!

Mason writes, Joy “is like a person, having her peculiar character and tastes. If we don’t know her well, isn’t it because we’ve spurned her company, crowding our days with lesser companions? How might we go about befriending joy? Like anyone, she wants to be noticed, appreciated, cherished, enjoyed” (154).

There is something winsome about the children of God who walk through real life, with all its difficulties, with the peace-full joy that stems from quiet confidence in the goodness of God. The Joy of the Lord is our strength, after all.

“Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus” (1 Thess.

5:16-18).

Column • stewardship today

T

here was an interesting scene in a recent TV courtroom drama: a dying, wealthy person had taken the time to place sticky notes on precious items around their home to indicate to whom the items should go after they died. Unfortunately, the wealthy person passed away during the night. By morning, all of their carefully placed sticky notes had fallen to the floor. “Oops!”

A forensic investigation attempted to piece together the intent of the deceased by trying to match the unique particles found on the sticky notes. As you can imagine, the conflict increased when they discovered the most valuable item was to go to the maid.

While this makes for great television, in reality it causes chaos. Have you ever had to deal with a family heirloom? Perhaps you’ve served as an executor and had to give away someone’s valuables. It’s not a task for the faint of heart.

But putting together a good plan to manage our personal effects after we are gone demonstrates our love for those we leave behind.

My grandmother, an avid rock collector, acquired a unique table. She was proud of this table, which contained rocks from all over Canada encased in glass. When my grandparents started the conversation with their adult children about receiving their possessions, my grandfather was prepared for a battle over their infamous “rock table.” My grandparents were confused when they realized no one wanted the table.

This isn’t uncommon in my experience. I have many conversations with families about estate planning, and when it comes to heirlooms and items, the theme I most often encounter is that the kids are not interested in the china collection. In some cases, families feel quite burdened with heirlooms from an estate.

If we’re not careful about putting a plan together for any highly coveted items and heirlooms, it can lead to some very challenging dilemmas for a family and even damage relationships. Should a battle arise over our stuff, it can

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Reducing the Potential for Drama: Managing Heirlooms and Personal Effects

become quite costly to everyone involved. One person explained it this way: we might as well just randomly pick two lawyers whom we don’t know and leave our entire estate to them!

Taking the time to clarify our intentions, while we’re still able to answer questions about our estate plan and any contentious items, can help to avoid any potential battles and costs over heirlooms.

Giving away items while you are still around to see the recipients enjoy the gifts can be quite rewarding, not to mention it can save your executor a lot of work managing your personal items after you are gone. To honour their loved ones, some families deal with heirlooms by selling the items and donating the proceeds to the favourite charities of their loved one.

Whether you are managing the distributions of heirlooms and personal effects, property and finance, or gifts to charity from your estate, ensure that everyone understands the process.

Do you have a plan for your estate? Perhaps it’s time to have the conversation and learn what your children would, or perhaps wouldn’t, like to inherit. Is a gift to charity from your estate a consideration? Certainly every family’s situation is unique, and so is our approach to each MFC client. Let us help you create your estate plan.

Peter Dryden is a stewardship consultant at Mennonite Foundation of Canada serving generous people in Alberta. For more information on impulsive generosity, stewardship education, and estate and charitable gift planning, contact your nearest MFC office or visit MennoFoundation.ca.

by Peter Dryden Stewardship Consultant

Whether you are managing the distributions of heirlooms and personal effects, property and finance, or gifts to charity from your estate, ensure that everyone understands the process.

www.emconference.ca/messenger • The Messenger 35

Column • kids’ corner

A Special Diet

36 The Messenger • June 2016

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I

f you forget to feed your pet what happens?

Does he help himself? Likely not. Nor does he shop or cook. Instead he depends on you.

Wild animals hunt for their food. Plant eaters forage. They search for the plants they need. They eat as they find it. If it’s scarce they move on.

One animal is different. Like other animals he forages for his food. But unlike other animals he turns it into something new. When he

by Loreena has located his food he loads it up and carries it Thiessen home. At his home he processes it. This means he does something to change it. Then he stores it for future use. Can Activity: Adult Supervision Required you guess who it is?

What food does he make?

Make honey carrots.

If you guessed the insect, the bee, you’re Need: right. And the food he Cooking pot, and a vegetable strainer. makes is honey.

1½ quarts water (1500 ml) It’s the worker bee.

5 cups sliced carrots He has other jobs too 3 tbsp. chopped parsley like cleaning the hive 2 tbsp. honey and feeding the lar½ tsp. salt vae and the queen. ½ tsp. grated orange rind When the worker bee ¼ tsp. ground pepper has located its food, nectar from a variety Do: of flowers, he fills his Boil the water in the pot. stomach and carries it home to his hive. In Add carrots; cook 20 minutes or the hive he spits out until just tender. the nectar along with a substance called inverDrain. tase, which causes it to change.

Place carrots and all other ingredients in Because nectar is a mixing bowl. mostly water the bee must fan it. Fanning Toss gently. creates air flow like a fan blowing across Give thanks, share, enjoy. your face on a hot summer day. The bees Ask an adult to help you with this! fan the nectar with

their wings to evaporate the water. The nectar becomes thicker and turns into honey. It is stored in a cell sealed with wax produced by the bee.

Natural honey has 200 important substances including vitamins and minerals for both people and bees. These are all the things bees need to live. Long ago people used honey as medicine. A spoonful helped ease a stomach ache, a sore throat, or a cough. Put on a cut or a burn, it helped heal it.

Honey is called a super food because it has all the things to keep you healthy, and as a bonus it’s tasty, rich and sweet. But you get it at a cost.

The worker bee flies non-stop collecting its food. Back in its hive the work continues, preparing the nectar, filling the cells, feeding others, and cleaning. Often the bees work through the night. After six weeks the worker bee dies. It has finished its work.

Good food reminds us that God cares for us. He created the bee and its honey making ability. God created the cow that gives us milk, cheese and hamburger. God made the earth that produces apples, bananas and carrots. Giving thanks makes us mindful of God. It reminds us to take good care of His creation.

Read Genesis 2: 8–9 and Psalm 65: 9–13.

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