Nov. 30, 2009 issue
Ukrainian heritage
Salem (Ore.) Mennonite Church
By Kathleen AeschlimanOn Oct. 11, we participated in a joint worship service with Zion Mennonite Church in their building near Hubbard.
Paul Steury from Merry Lea Environmental Learning Center of Goshen College spoke to the youth and adult Sunday school classes. He spoke about stewardship in the faith community in a presentation titled “How Can You Not Care for God’s Green Earth?”
Penny Power donations are collected every Sunday as part of our regular offering. Our Sunday school children walk the aisles holding clear plastic containers to receive “spare change.” We collected $1,706 during the past year and donated it to the MCC Festival for World Relief held in Albany on Oct. 10.
Jim Fitz, a member of Christian Peacemaker Teams, spoke Oct. 3 about his six years of involvement in Colombia. He explained how the 40-year ongoing civil war started and evolved to entangle the local farmers between three armed groups, drugs and natural resources.
Ron and Deb Pauls traveled to South Korea to visit their son Grant, who was teaching English at a school in Incheon. Tragically, they were met with the news of his sudden illness and death on Oct. 15. A memorial service was held Oct. 23.
Bruce and Jeanette Flaming traveled with a group of 98 on the 15th Ukrainian Mennonite Heritage Cruise in October. A highlight of the tour was hearing of the return of Mennonites to this area, not to reclaim property but to offer much-needed social services in the villages and cities. Everyone on the trip had ancestors who lived in the Ukraine in the 1800s and left at various periods up until World War II. They shared memories of joys, suffering, famine, massacres and disappearances of the men. A memorial service for the disappeared was held on the boat and at the dedication of a monument/memorial in a city park.
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