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Still alive, still married: The largest graduating class in the history of the Alberta Mennonite High School, which existed 1946–1964 in Coaldale, Alta., met for a reunion near Calgary June 20–22. A total of 37 students were enrolled in the Grade 12 class of 1955–56. All are living and none have been divorced. Class members sang, reminisced, and reflected on the school’s profound impact on their lives.
—report
Coordinator named: Ernst Weichselberger of Asuncion, Paraguay, has been named national coordinator for Assembly 15 of the Mennonite World Conference to be held in Asuncion July 13–19, 2009. Weichselberger directed Mennonite Voluntary Service and peace issues within the German Mennonite conferences in Paraguay for 17 years. Most recently, he served with Trans World Radio Communications in Paraguay. He will oversee all in-country planning for the MWC assembly.
—MWC
Most influential: Willow Creek Community Church was rated the most influential church in the U.S. in a recent survey conducted by Church Growth Today. The survey asked more than 2,000 non-Catholic congregations to recommend up to 10 churches they considered the nation’s most influential. Half of the churches in the list’s top 50 also happen to be member churches of the Willow Creek Association.
—WCA
DMI in Uganda: Ten people from B.C. joined 18 people from Kampala, Kassese, and Mbarara for two Discipleship Making International (DMI) campaigns in northeastern Uganda earlier this year. The first week, in Tororo, 71 churches participated, with 28 teams going out to share the gospel message each day. (Co-workers from local churches do the follow-up work.) The second week, in Busia, 82 churches were involved. “I feel so honoured God would be able to use me as part of the team to win so many to the Lord,” says participant Jake Janzen.
—MBMSI Global Bridge
Hear them roar: 102 combines roared down a field south of Winkler, Man. on Aug. 5, harvesting a quarter section of wheat in 11 minutes and 16 seconds to raise money for international children’s camps, setting a new record in the process. Event organizer Ray Wieler is a member of Winkler MB Church, former director of Winkler Bible Camp, and currently president of Children’s Camps International, an evangelical organization that promotes camping worldwide. He said tapes of the event will be forwarded to Guinness for acknowledgement of the record.
—Grand Forks Herald
A key leader of the China for Christ house church movement, Zhang Rongliang, has been sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison. He has already spent 12 years in prison for his religious activities. Zhang’s wife, Chen Hongxian, asks the international Christian community to pray for her husband. It is also reported that government raids of two house churches in Hubei and Henan provinces resulted in the arrests of about 80 Christians. Some were interrogated and released, others were released after 10 to 15 days in jail.
—Compass Direct
Loosening: Mennonite Church Canada delegates at their annual convention this July in Edmonton voted by an 80 percent margin to loosen local church membership requirements. This means any of the five area conferences can allow a local congregation to be a member of the area conference without being part of the national church as well. Area Conference Only Member (ACOM) status had earlier been temporarily granted to B.C. churches who wanted to leave the national church because some congregations in other parts of Canada accept practicing gay and lesbian couples. Delegates also started a process to petition the government for a peace tax alternative.
—Canadian Mennonite
More than 200 churches, including Mennonite Brethren and Mennonite Church Manitoba, are getting ready for “Manitoba’s evangelical event of the decade” when Franklin Graham comes to Winnipeg Oct. 20–22. The upcoming event has also drawn protest from some Mennonites because of strong pro-war statements Graham has made in the past. Event director Dan Klug insists Graham isn’t coming to “espouse his political opinions.”
—Winnipeg Free Press
A very long bike ride: More than 75 cyclists from across Canada are nearing the end of a two-month, 7,800 kilometre ride across the country to raise funds for the work of the Canadian Bible Society, which is celebrating its centennial year of translating, publishing, and distributing Scriptures in Canada. The journey launched July 2 in Victoria and intends to wind up in Newfoundland Sept. 3.
—CBS release
Christianity is outlawed in North Korea, aside from a few “show” churches in Pyongyang, yet it is estimated there are between 200,000 and 400,000 Christians in the isolated communist country. Rick Warren has been invited to preach in the capital March 2007, in conjunction with the 100th anniversary of the Pyongyang Revival. A delegation of South Korean businessmen working with North Korean representatives told Warren they had quietly received permission to hold the first public outdoor Christian service in North Korea in 50 years.
—Compass Direct, Evangelical Press Association
Turning point: 2007 will mark a turning point in human history, when the world’s urban population will for the first time exceed the world’s rural population, according to The State of the World’s Cities 2006/7, a report from the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN–HABITAT). The strain on urban infrastructure particularly affects the lives of poor people.
—internet
The credit union spirit: A delegation from the credit union system in the Ukraine recently visited locations in Manitoba and Ontario, including three days of meetings and learning with Mennonite Savings and Credit Union staff in Waterloo, Ont. Shawn Good, manager of branch operations, noted the group’s “passion and deep commitment to the same core philosophy” of assisting members. Ukraine, however, has “vast differences” in deposit and lending rates: deposit rates may be as high as 25% but farm lending rates are typically in the 50% range.
—release
“We are totally different, yet we can learn from each other,” said Sung-eun Kim, one of 13 participants (above) in Mennonite Central Committee Canada’s Summerbridge program who gathered for a conference in Winnipeg in June. The program enables people to support church ministries in their home communities for 8 to 17 weeks. Projects include supporting new Canadians who have arrived under refugee programs or taking a community survey to identify needs. Summerbridge this year included 6 participants from 4 Mennonite Brethren churches in Quebec, 1 from Richmond (B.C.) Chinese MB Church, and 3 from 3 MB churches in the Maritimes.
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The 12,000-seat soccer stadium in Chernovtcy, Ukraine was packed each night during a Viktor Hamm Festival of Hope, June 16–18. Total attendance was 44,600 with 2,248 recorded responses. A follow-up program is in place. While in Chernovtcy, Hamm met with local officials and church leaders and hosted a one-hour call-in TV show. Hamm serves with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, mostly in the former states of the Soviet Union. He has also worked with Family Life Network, Winnipeg, and MBMS International.
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Two-time Grammy-nominated rapper, Fresh I.E. (Rob Wilson), is touring inner cities and isolated aboriginal reservations to share his story of how Jesus freed him from gang violence and alcohol addiction. The tour grew out of the Warren Project, a suicide prevention disc Wilson and his wife Sheila produced in honour of her cousin, whom they lost to suicide. “In his rap, Fresh prays for his listeners to have the desire to live,” says Marshall Zacharias of Avante Records, a division of Family Life Network. The RCMP, as well as Manitoba and Ontario chiefs, have endorsed the project. (Call 204-667-9577 to sponsor a Warren Project CD for $10 for a young person needing hope.)
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