Mennonite Weekly Review

ELKHART, Ind. — For three years, contributions have been coming in to support Mennonite Church USA’s “Joining Together, Investing in Hope” campaign.

The Global Mission Fellowship planning group is a subcommittee of the Mennonite World Conference Mission Commission, which met in February. Commission members are, back row, from left: Agus Mayanto of Indonesia, Edgardo Docuyanan of the Philippines, Ofelia García of Mexico, César García of Colombia, Adolphe Komuesa of Congo, Richard Showalter of the United States and Don McNiven of Canada and the United States. Front: James R. Krabill of the United States, Hermann Woelke of Uruguay, Eric Olfert of Canada and Max Wiedmer of France. — Photo provided by MWC

But even as the gifts have come in — including funding for a new denominational office building — gifts have also gone out.

One of these gifts included a $150,000 grant to the Global Mission Fellowship for mission work around the world.

The Global Mission Fellowship of Anabaptist-related Churches is a fellowship of churches and mission groups that meet for encouragement, vision-sharing, networking and cooperating in mission.

James Krabill, Mennonite Mission Network’s senior executive for global ministries, attended the February meetings of the Global Mission Fellowship in Strasbourg, France, as a North American representative.

“We spent much of our time discussing and planning ways we can be a resource to the global church in its mission effort through Web site resources, e-mail networks, and organizing meetings where equipping for mission can take place,” Krabill said.

He also brought back a message from the Global Mission Fellowship to MC USA.

“I was specifically commissioned by several members of the GMF to send words of gratitude to ‘my people,’ thanking them for this generous resource, which enables increased mission activity and collaboration across the Mennonite World Conference body of churches,” Krabill reported.

Peter Graber, the campaign director, said that a desire to give to the global church came from individuals at the beginning of the campaign.

“It was important to many of us to support global mission efforts at the same time we’re supporting the work of the church in the United States,” Graber said.

The “Joining Together, Investing in Hope” campaign includes funding for construction of an MC USA office building adjacent to Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart. The campaign began in September 2006, and donors have given $10.3 million to it. In addition to the $150,000 grant to Global Mission Fellowship, $300,000 has been given to the ministries of the MC USA Executive Board, and the Mission Network operating fund received $5.35 million, an increase of $120,000.