Prayers of gratitude and intercession

  • “We are deprived of the Bibles, water, soaps and even food,” writes a representative of the youth organization of a Mennonite Brethren church in Bukavu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. “We are soliciting the accompaniment of your prayers and materials.”

    Mennonite World Conference has convened an inter-Anabaptist task force to respond to the current humanitarian crisis in the Eastern part of DRC arising from events of the past weeks.

    “We invite your donations to any of our partners to support their response to this urgent need,” says César García, MWC general secretary.

    Global Church Sharing Fund

    Partners reached a consensus that the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) will take the lead in the response, leveraging their expertise in relief and development.”

    Africa Inter-Mennonite Mission (AIMM), Mennonite Church Canada Witness, Mennonite Mission Network and Multiply are at the table.

    MCC
    AIMM
    MC Witness
    MMN
    Multiply

    MWC extends the invitation to all Anabaptist agencies working in the region to join the coordinated response. “We want to work in a cooperative and collaborative way,” says César García.

    MWC member church Communauté des Églises des Frères Mennonites au Congo (CEFMC, Mennonite Brethren) has 34 congregations with more than 4 000 members in the region . At time of writing, CEFMC reports 600 families from their congregations are among the tens of thousands displaced.

    Some of the people fleeing the violence are staying in camps in the region. Some have fled to other parts of the country where CEFMC, Communauté Evangélique Mennonite, Communauté Mennonite au Congo and Communauté Mennonite de Kinshasa congregations are offering assistance.

    Some have evacuated to nearby countries such as Burundi, Uganda and Tanzania where other Mennonites have been able to provide support.

    “The situation requires an urgent response but also a multi-year plan,” says Annie Loewen, MCC interim disaster response director. Food, shelter and hygiene supplies are critical needs now. Over the longer term, trauma healing resource and supplies to restore households will be needed.

    “We want to react swiftly to the needs of people in the region, but our response must be coordinated with other partners, to build on each others’ strengths and create synergies,” says Doug Hiebert, Multiply regional team leader for Sub-Saharan Africa.

    “Interdependent coordination between international agencies and local churches is crucial for long-term peacebuilding,” says Tigist Tesfaye, Deacons Commission secretary. “Please continue to pray for our brothers and sisters. Our solidarity in prayer is a key part of our response as an Anabaptist family.”

    Read the pastoral letter to DRC churches and add your own prayerful messages here

    A pastoral letter for Anabaptists in DR Congo

    Background

    As a global community of faith that exists to facilitate relationships between Anabaptist-related churches worldwide, Mennonite World Conference takes the initiative to call its members together for interdependent action when crisis strikes to avoid duplication and ensure cooperation.

    Starting in 2017, MWC facilitated collaborative Anabaptist response to disasters around the world. When catastrophic flooding affected 11 Mennonite Brethren congregations in Peru, several Anabaptist agencies were ready to provide assistance. MWC convened a six-month collaborative Anabaptist response between Mennonite Central Committee, MWC, ICOMB and Multiply (then-MB Mission).

    MWC facilitates interdependent response to flooding in Peru

    MWC brought together seven Anabaptist partners from North America and Europe to coordinate interdependent response to crisis in the Kasaï region of DRC.

    Anabaptists respond to violence and displacement in DR Congo
    Out of the horror, Kasaï survivors rebuild lives

    Also in 2017, monsoon floods washed through Nepal and parts of India and Bangladesh. Anabaptist partners MCC and Brethren in Community Welfare Society helped families recover their livelihoods, and provided shelter materials and supported repairs to homes.

    MWC responds in solidarity to disasters

    During the COVID-19 pandemic, Mennonite World Conference formed a task force with the support of more than 10 global Anabaptist agencies to respond to the needs arising from the pandemic in the Global South.

    MWC responds to COVID-19
    Global Church Sharing Fund
    a group of African people wave at the camera

  • Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada – “Our hearts were left totally destroyed…but thanks to MWC, who have come to visit us and have given us this uplifting and encouraging word, a word of hope and love,” says Antonio García Dominguez, leader of Conferencia Peruana Hermanos Menonitas.

    Mennonite World Conference and Mennonite organizations collaborated to live out faith with unified action in response to disasters that struck members of the global Anabaptist family this year.

    Torrential flooding caused by El Niño in Peru devastated homes and livelihoods of more than a million Peruvians. Together, Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), ICOMB (International Community of Mennonite Brethren), MB Mission and MWC facilitated the six-month appointment of Antony Sanchez to assess needs, coordinate response and training and equip the local churches to serve their communities.

    “The brothers and sisters from Peru were very welcoming, open, and eager to learn and to help,” says Sanchez. “I have been able to affirm their dreams and, together with these organizations, respond to their needs, highlighting their capacities and skills, always remembering that we are members of a global family. We are in the hands of God as well as being God’s hands to bring his presence and blessings to others.”

    MWC regional representative and trauma specialist Pablo Stucky visited in April and again with a Deacons Commission delegation (Henk Stenvers, Elisabeth Kunjam) in October.

    In DR Congo, a conflict brewing between tribal and political factions broke out into widespread violence in the past year, compelling more than a million to flee their homes, sometimes after family or neighbours were killed in front of them. Thousands of members of Communauté Mennonite au Congo (one of three Mennonite national churches) are living in the forest or have fled to other parts of the country and across the border to Angola, to refugee camps or the hospitality of local Mennonites.

    MWC is cooperating with MCC; Mennonite Mission Network; MB Mission; Africa Inter-Mennonite Mission; Caisse de Secours; Mennonite Church Canada Witness; Konferenz der Mennoniten der Schweiz (Alttäufer), Conférence mennonite suisse (Anabaptiste); and ICOMB on the delivery of strategic, locally sourced humanitarian assistance through churches and partners in DR Congo to some 200 families. [Click here for a more detailed update from MCC in English.]

    A Deacons Commission delegation is intended to visit Mennonite churches in DRC in December.

    “The Deacons walk with the churches, listening to their stories, praying and showing that the global church is in solidarity with them,” says Deacons Commission secretary Henk Stenvers.

    In August 2017, monsoon floods washed through Nepal and parts of India and Bangladesh, affecting millions and killing hundreds.

    Anabaptist partners MCC and Brethren in Community Welfare Society are helping 323 families recover their livelihoods (fisheries, vegetable farms and kitchen gardens), and providing shelter materials and mosquito nets. In addition, the project will construct 15 boreholes and provide support to repairs to homes of seven local Brethren In Christ staff.

    “These Mennonite organizations working together, unified in response, were a testimony of unity,” says Sanchez. Practically and spiritually, they release “a synergetic power. The Spirit working amid us creates more unity, and increases faith and confidence that God is our provider who takes care of us.”

    —Mennonite World Conference release

  • Bogotá, Colombia – Maria Justa Ipanaque (34) never imagined that she would ride in a helicopter. The small-scale farmer who lives with her husband Ezequiel Ramos Sánchez (40) and five children in Chato Chico, Piura, Peru, became trapped in her house 7 March 2017 when a burst canal released El Niño floodwaters across the plain.

    “I was concerned about saving the animals,” says Ipanaque. “Suddenly, I was trapped. The water had risen considerably, and it was impossible to get out.” Ramos swam 40 metres to safety, but Ipanaque stayed in the house for several days until she was evacuated by helicopter. “I knew nothing of Ezequiel, but I was confident that he was alive and the children were with my mother-in-law,” she says.

    Ipanaque and Ramos lost the rice crop they’d sown on their half-hectare plot, in which they invested approximately 3,000 soles.

    Months later, they are living in a tent on a lot they received from the government in Nuevo Paraíso, farther away from their farm. “We know that now we cannot live near the farm, but we can use it to plant our food and get some income.” They hope to build a home on their new plot.

    “God knows all our needs,” says Ipanaque, who continues to hope for a better life and more education for her children.

    The flooding, which affected the 11 Mennonite Brethren congregations of Conferencia Peruana Hermanos Menonitas (CPHM), killed more than 100 people and affected more than a million people, more than 19,000 of whom were still living in temporary shelter months later. Houses, education and health facilities, and sanitation infrastructure were damaged and many crops were destroyed, affecting livelihoods.

    Mennonite World Conference is facilitating interdependent disaster response with all Anabaptist partners to support the Peruvian MB church help their members and their communities.

    MWC brought together MB Mission, Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) and ICOMB to form a steering committee resulting in the appointment of Antony Sanchez as disaster coordinator for a six-month inter-Mennonite response, jointly funded by MCC and MB Mission.

    Previously experienced with facilitating church participation in community disaster response with MCC and Mencoldes (a development program of the Mennonite and Mennonite Brethren churches of Colombia), Sanchez will assess needs, advise and train the disaster response committee and local groups formed by CPHM, and communicate with the involved organizations.

    In the immediate aftermath of the flooding, MWC, MB Mission, ICOMB and MCC supported the Peruvian church to distribute water, food, kitchen utensils and economic support. MWC regional representative Pablo Stucky conducted trauma accompaniment and resilience workshops, and the MWC Deacons Commission provided funding.

    The inter-Mennonite effort will help CPHM provide humanitarian assistance to affected families in the cities and surrounding communities in Piura department and La Libertad departments. The project will include installation of water tanks in one community to improve basic health and sanitation; reconstruction and renovation of damaged homes for 55 families; and provision of support for the recovery of agriculture and other livelihoods for 50 families.

    In addition, the project will provide training in disaster preparedness, trauma healing, sanitation and capacity building for church leaders.

    The MWC Deacons Commission will send another delegation in October 2017 to encourage the church and offer more workshops in trauma healing, disaster preparation and health basics.

    MWC and the other Mennonite partners are “God’s blessing to us,” says CPHM leader Antonio García. “It makes us feel responsible and committed, this opportunity will be a blessing for the churches here in Peru and a testimony for the community. As a church, we share the needs of the community.”

    “I feel blessed and grateful to have five children and that everyone is preparing and educating in order to have a better condition of life,” says Ramos. He and Ipanaque are members of the Mennonite Brethren church in Chato Chico. They are one of the 105 families who receive support from the program to improve housing and rehabilitate livelihoods.

    “We thank God for the help we have received through the church.”

    —a joint release of Mennonite World Conference, MCC, ICOMB and MB Mission

    Donations can be sent to MCC marked “Peru Disaster Response” or donate at www.mcccanada.ca (in Canada) and www.mcc.org (in the U.S.).

  • Akron, Pennsylvania, USA – A collaborative Anabaptist response will soon reach some of the 1.4 million people displaced by armed conflict in the Kasai region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) with food, household items and shelter supplies.

    The response, shaped and implemented by Congolese Mennonite and Mennonite Brethren church-based relief committees and coordinated by Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), is supported by Mennonite World Conference (MWC) and other Anabaptist church organizations.

    The crisis began a year ago when a local militia group called Kamuina Nsapu and national security forces clashed over a political appointment. The armed conflict has escalated, and both militia and security forces have targeted civilians with forced conscription, mutilation, rape and mass killings.

    “It’s been hell on earth for a lot of our people, not only Mennonite people, but many peace-loving people in the same area that have gotten caught up in this maelstrom,” said Rod Hollinger-Janzen of Africa Inter-Mennonite Mission (AIMM).

    Among the people displaced in DR Congo are at least 8,000 Mennonites. “There is no place where this conflict has gone where there are no Mennonite churches,” said Rod Hollinger-Janzen.

    Church leaders report that 36 Mennonites have been killed among the UN-estimated 3,300 deaths since October last year. Church buildings and church schools have been damaged or destroyed.

    National and local Mennonite leaders in DR Congo – from MWC member churches – are key to the response, which will initially focus around the cities of Tshikapa in Kasai Province and Kikwit in Kwilu Province, where many people have fled. The leaders represent Communauté Mennonite au Congo (CMCo; Mennonite Church of Congo) and Communauté des Églises de Frères Mennonites au Congo (CEFMC; Mennonite Brethren Church of Congo).

    “MWC is playing in important role today: that of bringing the members of our Mennonite family together to promote unity and fellowship and to support one member who is suffering (the Congolese Mennonites,) using its arm embodied by the various partners, united in action so that they are more efficient,” says a Congolese church leader (name withheld for security reasons). “Through this action, Mennonites will be able to share the Mennonite values that are almost unheard of in the Congo. I think that our churches will enlarge their tent.”

    A Congolese assessment team visited the Kasai region in July and found a severe lack of food and increasing malnutrition. Families had to leave their fields and animals when they fled the violence, and food that is available for purchase is very expensive.

    “Many people are going hungry or eating once a day,” said Mulanda Jimmy Juma, MCC representative in DR Congo.

    In addition, families lack basic supplies such as bedding, kitchen tools and cans for carrying water, the assessment team reported.

    “MWC supports the Mennonite national churches CMCo, CEFMC and Communauté Evangélique Mennonite, and those in Angola who are also helping Congolese refugees,” says Deacon Commission secretary Henk Stenvers. “MWC links our struggling members to the global church with calls for prayer, financial support and by sharing information about the situation.”

    Seven Anabaptist organizations are working together to raise funds and awareness of the crisis, which has been largely ignored by Western media. They are International Community of Mennonite Brethren, MB Mission, Mennonite Church Canada Witness, and Mennonite Mission Network, in addition to MWC, AIMM and MCC.

    Contributions to the emergency response in DR Congo may be made online at mcc.org/congo-relief.

    – an MCC release with files from MWC.

    Communicate community

    As you pray for brothers and sisters suffering violence and displacement in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mennonite World Conference invites your messages of encouragement and solidarity to share with our churches there.

    Take a picture with your congregation and a sign labelled “Prions pour la RDC” (Pray for the DRC). Please email messages and photographs to photos@mwc-cmm.org and post on social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) with the hashtag #mwcmm.

    Send photos