By Mark von Kampen
Back in the early 1990s, when I began serving as a youth and young adult minister, a young woman from the congregation told me that she was dreading the approaching Christmas season. All the glitter, all the songs of joy and peace, all the smiling faces—she just couldn’t get into it. “I hate Christmas,” she said. Continue reading When Christmas Feels Like a Barren Desert
by Loreena Thiessen
When someone asks, “Who are you?” what do you say? You tell them your name, of course.
Your name identifies you. It was chosen especially for you. It sets you apart. It may also show something of your personality. Continue reading Who Do You Think You Are?
Convention 2019 part two of four
by Layton Friesen
Praise God for the Bible, the very Word and words of God! At the core of being simply Christian is the ancient Christian experience that in the Bible we meet our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. All the Church wants to do, ever, is see Jesus. Continue reading Reading a Hard Bible for Signs of Jesus
By Rod Friesen
As I worked this morning (drywall taper), I had a question on my mind. Or, to sound more spiritual, it was on my heart.
Am I Awe-Full? As in, am I full of a sense of reverence and awe? My mind, as I worked, was questioning the word awful, and I was confused as to its origin and how it came to mean, in common use, something terrible. That is a bit off track, but it led me to this place: Do I live in a sense of reverence of our Creator and Sustainer? Continue reading Awe-Full: Remembering a Catholic Service from 29 Years Ago
by Terry M. Smith
A cartoon of years ago pictured a man seated in a pastor’s office. The pastor looked at him and said, “Give up your life of crime. Quit politics.” The Bible is the inspired Word of God; it is also a library of books written across many years in varied cultures, countries, and political contexts—which affects what political lessons we can take from it today. Continue reading The Spider Web of Scripture and Politics
Editor’s Note: This article is written by Abe Giesbrecht, the missions director of our sister conference—the EMMC—with which the EMC works as part of the MEM ministry in Bolivia.
by Abe Giesbrecht, Missions Director, Evangelical Mennonite Mission Conference
VILLA NUEVA, BOLIVIA – It was not that many years ago that our EMMC congregations first became aware of this new community being formed. Villa Nueva came about as a result of work being done with Low German Mennonite families who were no longer a part of the colonies in the area. Continue reading Villa Nueva Nurtures Families in Bolivia
By Andrew Reimer
In Ezekiel 34 God describes how his people are like sheep that have been abandoned by their shepherds and are “easy prey for any wild animal” (v. 5). Similarly, people who are marginalized or have experienced complex trauma are vulnerable to predatory forces. Over the past five years my teammates and I have witnessed crystal meth addiction become one of the most destructive forces preying on vulnerable people whom we know and care about. Continue reading Meth and the Holy Spirit—Imagine!
