People & events

Steinbach (Man.) MB Church completed a building project in 2005 that gave the congregation a new office wing, Christian Education facilities and a larger gym. The old sanctuary, built in 1947, was demolished (a new sanctuary had been built in 1986) to make way for the new space. It was dedicated Jan. 23, 2005. “Happy voices now echo through the new Sunday school wing and handicapped members can easily access the spacious new library,” writes church reporter Sandee Pauls. “The new addition has given SMBC members a new place in which to build God’s kingdom.”

28 Mennonite Brethren women received travel scholarships from the Canadian MB Conference to attend the third national Leading Women Conference in Calgary, Mar. 2–4. Two women are attending from Saskatchewan, a first for the province. Willow Park Church, Kelowna, B.C. is sending a team of 6; Westwood MB Church, Prince George, B.C. is sending a team of 7. MBs are one of 14 partners sponsoring the event. For information or to register, see Leading Women.

Colorado Springs, Colorado, is now home to more than 100 evangelical church and parachurch organizations, and has been called the “Vatican for evangelical Christianity.” Leaders based there include James Dobson of Focus on the Family and Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals and pastor of the 4,800-member New Life Church. Colorado Springs aggressively courted Focus and other groups with economic incentives.

—Sightings

A conservative Mennonite couple in Spokane, Wash. whose five children were killed in a Nov. 1 head-on collision have a new baby “to again bring joy to their home.” A daughter, Jolynn, was born to Jeff and Carolyn Schrock on Dec. 14. The couple has given public witness of Christian forgiveness in the midst of their great loss. Mrs. Schrock visited Clifford Helm, whose vehicle crossed the median to strike the vehicle in which the children were riding. Mr. Schrock was seriously injured in the accident but is recovering.

—Mennonite Weekly Review

Ground was broken Nov. 27 for a new eye hospital in Asuncion, Paraguay. Christian Blind Mission International (CBMI) is partnering with “Programa Vision,” directed by Dr. Rainald Duerksen, to build the facility. Many people in Paraguay suffer from eye problems. At this year’s annual eye camp run by Mennonite volunteers in the Campo Nueva area, nearly 200 people came for help each day and 150 had sight restored with cataract surgeries.

—CMBI release

Last of six: Mennonite and other agencies around the world are again seeking the release of the last of the imprisoned “Mennonite Six” Vietnam Mennonite Church leaders by contacting government and diplomatic officials. Pham Ngoc Thach, 34, who served as chair of the church’s evangelism committee and encouraged churches of ethnic minorities in the highlands, will complete his two-year sentence in March. Supporters hope he will be released early as a goodwill gesture. The government has recently taken steps to permit greater religious expression.

—Mennonite World Conference release

Dried soup mix, rich in protein, is feeding millions of people worldwide through the efforts of the Fraser Valley Gleaners Society, based in Abbotsford, B.C. The Gleaners, whose volunteer force is mostly seniors, take excess produce off food growers’ hands, dry it and package it as soup mix. A new donated grain roller has already crushed about 25 tons of peas. The mix goes to international aid agencies like Mennonite Central Committee and Canadian Food for the Hungry International (CFHI).

—release

Actor Joaquin Phoenix, who played Johnny Cash in the movie Walk the Line, recently sang in Folsom State Prison, the scene of the musician’s famous 1968 concert. Prison Fellowship (PF), a group that runs Bible studies and educational programs in prison, sponsored the visit; Cash’s “whole life was a message of redemption,” said spokesperson Joe Avila. Phoenix also agreed to make a donation towards fixing the prison’s aging chapel.

—MSN Entertainment

Christmas was “dark” for Eritrean Christians, as up to 40 pastors, elders and lay leaders of the country’s outlawed evangelical churches were arrested in Asmara. All Christian worship except in officially recognized Orthodox, Catholic and Lutheran churches is forbidden there, even in private. At least 1,750 Eritrean Christians are confirmed in prison, some in torturous conditions. Orthodox Patriarch Abune Antonios remains under house arrest for opposing government interference in church affairs.

—Compass Direct

Anna Schellenberg of West Portal MB church, Saskatoon, (pictured with her youth leader Terry Friesen) went to Belize in December to distribute Operation Christmas Child gift boxes with Samaritan’s Purse.

The B.C. teacher’s strike turned out to be a blessing for H.O.P.E. Community Church, an MB church plant in Nelson. Locked out of the school where they met, the congregation secured rental of an older but very suitable Seventh Day Adventist building on an acreage outside Nelson. Average attendance is more than 60 and new people continue to come. Jeff Zak is pastor.

—BC Link

Mennonite Central Committee is actively reaching out to Spanish speaking evacuees of hurricane Katrina. At a December hurricane information and resource fair together with organizations like Telemundo, a popular Spanish-language television network, MCC distributed blankets, canned meat and health kits. “People raved about the blankets,” said MCC worker Tim Barr. “They were the first item we ran out of.”

—MCC News

Jason Peters has positively identified a rare first edition of the King James Bible in the University of Manitoba archives. The university knew the Bible was an early edition, but didn’t know how early until Peters, a 4th year English major at Canadian Mennonite University, Winnipeg, who is doing his practicum in the archives, was able to match over 50 errors in the first edition, as documented in David Norton’s A Textual History of the King James Bible, with errors in the university’s copy.

The next mystery Peters wants to solve concerns a note attached to the Bible that says it is believed to have been the property of King James himself. No one knows who typed the note and why.

The Bible was in a collection of rare Bibles donated to Winnipeg’s St. John’s College in 1897 by Anglican Rev. Daniel Greatorex of London. The Bible is both rare – there may be only one other like it in Canada – and valuable; original first editions have sold for more than $400,000 U.S. at recent auctions.