Personal observations of the Mennonite World Conference Assembly

My first knowledge of Africa came from a missionary – Susie Brucks. She was ordained by the Yarrow MB Church and sent to Africa in 1944. I recollect her being in Yarrow, B.C. during her first furlough and telling stories and showing artifacts she brought back from Africa.

How things have changed from those early stories and pictures. Yet many of the needs are the same.

We (I was travelling with my son) arrived in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe on Friday, August 8, in time to attend some General Council meetings and the meetings of the Global Mission Fellowship, both convening prior to Mennonite World Conference Assembly Gathered. Other MB delegates visited other African countries prior to, or following, the sessions in Bulawayo.

How does one convey the spirit and the colour of thousands of people gathered together to worship, pray and discuss? Colour photos help but they are flat – the Assembly Gathered was a multi-dimensional event.

• It was exciting to see the spirit with which our African brothers and sisters worship. They get into it with their voices and their bodies, but in a wholly natural way.
• It was also interesting to listen to their songs. Many were western hemisphere hymns, but ones that spoke of longing for the heavenly “home”.
• Listening to the deliberations about whether the name of Mennonite World Conference should be changed to include the word “communion” or “community”, one realized how words have different meanings in different cultures and that they are not always translatable.
• Listening to the many conversations going on at any one time in the hallways, hearing the many languages spoken, and not being able to identify them all gave one a sense of the immensity of the Mennonite world.
• Seeing people in their beautiful native dress was a delight to the eye.
• Trying to keep track of all the different countries on the nametags was almost futile, since there were always new ones popping up.
• Getting to meet people involved in so many different agencies and realizing the enormous influence these agencies are having, made one proud to be associated with them.
• Seeing the energy of the youth at their Youth Summit meetings and the way they integrated (with colour and language barriers broken down) made one realize that the Mennonite world has a great future.

A few additional miscellaneous observations:

• A Zimbabwean young man was the interpreter for the Spanish speakers. He had been educated in Cuba.
• There were numerous parent–son/daughter teams at the Assembly – mostly because of the youth summit that preceded the actual convention. There were also many families present – mostly families who had at one time served in Africa with MCC or another agency and now wanted to show their children where they had lived.
• It was the end of winter and everything was dry and barren, although there were also some very beautiful flowers blooming.
• We were introduced to the Zimbabwean method of song writing, although most of us learned African songs by rote, rather than by following their system.
• Public transport was not very evident, so we noted many dusty paths leading to the church.
• This was probably the first MWC assembly where the moderator asked delegates to turn off their cell phones.
• It was probably also the first MWC assembly where Scripture reading was done from a Palm Pilot.
• Offering baskets were large – and they were filled with large amounts of paper money.
• Many Africans involved in the services were able to alternate between their native language and English quite effortlessly.

—Susan Brandt