Dec 31, 2015

NEW YEAR'S PRAYER OF HOPE

Lord, we stand at the door of this New Year,
thankful for the year behind us,
a gift through which we’ve lived and moved.
At this timely threshold,
with our feet poised to walk into 2015,
we turn to you with our prayer of hope.

Hope springs eternal when we walk with you.
Help us walk this year with you.
We hope that this will be a year filled
with joy, with love, with laughter,
a year filled with plenty and abundance,
with purpose and fulfillment.

But if the year brings hard times and hurt,
pain and sorrow, tears and trials,
we know that your care and comfort
will console us month by month.
Grace us with forgiving spirits.

As a community help us walk
with the happy and the sorrowful,
holding their stories tenderly.

We hope for peace in our time,
for an end to wild war music.

We long to hear the sound of governments
listening to their people,
heeding their pleas for justice.

We long to hear the sound of the children of the world
cheering together because peace has been declared,
and they do not have to fear anymore.

We hope for healing for our beloved earth,
for harmony and balance where we have caused
disharmony and unbalance.

This year, Lord, help us to feel in our bones
the beauty of this life, this world;
its sounds and sights and smells and tastes,
the lavishness of being
which you give us in seconds and minutes
and hours and days and weeks and months.

Move in us, have your way with us,
so that on the last day of the year
we can say, wholeheartedly,
this year has been a gift
through which we’ve lived and moved
as followers of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Copyright Carol Penner




Dec 22, 2015

My Creative Contemplative Journal - April Yamasaki and Lois Siemens


The following is from an article in the Canadian Mennonite, Dec 14, 2015 issue:

"April Yamasaki and Lois Siemens have collaborated across the miles on a second creative project. In 2014, the women, who are pastors of Mennonite Church Canada congregations in British Columbia and Saskatchewan, respectively, joined forces to produce the My Sacred Pauses Daybook, combining text from Yamasaki’s book Sacred Pauses with Siemens’s photographs. This year, they have combined their talents in My Creative, Contemplative Journal, pairing Siemens’s photos with text from Spark: Igniting Your God-Given Creativity, which Yamasaki wrote for Mennonite Women Canada and MW USA." 

You can read the entire article HERE. 

My Creative, Contemplative Journal is available online at loishelendesigns.ca/categories/journal/

Dec 18, 2015

Barkman's latest newsletter

Darnell and Christina Barkman, along with their children Cody, Makai and Teyah, are Mennonite Church Canada Witness workers in the Philippines. They are current recipients of our Pennies and Prayer Legacy Fund. 
Their newsletter (October 2015) was recently posted on our web page under Stories/Interviews/Profiles. They also have a BLOG where you can read more about their life as a family, their joys and their challenges.

As we celebrate Christmas let's remember to keep our ministry partners in our prayers. Christmas can be a difficult time for them as they are far from relatives and friends back home.

Dec 17, 2015

Tom and Christine Poovong - International Ministry Project


Tom and Christine Poovong, Mennonite Church Canada workers in Thailand, report that the Lao government has now given permission for Christians in Laos to celebrate Christmas in public during the whole month of December. While they are not permitted to hold public church services, they are excited for this new opportunity to celebrate Jesus’ birth. (from a Mennonite Church Canada report)

You can connect with the Poovongs through their facebook account.

As we celebrate Christmas let's remember to keep our ministry partners in our prayers. Christmas can be a difficult time for them as they are far from relatives and friends back home.

Africa is for babies! ~ Nathan and Taryn Dirks

In a reflection about becoming parents while living in another culture, Nathan Dirks wrote the following:

"As newlyweds embarking on an international ministry assignment, Taryn and I soaked up as much southern African mission knowledge as we could…..So after a term of our own in Botswana, we thought hey, why not give it a go?"

To read the entire reflection follow THIS LINK

Nathan and Taryn are recipients of Mennonite Women Canada's PENNIES AND PRAYER LEGACY FUND. Keep in touch with them through their BLOG!

As we celebrate Christmas let's remember to keep our ministry partners in our prayers. Christmas can be a difficult time for them as they are far from relatives and friends back home.