{"id":6811,"date":"2019-04-11T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-04-11T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mwc-cmm.org\/praying-through-the-decades\/"},"modified":"2024-12-10T18:40:52","modified_gmt":"2024-12-10T18:40:52","slug":"praying-through-decades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mwc-cmm.org\/en\/stories\/praying-through-decades\/","title":{"rendered":"Praying through the decades"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A Sunday school assignment in the 1940s to exchange letters with a missionary began a Canadian woman\u2019s a lifelong investment in prayer for India.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThus began my interest in India,\u201d Erla Buehler writes in a letter to MWC.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat spark continued to grow into a flame,\u201d Buehler writes. At Ontario Mennonite Bible School in the 1950s, it grew as she learned about William Carey and the missionary movement.<\/p>\n<p>Her dream to visit India came true in 1997 when her niece\u2019s Indian-born husband led a tour to the Mennonite World Conference Assembly in Kolkata. Listening to speakers on the theme \u201cHear what the Spirit is saying to the Churches\u201d was \u201cinspiring, uplifting, wonderful.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Lena Graber, photo supplied\" data-src=\"https:\/\/mwc-cmm.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/lena_graber_picture.jpg\" style=\"--smush-image-width: 479px; --smush-image-aspect-ratio: 479\/689;width: 200px; height: 288px; margin: 5px 10px; float: left;\" width=\"479\" class=\"smush-dimensions lazyload\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\u201cAssembly Scattered in addition to Gathered was also eye-opening,\u201d Erla Buehler writes. The group visited the Mennonite Central Committee centre and an orphanage project.<\/p>\n<div>\u201cWe were also privileged to be billeted in private homes,\u201d she writes. \u201cIt still amazes me how the Holy Spirit was active in putting this all together.\u201d<\/div>\n<p>When she returned home, Erla Buehler tracked down Lena Graber and resumed correspondence. She praised God to learn of Lena Graber\u2019s work starting nursing schools in India and Nepal where she was one of the first Mennonite Board of Missions workers.<\/p>\n<p>Today, Erla Buehler learns of the church\u2019s work through the MWC Prayer Network email. By special request, she receives it every two months mailed to her in hard copy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll these years and still there is a marvellous network of faithful praying believers building the kingdom of God.\u201d This 88 year-old continues to be part of it.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u2014A Mennonite World Conference release by Karla Braun<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Sunday school assignment in the 1940s to exchange letters with a missionary began a Canadian woman\u2019s 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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10901,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"network":[],"eventcategory":[],"class_list":["post-6811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Praying through the decades - Mennonite World Conference<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/mwc-cmm.org\/en\/stories\/praying-through-decades\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Praying through the decades - Mennonite World Conference\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A Sunday school assignment in the 1940s to exchange letters with a missionary began a Canadian woman\u2019s a lifelong investment in prayer for India. 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