Mosaic Mennonites

Missional - Intercultural - Formational

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MCC partner in Haiti reports to U.N. council

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by Alexis Erkert Depp

A Haitian partner organization of Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), the National Human Rights Defense Network (RNDDH), presented a human rights report on June 17 to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva.

MCC workers have supported the work of RNDDH since 1998 by helping staff members gather and analyze information on human rights in Haiti’s prisons, police stations and judicial system. Pierre Espérance, director of RNDDH, used this data and analysis when he presented his report.

RNDDH was founded in 1982 while Jean-Claude Duvalier was dictator in Haiti and has a long history of monitoring human rights.

Haiti’s political freedoms have improved in recent years. After President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was deposed in a coup and U.N. peacekeepers arrived in late 2004, the current president, Rene Preval, was democratically elected in 2006.

Relative stability has led to increased civil and political freedom, enabling national and international human rights organizations to expose corruption with impunity and to demand that the government honor the international human rights conventions to which it has agreed.

Even with these improvements, RNDDH states that “the general human rights situation remains a source of constant preoccupation,” as evidenced in Haiti’s senatorial elections in April 2009. They were marred by violence, and a number of the candidates were rumored to have been involved in drug trafficking and money laundering. Many Haitians had difficulty obtaining the identification cards necessary to register to vote.

In addition, the RNDDH presentation in Geneva addressed the weakness of state institutions, primarily Haiti’s prison and judicial systems. RNDDH found that 78 percent of Haitian prisoners have not been sentenced and are waiting in inhumane and degrading prison conditions. There are no rehabilitation centers in place for minors.

Haiti also is behind in guaranteeing many of the other rights stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. According to RNDDH, “hospitals and health centers function in systematic disorder… [and] the right to education is also not protected.”

Michel Forst, the U.N.’s independent expert on human rights in Haiti, also touched on these issues in a report to the council, stating the need to “guarantee to every citizen the full exercise of economic, social and cultural rights… [including] access to education for all, a health-care system, drinking water and sanitation services, adequate and decent housing, [and] employment income and training.”

RNDDH is optimistic that human rights can be fully respected in Haiti. The organization’s website states, “We also live in a world filled with seeds of hope and the unyielding belief in the sacredness of humanity.”

MCC’s Haiti representative, Kurt Hildebrand of Medford, Ore., who had worked with RNDDH, said, “MCC firmly believes that without justice there can be no peace. We’re honored to be able to partner with a Haitian organization that is working to defend the rights of all Haitians, regardless of their political or socioeconomic background.”

Alexis Erkert Depp is a Mennonite Central Committee worker in Haiti.

Intersections Summer 2009

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(click the header to read all stories)

Twenty five years at the center of God’s work – Donella Clemens

Fashioned after Christ: Life after the altar call – Jessica Walter

Anabaptist vision series: Discipleship connects the ‘Story’ to life – Chris Nickels

Mutual aid in practice: Returning aid in a time of ‘drought’ – Robin Long

Grace emerging in the Appalachian Mountains: Churches form relationships across the state and beyond among immigrant communities – Sheldon Good

Protecting our future: Taking action against gun violence – Drick Boyd

From upheaval to Good News: Reflecting on over 25 years of prison ministry – Charles A. Ness

Exchanging a free meal for a listening ear: Worm Project shares stories and inspires action – Jessica Walter

Click to view/download the printable PDF

The Worm Project hosts second free international meal

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Join the Worm Warriors at a free international meal hosted by The Worm Project on June 10 at 6 pm at the Franconia Heritage Restaurant (click here for directions). This is the second free meal the Worm Project has held at the Franconia Heritage Restaurant.

Come learn about how the Worm Project has expanded in the past few months, sending shipments to North Korea, Sudan, Zimbabwe and Burundi. Learn about amazing precedent Burundi is setting by reaching the entire country, children and adults, with the 7.8 million pill shipment being sent to Burundi along with four other medical interventions.

The Worm Project estimates that each pill, which costs less than two cents, will save 5 lbs of food from the worms over a six month period, 25 lbs during the three year treatment period, all for less than a dime.

All are welcome but registration is required. Please register by June 5 to Claude Good at cgood@mosaicmennonites.org or 215.723.5513 EXT. 136.

MCC considers new vision, structure

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Tim Shenk, Mennonite Central Committee

Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) is considering major organizational changes in order to work more closely with Anabaptist churches around the world in peace-building, development and relief.

MCC is nearing the end of an 18-month process, called “New Wine/New Wineskins,” that has involved several thousand people worldwide in discerning God’s call for MCC in the 21st century. The process has created recommendations for a new vision, organizational structure and global service forum.

About 100 participants will gather for a final summit in Hillsboro, Kan., from June 3 to 5 to debate, revise and approve recommendations for MCC’s vision and structure. The summit results will then be submitted for ratification by 12 MCC boards representing regional, national and binational offices in Canada and the U.S.

The proposed statement of common purpose defines MCC as “a ministry of Anabaptist churches worldwide participating in God’s work of reconciliation.” Justice and peace-building, sustainable development and disaster response and prevention are proposed as mission priorities. Anabaptist churches include Mennonites, Brethren in Christ and other related denominations.

The proposed structure moves MCC from being a Canadian and U.S. organization to a global entity, according to Arli Klassen, MCC executive director. A new, central MCC office would administer and be a resource to the entire system of MCC organizations. Programmatic work around the world, including in Canada and the U.S., would be the responsibility of MCC Canada, MCC U.S. and new MCC organizations accountable to Anabaptist churches in other countries.

The recommendations also call for Mennonite World Conference to lead a process that may result in a forum of global Anabaptist service agencies, of which MCC would be a member.

The recommendations do not include where the central MCC office might be located but it is likely that it would not be in Akron, Pa., where MCC U.S. is based and where MCC’s international operations have largely been headquartered, Klassen said.

Klassen emphasizes that MCC is committed to continuing its work in the name of Christ and to maintaining the trust of its donors, partner organizations and constituent churches.

“Underlying all of this, in order to make this successful, is trust,” Klassen said. “We need to trust that God is present in the middle of this process to strengthen MCC as a ministry of the global church.”

The New Wine/New Wineskins recommendations are available online here.

Soul-searching leads pastor to take radical journey with Jesus

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by Laurie Oswald Robinson, for Mennonite Church USA

When Gilberto Flores, a longtime leader in Mennonite Church USA, saw innocent people hanging dead in a Guatemalan jungle, he felt hate.

Even before that day decades ago, Flores, a Mennonite pastor in Guatemala at the time, had seen so much injustice evoked by the civil war that he questioned whether he was living out his faith. And then when he stumbled upon the bloodbath on that mountain, he knew for sure he had to change.

“A pastor went with some of his members into the jungle to retrieve some cows that had fled their fields,” Flores said. “Once they got into the mountains, the people encountered the government’s army who accused this little group of being guerilla fighters. They had no weapons. They had only ropes to get those cows. But their innocence didn’t matter.

“The army hung them to die. They had no trial, nothing. The group of us other pastors who had gone to the mountains to find them found about two dozen corpses. It was the first time I can say I truly felt hate in my soul. I wanted to retaliate.”

Though passions ran high, he slowly gave his anger to the Lord. This decision was part of the realization that he must allow Jesus to reign in his heart and his hands to bring hope to all this horror. Committed to a more radical journey with Jesus, Flores embarked on working for peace and reconciliation rather than inciting more pain through retaliation.

He could no longer only preach about Anabaptism – a perspective that integrates sharing Christ’s salvation for souls as well as working for peace and shalom for all people. Flores felt he must move beyond head knowledge to heart-felt practice.

“The time had come for me to find out who I really was,” he said. “I needed to become clear about what my faith meant in practical ways that weren’t detached from reality and real-life suffering.”

He got many opportunities to practice a more radical faith, including when an indigenous group asked if he would help them keep their farm land in the mountains. Much of the civil war constellated around seizure of long-held land of indigenous people.

After he worked on this issue with others for several months, the government returned the land to this group, Flores said. But his peace and justice activities had consequences. He became a target.

“Some people in the government spied on me, threatened me over the phone, opened my mail and accused me of doing things against the government,” he said.

“On several occasions, the government seized me and interrogated me to intimidate me into stopping. They told me they would kill me. But it didn’t work. I told them, ‘I am ready to die. Are you? Are you ready to face God, our judge?’”

Flores’ questioning of his questioners didn’t intimidate them. They tried once more to seize him and almost beat him to death this time. He escaped with two broken ribs.

Even after that near-fateful day, Flores continued to work for peace within ecumenical circles. His efforts eventually won some reconciliation within the embittered and embattled land. But in the early 1990s, he and his wife, Rosa, decided it was time to move away from the intense pressure they constantly felt in Latin America.

God brought them opportunities in North America, beginning in 1992. Then in 1996, they moved to Newton, Kan., where the former General Conference Mennonite Church had invited Flores to give leadership to various Hispanic ministries.

After Mennonite Church USA formed, he became a denominational minister and then director of Denominational Ministry and Missional Church for Executive Leadership. Early this year, he moved to Texas to serve as an associate conference minister for Western District Conference where many Latin Americans are part of Mennonite congregations.

A move to Kansas quelled some of the pressure, but it brought new pressures, Flores said. Though there was no war in the land, another battle waged beneath the surface. It was the struggle to walk on the radical edge with Jesus in a place where many Anabaptists were more mainstream in their perspective and practices.

Flores does not criticize this type of faith walk; knowing that much of it comes from the seeming absence of distress in daily living and from the hidden nature of the suffering that does occur in America. At the same time, Flores has worked to awaken more of a radical bent within the ministries and groups where he’s engaged.

“When I first got here, I felt there were many people who didn’t care about the suffering of others, and I felt that they lived in very antiseptic and sheltered ways,” he said.

“But increasingly, we are less sheltered in our denomination. People other than the middle-class, ethnic Mennonites are becoming part of us – including many Hispanics who have suffered in other lands. Once they get here, they continue to suffer, to be marginalized, to experience a lack of opportunities.”

Flores strives to respond to injustices in ways that represent what it means to not close his eyes to the pain around him, nor comply with those who allow the pain to continue.

“There are three responses believers can have to the world around them,” Flores said. “Number one, you can become indifferent to the social context and use the church and Christian faith for a haven to hide from the challenges of the world.

“Number two, you can accept the system as it is and become assimilated as you comply with it.

“Or, number three, you can practice a holistic understanding of Christian faith and integrate all of life – including the individual, social and spiritual aspects of it – and then live that out with the grace of a prophetic witness in the name of Jesus Christ.”

Flores believes that in this time and all times, the only response for Anabaptist Mennonites is number three. His passion is to live and to encourage others to live a faith that is Anabaptist to the core of its heart, not just hovering on the periphery of one’s mind. God is calling and sending Mennonite Church USA into the world where God is already at work.

“What does it mean,” Flores asks, “for us as a people to call ourselves Anabaptist, but to not really practice what Anabaptism teaches?”

Good publishes a collection of reflections from Cambodia

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by Ben Noll, The Goshen College Record

Recent world history will soon be coming into clearer focus for Goshen College students when Sheldon Good, a senior, releases his Pinchpenny Press book, “Surviving the Khmer Rouge: Stories on the Struggle to Stay Alive,” on Sunday, April 5, 2009. Good is a member of the Salford congregation.

Accounts of the impending tribunals and sentencing for Khmer Rouge leaders of the genocide in Cambodia in the late 1970s made world news headlines at CNN on Monday, March 30, 2009.

Good’s edited volume tells the stories of Cambodians who lived through the Khmer Rouge communist regime. Most stories in the book are gathered from host parents of Goshen College students from the spring 2007 Cambodia Study-Service Term (S.S.T.).

The interviews detailed in the book sprung from an assignment given by Keith Graber Miller, Cambodia S.S.T. leader professor of Bible and religion. “Keith gave us this assignment the second week we were in Phnom Penh,” Good said. “Many of us were pretty intimidated to interview people about such a delicate subject.”

Graber Miller, in a foreword to the book, comments that Cambodians have adopted a “forget and forgive” attitude towards the events.

Relying on host siblings to translate for Khmer-speaking parents, Good said, that “many of our host siblings heard their parents’ survival stories for the first time through these interviews.”

“These are stories that need to be told, and heard,” Graber Miller said in his foreword. “For our host families and friends – and for all Cambodians – we hope for the authentic healing necessary to truly get on with living, out from under the oppressive shadow of the Khmer Rouge.”

Good hopes that this book can play a small part in the reconciliation process by allowing these survivors’ stories to be shared and encourages us all to look for our own stories of healing and reconciliation to share with our neighbors.

Good’s collection is the 2009 Horswell Anthology Series book. One Horswell Anthology is published each year with the intention that in can be used as a text for a future class. The spring 2010 Study-Service Term to Cambodia will use it as a required text.

Contributors to the book include current Goshen College seniors Abigail Groff, Dirk Miller, Hillary Watson and Greg Yoder as well as 11 Goshen College 2008 alumni.

MCC to implement budget cuts

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Amid the global economic crisis, Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) is reducing its budget in the coming year while continuing to focus its resources on helping people in poverty around the world.

The budget for MCC’s international program, which carries out relief, development and peacemaking work in more than 50 countries, will be reduced by about $2 million and administrative expenditures also are being cut, according to Arli Klassen, MCC’s executive director.

“As we make difficult decisions, our highest concern is for the hundreds of thousands of people around the world whose lives are touched by MCC’s work,” she said.

These cuts for MCC represent a 10-percent reduction. MCC U.S. and the regional MCC offices in the U.S. are facing a 9-percent reduction. MCC Canada and provincial MCC offices are also facing budget cuts. However, it is not yet clear what the size of the budget cuts in Canada will be. The financial year for the MCCs in Canada ends on Aug. 31.

“Our hope, still, is that the generosity of donors will enable the MCCs in Canada to meet their financial commitments to the people we serve,” said Don Peters, executive director of MCC Canada.

While more people are giving money to support MCC’s work than in previous years, the average contribution decreased in 2008, and the economic turmoil has affected MCC in other ways. In particular, the value of contributions from Canada was reduced because of a sharp drop in the value of the Canadian dollar relative to the U.S. dollar. Nearly half of MCC’s funding for international program comes from Canadian contributions in Canadian dollars. MCC’s financial reserves were also reduced by losses in financial markets.

Klassen asks for prayer for the work of MCC and renewed giving to support MCC’s mission.

“Thank you for your commitment to walking alongside people who face poverty and conflict, whether we have big resources or smaller resources,” Klassen said. “Our commitment to sharing God’s love does not change.”