look out, world!

The young people from Community Mennonite Church are going places... literally.

You can read here about Rebecca's upcoming trip to Bangladesh in June (she has been helping to organize a service-and-learning experience called Shikka, which is a Bengla word meaning "to learn").

Sarah and Christine will be going to Guatemala later in this summer with ENLACE, another serving-and-learning program run by MCC Ontario (and one of the leaders will be Denise - also of our congregation).

And then there's ANOTHER overseas learning experience - this one called YELLA (I know... MCC's department of "program-name-thinker-uppers" has been working overtime), involving Justin, Ben, Kayla, David, Mike, Derek, and Kevin, with Allan as one of the leaders as well.

Here's what Justin had to say about the trip in a recent message to the congregation:

"This May I will be participating in a young adult learning trip to Israel/Palestine with a group of 20 plus people. This 3 week trip, jointly sponsored by Mennonite Church Eastern Canada and Mennonite Central Committee Ontario, is designed to provide young adults, like myself, with faith-shaping and faith-stretching experiences that will help us develop as Christian disciples and leaders. I feel like being in the “holy land” will go a long way in solidifying my own faith by experiencing contexts of the bible and the Christian faith visually and first hand.

The tour is named Yella, which means “Let’s go!” in both Arabic and Hebrew. This Middle East experience will provide us with the opportunity to wrestle with multi-faith realities, delve into issues that divide people, explore biblical stories within their context, and encounter a Jesus we have not met . . . yet! Linford Stutzman, professor of culture and mission at Eastern Mennonite University will be leading the tour. He has led several groups of EMU students on semesters in the Middle East. There is also a service component where we will work at Nazareth Village, a Mennonite mission organization that helps hundreds of tourists each month understand the teachings of Jesus within 1st century Palestine."

... and here are some words from Mike - an invitation to a special event TOMORROW evening (Friday, April 25):

"This Friday at Rouge Valley Mennonite Church we are hosting a
Coffeehouse Fundraiser to help us be able to afford this trip. The
show, which features acoustic sets by local musical talents, will
begin at 7:30. The bill includes the Markham MYF Praise Band, Marcus Adrian & Co., Allan Reesor-McDowell, Mike Turman, and Antigonie.

Desserts and refreshments will be provided as well. Please come
prepared to support our trip to the holy land."

What If?

Here's an article by Paul that appeared in last week's Stouffville Free Press:

As a member of Community Mennonite Church of Stouffville, a peace church that promotes non-violent, constructive and transforming approaches to conflict, I became quite concerned after hearing that the Canadian military is recruiting in high schools across Canada (including Stouffville). The military is presented as a career option and targets teenagers through offering to pay for higher education if they enlist and recruiters present a career in the military as one of promoting peace-keeping throughout the world. My concern was heightened in hearing that the goal for recruitment is the “Number of recruiters being increased from 300 currently to 30,000 in the short-term to 80,000 in the long term.” (General Rick Hillier, February, 2006). "We are the Canadian Forces, and our job is to be able to kill people" -- General Rick Hillier, July 13, 2005. Is learning to kill people being presented as just another exciting career option?

In high school in the late 60's in Markham, I was taught that Canada was an international leader in finding peaceful means to resolve conflicts and was a leader in contributing to a world UN police force. In this new century, Canada has been steadily giving up its special leadership in international peace-keeping. Instead, the militarization (violence) of Canada’s response to international relations has increased and we have become a lower-grade partner with other countries in using military force to try to establish peace (Afganistan). This approach is internationally recognized as ineffective, and in fact increases the cycle of violence.

This change has made me quite sad at what has been lost to my children and to our country. What if Canada was truly in the business of saving lives and reducing conflict rather than having the job of being “able to kill people?” What if, instead of a doubling of the Canadian military budget over the past 10 years to 17 billion dollars, half of that had gone to using peaceful means that actually work in reducing and transforming international conflict? What if only the 2007 military overspending of one billion dollars was put into courses in high school and colleges that teach conflict resolution and transformation and how lives can be saved? What if our teenagers were offered free university education to become international peacekeepers? I expect that many young persons would jump at the chance and take great pride in being international peacekeepers. We all know that we define ourselves as a country by the resources we put into education. Are we putting our resources into teaching war? Or can we put our resources into teaching peace and once again become world leaders in transforming conflicted societies?

- Paul McDowell