India’s MB women find spiritual connection at 50th jubilee

For 50 years, women from Mennonite Brethren churches in India have gathered for fellowship, leadership workshops, and times of celebration.

Their golden jubilee celebration of the MB Women’s Conference held in Jedcherla, Mahabubnagar Jan. 10–13 was no exception, as several thousand representatives, many the lowest caste of Dalit women, travelled from churches across the country arriving with banners, choirs, Bible trivia competitors, and entrepreneurial workshop leaders.

Wendi Mooney (left) and Amy Janzen visit with women and children from the India MB Women’s Conference.

Throughout the week, there was dancing, singing, reports, testimonies, and sermons on evangelism, church history, and social action early each morning till late at night. One of the skits laughed at cross-cultural faux pas with North American missionaries.

“It was a time to celebrate the ways God has honoured and blessed them through the work of women missionaries,” said Delores Friesen, professor of pastoral counselling at Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary (MBBS) in Fresno, Cal. and the only Western keynote speaker. “It was very much an evangelical gathering, but also a time of joy.”

Friesen and MBBS students Wendi Mooney, Jennifer Brazil, Amy Janzen, and Erin Bader braved the 22-hour flight to India to spent time in people’s homes, tour a local hospital, and meet with Shamshabad Bible College students and faculty, which included leading a chapel and sharing in counselling classes.

“We’re on a journey of faith together,” said Friesen, who found spiritual connections and the bonds of Christian sisterhood in the beautiful, friendly faces of Indian women as they joined to celebrate their success and support their work. With little writing on the work of Indian women, Friesen hopes more historical research on the group can be done in the future.

—MBBS release with files from AS