Update on Activities/Projects/Programs

Greetings from Mennonite Women Canada:

Now that we are a couple of weeks into the New Year it's time to let you know about what's happening in the various projects and programs we support through our Opportunities for Giving. This includes the Pennies and Prayer Legacy Fund (PPLF), Spiritual Growth Assistance Fund (SGAF), International Ministries, Short-term Ministries and our Publications and Communications.

I'm planning to do separate posts for the projects/programs listed above and hope to do one a week until they are all covered.

We'll also let you know about women's activities that happen across Canada in our five geographic areas: British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Eastern Canada.

Website Update:  Together with the Communications Department at Mennonite Church Canada we have been working on a fresh new look for Mennonite Women Canada's website.  It will be ready to be released in the next month or so. Some parts of it will likely need a bit more work but we are excited to be this far in the process. The links in this post are to the old website and I believe will switch over seamlessly to the new website once it is up and running. I will post an announcement here when we reach that point.

Thanks for visiting our blog and please leave a comment, suggestion or question below.

On behalf of the executive,
Liz Koop, President

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

www.leadinginworship.com

Merry Christmas from BC - Part two

MCBC Women's Retreat 2014

You can read all about it HERE but first.... get yourself a cup of coffee and some Christmas cookies because you will be in front of your computer screen for a while! :-)

Enjoy! 

Merry Christmas from all of us to all of you!

The Retreat Planning Committee - 2014

l-r: Rita Siebert, Cheryl Dyck, Waltrude Gortzen,

Kay Moua and Candice Corder.

In the centre is April Yamasaki - our weekend speaker

Missing is committee member Gloria Laurence

Christmas Day

Wishing you a joyous Christmas Day! 

Merry Christmas from BC - Part One

I know it's been a long time in coming but I purposely waited for the Christmas Season to come around before our 2014 Retreat reporting!

Here is the link for PART ONE ! Enjoy!

A Santa Sack big enough to hide a Committee member in! :-)
Found at the 2014 Annual MCC Festival in Abbotsfford.

Fourth Advent

The fourth candle – the angel’s candle – is lit, along with the first three, on the fourth Sunday of Advent, reminding the faithful of the heavenly host or large army of angels who proclaimed Jesus’ arrival with “Behold, I bring unto you good tidings of great joy!” The much-anticipated birth of Jesus on Christmas is just a few days away, the culmination of four Sundays of Advent that are imbued with hope, peace, love, and joy.  (from Manila Bulletin)

Third Advent

"Advent is a festival of lights.  

We light candles for four weeks to symbolize core elements of our faith.  

The lights shine in the darkness of winter.  

As servants of God we are called to be light to the nations."

(Carolyne Epp-Fransen)

Carolyne and her husband, Gordon, serve as MCC Representatives for Jordan, Iraq, and Iran and live in Amman, Jordan.  To read Carolyne's blog, "A Light to the Nations", posted on December 10, 2014 as guest writer for the MCC Ottawa office, please click here.