BARKMAN UPDATE - JAN 2018

Here is the update from the Barkman Family dated January 25, 2018.  

Please continue to pray for them as they transition from the 

Philippines back to living in Canada.

Hello friends and family,
Check out my latest blogpost about our upcoming move. Click on the link below. 
Thanks for the love and prayers,
Christina and Darnell

http://darnellandchristina.blogspot.com/2018/01/loss-of-their-world.html

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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DIRKS UPDATE

For five years, Nathan and Taryn Dirks served as Mennonite Church Canada workers in Gaborone, Botswana, nurturing relationships with young people through a variety of efforts ranging from prison ministry to sports. Their term has ended, and they have now returned to Canada with their young son, Malakai. Thank God for the dedication of Nathan and Taryn, and pray for God’s blessing as they discern what the future holds. 

(from PrayerNet, July/August 2017)

BARKMAN UPDATE

It looks like I missed posting this notice of Christina and Darnell Barkman's Update from July.   I found it when I went to post a more recent update which I just received yesterday.  I'll post that one tomorrow. 


The Barkmans have sent the following update:  Greetings, friends and family! Attached you'll find our latest newsletter ... and Peace Church's most recent Weekly Prayer Bulletin that Kathleen Limayo, Peace Church member and staff, has been putting together. 

Thank you for your continued prayers and support as we serve in the Philippines! 

With love,

the Barkmans

The newsletter and the prayer bulletin have been posted to our website at

http://women.mennonitechurch.ca/barkman

BARKMAN UPDATE

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 most recent newsletters from January 2017 and April 2017 are now posted on our web site under NEWSLETTERS. 

Christina writes: Check out our latest blog post at darnellandchristina.com, where we share some exciting news :)

Nathan and Taryn Dirks - Update

A while back, Waltrude Gortzen, our BC Women's Ministry Rep, sent a video link which featured the work that Nathan Dirks, Mennonite Church Canada Witness Worker in Gabarone, Botswana is involved in. Nathan and Taryn are recipients of our Pennies and Prayer Legacy Fund. The video titled 'Youth Innovators' is about 25 minutes long and interviews the various persons involved in the Pula Sports Development Association who are responsible for the development of the Bontleng Futsal Park in Bontleng, Gabarone. Nathan is the Project Manager and explains how the project involves the community and strives to be sustainable by using water collection, sewage techniques, bio-toilets, and solar power.  

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO

   

Nathan and Taryn Dirks - Update

Nathan and Taryn Dirks are recipients of our Pennies and Prayers Legacy Fund (PPLF). The following news release was recently published by Mennonite Church Canada.

For Nathan and Taryn Dirks, ministry in Gaborone, Botswana, is all about relationships. But ministry by relationship is hard to measure, so they’ve creatively translated some of their good news into numbers.

For almost five years, the Dirks have served youth and young adults from local African Initiated Churches (AICs) through their role as Mennonite Church Canada Witness Workers, in partnership with Mennonite Mission Network and local churches. Following community needs and initiatives, they focus on development and Bible teaching. They organize local volunteers for prison ministry and a school for special needs children, and they coordinate development projects, most notably Bontleng Park. This green, sustainable initiative supports urban agriculture and sports, and has revitalized an abandoned area in a disadvantaged area of Gaborone.

As they complete their last 6 months of service, the Dirks reflect on some of the successes achieved through local partnerships, by number. Nathan and Taryn complete their ministry term in June, 2017.

Here are a few of the numbers they've shared: 

46 prison inmates at First Offenders Prison, Gaborone, completed a certificate program offered by Mennonite Ministries in Botswana.
18 students graduated from the Inter-Church Ministries Botswana 3-year Bible study program.
42 students have already signed up for the 2017 program.
7 prison inmates will begin a Masters-level theology program by distance this year.

To read more, please CLICK HERE.

Scootering to School in Manila

For Christina Bartel Barkman and her son Cody, switching from a car to scooters has pumped new energy and insights into their morning commute to school. Deborah Froese of Mennonite Church Canada writes about the impression this is making in Manila. Read the article here. 

Christina Bartel Barkman and her husband Darnell Barkman are giving pastoral leadership to Peace Church Philippines, a new Anabaptist church in Metro Manila. They have also been invited by the Integrated Mennonite Churches (IMC) of the Philippines to serve as mentors and provide regular resources for the youth programs of Mennonite churches in Luzon.

Christine and Darnell are recipients of Mennonite Women Canada's PENNIES AND PRAYER LEGACY FUND.

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 most recent newsletters from September 2016 was recently posted on our web site under NEWSLETTERS. 

In an email to friends and family, Christina and Darnell wrote to friends and family as follows......... "I wrote about the thousands of extra-judicial killings endorsed by President Duterte, and today, as I'm about to send this update, we hear that the one person in Senate who has been speaking up against these unjust killings was voted out of her position. See this link for more about it. We are appalled and fear the loss of democracy here, as everyone seems to be giving 100% support to a president who is telling his people to kill all the drug users. 

Thanks for the prayers, and hope you are all well."

They also have a BLOG where you can read more about their 

life as a family, their joys and their challenges.

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 newsletters from April 2016 and July 2016 were recently posted on our web site under NEWSLETTERS.  They also have a BLOG where you can read more about their life as a family, their joys and their challenges.

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 (January 2016) was recently posted on our web page under Newsletters.  They also have a BLOG where you can read more about their life as a family, their joys and their challenges.

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.