Reflections

Vol. 2, No. 1 -- Fall 1999

Table of Contents

The Passion-filled life of the Ministry Team!....Len Friesen
Return from Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia....Erica Jantzen
Editorial: Terrible Twos?.... Sam Steiner for Editorial Committee
Connecting abroad: Daryl Culp .... Daryl Culp
"Peacemaking is not easy..." .... Elsie Flaming
Humour: Church Bulletin Board Bloopers
"The call of autumn" .... Helen Reusser
WNMC supports Sunnydale .... Gary Chard
Connecting abroad: Carla Snider
From your church library...
"Reflections" .... Jim Reusser
Decorating a Christian Christmas Tree
Children's Page

The Passion-filled life of the Ministry Team!

Len Friesen

What is your passion? What is it that drives you at the very core of your being? Countless answers present themselves: a happy home and a long life; money; possessions; enduring friendships; the elimination of the national debt; more church growth; exotic holidays to distant lands; or perhaps quiet evenings and a good book. How might you answer? No doubt for many of us it would be a combination of passions, brought together, buffet-style, to form the core of who we are.

One of our "projects" at Ministry Team this fall has been the sharing of our respective passions. In the normal pattern this autumn, one of us begins the evening by taking twenty minutes or so to talk about anything that we have been led to say. A time of silence has often followed, and some conversation. But why would we do it in the first place?

It’s certainly not because our time together is ever in need of more agenda! In fact, one of the truly rewarding aspects of being part of Ministry team has been the opportunity to see God at work in many, many ways at Waterloo North. That being the case, we have never run out of things to occupy our time and energy!

But so many of us at Waterloo North have come to appreciate that church-work requires deep reservoirs of energy, and that things are done best when we ourselves are renewed in the process. Ministry Team is no different. For example, we often end our meeting time together by reminding ourselves of how God has been present in the course of the evening, and then

to turn these reminders over to God in prayer. We often begin our time together by identifying what we are bringing with us into the meeting: has it been a good day, a frustrating one? Does your life feel out of control? Again, each one names what needs to be named, and then we turn it over to God’s all-encompassing care. Only then are we ready to begin.

Except, that is, for the start of the past several meetings, when we’ve taken turns sharing our individual passions. In the process, we’ve heard reflections on new visions of church ministry, for ministry as a life’s vocation, for a passion that is life itself, and for a passion that is nothing less than figuring out what that passion might be! All this, and we still haven’t heard from everyone!

Sharing in this way has allowed for a greater level of intimacy within the Ministry Team, as often happens when we share openly of whom we are, and seek to become. It also has allowed us to celebrate the various gifts that each one brings to our collective ministry at Waterloo North, and to see how one person’s passion might either complement or overlap another’s. And to do so, finally, has served as a powerful reminder of God’s ongoing presence and life-shaping energy in our lives.

So what’s your passion?

-- Len Friesen

Return to Top

Return from Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia

The invitation to teach ESL in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan (formerly part of the Soviet Union) from April to July gave me the chance to get to know the homeland of my parents. I soon found my way around Bishkek (earlier Frunse), the capital and the largest city of Kyrgyzstan. Travelling by bus, although crowded, was easier than taking a taxi where one had to negotiate the fare and state one’s destination in Russian.

To reach the university took twenty minutes or an hour, depending on the traffic and the state of repair of the bus. I taught two classes of bright high school students and some small groups of faculty members. I also taught at Hope Academy, an English primary school.

I enjoyed the city of Bishkek for its many trees, museums, art gallery, concert and opera halls. It was most interesting to attend different churches on Sundays.

I convinced my house mate Virginia that driving to Osh, the second largest city, would be more interesting than taking the one-hour flight. The distance "as the crow flies" is approximately 300 km over stunning mountainous terrain. The land route is much longer, with four mountain passes well over 3000 meters high, two frustrating international border crossings through Uzbekistan, plus long stretches of road construction. We left at 4 am and arrived at 10 pm.

A craggy mountain, named Solomon’s Throne, looms over Osh. It is a place of pilgrimage for devout Muslims where the prophet Muhammad is said to have prayed. Located on the Silk Route, Osh will celebrate 3000 years of existence next year.

Another highlight were two visits to the village my parents called home until 1929. On my first trip, in an air-conditioned car, we started at 4 am and stopped at a public eating place for breakfast at 8. My three student companions ordered shashlik (meat on skewers) and lepöshka, Kyrgyz bread. I asked them what Kyrgyz usually ate for breakfast. "Whatever is left over from supper," was the answer.

It was May 9^th and Victory Day, celebrating the end of World War Two. My travel companions stopped to greet their relatives. Since the Kyrgyz are most hospitable people, this usually called for sharing a meal. I tasted Kumiz, the national drink of fermented mare’s milk and was served a lot of mutton. On the way to Talas we were invited to three family celebrations where each had slaughtered a sheep. We stopped with two more on the way back. Often, upon leaving, the hostess presented me with a colourful kerchief. One time I received piece of shocking pink material, "to make a beautiful dress," my student interpreter explained.

In my parents’ village stood a new shiny silver statue of Bakai Ata, a hero from the famous Manas Saga. In 1880 my people called the place Köppental. Later it was renamed Romanovka, then Leninpol, and now Bakai Ata.

Everyone was on the main street on Victory Day. My student interpreter introduced me to some people who nodded and smiled. "Nobody speaks German," he said. "All Germans have left" (my relatives in Germany had told me that, too).

The double rows of poplar trees along the main street were still there and looked just like the pictures in the family photo album of the time before 1929. Irrigation canals still flowed between the rows. There were mud-brick houses and mud-brick walls. We continued to drive through the Talas Valley with its awesome mountains on both sides and below, the gentle sloping land, fertile wherever irrigation ditches supplied water. I caught a glimpse of the beautiful Talas valley that my parents had talked about so often and I experienced the spacious, infinite azure sky.

My second trip was an eight-hour bus ride with Alma-chan, a Kyrgyz lady whose relatives in Talas had extended an invitation. My Kyrgyz host family made every effort to find some German Mennonite connection in Bakai Ata. In the end, I merely translated into English a prescription of a German medication. Altynai, my capable young interpreter, translated it into Russian for the supposedly German family.

For the noon meal we stopped at the home of the one the sisters of my Kyrgyz hosts. After washing our hands, we were ready to eat Bishparmok, five-finger food--noodles with meat cut into bite-sized pieces and onions sprinkled on top--eaten as the name implies.

In the afternoon my Kyrgyz hosts offered to show me the Christian church, but the gate was locked and a high wooden fence surrounded the building. I climbed a mound and snapped a picture.

At the edge of the village lay the cemetery. I had looked forward to visiting it, but it was beginning to rain. As the rain came down harder, we decided to leave. After all, I had seen where my parents once lived.

-Erica Jantzen

Return to Top

Editorial: Terrible twos?

ith this issue Waterloo North Reflections begins its second year of publication. We’ve appreciated the affirmation and cooperation we’ve received the past year. We’ve especially welcomed the voluntary contributions – such as the article on Christmas tree symbols submitted by Barbara Lehto for this issue.

We request your help in several areas – someone to shape a regular Waterloo North "Profiles" article about the fascinating persons who worship at Waterloo North; someone to take on a similar task within the youth group; and a creative soul to work with us on a regular children’s page.

In the initial issue published last fall, the editors set a number of goals: to keep the WNMC community informed on issues through a regular column by Ministry Team members, to highlight "workplace and faith" articles, to keep members living at a distance in touch with the local WNMC fellowship, to help to know one another better through feature profiles, and giving children and youth their own opportunity to express themselves to the larger church community. How are we doing?

We welcome your suggestions and volunteers who have energy for the creative process. Special thanks to Rockway Mennonite Collegiate for use of their computers in production this past year.

- Sam Steiner for Erica Jantzen, Arnold Neufeldt-Fast and Esther Regehr

Return to Top

Connecting Abroad: Daryl Culp

I've been teaching here in Lithuania for two months now, and am starting to feel comfortable in this very new environment. As a first-time college teacher, I've had to adjust to the pressures of class preparation, setting tests, and marking. When I got here, I was also conscripted to chair the General Studies department (Philosophy, History, etc.), so that has meant a lot of additional meetings. The workload feels overwhelming sometimes, because the college tries to do so much with so few faculty resources (all of them volunteers).

The teaching experience is very rewarding, though. I have quite small classes, and the students are very motivated to do well. Many of them see this college education as their ticket for success, either because learning English will give them an edge, or because they are in the business program, learning North American theory and practice.

I'm teaching philosophy, and both of my courses are electives. This means that the students are there because they want to study the material. I have covered some classes for my colleagues who are teaching required courses, and there students were talking in the back corners, so I appreciate my seminar-style conversations with my students.

At times, I realize that I am teaching a very Western style of philosophy. My students don't really like the strict logic displayed by Descartes, Hume, and others. There is a general sense that emotion and intuition are an important part of human experience, and contribute to knowledge, if not grounding it. I suppose that many people in the West think this as well, but academic philosophy tends to concentrate on arguments and reasons for thinking something is true.

One of my students said the other day that this sort of objective thinking fell with the collapse of the Soviet system. Under communism, students were taught the correct way to think, and were presented with an objective, scientific system of knowledge. Now, Lithuanian society is open to all sorts of ideas coming from the West (New Age, postmodernism, feminism), and people are exploring their new-found intellectual freedom.

This student is the secretary of the Baptist Church in Lithuania, and is very concerned that Christians not adopt these philosophies, but rather stay true to the Biblical gospel. He is not an evangelical in the North American sense, preoccupied with maintaining a set of propositions to believe about God, or even insisting on a certain style of worship. There are students at the college who belong to American-planted evangelical churches who exhibit that sort of attitude, but in general, I have found Lithuanian evangelicals to be quite open-minded.

There are also many Catholics studying at the college, as well as some Russian Orthodox. I should explain that many ethnic Russians come to the college (almost half of the student population) because they don't speak Lithuanian well enough to get into the universities. About ten per cent of Lithuania's population is Russian, most of them here on the west coast, because that is where the Soviets settled them. The inland portions of the country were controlled by Lithuanian partisans fighting a guerilla war from the interior forests for the 20 years after WWII.

The college tries to set an ecumenical tone, although that tends to be done in an evangelical style. The chapels consist of praise choruses and inspirational talks (although I don't go much, so they may be more varied that what I've seen). Theology courses are not taught from a denominational perspective. This presents an interesting dilemma to the government authorities, to whom we are applying for accreditation. Theology faculties in Europe are almost always confessional, that is, tied to a particular denomination. Where does the "free church" fit in?

Klaipeda is a small city about the size of K-W, but it is quite removed from the other major cities. It's a three-hour drive to Vilnius, the capital. I was in Vilnius for a few days over the mid-term break, and thoroughly enjoyed its museums and concert hall. It looks much more developed than here, and it was a little depressing to come back to this rather provincial town. However, I am finding that there is a lot of music going on here, especially at Klaipeda University. I have been to several concerts in their small concert room, including a folk-music concert played on traditional instruments.

I welcome your e-mail. If you wish to read more reflections on my experiences, take a look at my website at http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Cathedral/2448.

- Daryl Culp (darylculp@yahoo.com)

Return to Top

"Peacemaking Is Not Easy..."

When I read these words by the 16^th century Anabaptist Peter Riedeman, I am reminded of the story my mother often told us of when she was a young child.

My mother was born at the beginning of this century in the Ukraine, which was part of Russia at that time. In the late 1700s Mennonites arrived there from Prussia upon the invitation of Catherine the Great of Russia. They settled the colonies of Chortiza and later Molotschna. In time, with their large families, land became scarce and Schönfeld, a daughter colony of Molotschna, was established. That is where my mother’s grandfather bought an estate from a Russian nobleman. Here was a place for his sons to make a living and raise their families at a time of peace and prosperity.

This all ended when the Russian Tsar and his family were killed and the Russian Revolution of 1918-19 began. Civil war and anarchy reigned. In the area where the Tiessen family live, gangs of bandits and their leader Nestor Machno roamed about, robbing and pillaging ruthlessly. Many members of our Mennonite families were killed.

Often they came at night. My mother, who was about ten years old at the time, remembered many nights when their dogs started to bark. They knew someone would come to the door, knock and demand money, food or horses. They would take just about anything they found attractive.

One night it happened again—the barking dogs, the rude knocking at the door. With fear and trembling, and prayer—the only weapon they had—my grandparents went to the door. Some of the children crowded around the parents. My mother held her father’s hand as he opened the door. The bandit pointed his gun at her father’s head and demanded money. "I have no money, it has all been taken from me earlier," he said and pleaded with the bandit.

My mother remembered that she had hidden a few coins that she received at Christmas. She quickly ran to get them and offered them to the bandit. He appeared to be taken aback and had tears in his eye as he looked down at the little girl. His gun fell to his side as he bent down to give her a kiss on her forehead. He left without doing any harm. Once again the family had felt the nearness of God in this night-time terrorism. As was their custom following these experiences, they knelt down to give thanks to God for protection

Our Mennonite belief does not allow us to harm others, even our enemies. My grandfather held fast to this belief despite the danger he and his family endured. He did not practise revenge or physically retaliate, in correspondence to the apostle Paul’s exhortations and Peter Riedeman’s reminder. It was with difficulty that my grandfather and many of his fellow Mennonites kept true to their faith. Some were unable to live up to these high ideals and established the Selbstschutz, an assembly of armed men who aimed to protect their people. However, this attempt came to a disastrous end.

Years later, when my mother visited us on the farm and heard the dog bark at night, it always brought back the memories of the fear and terror of those nights long ago in Russia. But my mother’s lasting impressions about those times were her father’s steadfastness and continued trust in God. About the bandit, she said, "He must have had a little girl my age and my action toward him melted his brutality. For a moment he became a gentle human being and that saved my father’s life." Most of all, mother was thankful that her whole family could come to Canada and for the Mennonite brothers and sisters of the Waterloo area who received them in 1924, just 75 years ago.

- Elsie Flaming

Return to Top

Humour: Church Bulletin Board Bloopers

- From: "CMC Talk," September 18, 1999

Return to Top

The Call of Autumn

Have you heard the call of autumn?
Has it reached into your soul --
The yellow and the crimson and the gold?

Have you stood midst autumn glory
With a south wind in your hair,
And the maple, oak and gum aflaming there?

Have you heard the blue jay screaming
At his mate across the wood,
And seen chickadee and nuthatch finding food?

Have you watched the squirrels busy
Hiding caches for the winter,
and the chipmunk gath’ring hickories for his dinner?

Have you watched a golden hickory tree
Just gleaming in the sun,
And the corn shocks standing stalwart one by one?

Have you loved the fruit of autumn,
Grapes, apples, pears and plums,
Squash, melons and tomatoes from the ground?

Have you seen bittersweet awinding
Up a fencepost near the road,
And the pumpkins lying golden in the field?

Have you walked among the falling leaves
With rustling step and slow,
And smelled the smoke of leaf fires circling low?

Have you heard the call of autumn?
Won’t you listen? Tis so clear,
And the God of autumn -- He is here!

Do you know the God of autumn?
He invites you all to come
To his glorious harvest home.

- Helen Reusser

Return to Top

WNMC Supports Sunnydale

It's now 2'/s months since Sunnydale Community Resource Centre opened its doors. What a whirlwind start it has been!

Our Grand Opening was well attended by Sunnydale residents and local politicians. The Sunnydale Community Association, who planned this event, expressed thanks to representatives from the House of Friendship, which provided a coordinator, and North Waterloo Housing, which donated the townhouse. Without the partnership of these two groups this community resource centre would not have been possible.

Waterloo North Mennonite Church has also supported the Sunnydale Community as an active member of The Group of Seven + Lakeshore Churches, helping us convert a townhouse into the community centre, assisting with the Grand Opening, the Summer Fun Program, etc. Others have donated many items to the centre. Waterloo North's Angie Koch is our competent Lakeshore Churches Steering Committee representative.

The joint mission and outreach project by local churches is definitely making a difference in the Sunnydale Community. The Group of Seven + Lakeshore Churches recently helped to support "A Family Affair Getaway Weekend" at Camp Ganadoweh in Ayr. Forty residents enjoyed a camp experience for the very first time with activities for the whole family. Children were busy with craft activities, fishing, high ropes, basketball and football. Each night ended with a campfire and marshmallow roast. The campers cooked their own meals and did the cleanup. What a team! Everyone agreed that they wanted to come back again next year.

At present there are several programs running in our centre, most of which need volunteer support. If you are interested, call me at the centre at 883-1410. The programs are as follows:

1) English as a Second Language: Mon. to Fri., 1-3 p.m. (teacher assistants needed);
2) Preschool Program: taught by a qualified E.C.E. teacher, Mon. to Fri., 1-3 p.m. (teacher assistants needed); 3) Mother Goose Program: a storytelling and nursery rhyme interactive program for parents and preschoolers, Mon. 10-11 a.m., led by a peer health worker (volunteers needed );
4) Just Me and the Kids Program: a parenting program for single parents and their children;
5) The Good Food Box Program: provides fresh produce at reduced cost on a monthly basis, sponsored by the Food Bank.

In January two new programs will begin. First, a "Homework Study Hall" will be offered once a week for students from Grade 3 to OAC who wish to get extra help or do homework with one-to-one assistance from tutors (volunteers required). Second, our computer training room will be open and provide computer instruction for those in need in the community. Basic word processing, resume writing skills and how to "surf the net" will be taught (assistants required).

Recently we were thrilled to learn that our application for a Youth Services Canada Grant from Human Resources Development Canada was approved. This will allow us to hire another full time coordinator and 10 community resource workers beginning in December. They will do outreach into the community, support existing programs, spend time assisting students at Cedarbrae School and develop a range of youth programs for Sunnydale.

The Sunnydale Community Association has also applied to become part of the "Safe and Sound" project sponsored by the Community Safety and Crime Prevention Council of Waterloo Region. Three communities will be chosen to be part of this pilot project designed to build neighbourhood capacities and implement strategies to prevent crime and increase community safety. Selected neighbourhoods will be informed in early December.

It has been gratifying to see so many groups and individuals work as a team in support of the Sunnydale Community. Even our Waterloo North Children's Sunday School will support the initiation of youth programs in January with their offering project. The letters in TEAM really do stand for "Together Everyone Achieves More!"

Thanks again to the Missions and Service Committee, Angie Koch, and each of you for supporting this project.

- Gary Chard

Return to Top

Connecting abroad: Carla Snider

I had hoped to write much sooner but have been very busy since arriving here. As many of you will remember, I started my one year YIP (Youth Internship Program) assignment with MCC back in September of this year. My original assignment was to work as a literacy tutor / counsellor at a school called Girls’ Town ... and to some degree, this is what I am doing!

After my arrival at Girls’ Town, I spent two weeks "substitute teaching" a class of young women, ages 15-17. Upon the return of the teacher (--my supervisor, no less), I was informed that all the "slow learners" from the three first-year classes were being put together in one class for me to teach this year! So much for tutoring! On the first day of the new class, I had 19 students and wondered just what had changed. Now I had 14 fewer students, but they were students with much higher needs! In addition to the fact that I have no training in the art of teaching and no curriculum or textbooks to follow, I have students who can’t necessarily read, write, count, or recite the alphabet! Others can read but can’t add or subtract.

All of the students at Girls’ Town have dropped out of their previous schools for one reason or another. Teenage pregnancy is a common reason, as is poverty and bad behaviour. Education is a privilege here, not a right; and Jamaican teachers are strict authoritarians!

Girls’ Town was started 35 years ago by a woman who wished to give these girls a second
chance in life! Here, during the first year they learn the basics of math, English and perhaps social studies, science, or civics, depending on the interests of their teacher (no curriculum, remember!). Then, in their second year the girls choose a skill area: food prep, garment construction, or cosmetology. Most of them come from ghettos or shanty towns and have little or no money to spare. They have many chores at home and sometimes young children to look after. Others who come from children’s homes themselves, are often victims of abuse.

My job is a newly created position of MCC Jamaica. As a result I am often frustrated by a lack of knowledge and supplies, in addition to exhaustion from dealing with the girls’ daily behaviour problems and incessant demands for attention! These times, however, contrast with some truly wonderful experiences, such as when a student gets something right for the first time and the whole class bursts into spontaneous applause. Or when the class teaches me a new recipe, saying, or word and we laugh together!

Kingston is a very intriguing city. Jamaica as a whole, is a place of beautifully blue crystal-clear waters, lush green rainforests, mountains, and wonderful tropical flowers all year round. The flip side is the poverty, begging, pollution, violence, and crime. Such has been my experience: extreme contrasts between magnificent scenery and downtrodden people. I can’t really say I am getting used to things, especially the constant reality of being on display (as I walk, talk, eat, anything!) but I do enjoy the challenges I daily encounter. Taking taxis or "pickpocket express" buses to work, provides regular amusement. The attitude is, "Let’s see how many people we can cram in today without attracting the attention of the police!" Likewise, I enjoy the smiles from women I have met on the street, and the sense of accomplishment when a student "gets it". These are all priceless gifts that I truly cherish. These people just seem to bubble over with life!

I now know that God had a hand in sending me here, and that I made the right decision in coming! At times when I wonder WHY and struggle to continue, I remember the saying we have above our kitchen sink: "The next time you are called to suffer, pay attention. It may be the closest you ever get to God" (Max Lucado). Or, as 1 Peter 4:12-14 puts it, "Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that is taking place to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice in so far as you are sharing Christ’s sufferings, so that you may also be glad and shout for joy when his glory is revealed" (NRSV). I would appreciate your continued prayers as I struggle onward. I also wish to thank the church for the hymnal, which we use here to calm our souls and minds, and remind us of home!

-Carla Snider

Return to Top

From Your Church Library...

Check Out The New Resources In Our Church Library Today!

New Books