We are all YABs, Young AnaBaptists!
This is to say that the term YABs refers to all young Anabaptists from MWC member churches. Though we have different faces, cultures, languages and ways of practicing our Anabaptist faith, all young people in the global Anabaptist family form part of YABs. What an extravagant gift.
Together we have much to share!
Just like the commissions and other groups of MWC, YABs also has a committee, the YABs Committee.
This committee represents all of us young people before the MWC General Council and works with the MWC Executive Committee.
The YABs committee is made up of a representative from each continent and a mentor. This committee changes every six years after the Global Youth Summit.
The YABs staff mentor for 2022-2028 is Ebenezer Mondez (Philippines).
The role of the continental representatives is to share the needs of young people in their continental regions with the YABs committee, and then to jointly discuss projects and themes related to young Anabaptists. The role of the mentor is to advise and monitor the work of the YABs committee.
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The YABs committee 2022-2028
North America representative
Felix Perez Diener
USA
Europe representative
Saskia Horsch
Germany
Latin America representative
Valentina Kunze
Uruguay
Asia representative
Kkotip Bae
South Korea
Africa representative
Isaac Nii Torgbor Gborbitey
Ghana
YABs staff mentor
Ebenezer Mondez
Philippines
History
The YABs network builds on the work of an earlier MWC youth committee called AMIGOS, which worked from 2004 to 2009 and planned a Global Youth Summit at the 2009 MWC Assembly in Paraguay. Based on this experience, a Youth Task Force was formed to develop a blueprint for the future. (See blueprint document.) The plan was formally adopted by the MWC Executive Committee in 2010 and the Youth Task Force was replaced by a Young Anabaptist (YABs) Committee with a representative from each of the five MWC continental regions.
This committee continues to work representing young people in MWC, facilitating connections and relationships among young people in the global church.
Learn more about YABs within the global church
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South Korean CO released from prison
Sang-Min Lee freed after 15 months in jail for refusing mandatory military conscription Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, USA – Sang-Min Lee, a South Korean Mennonite conscientious objector (CO) has been released from prison. Lee was sentenced to 18 months in prison for refusing, on the basis of his faith, to complete the government’s mandatory military service. According…
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South Korean CO asks: “Can I kill?”
GOSHEN, Indiana, USA — When 27-year-old SangMin Lee, a Mennonite conscientious objector from South Korea, was sentenced to 18 months in prison, the global Mennonite church community provided support in the form of letters and prayers. In early December 2015, Lee spoke with supporters at the Institute for the Study of Global Anabaptism and Goshen…
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New generation of YABs committee members
Bogota, Colombia – Five new young adults have been appointed to represent young people from their continental regions in Mennonite World Conference (MWC) on the Young AnaBaptists (YABs) Committee. Makadunyiswe Doublejoy Ngulube (Zimbabwe), Ebenezer Mondez (Philippines), Jantine Huisman (Netherlands), Dominik Bergen Klassen (Paraguay), and Larissa Swartz (USA) will have their first meeting as the new…
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Healing wounds through art: A YAMEN experience
Bogotá, Colombia – For Keila Viana, seeing how art can heal wounds deepened her understanding of God and his love during her international service in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. “I believe that during this time God worked a lot in my life,” says Viana, a 22-year-old young adult from the Iglesia Evangélica Menonita Camino de Santidad,…
