Prayers of gratitude and intercession

“Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs” (Mathew 19:14). The Gospels record Jesus saying these words to those who want to remove the children from his presence.

Jesus is saying something we know to be true today: children have their own ways to participate in churches, differently from adults, but with attention to their special capacity to learn and share.

Churches must be sensitive to the need to protect children. National churches and partner agencies may have a well developed set of policies or templates that are locally adaptable. On a local level, churches can develop policies and train those who work with children to keep them safe from those who would exploit their vulnerability.

In this issue, we have examples of how members of the Anabaptist Mennonite family are making a place for children in their local churches around the world.

Gerda Landes of Mennonitengemeinden e.V., Karlsruhe-Thomashof in Germany explains how safe church policies strengthen healthy interaction. They not only teach volunteers to avoid abuse, they raise conversations about positive behaviour for an environment that nurtures and empowers children.

Elsie Rempel of Canada offers a sample children’s story that teaches solid biblical content in an interactive way appropriate to the learning level of children.

Jessica Mondal from a Bharatiya Jukta Christa Prachar Mandali church in India writes how her congregation is attentive to training their teachers. In a rapidly changing world, they recognize the need to constantly adapt to the needs of the children they are serving.

But children are ready to receive and act on the gospel message as well. Juan Carlos Moreno tells how children’s ministry leaders in Peru learned that the children were not only receiving the gospel message, but sharing it with others.

In Zimbabwe, Peace Clubs combine Christian education with training children in peace skills and creation care.

At a global level, MWC was a one of 13 co-organizers of Faith Action on Children on the Move: A Global Partners Forum 16–19 October 2018 in Rome, Italy. The purpose of the forum was to learn, exchange, inform and plan. People of faith are a powerful force in the world who can catalyze shifts in both attitudes and behaviour. The organizers are continuing to draft an action plan.

In this issue, you will also find the MWC world map, which can be pulled out and posted on your wall. Also, follow the included link to find more maps and demographic information.

You’ll find the Assembly News included here, with the first information about the upcoming gathering in Indonesia in 2021.

And MWC events continue in between: a gathering for Renewal 2027 in Costa Rica, and the “scattered” events of World Fellowship Sunday, Peace Sunday, and YABs Fellowship Week: times to celebrate the global Anabaptist family in our local congregations.

—Karla Braun is editor of Courier and writer for Mennonite World Conference. She lives in Winnipeg, Canada.

This article first appeared in Courier/Correo/Courrier April 2019.

It took about 490 years for government officials in Bern, Switzerland, to ask for forgiveness for persecution of Anabaptists in the region.

It took less than two to get a response from Swiss Mennonites.

Delegates from every congregation in Konferenz der Mennoniten der Schweiz [Alttäufer]/Conférence Mennonite Suisse [Anabaptiste] (KMS/CMS) gathered to offer forgiveness to the government of the canton of Bern in a 20 April 2019 ceremony at Église évangélique mennonite Tavannes.

The celebration of reconciliation between Mennonites and government officials concerned persecution of Anabaptists in the region – including 40 executions recorded in Martyrs Mirror – that took place from the 16th to 18th centuries.

Bern canton state councillor and director of church affairs Christoph Neuhaus surprised Mennonites 11 November 2017 when he offered an apology and asked for forgiveness at an event in Bern’s city hall organized by Evangelische Mennoniten-Gemeinde Bern and the local Reformed Church parish.

“I apologize tonight for all that has been done to the Anabaptists in our canton,” said Neuhaus, who at the time represented the state side of the Reformed Church’s close relationship to the canton government. “No one can undo what was once done. But we can see what has been.”

KMS/CMS?general secretary Jürg Bräker said the action followed the mayor of Zurich identifying past persecutions as wrong in 2004 and asking for forgiveness.

“We were delighted with the request for forgiveness,” he said.

SMC?discussed internally how to respond to a matter that predominantly affected people centuries earlier.

“We are aware that we cannot really speak for those who suffered under persecution,” Bräker said. “But we know they followed Christ, and we can trust that they would have answered, ‘Yes, we forgive.’”

Cooperative energies

“Swiss Mennonites express hope that these steps to reconciliation might free up cooperative energies for peace and justice, which will bring benefit to our land and beyond its borders,” says SMC’s statement.

The statement draws parallels between past persecution of Anabaptist nonconformists and marginalized groups on the fringes of today’s society. It calls on the state to respect and protect space where faith communities function peacefully.

“We confess that our search for forms of life and community that are oriented to Jesus’ life has at times led to a smug knowing-better and unjustified claims to moral superiority,” it states. “The striving for a life consistent with the gospel of Jesus Christ has not always sought for peaceable relations with everyone living in the land.”

While the act of forgiveness is an opportunity to remind the government such oppression should never happen again, it also requires a commitment by the Mennonite community to peaceful coexistence.

In addition to representatives signing the declaration and speeches from KMS/CMS?officials and canton dignitaries such as Neuhaus, both parties picked up shovels to plant a tree together.

“The emphasis of the celebration was to look into the future and what we both can contribute to living together that is oriented toward just peace,” he said. “A tree has to grow.”

By Tim Huber, Mennonite World Review, used with permission

Click here to read the Statement of the Swiss Mennonite Conference in English, German, French.

The International Community of Mennonite Brethren (ICOMB) is made up of 21 national churches in 19 countries with approximately 450,000 members. ICOMB exists to facilitate relationships and ministries to enhance the witness and discipleship of its member national churches – connecting, strengthening and expanding.

The church in Mexico

The Conference of the Mennonite Brethren in Mexico is known as ICPM (Iglesia Cristiana de Paz en México), which is an acronym meaning Christian Peace Church of Mexico. As of 2018 ICPM is a family of 346 members in 7 local congregations, located in 3 cities in the Mexican Republic; 5 in the metropolitan area of Guadalajara, Jalisco; 1 in Villa de Álvarez, Colima; and 1 in Ecatepec, State of Mexico. Last year, the Lord allowed us to perform a total of 31 baptisms in 2 of the local churches.

The church in Villa de Álvarez, Colima

Colima is located in the western region of the country, very close to the city of Guadalajara and the Pacific Ocean. It is the fourth smallest state in Mexico. The church is located in the municipality of Villa de Álvarez. It is a small church, only eight years old, and is surrounded by a mainly Catholic society.

From Pastor Carlos Ortega: “One of the ministries that has most impacted my life is the ministry in the prison for juvenile offenders, where I have known the lives of many young people who were working for drug trafficking as hired killers. Most are orphans who are recruited by the cartels at an early age (12 and older) to fill the void of not having a family.”

The ministry is done through sport (soccer football) and personal or group discipleship. Currently, three young people are being discipled.

“Each of them have very difficult stories, and the work with them is hard and difficult at times, since you do not see much outward change,” says Ortega. “We know of several inmates who have left after serving their sentence and were killed, so our hope is to sow the seed of God’s Word in case once they leave the prison they find themselves in a deadly situation.”

No matter how many times you visit India, the overcrowded cities, hazy air and animal-people-vehicle jammed streets of this country with more than 1.3 billion people are an assault to your physical senses and inner spirit.

The contrast between light and darkness is evident in India. The crushing poverty, desperation, and hopelessness speak of the struggle between the domain of Satan and the Kingdom of God. Unbridled idol worship and pagan practices are a regular part of life.

However, in the middle of this intense darkness, there is a light. This light is the gospel that reveals the one true God to a broken and lost population…the God who loves the sinner…the God who redeems.

Like in the book of Acts, regions throughout India are experiencing the presence of Jesus through miracles of healing and release from spiritual bondage.

Thousands of Indian people are placing their faith and trust in Jesus and being baptized daily. In some of the most spiritually dark regions of the world, new house churches are forming and replicating disciples, leaders, and churches in places where the gospel has never been present.

Like the chambers of a heart, the four MWC commissions serve the global community of Anabaptist-related churches, in the areas of deacons, faith and life, peace, mission. Commissions prepare materials for consideration by the General Council, give guidance and propose resources to member churches, and facilitate MWC-related networks or fellowships working together on matters of common interest and focus. In the following, one of the commissions shares a message from their ministry focus.

Causes

There is a lot of information out there about the varied issues that lead to human mobility. Among them we find climate change that modifies the environment, empires and world powers that produce more wealth while causing poverty in other countries, as well as means of communication that give us access to information, routes and transport that give us knowledge of better living conditions in other places.

The sixteenth century Anabaptists experienced and lived through migration motivated by the persecution that they suffered. In large part their faith in the teachings of Jesus moved them to put up with this. Their furtive and renegade escapes from persecution enabled them to organize and live in intentional communities where they learned to live together in fellowship, dialogue, come to agreements, and cooperate.

These values were very necessary for daily life in order to achieve a community in spite of being uprooted from their place of origin, where they supported one another in difficult times and could feel mutually supported and accompanied in their journey. Throughout the time of martyrdom and persecution, their faith grew and community life and mutual support was reinforced. These character traits have continued to distinguish them over time.

During our own times human mobility is occurring everywhere and in all directions: north to south and south to north, east to west and west to east.

I have watched people arrive in the United States having traveled large distance across the American continents while ignoring the suffering endured just to be able to achieve the so-called “American dream”.

Compassion

We find many human migrations documented in the Bible; some voluntary and others involuntary. They are always towards abundance, where there is an empire and the possibility of life.

What threads through all these experiences is the presence of God manifested through compassion for the poorest and the least of the Earth. Among them we find women, children, the ill, the elderly and foreigners.

Particularly in the New Testament we find the presence of God through Jesus who incarnates God’s compassion (John 14: 9-10; Philippians 2:5-11).

In Romans, the apostle Paul urges us to always show hospitality (Romans 12,13). And the author of Hebrews even suggests that welcoming strangers could be an act of hosting divine beings (Hebrews 13,2).

My own story

We thought long and hard before deciding to accept an invitation that required us to abandon comfort and move towards an uncertain future without knowing what it would hold for us. It was only in 2016 that my husband, Fernando, and I decided to pack our bags and volunteer at the “Casa de Paz” (House of Peace) located one block from the GEO Detention Center in Aurora, Colorado, USA. This is a welcoming place for migrants seeking political asylum.

We have learned huge life lessons about how to intervene in crisis situations that go far beyond the ideas learned in academia and the numerous arenas of dialogue about migration. We learned to

• be compassionate with foreigners and their stories moved us
• respond to migrants’ urgent needs
• respect their habits and customs that are always different from our own
• serve unconditionally because each and every human is made in the image of God

Conclusion

Now we hear about mass exodus: human caravans that have left their countries with the intention of arriving in the USA. The border has become a battleground. The travelers only bring themselves; vulnerable and dependent on the goodwill of others. The horizon is their imaginary guide, the famous “American Dream”. The farther they walk, the farther they see and they urge one another on, daring themselves to keep going. Nobody is from here, but in the end, nothing belongs to any of us anyway because we are all transitory in this life.

Now, at the height of Globalization, human mobility demands that communities be moved to compassion and to see the multitudes of powerless people as sheep without a pastor.

—Rebeca González Torres is a member of the Faith and Life Commission. She has a MA in biblical studies, a degree in education, and is a member of a church in the Conferencia Iglesias Evangélicas Anabautistas Menonitas de México- CIEAMM. She also co-coordinates the Comunidad de Instituciones Teológicas Anabautistas para América Latina. Rebeca González Torres is currently serving with the Mountain States conference in Denver, Colorado, USA.

Learn more about Casa de Paz

Renewal 2027 testimony: Anabaptists today

Renewal 2027 is a 10-year series of events organized by Mennonite World Conference’s Faith and Life Commission to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the beginnings of the Anabaptist movement. This series highlights leaders in the movement from history to the present.

“I was born for mission; I will die for mission.”

Madalitso Kaputa has an insatiable hunger to reach the unreached.

The Brethren in Christ (BICC) Malawi Conference encouraged his development with service and leadership opportunities since he was a youth. Honoured, Madalitso Kaputa has not looked back.

Madalitso Kaputa is the son of Kuyele Samson Kaputa and Mary Suwedi Kaputa. He married Ethel Chirwa in 2014, and they have a year-old son, Temwanani Kaputa. “My wife supports me fully on my quest for this ministry.”

Dual upbringing

Madalitso Kaputa’s name means blessings in Chichewa. He tends to focus on the good things that God has done in his life rather than the negative things. He smiles a lot. The joy of the Lord is his strength.

His parents separated when he was five years old. “My father, a chief in his area, was a Christian believer, and my mother was a committed Muslim.”

He lived with his mother for two years. “I remember being trained to be brave, and to understand Islam.”

At age 7, Madalitso Kaputa went to live with his father. “The messages of faith preached at my Dad’s church grew roots and budded in my heart.”

At 16, he repented of his sins and was saved after listening to a message. He avidly read an English Gideons Bible. “I was fascinated with the stories.”

Fired up in faith

He and his friends began to minister in Mposa and Mtepa villages in Machinga District.

“I shared my personal testimony; people gave their lives to the Jesus I now knew.”

People were keen to listen to Madalitso Kaputa because he was a very good footballer.

“Bit by bit, I quit going to soccer games. My Saturdays were fully occupied with evangelism work, and that gave me more joy.”

The BICC Malawi Conference sent him to World Missions Centre, an interdenominational institute started by the Assemblies of God Church, for one year of studies.

“The hunger I had to reach the unreached was fired up.”

With a team of like-minded friends, he travelled on borrowed bicycles for up to six hours one way. Kind people gave them food to eat and shelter. “At times, we slept in the bush, but we were happy to see people saved.”

Go out and bring in the people

BICC sent him for further studies at Evangelical Bible College of Malawi (2009–2011). He is now turning his dissertation into a book.

“I believe a church is not like stagnant water, but that it must move. Church needs to go out to bring in the people.”

After he requested the bishop send him on mission, he went to Paraguay to attend the Mennonite World Conference Global Youth Summit in 2009. “I was greatly encouraged and motivated to get back home and do more in sharing gospel.”

Next, the bishop encouraged him to apply for International Volunteer Exchange Program with Mennonite Central Committee. He spent 2013–2014 in Souderton, Pennsylvania, USA, assisting the chaplain at an Elderly Community Centre at Dockwood and Dock Meadows.

“This exposure also helped me realise the importance of service. This deepened my faith in missions. I knew I would die for missions.”

Madalitso Kaputa is also a talented singer and dancer for leading worship sessions. He has a gift of interpreting sermons in different languages.

In 2016, Madalisto was excited to be commissioned to share the gospel with the predominantly Muslim Yao people of the Mangochi region.

Once the gospel had taken root, the villagers began to say, “I have a relative in another village. Please visit them as well.”

Of late, Madalisto is involved with a Christian community radio station. He runs radio programmes: Bible discovery, daily devotions, “The Way of Salvation.”

Many villagers get together to listen to the broadcasts. They want to know about this Man who brings salvation for eternity.

“The gospel of God’s love is full of grace and love. Peace is paramount.”

Only death will stop Madalitso Kaputa from sharing it.

—A Mennonite World Conference release by Barbara Nkala. Barbara is the MWC regional representative for Southern Africa.

Children’s ministry resource

This story illustrates a way of worshiping with children. The author believes it is very important to both acknowledge the children’s connection with God and the sacredness of learning from Scripture at the beginning of story-time. Her wondering questions do not require spoken answers. They open the child’s theological thinking process. Sometimes wonderful conversations do occur, but it is fine to trust that these questions can kindle the silent working of the Holy Spirit in the child’s heart and mind.

Making Up

Author: Elsie Rempel

Church: Charleswood Mennonite Church, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Theme: Jesus wants us to settle our differences quickly

Text: Matthew 5:22–25a

Gathering activity

Welcome the children as they arrive and let them know that it encourages you to be together with them for this Children’s Time. Settle down together to become aware of that place inside where we know God is near.

After a pause, ask them if any of them got into any fights this last week. Did any of them say sorry and make up so they could play together again? Wonder together why it can be so hard and so important to settle differences.

Explain that today’s Gospel reading is from Matthew 5. It talks about making up, or settling your differences. Read verses 22 to 25a to them. Let the words of Scripture settle a bit before beginning the story.

Story

Michael was a boy who had a hard time living by the rules. He wanted to cooperate with his teachers and playmates, but before he knew it, things happened that made him angry. When he got angry, he forgot about the rules and lashed out. Before he knew it, he was in trouble and the teacher or the principal was asking him to explain what he did and what he would do better next time that happened. Sometimes they asked his parents to talk over the problem with him at home.

Michael did not like being in trouble. He did not like it at all. He wondered why there were so many rules. Sometimes he wondered why he got so angry while other people in his class just kept on playing. Today one of those girls who never get caught being nasty had teased him about being a trouble-maker at recess. Before he knew it, he had punched her in the nose, and you guessed it, she told on him, and he was in trouble again.

That evening after supper, his dad took Michael out for a walk and asked him how he felt about getting in trouble. Michael told his dad how much he hated it and how he got teased about being a trouble-maker. They walked in silence for quite a while. Then they started to wonder if Michael could develop some tricks that would make it easier for him to live by the rules. His dad remembered some tricks that had helped him when he was in school.

They decided to make a peace trick bracelet that Michael could wear. It was made out of rope. For every trick they thought of they put a knot into the bracelet. They thought of quite a few. It made Michael happy to know there were so many good tricks for not getting into trouble. They even added one for making up quickly by saying, “I’m sorry. I didn’t want to hurt you.” In case he did hurt someone, that trick could help him settle the trouble before any teachers got involved. What he liked best about making this bracelet is that it helped him know that his dad loved him and understood his problem. He knew his dad would be praying for him while he tried out his new set of tricks at school.

The next morning, Michael wore the bracelet to school and his dad prayed. Michael felt like he had a powerful protector on his wrist. The girl who never got caught came to tease him again, but instead of bringing his fists up to punch her, he fingered the bracelet on his wrist and remembered the tricks he and his dad had talked about. He smiled at her and walked away.

Wondering questions

• I wonder what tricks they had for not getting into trouble?
• I wonder why some people have a hard time living by the rules while others find it easy?
• I wonder how we can settle differences quickly instead of getting into trouble?

Prayer

Jesus, we thank you for people, like Michael and his dad, who learn tricks that help them get along with others. Thank you for teaching us about settling our differences quickly. Please help us think of good tricks for getting along with others, too. Amen.

—Elsie Rempel, who has a Master of theology, worked in Christian formation for Mennonite Church Canada (2012–2015) and has worshiped with children for decades. Her current focus is with preschool children. This children’s story is part of a larger Mennonite Church Canada story archive available as a downloadable resource to teachers and ministers.

Illustrated by Irma Sulistyorini

Click here to read more in English

The International Community of Mennonite Brethren (ICOMB) is made up of 21 national churches in 19 countries with approximately 450,000 members. ICOMB exists to facilitate relationships and ministries to enhance the witness and discipleship of its member national churches – connecting, strengthening and expanding.

The Church in Burundi – trip report from Victor Wiens, ICOMB Equipping Coordinator

Just south of Uganda, and next to Rwanda, lies the tiny country of Burundi. Knowing that our God loves to work through small people and small places, I expected some big blessings – I was not disappointed. Multiply has had a team in Burundi since 2014. They have been working with a Burundian ministry called Harvest for Christ in discipleship, school development, and worker training. Out of this ministry an inter-denominational network of independent churches, the Antioch Network, has developed for the sake of training and mutual support. Since their training has a strong missional component, I was invited to give the same presentation on Unreached People Groups that I gave at the ICOMB Consultation in Thailand (2017). The highlight of this visit (6–11 March 2019) for me was a meeting with some ten pastors from four small denominations who are considering moving from a network to becoming a national family and eventually connecting with ICOMB. Both their internal conversations and links with ICOMB are at an early stage, yet there is big potential in this little country.

“We enthusiastically celebrate that we are a Christo-centric borderless faith community, because as part of Mennonite World Conference, we fraternally unite with 107 Anabaptist and Mennonite [national churches and one international association] across 58 different countries in the world,” said Maykol Luis García Morelli, president of Asociación de Iglesias Cristianas Menonitas (Mennonite church) de Costa Rica, as he welcomed Mennonite World Conference leaders and local guests to the Renewal 2027 event, Justice on the Journey: Migration and the Anabaptist story, 6 April 2019 at Iglesia Vida Abundante in San Rafael de Heredia, Costa Rica.

Renewal 2027 is a 10-year series of events commemorating the 500th anniversary of the beginnings of the Anabaptist movement. Each year, local churches host the event in a different region of the world.

Justice on the journey

“The Anabaptist tradition invites us to be faithful followers of Jesus and His Gospel, especially in the midst of global crises such as wars, destruction, violence and injustice… where many people must leave their homes and migrate.  It is for this reason that on this occasion we are examining the theme ‘In pursuit of Justice’,’” Maykol Luis García Morelli said.

A worship band from Costa Rica and traditional folk dance opened the day of singing and worshipping together attended by around 450 people, including MWC officers, executive committee, lead staff, YABs Committee and visitors. Local church leader Cindy Alpizar hosted the event. 

Latin American contributors Belinda Rodriguez and Jamie Prieto addressed the theological and historical context of the event.

Belinda Rodriguez related experiences of forced migration from Honduras, saying, “God requires love and obedience from His children. ‘When the foreigner lives among you in your land, country, city, etc., do not mistreat them…’”

“The teachings of Jesus, our Anabaptist – Mennonite experience of migration, and the songs of migrants, then, should lead us to take pastoral action,|” said Jaime Adrián Prieto Valladares, a Mennonite historian from Costa Rica, who organized his presentation around a poem by Carlos Drummond de Andrade. 

“How can we as Churches contribute in order to offer a better future to migrants and their children? Will it be possible for us to imitate and follow Jesus along the path of the migrants? Will we allow the Holy Spirit to move us so that we create and sing songs to migrant girls and boys that allow them to dream of peace?”

Finding home

A Sunday school assignment in the 1940s to exchange letters with a missionary began a Canadian woman’s a lifelong investment in prayer for India.

A Sunday school teacher at Elmira Mennonite Church assigned teenaged Erla Buehler to write to Lena Graber, a registered nurse from Iowa, USA, who was serving with what is now called Mennonite Mission Network at Dhamtari Christian Hospital in India.

“Thus began my interest in India,” Erla Buehler writes in a letter to MWC.

“That spark continued to grow into a flame,” Buehler writes. At Ontario Mennonite Bible School in the 1950s, it grew as she learned about William Carey and the missionary movement.

Her dream to visit India came true in 1997 when her niece’s Indian-born husband led a tour to the Mennonite World Conference Assembly in Kolkata. Listening to speakers on the theme “Hear what the Spirit is saying to the Churches” was “inspiring, uplifting, wonderful.”

“Assembly Scattered in addition to Gathered was also eye-opening,” Erla Buehler writes. The group visited the Mennonite Central Committee centre and an orphanage project.

When she returned home, Erla Buehler tracked down Lena Graber and resumed correspondence. She praised God to learn of Lena Graber’s work starting nursing schools in India and Nepal where she was one of the first Mennonite Board of Missions workers.

Today, Erla Buehler learns of the church’s work through the MWC Prayer Network email. By special request, she receives it every two months mailed to her in hard copy.

“All these years and still there is a marvellous network of faithful praying believers building the kingdom of God.” This 88 year-old continues to be part of it.

—A Mennonite World Conference release by Karla Braun