Leaping Ahead from Shaky Ground

The following is an update from Mennonite Women Canada.  We do not have our 'CONNECTIONS' newsletter ready for printing yet, but decided to go ahead and post this article written by Shirley Redekop, our President, and Elsie Rempel, our Secretary-Treasurer.  It will also be part of our next 'CONNECTIONS' which we hope to publish in late November/early December.  

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Waiting in the Toronto airport to fly to the Special Assembly in Winnipeg, I (Shirley) saw a poster on the wall saying, “when the ground beneath your feet is shifting, do you stand still or leap forward?” Since I was thinking about opening devotions for our Executive meeting, I felt a nudge from God saying this should be my focus.

Following the Assembly, Mennonite Women Canada Executive, plus several other women leaders met together to discuss what changes may happen for us. We chose Leaping Ahead from Shaky Ground as the theme for our next newsletter.

We were relieved the motion we presented resulted in a commitment from MC Canada to continue to keep us under their administrative umbrella and welcome our women’s meetings at future nationwide gatherings. Tany Warkentin has been our administrative financial support staff at MC Canada. Her position will end at the end of November and we will so miss her caring and helpful spirit over and above her financial help. We wait to hear how we will be supported in the new structure. Thanks Tany! God’s blessings!

Coreena Stewart (CAO for MC Canada) was a valuable support to MW Canada helping with Assembly planning for our meetings throughout the years. We took time to reminisce, share thanks, laughs, tears, and send her with a blessing for her new ventures. We happily accepted her willingness to volunteer for us in the future.

Waltrude Gortzen, a long-term executive rep for MCBC Women's Ministry, announced she will step down from her leadership role in the spring. What a significant gift she has been in so many ways! We will miss her in this role. Thankfully she agreed to continue on the Communications Committee, along with our past president, Liz Koop.

We were pleased to welcome June Miller from MC Alberta, who also agreed to be a part of the Communications Committee. Kate Janzen is the executive rep for MC Alberta.

Mel Harms continues as the rep for MC Sask. Kathy Giesbrecht, staff at MC Manitoba represented MW Manitoba, since they don’t have a president as yet.  Since WMCEC is also looking for a lead coordinator, Carmen Brubacher (program chair) joined us.

We are supporting two women through our Spiritual Growth Assistance Fund (SGAF). Hyunhee Kim, a North Korean Christian who escaped to South Korea and is now studying Peace Studies at CMU, shared some of her story with us and thanked us for the support. Marlene Wiebe is in Chaplaincy Studies at CMU and sent her thanks. Watch for their stories in video on our blog.

International Ministry Projects continue even through this time of flux at MC Canada, with changes expected regarding funding. Information sheets and/or videos about these workers will soon be available. Because of resettlement expenses we will continue our support of Christina and Darnell Barkman until FYE 2019. We will also continue supporting Tom and Christine Poovong during this transition.

We chose to add SouYoun Park/Bo Ki Kim in South Korea as our preferred possibility to support through our Pennies and Prayer Legacy Fund (PPLF) until FYE 2019.

We plan to continue producing the Women's Bible Study Guides although we need to adjust to new realities. Menno Media can no longer ship individual copies from Harrisonburg to our congregations, so we deliberated how best to do this in the future. CommonWord Bookstore in Winnipeg is willing to order, distribute, and provide a discount for us. Please direct your group and individual orders to Arlyn Friesen Epp, director of CommonWord  at afriesenepp@commonword.ca  This will be more reliable as structures and staffing at the denominational and regional level change. Carol Penner from Vineland, Ontario is the writer for the 2018 BSG: Every Day Worship.

Nationwide and the Regional Churches are working on a joint website. That site will have a page that brings us back to the Mennonite Women Canada Blog.  Any information from our current page on the Mennonite Church Canada website will be transferred to our blog. Anyone is welcome to write for our blog. Or if you've got other ideas, or have a story about your group, please share them on our Mennonite Women Canada FaceBook and blog pages.

Our income this year is down to about 80% of what we received in the first nine months of last year. Mennonite Women Canada's work will continue with relatively minor changes as our denomination restructures. As a matter of fact, we can be proactive in keeping International Witness workers serving joyfully by committing to support them through MW Canada and by lobbying our congregations to come on board as congregational partners. We continue to need your donations!

MW Canada is exploring new ways for women to connect and belong.  One of these ways is a Women to Women: Sharing Together Tour to Tanzania in August 2018. The participants will join with Tanzanian Mennonite Women leaders, learn more about Sister Care Seminars, building bridges between us. Shirley Redekop will be a tour leader. More information on the tour is on the Tourmagination website.

The next nationwide gathering of Mennonite Church Canada is planned for July of 2019; MW Canada is leaping forward to another wider gathering of Mennonite Women Canada there.

Please continue to pray for the painful changes at MC Canada and the staff that are affected; also for new beginnings for nationwide and regional churches and women’s groups as we trust in God to be beside us as we leap. 

May you find connection and belonging through MW Canada!

~ Shirley Redekop

~ Elsie Rempel

(For more information about the work of MW Canada please follow the coloured, highlighted links.)

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Tom and Christine Poovong - International Ministry Project

The following in an excerpt from the Poovong's April 2016 Prayer Letter.  

We greet you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. It has been a very busy year for us in Thailand and also back in Calgary where we call home. We thank God for His grace and mercy to give us strength to continue this ministry. We would like to thank our partner congregations for your prayers and support, including First Mennonite Church of Saskatoon, Carman Mennonite Church of Manitoba, Mennonite Women Canada, and our home congregation Trinity Mennonite Church of Calgary, our brothers and sisters at the Lao Mennonite Conference churches, as well as our friends and family.

Last year, in partnership with two local families, we started Menno Nursery, an income generation ministry in a different neighbourhood. We have now closed that first nursery location and moved most of the supplies and materials to the church where we continue to provide a nursery service in our church neighbourhood. Now other families have joined us and we plan to start Menno Nursery again here at the church.  

To read more about their work click on April 2016 Prayer Letter.

 

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.

Tom and Christine Poovong in Thailand

Join the Ride for Refuge (October 3) in support of Tom and Christine Poovong as they provide holistic pastoral leadership to the Maliwan Mennonite Church, an emerging Christian community in Khon Kaen, Thailand.  Check out the VIDEO HERE where Tom shares about their ministry.

Tom and Christine Poovong

Recipients of our International Ministry Project for this year.  

Pray for the growth of Menno Nursery, an initiative of Mennonite Church Canada workers Tom and Christine Poovong and the Maliwan Mennonite Church in Khon Kaen, Thailand. Pray especially that enough families will bring their children to this nursery so it can grow as a business and as a ministry to the wider community.

Mennonite Church Canada offers a short term ministry position as a nursery child care worker under the direction of Tom and Christine.  If you are interested in learning more about this position click on nursery child care worker above.

Tom and Christine Poovong

Mennonite Women Canada supports Mennonite Church Canada workers, Tom and Christine Poovong, in Khon Kaen, Thailand, through their International Ministries Project.   In their October 2014 newsletter Tom and Christine ask for prayer as they strive to build relationships and lead people to become disciples of Christ.  "Pray that the Lord will use us to minister to many people in this community."   

The Poovongs will celebrate the grand opening of Menno Nursery on December 1, 2014.  They write: "It is a ministry to reach out to young family. The ministry includes teaching English, pray for the children, read Bible story to them, and get them ready for preschool.  The Nursery will also help to build relationships with their parents with kindness, love, Joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, and faithfulness. We are planning to take in six children from age 1-3 years old to start with. Christine will be the first to lead this ministry so please pray for her that the Lord will give her strength and wisdom, pray that the Lord will bring local worker. This too is part of what we are doing in Thailand is to teach them to become disciple maker and be able to have their own business and do ministry at the same time. It is called “Income Producing Ministry”. Please pray for our grand opening on December 01/2014."

Their full newsletter is available for you to read on our website at Mennonite Church Canada. 

If you would like to donate to this or any of our other projects you can do that on-line.  Please check out our "Opportunities for Giving".    

Tom and Christine Poovong

Tom and Christine are current recipients of our International Ministries Project.  A while back Dan Dyck, Mennonite Church Canada's Director of Communications shared some background information about Tom and Christine in an article called "A matriarch, a passion, and the gospel".  Click here to read how Tom's passion for the gospel developed and how he and Christine are answering God's call to ministry in Khon Kaen, Thailand.  

Poovong Family Update

About a month ago I posted the following information about Tom and Christine Poovong, pictured here with their children, Phimchanok and Joseph.  Mennonite Women Canada is supporting their ministry among the Isaan people of northeast Thailand. 

Tom and Christine will provide pastoral care, Biblical teaching, preaching, income generation and entrepreneurial development with the goal of equipping new believers to take on leadership of the church.  A related ministry would be to start a bilingual (English/Thai-Isaan) preschool both as a business and as a relationship building ministry in the community. 

We will be sharing their prayer letters on our website under the heading Poovong Update.  You can read about their joys and challenges as well as their specific prayer requests.  
They also have a Facebook page which you might want to visit.  

Please remember them in your prayers!