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YAMEN ambassador of peace amid violence
Damaris Guaza Sandoval says her year of service in La Ceiba, Honduras, was about equipping young people to be God’s ambassadors of peace where violence is common. The 26-year-old from Cali, Colombia, worked as a social worker with Proyecto Paz y Justicia (PPyJ; Peace and Justice Project), a ministry of MWC member church Iglesia Evangélica…
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How it works: Emergency food distribution
In many parts of the area near Kibwezi, Kenya, I see corn that has dried up. Driving around, it’s hard to find any corn that people will be able to harvest this season. In February 2018, MCC’s partner Utooni Development Organization (UDO), which I volunteer with, started a food relief project in one of the…
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Young people key to resilient church
A greeting from the Vietnam Mennonite Church to the world. Throughout its history, the people of the Vietnam Mennonite Church (VMC) have never failed to demonstrate their resilience and their commitment to live out the peaceful way of Christ. First established in 1964 in Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City), VMC went through many periods…
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Benni & Rianna: a GYS love story
Christian parents have long encouraged their sons and daughters to find a life partner at church activities. They have also encouraged their young adults to meet the global church through international experiences. Sometimes those situations overlap. Theology students Benni and Rianna Isaak-Krauss will celebrate their one-year wedding anniversary this summer, three years after the Mennonite…
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YABs Fellowship Week 2018
This year, we will celebrate our third annual YABs Fellowship Week June 17–24, 2018. The theme is “Called to be Free,” centred on Galatians 5:13–15. We encourage each everyone to choose and adapt these materials in a way that will be useful to your context, translate them where necessary, share and distribute them to all…
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YABs Fellowship Week 2018
“Called to be free”
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Comfort food across the world
Recipe: Ugali “Ugali is a maize-meal bread-like food mostly eaten alongside chicken or beef stew, Kenyan kale and cabbage or sometimes eggs fried with onions and tomatoes. All you need to make it is water and flour, though some people use salt to make it tasty. It’s consumed by almost everybody in Kenya: we call…
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A Kenyan’s journey into leadership
When I was 12 years old, I was charged with the duty of secretary to our parish youths office. From that time on, I served the church, locally, nationally and internationally. My engagement with Mennonite World Conference (MWC) has shaped who I have become as a church leader, husband and father, so I share my…
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Breakfast made with love
Recipe: Huevos pericos (Colombian scrambled eggs) Although I’m not good at cooking, I organized a typical Colombian breakfast to share with my host family. Guided by recipes my parents sent from Colombia, I discovered that things made with love are delicious. My host family loved this simple meal of huevos pericos (scrambled eggs with onion…
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A transformative year: YAMEN participants meet God and people
Bogotá, Colombia – “The gospel connects us all no matter where we are,” says Laurey Segura. She lived out this realization as a teacher and youth worker with the help of Young Anabaptist Mennonite Exchange Network (YAMEN), a joint Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) and Mennonite World Conference (MWC) program which allowed the Costa Rican Mennonite…
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Hot chiles and warm fellowship
Recipe: Mole Coloradito Enchiladas As a Mexican-American, one of the most comforting things about living in Colombia was how similar my Mexican culture is to Colombian culture. My Colombian host family was very interested to learn more when I told them my family is from Mexico. My host mother gladly helped me cook Mole Coloradito…
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Spanish speaking YAMENers face unique challenges in Latin American placements
Serving in an area of the world relatively close to your home country where the dominant language is the same as your own might seem relatively easy. But Young Anabaptist Mennonite Exchange Network (YAMEN) participants who hail from Latin American countries and are serving in other countries in the same region are seeing differences first-hand.…
