Monthly Archives: March 2018

Faith and Caring in the Digital Age by Teresa Boshart Yoder

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Teresa Boshart Yoder, East Coast representative for the MW USA board, reflects on our spring theme, Faith Formation in the Digital Age.

I have to begin my sharing with a very honest confession, I am not technologically savvy. I’m actually surprised my two daughters and son-in-law haven’t requested payment for services rendered for iPhone help, TV remote control training and general “I don’t understand this and what I am supposed to do?” Just last evening when my daughter Nicole brought over a DVD for us to watch, she was frustrated that our DVD player wasn’t Blu-ray. Apparently you can’t play a Blu-ray DVD in a regular old DVD player. Who knew? Certainly not me! I received another lesson on what technology my husband Lonnie and I need to update to “keep up with the times”.

As I have pondered why I need to keep up with the times, what that means and will it benefit me in any way, I have come to some interesting conclusions. I have heard all the warnings about technology, how it is stunting the communication growth of young people and how it will harm families and their fellowship. I also understand that technology can be dangerous for people who struggle with addictive personalities and they may need some help with appropriate use and control. I also know that when the telephone began to be widely used in the last century, warnings about how it would destroy Christian families followed closely behind. To my best knowledge, I don’t believe that happened (maybe I should google it). Continue reading →

Loving our Neighbors | Amando a nuestro prójimo

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This article by Tammy Alexander was originally published in the Winter 2018 issue of Timbrel, Finding Sanctuary. The Spanish version is available at the bottom of this post.

Loving our neighbors: Sanctuary, dignity and safe spaces

Edith Espinal calls Columbus Mennonite Church home—in a very literal sense. She has not left the church building since October 2, 2017. She sleeps there, eats there and spends all of her days inside the church walls. If she leaves, Edith is at risk of being deported and separated from her family and from the community she has called home for more than a decade.

Edith is married with three children, two of whom are U.S. citizens. She had applied for asylum, citing threats of violence in Mexico. Gaining asylum can be a difficult legal process, given the challenge of proving the existence of threats and violence to a judge’s satisfaction. Her initial application and an appeal were denied and she was forced to buy a plane ticket to Mexico for October 10. Edith chose not to leave but instead to seek sanctuary—to live inside a church where immigration officers generally will not conduct enforcement operations. Continue reading →

International Women’s Fund: Febri’s Story

Posted on , Febri Kristiani

Hear from Febri Kristiani, an IWF 2017 recipient and student at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Indiana.

I was born in a small village called Karang Gumul. This little village is located in Klaten, Central Java, Indonesia. Indonesia is a very diverse country with different religions, language, and culture. I am part of the minority, I was raised in a Catholic family and was in a lower socio-economic class. Growing up as the minority in a poor family was hard. I was surrounded by people who always said, “Never dream a big dream, you will fall apart and get hurt badly if it does not come true.” They said, “Just finish high school, get a job, help your parents, get married and then stay home to take care of your children. Don’t try to do more than that; no one does that; it’s too impossible for us.” Growing up in this kind of society, I became a little girl who had no confidence and always felt that I was not enough. I was so scared and intimidated: what if what they said is true – is it impossible for a little girl like me to get a good education and make a difference? My parents told me the same thing, because they knew they would not be able to send me to college and they just did not want me to be disappointed. As a little girl, I was quite stubborn. When I was 10 years old, I kept telling my parents that I wanted to go to school out of the village. I was scared, but I could not resist my desire to dream a big dream and make a difference. Continue reading →