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Winnipeg, Man.
Parenting tips in Low German


New cassette tapes on parenting and a booklet on family planning are finding a receptive audience among Low German-speaking Mennonites in Mexico and Canada.

The parenting tapes follow John M. Drescher’s basic parenting book, Seven Things that Children Need. The four tapes speak about children’s need for significance, security, acceptance, love, praise, discipline and God.

Anne Peters, who works with Mennonite Central Committee Canada’s Kanadier Concerns Women’s Program, translated material from the book into Low German and recorded it onto cassette tape last fall. One hundred sets of tapes were ready for distribution in January.

When Peters visited Mexico recently, she was surprised by the interest. “We took 40 with us, which I said was way too many. But I could easily have taken another 40,” said Peters. “The response was so good. I had not expected that.” She said one woman told her she listened to all four tapes in one day.

Peters first taught simple parenting courses near Cuauhtemoc, when she and her husband Abe volunteered with MCC in Mexico 1995-98. She said, “Every time I went back there someone would say, ‘When are you putting those lessons on tape? We’ve forgotten everything you taught us.’”

She said the tapes were probably the best thing she could do from her Winnipeg office for Mennonite families in Mexico. The first 100 sets are almost gone, but another 100 are being produced. The tapes will also be played on a local radio station in Cuauhtemoc.

Meanwhile, a new booklet on family planning, “Family According to God’s Plan” (Familie Nach Gottes Plan), is being distributed in the Mennonite colonies.

The High German booklet was prepared last fall by Aganetha Rempel de Quintana and Valerie Dyck de Pandeli, two Mennonite nurses born and raised in Mexico. MCC is paying for the printing of 700 copies, along with some other expenses.

Again, Peters said the response has been positive. One woman asked for more than 15 booklets to give to all her daughters and daughters-in-law.

While the booklet is not available in all the colonies, copies have been given to a number of local doctors for distribution. As well, an English translation is being planned.

“There has been no German information available in print on family planning in the (Mennonite) colonies before this,” said Peters.

The booklet “Family According to God’s Plan” is available for $3.00 and the parenting cassette tapes “Seven Things that Children Need” for $28 from the provincial MCC offices.

 – MCC Canada

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Last modified June 4, 2001.

© 2001 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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