Prayers of gratitude and intercession

  • Evangelism rallies, energetic music and dancing all day; witnessing, altar calls with a dozen respondents. Praying is loud, through tears or joy. You can feel the enthusiasm.  

    I was heartily welcomed by the Mennonite Brethren church in DR Congo to celebrate their 100th anniversary in August 2024.  

    The multiday event was held in a big new church built across from the MWC member church’s headquarters in Kikwit, Kwilu province, an eight-hour drive over 500 kms from Kinshasa.  

    But the distances did not deter: people gathered.  

    Some 2 500 people packed the large church to celebrate the anniversary of CEFMC (Communauté des Églises de Frères Mennonites au Congo) in 5 hours of worship service.  

    Bishop Daniel Onashuyaka Lunge of the ecumenical Église du Christ au Congo (ECC) gave a sermon on unity – an ever-present challenge for church communions around the world.  

    CEFMC, an MWC member church, has its challenges but also many gifts. 

    The leaders of CEFMC wants to see the church become self-supporting but also to create healthy partnerships. They pray for pastors and evangelists to spread the message.  

    They are dealing with trauma from colonialism and a culture of mistrust resulting from systemic corruption in government systems.  

    The need for qualified leadership in the church is acutely felt; not only for education but also to practice countercultural servant leadership that is not tempted toward corruption, tribal divisions and ego-driven displays of power. 

    The vast geography of the resource-rich country creates both riches and hardships. Protracted violence, especially from armed rebels in the East, sends displaced people to all corners of the country and beyond.  

    I presented Antoine Kimbila and CEFMC with a plaque of commemoration on behalf of the global family. To remind them they are part of this large global family who shares their joys and struggles. 

    And they have a lot of gifts to share with our family. 

    The emotional vibrancy of their connection to Jesus is a gift. Even through an hours-long church service, their faith is palpable. 

    Their practice of community is a gift. Church members welcome displaced people from the East with open arms. They listen and share strategies for trauma healing. They offer food and even take refugees into their own homes. 

    2024 “100 years of evangelism in Congo"

    Their faith is a gift. In the West, once we have money, we build. In DRC, when there is a vision, they begin to build, praying patiently and trusting for what is needed to continue.  

    Their baptisms are a gift. For some, conversion entails a significant turning away from another way of living. In their baptisms and beyond, they live out a strong sense of being saved. 

    When I visit churches, I always say, “I can greet you in the name of César García (our general secretary), but not in the name of MWC because then you would be greeting yourself. You are MWC.”  

    Then I take a picture with the gathered people waving at the camera as they greet the other 1.5 million believers who are MWC.  

    My being there is a sign of their part in this bigger global family. That is why these in-person visits continue to be important in a time of Zoom meetings.  

    As I taste the dust and the heat and feel the joyful spirit of faith and hope in Jesus alongside these believers on the other side of the world, we are both reminded that we are one. We are worth each other’s time. We are tied together in this global family of faith.  

    —Henk Stenvers, from the Netherlands, is the president of MWC (2022-2028).  

    a group of women dance through a large outdoor crowd in Africa
    Communauté des Églises des Frères Mennonites au Congo celebrated the 100th anniversary. Photos: Henk Stenvers
    This story first appeared in Courier/Correo/Courrier 39.4 / 2024: read the full issue here

  • You are invited to participate in a Scripture read-a-thon. 

    To commemorate the 500th anniversary of Anabaptism, MennoMedia has commissioned a new English study Bible. To celebrate its release, MennoMedia and Mennonite World Conference are collaborating on a three-day video stream of Bible reading on YouTube.  

    Beginning on 18 January 2025, the Global Anabaptist Bible Read-a-Thon will stream on YouTube – a 72-hour nonstop journey through the entire Bible, featuring the voices of Anabaptists from all around the world.  

    “The read-a-thon will conclude on 21 January 2025 with a livestreamed worship service and celebration in Goshen, Indiana (USA), as we read together the final passage from Revelation and celebrate the launch of the Anabaptist Community Bible,” says John D Roth, project director. 

    “Reading the Bible for themselves was an important part of the faith renewal of early Anabaptists,” says César García. “Not only reading, but doing so together, under the guidance and discernment of the Holy Spirit was their revolutionary action, which we commemorate each year with Anabaptist World Fellowship Sunday (21 January). 

    “Bible reading together continues to be key to our Anabaptist practice. We invite our members around the world to participate in this project both as readers and as viewers.” 

    Click here for instructions on how to submit a video.

    As an anniversary year, 2025 will contain multiple events: local, national and international. Mennonite World Conference will host a one-day event of commemoration, reflection and reconciliation in Zurich, 29 May 2025. Click here to learn more. 

  • “Investing in young adults is a key way to move forward. Mennonite World Conference is the best way I can imagine to do that,” said Doug Klassen, executive minister of Mennonite Church Canada and the North America representative on MWC’s Executive Committee. 

    The member church of Mennonite World Conference puts its money where its mouth is. The church is organized into five regions – each of which sends a delegate to the Global Youth Summit. Together, leaders select one to serve as the official representative. 

    The practice started with the 2022 Global Youth Summit (GYS) in Indonesia. Church restructuring in 2017 had placed leadership development at the regional level, so it was natural for each region to select a young adult to serve as a delegate. 

    The national church gives each region $1 000 toward the cost of their delegate. It’s up to the region how to raise the rest. 

    The investment is paid back: the multi-delegate system showed its strength both coming and going. 

    GYS delegates have an assignment to survey young people in their country and write a report on the results. 

    They ask their peers about engagement with church (why are some young people choosing to invest time and energy in the work of the church? why do some young people leave?); about leadership (what are the barriers?); and about sensitive topics (which issues are difficult? How are conflicting ideas managed in the church?). 

    With a delegate for each region collecting answers according to their various strengths, MC Canada’s GYS report was more representative of the country’s diversity. 

    After participating in GYS, the five delegates reported insights into the church’s challenges neither Doug Klassen nor other leaders had named yet. 

    They brought back energy to engage their local church. 

    “Sometimes, all it takes is a captivating event or experience to bump a trajectory by one notch for a young adult to see ‘maybe there is room for the church’,” said Doug Klassen. 

    Doug Klassen wishes for as many young people as possible to encounter the deep faith found in the global church and broaden their understanding “beyond familiar Eurocentric stories.” 

    “To expose young adults to the global church is one of my highest priorities in this role,” he said. 

    Read more about MC Canada’s GYS delegates.
    Meet other GYS delegates: LMC 
    Read more about the GYS 

  • What do music star Shakira and biblical prophet Deborah have in common? In a special service on 6 September 2024, Riki Neufeld explored revenge songs through a peace lens with the Mennonite congregation in Hamburg-Altona, Germany. The Center for Peace Theology at University of Hamburg, Germany, and the congregation awarded the Menno Simons Sermon Prize to Riki Neufeld, pastor of the Schänzli Mennonite congregation in Muttenz, Switzerland. 

    Riki Neufeld was studying Deborah’s Song in Judges 5 around the same time when ‘I can buy myself flowers’ by Miley Cyrus and ‘Última’ by Shakira became hit songs. In these songs, the women process their heartbreak not by complaining about their suffering, but rather by settling the score through catchy lyrics such as “I can love me better than you can” or ‘you traded a Rolex for a Casio’.  

    Another catchy tune 

    Judges 5 is not a song of heartbreak, rather about settling score in a bloodier way. If anyone wanted to find a Biblical text to legitimize military support to fight tyranny, Judges 5 would be it, Riki Neufeld said.  

    However, it is not superior weaponry that wins, but God and the forces of creation that stand against the attackers. In verses 19-21 Deborah sings of the water, stars and brook of Kishon sweeping the enemies away.  

    And then, in verses 24-27, Deborah sings of Jael who killed the enemy Sisera. She does not hold back. She sings of how Jael “struck…, crushed…, shattered…. and pierced” Sisera. The mighty tyrant “sank…, fell… lay still between her feet, …dead.”  

    “I can imagine this would have been a catchy tune,” said Riki Neufeld. “Something difficult for us, as a peace church, to chew.” 

    A second look 

    “There is something satisfying about the story,” said Riki Neufeld. “We sympathize the people who were being unjustifiably attacked, rejoice when the tyrant was killed and the people liberated. But Deborah’s song does not end there.  

    In verse 28 of her victory song, she sings of Sisera’s mother’s grief over the killing of her son. 

    Deborah takes a second look and sees a common humanity: “Every soldier, whether Israelite or Canaanite, Ukrainian or Russian, Israeli or Hamas fighter, has a mother who fears for him,” said Riki Neufeld. “It is a task for the church to continuously sharpen this second look amid the conflicts of this world” – military, geopolitical or interpersonal. 

    “This mission that Jesus calls us to do has an element of impossibility about it… Seeking humanity in the enemy again and again – taking that second look – is not achievable through sheer willpower,” he said.  

    We can only live this mission through the power of the Holy Spirit within us that gives us purpose and the resilience to do this each day of our lives, he said. 

    The full version of this sermon was first delivered on 26 February 2023, one year after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, to the Mennonite congregation in Schaänzli, Switzerland. 

    Member of the judging panel Fernando Enns called it brave for a peace church member to face such a violent text. “It takes courage to preach when you don’t shrink away from the ambivalences of the text as well as our own experience …. It doesn’t calm you down but invites you to honest discussion – and in this way it provides a new perspective on God’s calling.” 

    “Our standpoint as Mennonites is clear: we are a peace church who love our enemies, but also hate injustices,” said Riki Neufeld. “Some people still struggle with how to reconcile the two and live this teaching on a day-to-day basis. This motivated me to send the text to Fernando Enns to be considered for the prize.” 

    Read more about the International Menno Simons Preaching Award here 

    The Center for Peace Church Theology at the University of Hamburg invites you to send your very special sermons by 1 December 2024 to participate in the international Menno Simons Sermon Award. You can find information about the awarding of the prize on the homepage in 4 languages: https://www.theologie.uni-hamburg.de/einrichtungen/arbeitsstellen/friedenskirche/menno-simons-predigtpreis.html

    and find out more about the Center in English on the homepage

    https://www.theologie.uni-hamburg.de/en/einrichtungen/arbeitsstellen/friedenskirche.html

     

    Riki Neufeld receives the Menno Simons Sermon Prize from a representative of the award committee.

     
    Riki Neufeld (third from left) with his mother Wilma Neufeld Kaethler (second from left).

     

  • The Season of Creation, an annual ecumenical initiative, concludes with the feast of Saint Francis of Assisi on 4 October. Inspired by his Canticle of Creatures and Romans 8:19-25, this prayer invites us to praise, repent and lament, and then “to hope and act with Creation”. 

    God, Creator of heaven and earth,
    We praise you for the gift of life, 
    For the complexity, beauty and generosity of this world, 
    That sustains our existence and that of all your creatures. 

    At the same time, we recognize the magnitude of what we have done: 
    Climate change, the collapse of biodiversity, pollution –  
    All consequences visited upon every one of your creatures. 
    We repent of injustice, oppression, destruction. 

    We praise you for the sun, which warms every living thing,
    And we lament the droughts that endure and worsen.
    We praise you for the moon, which helps balance the earth’s systems,
    And we lament the rising sea levels that threaten many populations.
    We praise you for the wind, which maintains the water cycle vital to your creatures,
    And we lament the increasingly devastating storms.
    We praise you for water, without which there would be no life on earth,
    And we lament the terrible floods that kill and destroy.
    We praise you for fire, a purifying force and symbol of your presence for your people,
    And we lament the ever-increasing fires that devour and suffocate.
    We praise you for the earth, whose extravagant diversity of fruits nourishes us,
    And we lament the impoverishment and pollution of the soil.

    God of oppressed peoples, God of endangered species, 
    You see that we are often both victims and perpetrators. 
    Thank you for your grace that forgives us again and again, 
    Thank you for your promise that evil will not triumph on earth or in our lives. 

    Holy Spirit, you intercede for creation as it groans in the pains of childbirth, 
    You hear our sighs and our suffering with and for all your creatures. 
    Fill us with hope for the glorious day when all your children will be revealed, 
    And everything on earth and in heaven will be set free. 

    Jesus Christ, you give us the ministry of reconciliation.
    You show us the way to humility, peace and self-sacrifice. 
    Teach us to act out of love for our brothers and sisters, for all your creatures.
    Set us in motion to proclaim your reign of justice, love and joy. 

    Amen 

    —contributed by David Nussbaumer, European representative on the Creation Care Task Force

  • A pastoral letter on October 7, 2024 

    Beloved brothers and sisters of the global Anabaptist/Mennonite communion: 

    With heavy hearts, we mark the one-year anniversary of terrible events that signalled the beginning of a new cycle of violence in the Middle East. We are heartbroken at the number of lives taken a year ago and since. We grieve the repression, the disregard for human rights, and the dispossession over decades that led up to the current crisis. 

    A year ago, Hamas fighters breached the militarized boundaries of the Gaza Strip and committed heinous acts in Israel. This attack left 1 200 Israelis dead, including nearly 400 soldiers. Some 250 Israeli civilians and security personnel were taken to Gaza as hostages. Israel responded with a horrifying year-long campaign of collective punishment on Gaza, targeting hospitals, schools, places of worship and journalists. The death count in Gaza is more than 40 000 and rising, with thousands missing or unaccounted for. Israel has prevented food and medical aid from entering the strip. Most recently, Israel has unleashed a ferocious military assault on neighbouring Lebanon.  

    As Christians dedicated to Christ’s way of peace, we reject war as a way to resolve differences. We stand with all who suffer today, whether Jewish, Muslim or Christian. At times, we feel helpless – even complicit – as trauma and prejudice accumulated over generations spill out in waves of hatred and destruction.  

    Jesus, the Prince of Peace, teaches us that war does not lead to human flourishing. Courageous love of enemies and nonviolent pursuit of justice for all is how we aspire to follow Jesus. Love trains our hearts to see God in the human “other.” Love gives us the courage to seek justice and to live rightly with one another. As followers of Jesus, we pray for that courage to love with transformative power. For it is love that offers a fundamentally different reality and future than the cycles of violence that oppress, suppress and kill fuelled by lust for power and mechanisms of death.  

    The global Anabaptist/Mennonite communion reiterates our call of October 2023 for all parties in this conflict to lay down weapons and begin the hard work of peacemaking. We call for the release of captives – both the Israeli hostages held by Hamas and the Palestinian prisoners held illegally in “administrative detention” by the Israeli state. Where possible, we resolve to speak to our own governments and fellow citizens who may be giving uncritical support that perpetuates the ongoing conflict. 

    Justice must accompany peace, and all parties in this conflict have grievances. We confess our failure to listen well and to seek justice, to acknowledge the inadequacy of our wisdom. So, we call on the Holy Spirit to teach and equip us to act with humility and courage as we speak and act. 

    We pray not only for violence to cease, but for lands of the Bible to become a place of human harmony and diversity, where neighbours “sit under their own vines and their own fig trees” with no one to make them afraid (Micah 4:4). We reaffirm our conviction that “The Spirit of Jesus empowers us to trust God in all areas of life so we become peacemakers who renounce violence, love our enemies, seek justice, and share our possessions with those in need” (Mennonite World Conference “Shared Convictions” #5).  

  • In 2025, the global Anabaptist movement looks back over 500 years of existence. Mennonite World Conference invites all to a major event on Ascension Day,29 May 2025, in Zurich, Switzerland.  

    Even as we look back on a long past, the focus of the commemoration is on the current reality of the Anabaptist movement.  

    • Who are we today as a global communion?  
    • What is important to us?  
    • What are we committed to in this world? 

    When we look back over the 500-year history of our movement, we want to share what we are and what we have. Not just with other churches. Commitment – in this world – to peace, to reconciliation, to unity, in which we get a glimpse of Christ’s coming kingdom of peace: these are key elements of how Anabaptists understand discipleship today. 

    We have gathered these commitments under the theme “The courage to love”. 

    It takes courage to stand up for reconciliation in a society torn apart by polarization.  

    It takes courage to stand between the dividing lines, to listen and try to understand what motivates others.  

    It takes courage to focus on love rather than influence, power and control. 

    In a world where people loudly demand to take a stand and distinguish themselves from those with whom they don’t want to be identified, it takes courage to choose love. Love that is ready to lay down its life for enemies, just as Christ laid down his life for enemies. 

    Love goes beyond non-violence: it is a courageous commitment to live out God’s love in this world.  

    For example, brothers and sisters in Ethiopia who, in the midst of the violence of a civil war, make public the fact that they carry no weapons.  

    People seeking to follow Christ in the midst of conflicts in Myanmar or Ukraine, often entering the spaces between the lines as they search for pathways beyond violent confrontation. 

    What about us here today?  

    Where is our courageous action in love needed today?  

    How can we usefully interpose ourselves between the front lines? How can we bear witness to a God who gives of God’s self to reconcile the world? 

    —Jürg Bräker is general secretary of Conférence Mennonite Suisse, an MWC Executive Committee representative for Europe, and a member of the committee organizing the celebration. 

    A version of this article was first published in the monthly e-newsletter of Konferenz der Mennoniten der Schweiz / Conférence Mennonite Suisse.

  • “Being chair at the Conference of Secretaries of Christian World Communions is a role of service. It is a role where you serve other secretaries by preparing the agenda, logistics and materials for our meeting, and leading and facilitating robust discussions on matters critical to the global Christian church today,” says MWC general secretary César García. In November 2023, he was re-appointed as chair for the next two years. 

    The Conference of Secretaries, which has met every year since 1957 with a few exceptions, does not have programmatic goals and does not adopt resolutions. However, the diversity of leaders of Christian communions participating in that gathering facilitates the exchange of information; learning from each other; and nurturing fraternal relationships among worldwide churches.  

    “In the process of working with other secretaries and hearing each other, we start to build trusting relationships with other Christian communions,” says César García. “And by getting to know each other, we can start pursuing a particular area of interest for the most meeting participants.” 

    “In some cases, I bring the discussions that started in this annual gathering back to MWC. It becomes a seed of working together with some of these churches on a specific endeavour, In one instance, the general secretary of the Lutheran World Federation came to our General Council meeting to speak about his personal journey and the journey of the Lutherans in the process of being a world communion, a global church.” 

    “Some other times, I have been invited by other world communions to speak at their meetings, specifically to offer Anabaptist perspectives on the topics they are discussing,” says César García. 

    “One thing I have done in my role as chair is increase the times where we pray together for a particular situation. A frequent practice in our conversations is to explore how we can jointly respond to a crisis facing our churches or a geographic region.” 

    In addition to sharing perspectives and learnings, discussions in these meetings plant seeds of reconciliation.  

    For example, the official dialogue and process of reconciliation between the Lutherans and the Mennonites was envisioned several years ago by the general secretaries of both communions.  

    More recently, because of the meetings at the Conference of Secretaries’ annual gathering, MWC and the World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC) have discussed starting a similar process of reconciliation between the Reformed and Anabaptist churches. 

    “Living out our ministry of reconciliation is one of the things we want to do, especially leading up to the commemoration of the 500 years of the Anabaptist movement,” César García says, “The idea is to remember our history in the framework of our dialogues with the Catholic, Lutheran and Reformed churches and moving forward with a healed memory toward the call we have received to follow Jesus in our Anabaptist tradition.” 

  • “Anniversaries are a time to stop and reflect: we remember where we have come from, consider who we are today and anticipate where God is calling us to be,” says César García, MWC general secretary. 

    “The courage to love” is the theme for Mennonite World Conference’s anniversary year in 2025. 

    For more information on MWC’s one-day commemoration event in Switzerland or information on other commemoration events throughout the year, visit mwc-cmm.org/anabaptism500.  

    The day’s activities will include choral performances, a panel discussion, historical walking tours in Zurich’s historic city centre, workshops and an interactive “find the secret church” game. A mass worship service with global and ecumenical guests in the Grossmünster church will close the day. 

    You can travel to Zurich to participate in the day as part of a tour or on your own. The closing worship service will be livestreamed in English, French, Spanish and German.  

    Throughout the year, events will be held around the world to celebrate and reflect on the Anabaptist movement and what it has become today.  

    “We are inspired how The Courage to Love moves us to Christ-like actions today just as much as 500 years ago. National churches or local congregations may wish to use this theme for their own events in 2025,” says Liesa Unger, MWC chief international events officer.  

    A collection of gatherings 

    Before the event, Mennonite World Conference’s General Council (made up of leaders from each national member church around the world) will gather for decision making and learning. After the event, young people will gather for a Global Youth Summit – the first time the event occurs outside of an Assembly year.  

    Two anniversaries 

    2025 marks two anniversaries for MWC. It is 500 years since Conrad Grebel, Georg Blaurock and Felix Manz took the courageous act of “re-baptizing” each other in Zurich, Switzerland, as an expression of their understanding of faith. This act is taken as the symbolic beginning of the Anabaptist movement, which has grown to around 2.13 million believers in more than 80 countries around the world.  

    It is also 100 years since Mennonite World Conference began. Its first event was a conference: a gathering of Mennonite church leaders from Germany, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the USA. These leaders asked: “How can we improve the spiritual life of our congregations?” 

    Download resources 

    Click here for event posters

  • The environmental crisis and our mandate to care for creation 

    A word of encouragement from the MWC Faith & Life Commission and the Creation Care Task Force. 

    Part 2 of 2 

    “Creation care” is taking on ever-increasing urgency. 

    The news reminds us daily of alarming changes in our climate. We are witnessing terrible violence against God’s beloved creation. And we are increasingly aware of how much we share in the harm, both as sinners and as sinned-against. 

    How do we respond? 

    Our answers will surely vary depending on where we live, on our resources, the depth of our faith, our theology and on our willingness to respond to the call of the moment. 

    Human sinfulness has broken our relationship with God, with each other, and with creation in all its diversity. But the gracious and liberating Spirit of God is bringing about “new creation” in and through Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). 

    What is that Spirit saying to us at this time? 

    The MWC Tagline and Creation Care 

    Not surprisingly, the MWC tagline “Following Jesus, Living Out Unity, Building Peace” echoes the Shared Convictions. The Spirit can use it to aid us in our environmental faithfulness. 

    Following Jesus 

    The tagline gives first place to “following Jesus.” The Jesus we have pledged to follow is not only the healer and teacher of the Gospels, but also the Christ who creates and holds all creation together in his transforming and re-creating embrace (Colossians 1:17). We cannot follow Jesus without sharing in the Creator’s redeeming love for this world—all of it! We cannot follow him without loving care, simplicity, and generosity. 

    Living out Unity 

    The second item is “living out unity.” The heart of Jesus’ prayer for us as his followers in John 17 is that we may be one. With whom are we to be one? With whom are we to live out unity? 

    Jesus’ first concern is that we be one with him as he is one with his (and our!) Father (John 17:21-23). Unity with God means that we share in the love of the Creator for the whole cosmos* (John 3:16, 17). We too are to be the “light of the cosmos,” as Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:14, John 3:21). 

    As the body of that creating and redeeming Christ we are to participate as caretakers, custodians, and guardians of creation. Just as the sabbath was God’s great act of creation care (Leviticus 25), we honour the sabbath when we allow creation to rest from our ceaseless and careless exploitation of earth’s bounty. 

    Second, we are to be one with each other, sparing no effort to maintain the unity the Spirit creates (Ephesians 2:18; 4:3). We live out this unity in active solidarity with those in the body of Christ who are suffering the effects of the environmental crisis (1 Corinthians 12:26). This solidarity extends to all of humanity, and will be tested more and more as the impact on vulnerable populations increases. 

    We live this unity out also by praying for each other to have the courage to stop harming creation, and thereby each other. We have much to confess, much to forgive and much to change as we walk in unity as the body of Christ. 

    Third, God’s “gathering up all things in heaven and on earth in Christ” (Eph 1:10) reminds us of our deep unity with the whole of creation, a unity of all things in Christ. We rejoice in creation’s beauty and its bounty. But we also share in God’s grief when creation suffers, especially when it is at our hands. 

    So we confess and repent of our refusal to listen to the suffering of creation and our failure to live up to Jesus’ mandate to us as disciples, namely, to proclaim the gospel of salvation to all creation (Mark 16:15). 

    Fourth, we are not only in unity with God, but God is in unity with us. We are not alone. The Spirit, the breath of life the Creator lends to all creation, indwells us, guiding, sustaining, and empowering us in our resolve to be faithful (Romans 8:9-27, 1 Corinthians 12, Galatians 5:22-25, Ephesians 4:4, Phil 2:12, 13). We dare not quench or grieve this Spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:19) by neglecting to join in the Creator’s love and care for our earthly home. 

    Building Peace 

    The third element in the tagline is “building peace.” The Hebrew word for peace is shalom, which above all means “wholeness” and “well-being.” Shalom best characterizes that first sabbath when God looked upon creation in all its material reality and called it “very good” (Genesis 1:25; 2:2-3). 

    To commit ourselves to “building peace” is to do all we can to turn from our ruinous ways and to engage as co-creators with God in the “ministry of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:16-21, Colossians 1:20), including care for creation in all its diversity. Building peace is working at restoring creation to wholeness, where peace and justice will once again embrace and kiss each other (Psalm 85:10). 

    The Ground of Our Hope 

    We struggle with troubling questions: Is there hope for this world? Can we really make a difference with our limited knowledge, energy, and resources? Or will this world pass away soon, regardless of our efforts? What should we hope for? 

    The Shared Convictions conclude with these words: 

    “We seek to walk in [Jesus’] name by the power of the Holy Spirit, as we confidently await Christ’s return and the final fulfillment of God’s kingdom.” 

    “Confident waiting” is one way to speak of hope. This hope in God’s future must, however, never be an escape from our responsibility here and now. Hope propels us to act now, where we are. Such hope is not optimism, nor does it rest on our resilience or inventiveness. It rests fully on God’s faithfulness. 

    The love that the Creator pours into our hearts through the Spirit (Romans 5:1-5) empowers us to act with hope as the body of the Christ who gave his life to save this cosmos. We work with hope even as we wait in faith. All creation is groaning in eager anticipation of us putting our hope-filled faith into practice (Romans 8:22; Hebrews 11:1; 12:12-15). 

    Today we might thus restate the concluding sentence of the Shared Convictions as follows: “We seek to walk by the power of the life-giving Spirit in the name of Jesus Christ through whom all things are created, redeemed and sustained, as we eagerly and actively await the shalom the final fulfillment of God’s kingdom will bring.” 

    Let us ask the Spirit for clarity and vision to help us respond faithfully to the challenge of our day. 

    Let us pledge to practice loving care and patience with each other as we walk this challenging path together. 

    Let us prayerfully support the Creation Care Task Force and all the many efforts to respond to the crisis we face together. 

    That is our prayer for the MWC family of faith. 

    The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it. Psalm 24:1 

    * On the earliest manuscripts, “world” in John 3:16 is given in Greek as cosmos which pushes our imaginations to account for much more than the human experience. 

    Missed Part 1 last month?

    Read “God so loved the cosmos”

    Find Season of Creation resources from Mennonite churches:

    “Creation” – Algemene Doopsgezind Nederland
    To Hope and Act with Creation – Mennonite Church USA and Canada
    MWC Faith & Life Commission
    Creation Care Task Force

    #seasonofcreation
    #seasonofcreation2024

  • Africa

    One of the events that bring people together among our people are funeral wakes and funerals. 

    Sometime last year, we had one of our church leaders have his wife taken to be with the Lord. It was a challenging time not only to the man, his family and the church, but the community as well. The community gathered every evening for four days before the actual funeral. 

    The man who lost his wife was a pastor and a respected leader. The death of this dear woman brought together church leaders and people who would otherwise not ordinarily meet and worship together! 

    The speakers and preachers on each of the days came from different churches and denominations. The unity of the body of Christ became a reality to many. Christ was lifted high, and the funeral wake literally became a revival of some kind. The presence of Christ was felt as the Spirit of God touched many who participated in these services. 

    Funerals are generally accompanied by mourning and grieving. In this instance there were signs of loss, but for the greater part it was indeed celebrating the life of one who had exemplarily walked with Jesus. 

    An exemplary walk 

    Testimony after testimony came from people who were not part of the church expressing how this departed sister and brother (the husband) had significantly touched their lives. 

    At the funeral service, one of her workmates (the deceased was a teacher) gave a touching testimony. When other teachers went on strike demanding what they believed to be their rights, the deceased never participated, believing that for her teaching was a calling. The welfare of children was her priority. 

    Parents’ representatives also testified of the same and that over the years the children she taught almost always produced the best results. 

    At her funeral, many people who had absolutely nothing to do with the church attended her funeral and testified of God’s love and goodness and the worth of following Jesus. 

    Let me point out that funeral wake gatherings are more or less cultural and expected. However, it is the Spirit’s demonstration of unity of the church and the reality of the transformative power of Jesus that was experienced during that time. 

    People still testify about that funeral wake to this day. The transformative power of Jesus made this funeral different from among many. 

    For us Christians and indeed many others, the funeral wake, and the funeral itself made the words Paul in Romans 14:7-9 come alive. These words continue to encourage us: 

    “For we do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.” 

    Amen. 

    —Danisa Ndlovu is the MWC regional representative for Southern Africa. He is [role] in the Brethren in Christ Church in Zimbabwe. 

    This article is adapted from the speech he presented at Renewal 2024, “Transformed, together we live Jesus” 6 April 2024 in Brazil. 

  • Indonesia

    My wife and I have pastored together for 25 years at a church in downtown Jakarta with a congregation of around 250 people. We really enjoy our ministry’s call to grow together with the congregation we pastor. 

    We have one daughter who is now in her sixth semester of medical school preparing to become a doctor. 

    Since our time in the seminary, my wife and I have been mentors to more than 120 teenagers. We discipled them so that many of the active members in the church today are the teenagers we mentored. 

    If I were asked what position or role is the most meaningful, it would be being a father to the many foster children we have brought into our home as part of our family. I treasure this more than all the other roles I have held in our synod or national church or even globally. 

    A home with open doors 

    This story began when my wife and I were still dating at a seminary in Salatiga. 

    We had the same passion for loving children and young people, guiding them to know the Lord Jesus and to grow in all aspects of their lives. We both realized that our existence is only due to God’s grace; and we wanted other people to also experience God’s grace. 

    After we got married and our daughter was 10 months old, God sent a young man to us. He had no parents and was rejected by his family. His body was emaciated and he had a burst eardrum due to violence from his uncle. 

    A member of the congregation took him to our place and that night we agreed to take care of him. He stayed with us for many years. We were able to guide him to meet the Lord Jesus. 

    That young person went on to complete theology and mission studies and has been serving for 10 years as a missionary in the interior. 

    Since then, God has sent many children from various regions and ethnic backgrounds to our home. 

    Some 43 children have become part of our family. Generally, they are from poor families in villages and remote areas who don’t have a father or mother. Several of them have special needs or have conditions like epilepsy that need to be controlled by a doctor. 

    Bringing so many children into our home is not an easy thing. From the beginning we were committed to using our own money, which was very limited at first, even for daily meals. As pastors our income is not large. It became difficult when our foster children increased from 4 to 10 then 13 and then 17. Yet we see it as our calling to bear all their living expenses: food, clothing, school fees. 

    For two years we ate salted fish almost every day (which made my wife suffer from high blood pressure). But we never regret doing it because God gives us joy. 

    In the way of God 

    The hardest thing is not how to provide food, but how to educate our children in the way of God in light of their different family and cultural backgrounds. 

    We are not creating an orphanage, or even a dormitory for children. Instead, we are making them part of our family. We often tell our children that this is their home and this is a family, so that they rediscover the warmth and security of a family they never had. 

    Our goal is not only to allow them to pursue their dreams, but to educate them to become transformed by Christ and find their callings as his disciples. 

    When our daughter was in elementary school, she once asked: “Mom and Dad, why do you bring so many children into our house? Our house is so full. It would be nice if it was just the three of us living alone, and everything was mine.” 

    However, when she was a senior in high school, she wrote an essay for a writing competition hosted by the biggest newspaper in our country. 

    “I was born as an only child who should be able to enjoy that blessing without needing to share with others. But my father and mother brought many children to be raised in our house, which meant that I had to share everything, including my father and my mother. At first, I was sad and found it difficult to accept. But my parents were very loving people who longed for other children to feel God’s love and have a future. They allowed their lives to be disrupted so that they could become trees that sheltered many vulnerable people. Today, my house is filled relatives from all across Indonesia. I now understand that life must be shared. Where is the beauty of life if it is only lived for yourself?” 

    We shed tears as we read her reflection, grateful that she has also discovered that the true meaning of life is found only when we share. 

    As it turned out, she won the contest. 

    Currently, many of our children have graduated and are pursuing their vocations as pastors, missionaries, teachers, nurses and working in the marketplaces. If they ask, “How can we repay you for all the kindness you have shown as our father, mother and sister?” we always answer, “Repay it by sharing God’s love with others so that doesn’t just stop with you. We look forward to visiting you seeing many children in your families.” 

    Of course, there are many dynamics in this whole process – many joys and sorrows. But God has allowed our dream to be fulfilled. 

    Pray that our children will continue to become believers and faithful disciples, serving God according to their gifts and callings. 

    Blessed be the name of the Lord! 

    —Agus W. Mayanto is the Mennonite World Conference Regional Representative for Southeast Asia. He and his wife Rosmaida are co-pastors of GKMI Cempaka Putih Jakarta in Indonesia since 1999. 

    This article is adapted from the speech he presented at Renewal 2024, “Transformed, together we live Jesus” 6 April 2024 in Brazil.