Features Archives | Page 64 of 161

Amish schools find ways to serve special-needs children

CLARK, Mo. — Maryann Yoder, 5, will join her sister Edna, 7, and other Amish children in a local one-room schoolhouse in a few years. But until then, speech therapist Anna Crusha provides a different education for the girls, just for the two of them, in their tidy home every Thursday.

Crusha, working for the Sturgeon R-V School District, uses board games and other activities to improve their speech. The sisters are both partially deaf.

Heather Adams | Religion News Service

July 6, 2015

Urgent search for water in Mozambique

Six men grasp the long metal handle of a drill and walk slowly in a circle. They lean into the task, using their body weight to drive the drill shaft into the dry soil.

They have hand-drilled some 16 feet down and have a dozen feet or more to go. Even then, there’s no guarantee the water will be potable. An attempt nearby was abandoned after three days of drilling when workers found the water too . . .

Julie Bell | Mennonite Central Committee

July 6, 2015

Marilyn Houser Hamm offers song for MWC

The days that are before us, and the days of the coming Mennonite World Assembly, are perhaps like none other. What it means to be

anna

June 26, 2015

Goshen repents of being a ‘sundown town’

The author (left) and Lee Roy Berry Jr. after the resolution passed. Photo by Richar Aguirre. On March 17, the Goshen (Ind.) City Council voted

anna

June 24, 2015

Fire from heaven

A reflection on Luke 9:51-56 In this text, two of Jesus’ most beloved disciples are ready to engage in what we may describe as an

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June 23, 2015

Drones are demons

Just as the early church called for prayer against demons, we are called to pray against drones. In February, The Guardian reported that a U.S.

Isaac S. Villegas

June 23, 2015

Listen to God and each other

The Jerusalem Council models reconciliation in church conflicts In Acts 15, we read of a transformative experience called the Jerusalem Council, where some ethnocentric Jewish

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June 23, 2015

A prescription for Anabaptist renewal

The spiritual itinerary: from Satan to Christ Sometimes I speculate what my life would have been like had I been born into an animistic West

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June 23, 2015

Joanne Dietzel: Opening doors into a church of change

Joanne Dietzel has learned to ‘live joyfully from the inside out’ in her work with the church. When Joanne Dietzel was 18, she says she

anna

June 23, 2015

How can we not talk about Jesus?

Photo: Jack and Linda Knox live in Douglas, Ariz., and are members of Shalom Mennonite Church. This piece is adapted from a sermon Jack gave at

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June 16, 2015

EMM worker finds his heart among Karen people

LANCASTER, Pa. — Eastern Mennonite Missions worker Sean FitzGerald finds himself deeply impacted by his recent service among and ongoing relationships with Karen refugees from Myanmar, formerly Burma, living in Lancaster.

“What I have learned and continue to learn from my friends is this: We are not perfect; none of us are,” FitzGerald said.

Chris Fretz | Eastern Mennonite Missions

June 11, 2015

Tours build support for Israel-Palestine resolution

Joy Sutter of Salford (Pa.) Mennonite Church didn’t fully understand the Israel-Palestine conflict until she visited the region last year.

“I needed to see the oppressive wall, hear the stories of the people, see the occupation of the land and get a grasp of the injustices of the everyday existence of the Palestinian people,” said Sutter, a member of the Mennonite Church USA Executive Board.

Ryan Rodrick Beiler | For Mennonite World Review

June 8, 2015