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 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Transition for International Witness ministry
June 5, 2019
 Winnipeg, MB - Jason Martin, Director of International Witness for Mennonite Church Canada, will conclude his service on July 31, 2019. Jason has been in this role since October 2017. Prior to that, he was one of the Witness Engagement staff team for two-and-a-half years, serving Eastern Canada.
“It has been a privilege working for Mennonite Church Canada and with its great staff team as well as being able to serve in a role deeply connectedtointernational mission,” Jason states.
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June 5, 2019
 Dear MCA,
As I travel around Alberta I must say I am enjoying the vibrant green of the fields and the leaves on the trees. There is an amazing beauty to the landscape at this time of year. As the summer approaches, the whites and greys of winter have become a distant memory.
Before thoughts shift fully to summer events and vacation time, I am writing to update you on the Vision 20/20 process. The Vision Reference Group has met with Betty Pries, and are sifting through our work from our Delegate Sessions last March. At the time we had identified five main themes. We have taken these themes and further refined them into the following three areas of focus:
- Prayer, prayer practices, and spiritual nurture point to
our relationship with God.
- Deep community, character, and core commitments focus on
our relationship with each other.
- Mission, ministry, and the deep longings of time relate to
our relationship with the world.
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Camp Valaqua is looking for an RV or trailer to borrow for the summer. Accommodation space is always at a bit of a premium for staff and volunteers in summer.Contact Jeff Schellenberg at manager@campvalaqua.com.
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May 31 - June 15
Edmonton (Treaty 6) to Calgary (Treaty 7)
treatytalk.co
Walk for a day! Attend a nightly treaty conversation!
See complete schedule.
You can follow their May 31 to June 14 journey on the Pilgrimage for Indigenous Rights Facebook page (www.facebook.com/pfirCanada/) or by searching the hashtag #walkforcommonground on most social media platforms.
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Day 4 of Walk for Common Ground. Interview of Cassidy Brown by Steve Heinrich, Director Indigenous Settler Relations at Mennonite Church Canada. Cassidy is along for the full 15-day walk from May 31 - June 14. Bergthal Mennonite Church in Didsbury, AB is her home congregation. She currently attends Canadian Mennonite University
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The Communications Hub
 Curious to know how will the new Communications Hub benefit your church?
More than a website, the Communication Hub also will host online registration, online giving, and connections to our Alberta-wide and Canadian-wide families.
Website
Capabilities: photo galleries, blogs, vlogs, sermon uploads, social media integration, story and new sharing with other churches and regions across Canada, multiple languages
Benefits: user-friendly, training and ongoing support, requires little technical knowledge
Online Registration
Capabilities: register for events, organize meals for sick, build forms or questionaires.
Benefits: User-friendly, streamlined, no third-party software, payment integration
Online Giving
Capabilities: receive donations or payments, generate tax receipts, track memeber donations, accept all major credit cards
Benefits: safe and secure, intuitive user design, private and personal portal
Connections
Capabilities: resource center - worship and christian education, forms; International Witness, partner schools, camps, and ministries; build bulletin from news feed
Benefits: one go-to location for everything, broader family connections
Timeline: Communicator and Executive Staff Group (ESG) meet June 10-12 for prep and organization. Summer 2019 - regional churches (i.e. MCA) will migrate data to new site. Fall 2019 - pilot launch of select churches and camps. Full roll out - TBD.
Contact June Miller (jmiller@mennonitechurch.ab.ca) for more information.
Download Brochure
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Interested in supporting MC Canada Witness?
 Jeanette Hanson, Associate Director for Mennonite Partners in China, will be at Trinity Mennonite Church in Calgary 3-5 pm on June 8 to talk about involvement in Witness Support Teams. She will also be able to answer questions about congregational partnerships and the work of Witness in building the church around the world. More info on Jeanette’s own  Witness ministry can be found at https://donate.mennonitechurch.ca/project/ChinaMinistry. Please RSVP to Will Loewen at 403-256-7157 or office@Trinity.MennoniteChurch.ab.ca . Note that a Witness Support Team is being put into place in support of Tom and Christine Poovong’s ministry work in Thailand and Laos. This would be the perfect opportunity to find out more about being involved.
In Edmonton, Jeanette will be at Holyrood June 9 during the morning worship, and at Bethel Oromo at their afternoon worship.
*NOTE: Beginning August 1, 2019, Jeanette Hanson will serve as Interim Director for International Witness. See press release.
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Hike-a-thon 2019
Join us for a great day of hiking to raise funds for Camp Valaqua!
We'll be hiking Nihahi Ridge. The trail to the ridge is a 4km (one way) trail with elevation gain. The option exists for adventurous hikers to continue further along the ridge and return via an alternate route.
Hikers recruit sponsors to raise funds. MEC gift cards will be awarded tofund raisers who raise $250 or more. Awards and door prizes, an event t shirt, and a hot dog lunch are included in the $20 registration fee.
Registration will open at 9am and the hike will start at 9:45.
Registration Form
Download sponsor form here.
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Garden Party – June 16, 2019
10:00 am -2:00 pm
Come and celebrate our corner of God’s Garden. We will have an outdoor worship service at 10am (feel free to bring lawn chairs, weather permitting) and then provide a lunch and a chance to participate in a few camp activities as well as to wander around and explore. The event is a free of charge. A free-will offering will be taken to help cover the costs.
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Heritage Retreat - June 12 - Camp Valaqua
“The Age-old Ways of Local Aboriginal Culture – Songs & Stories: Rituals & Reasons”.
This is your annual 1-day Heritage Retreat @ Camp Valaqua. Featuring elder Alvin Manitopyes on Wednesday, June 12. You may have just immersed yourself in the Mennonite culture at the MMC Sale or ladies’ weekend retreat. Delve now into the culture of our longest-time neighbor, the aboriginal community. ‘Reconciliation is the center of our work.’ $30/person. Registration 9-10am, incl. Lunch & Snacks, ends at 4 pm. A fundraising event for Camp Valaqua. EVERYONE WELCOME! Contact Ruthanne Friesen to register - ruthannagetsmail@gmail.com.
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REGISTER NOW!
Join the Canada-family gathering!
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June 28 - July 1
 The opening worship for Gathering 2019* will kick off in Abbotsford, B.C., on June 29 at 2pm!
This inspirational time is a gathering of our Canadian family. Come be inspired & help ignite the imagination of the church!
* Gathering 2019 is comprised of multiple elements:
Main Gathering (Sat 2pm - Mon12pm), Leaders Gathering (Pastors and leaders), Delegate Gathering (appointed by MCA), Women's Gathering (Mennonite Women luncheon), Camp Squeah Gathering (youth overnight).
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 Dr. Elaine Heath, says the greatest challenge for the western church today is to “regain a gospel-centric imagination.”
At Gathering 2019, Heath will consider how the emergence of new expressions of church “can open our collective imagination.”
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Walk for Common Ground
May 31 to June 14, 2019
from Edmonton (Treaty 6) to Calgary (Treaty 7)
More information
Walk Schedule Released
The Walk for Common Ground is journeying through Treaty 6 (Edmonton) and Treaty 7 (Calgary), bringing Indigenous, unionist, and church friends together to nurture Treaty understanding and relationship.
Treaty Conversations: Every night from 7-9 be hosted in the community.
Stops include: Beaumont, Leduc, Red Deer, Bowden, Carstairs, Airdrie
Walk for a Day: Starting & ending locations and times are posted on the website treatytalk.com Or download here.
For questions or more information please email Steve Heinrichs at sheinrichs@mennonitechurch.ca.
Current MCAers walking: Jacob Froese (Trinity); Caleb Kowalko (First Calgary); Cassidy Brown (Bergthal); and Jim Shantz (First Edmonton)
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Calgary First to host final Vision20/20 phase
Phase IV - Incarnating God's Call
November 1-2 Calgary First Mennonite
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2019 Calendar
May 31-Jun14 Walk for Common Ground
Jun 7-9 MCA Women's Retreat @ Sylvan Lake
Jun 8 Witness Support Team info session @ Trinity
Jun 9 Witness Support Team info session @ Holyrood
Witness Support Team info session @ Bethel
Jun 12 Annual Heritage Retreat @ Valaqua
Jun 15 Valaqua Hike-a-thon
Jun 16 Valaqua Garden Party
Jun 29 - Jul 1 MC Canada Gathering 2019, Abbotsford BC
"Igniting the Imagination of the Church"
Jul 28-Aug1 Shake: Rattled by the Radical @ Shekinah Camp SK
Nov 1-2 Vision 20/20: Phase IV - Incarnating God's Call
Mar 20-21, 2020 Annual Delegate Sessions
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Please continue to pray for Reuben Tut, pastor of the Edmonton South Sudanese Mennonite Church. For the past two months Reuben has been in the University of Alberta Hospital due to complications arising from tuberculosis. Recently he was also diagnosed with pneumonia. Pray for his return to health, for his family, and for the church as they miss his leadership.
Pray for MCAers who are participating in Walk for Common Ground May 31 - June 14:Cassidy Brown (Bergthal), Jacob Froese ( Trinity), Caleb Kowalko (First Calgary), and Jim Shantz (First Edmonton).
Pray for the MCA's Women's retreat June 7-9; for women attending; for the leadership; and for the speaker, Irma Fast Dueck.
Please keep MCA’s Vision: 20/20 process in your prayers. The themes, ideas, and challenges identified by our process point to a renewal of our relationship with God, with each other, and with all the world. As individuals, congregations, and as the MCA family, may the coming months prepare us for the next steps in our process of renewal.
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Please pray for Allegra Friesen Epp, CMU student and intern with MC Canada’s Indigenous-Settler Relations program, as she co-leads the Walk for Common Ground: “As I embark on this journey, I ask that you pray for strength to engage to difficult conversations, energy to facilitate evening gatherings after a long days of walking, and the courage to stay true to the work God is calling me to.”
Workers coming for Canadian visit: Witness workers, Tom Poovong, Dann Pantoja, and Bock Ki Kim will be visiting Canada briefly this summer to share stories of God at work in their ministries with Canadian congregations and to mobilize their Witness Support Teams (WSTs). Each WST will nurture relational connections and prayer support, and assist in ensuring full funding for each Witness program. The WSTs will also encourage ongoing connections with the global church.
Mennonite Church in Columbia helping Venezuelan churches:The Mennonite Church in Colombia is a significant support to the Mennonite Church in Venezuela. The Colombian church plans to send two people to visit and take medications and some additional grinders for grains. Many of the Colombian Mennonite churches have received Venezuelan refugees. The Venezuelan churches continue to be deeply involved in serving people in hospitals, on the streets, and in their communities.
Connections forming with Bru people in Thailand: Witness workers Tom and Christine Poovong tell recently: Laos is a closed country, but God has opened a door for ministry among the Bru people, a tribal group living on the mountain near the Vietnam border. Every three months several Bru people visit Tom and Christine in Khon Kaen for discipleship training. The vision God gave the Poovongs for Laos is to make disciples who will also make more disciples. Tom and Christine are praying that God will use the Bru people to establish many peace communities in their region.
Pray for Jinsol, daughter of Bock Ki Kim and Sook Kyoung Park, Witness workers in South Korea. Jinsol is a doctoral student at the University of Waterloo. She has a written exam on May 30 and an oral exam July 2 to 4. Pray for calmness, courage, and perseverance.
Praise God for Nancy Frey and Bruce Yoder’s 20 years of ministry in West Africa. Pray that each of the ministries they served in will continue to flourish. Pray also for a smooth transition for each family member, especially for Nancy as she begins a pastoral position at Listowel (Ontario) Mennonite Church. (from Mennonite Mission Network’s Prayer Vine.)
Pray for church leaders from Japan, Korea, and China gathering now at the Forum for Reconciliation in Northeast Asia. Pray that God's spirit of peace will lead conversations and that relationships can lead to healing.
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www.commonword.ca
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Worship Calendar:
 Pentecost is approaching quickly. If you’re in need of resources to help you plan your service CommonWord has a full list for you! You can find them all by visiting www.commonword.ca/go/1759.
Are you writing an original resource? CommonWord would love to share it further by posting it on our site. Please see www.commonword.ca/go/1666 for more information about our “Community-Developed” materials.
In The God Who Sees, immigration advocate Karen González recounts her family’s migration from the instability of Guatemala to making a new life in Los Angeles and the suburbs of south Florida. They faced language barriers, cultural misunderstandings, and the tremendous pressure to assimilate. You’ll also hear the sweeping epic of immigrants and refugees in Scripture. Abraham, Hagar, Joseph, Ruth: these intrepid heroes of the faith cross borders and seek refuge. As witnesses to God’s liberating power, they name the God they see at work, and they become grafted onto God’s family tree. Order here at www.commonword.ca/go/1794.
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 MCA now accepts e-transfers at treasurer@mennonitechurch.ab.ca.
Stories, Events, Announcements?
communications@mennonitechurch.ab.ca
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