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Fresno, Calif.
New endowments fund leadership training in India


This November two endowments, each in the amount of $18,000 US, will be presented to Mennonite Brethren Centenary Bible College (MBCBC) in Shamshabad, India by MBMS International, the mission agency of Mennonite Brethren churches in Canada and the United States.

Interest earned on the endowments will provide salaries for faculty chairs in the areas of biblical studies, anabaptist and peace studies, history of Christianity, mission and evangelism, and others. They are the fourth and fifth in a series of nine endowments agreed to by the mission agency and MBCBC in fall 1999. Saji Oommen, MBMS International Director for Asia, will present the endowments during a visit to India.

In summer of this year, the Jost family completed raising the full amount for an endowment in the name of Phoebe Wiebe Jost Glanzer. Phoebe’s son Lynn Jost, professor at Tabor College in Hillsboro, Kan., taught in India for two months in 2001. He says of his mother, “She lived a modest life as pastor’s wife, single mom, nurse, and farm wife. She was a gifted church worker with good spiritual insights.”

The fifth endowment was raised with the help of the Hiebert family, whose involvement in India spans a century. Phyllis Martens recalls, “Rev. N.N. Hiebert, my great-grandfather, went to India in 1899 as the first North American MB missionaries. In 1928 my parents J.N.C. and Anna Hiebert went to the Hyderabad field and worked there for 15 years. Later my brother Paul and his wife Frances took up the baton. Their daughter Eloise Hiebert Meneses has also ministered in India. We are pleased to think that we can in a small way advance the cause of leadership training and honour the memory of a family engaged with India.”

The first three chairs were endowed in 1999: two in the name of missionary Mary C. Wall, who served as a missionary nurse in India for 42 years; and the third in the name of Werner and Elsie Ann Kroeker, who served in India for six years from 1995–2001.

Says General Director Harold Ens, “We are grateful that the legacy and ministry of former missionaries to India is able to carry on in this way and in doing so is helping to train up Indian leaders.”

Professor Delores Friesen at MB Biblical Seminary in Fresno is leading an effort to raise an $18,000 US “Global Sisters Chair” endowment for a chair of women’s studies at MBCBC. She and several female professors from Fresno Pacific University plan to raise interest in this endowment among women in MB conferences around the world.

MBMS International is also working with the Fresno Center for Peace Making and Conflict Studies to fund a chair in Anabaptist and Peace Studies at MBCBC.

A total of $72,000 is needed to fund four more chairs. If you are interested in being a part of this effort, contact your regional MBMS International office at (888) 866-6267 or e-mail mbmsi@mbmsinternational.org.

 – Megan Roberts

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Last modified November 30, 2002.

© 2002 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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