Focus

For a few weeks, Owen and Abby watched as borders closed one by one. The American embassy sent out notices asking its citizens to return. They watched the news as the virus started in the capital and spread to the other parts of the country first slowly, but then   more quickly.

COVID-19 has forced many people to embrace new forms of resilience, often spurring on great creativity. Two Lancaster leaders serving the refugee and immigrant communities have been doing just that: Patience Buckwalter, who is the executive director of the Grape Leaf Empowerment Center, and Krista Martin, who is EMM’s Kingdom Team director.

Michael Clancy is an urban missionary serving in Lebanon City, Pennsylvania. Earlier this year, Michael had some anxiety as he was in the last two months of fundraising for support for his second term, just as COVID-19 had just come to the forefront of everyone’s lives.

After nine years in Thailand, Dave and Summer Houser were planning to move to Pennsylvania in early April. As reports of an unknown virus grew into a major worldwide concern, flights from many places around the globe were being canceled. Instead of having a week — or even a few days — they had mere hours to tie up their loose ends. They frantically packed, gave things away, and even sold their car...

Polio was once the most feared disease in the U.S. Particularly in the 1940 and 50s, parents were sometimes fearful of letting their children even go outside. Each summer, polio seemed to strike without warning. Swimming pools, movie theaters, and Sunday school classes were closed. Almost 100 years passed from the first polio outbreak of any size in the U.S. through the development of a vaccine in...

As the world faced COVID-19, gathering food for Ramadan celebrations was difficult in places like Nairobi. Many workplaces shut down due to COVID-19, and as a result, many Kenyans lost their income, facing significant food insecurity. Christians in the Eastleigh neighborhood of the city decided to bless their Muslim neighbors by distributing free food.

How can we engage and equip the thousands of church leaders in Africa who have little or no biblical training? How does the church multiply and grow under these circumstances?

On a blustery afternoon, EMM worker Bethany Tobin, who is also jointly appointed with Virginia Mennonite Missions, grabbed an umbrella as protection from the sun and slid on her flip flops. Leaving her boisterous home-schoolers with her husband, Steve, she walked around the corner to her neighbor’s house. 

Despite the interruptions, the changes in our plans, and the disappointments of unfulfilled expectations, the mission of God goes on. EMM workers continue to cross cultures, engage the world, and make disciples of Jesus.

Lucy has been amazed at the range of human resilience she has seen from her perch on the balcony. It is amazing how God has made humans to be able deal with life's circumstances. People have been creative with entertainment, their spaces, and their resources. They can find community when they are not allowed to leave their homes. 

Multiplication is the heartbeat of EMM. EMM has a more than 100-year history of establishing churches in many parts of the world, that are now planting communities and fellowships of believers in their own contexts and cultures.

We are connected to each other. And we believe this because Paul told us so. In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul describes the church as the body of Christ. There are many members, all different, but they all come together to form the body and without any one of those members, the body is missing an important function.

COVID-19 has presented unique challenges for Alan and Carol Wert. On March 23rd, the U.K. went into lockdown with each part of the U.K. enforcing their own rules. So what does this mean for the way the Werts minister to people?

Forty years ago, May 31 was a Saturday. It was the last day of the week, of the month, and of a lengthy personal quest for clarity for EMM worker Andres Prins. He was 22 and had returned from a youth meeting of a Mennonite Brethren church in Montevideo, Uruguay, to the nearby Bible school dormitory where he was living.

Just a few weeks ago, on April 22, a ministry in Sierra Leone called Nyandengoh! saw its first anniversary. Starting with just a few children in Mattru Jong, the ministry now serves more than 70 children in neighboring villages.

Seeing people watch the Jesus video and hear the gospel for the first time was well worth the effort it took to plan the event!

Did you know that EMM has a church revitalization coach whose main role is to help churches develop healthy personal and corporate spiritual lives? It’s true! His name is Antonio Ulloa and he frequently speaks in churches to equip and support them in their spiritual health and development.

A few months ago, a couple showed up at Michael Clancy’s church, easy to identify because they were obviously under the influence of heroin. Michael is an urban missionary serving with EMM in Lebanon city, Pennsylvania. During the service, the man kept drifting off, unaware of his surroundings, only to wake up, look around, and nod off again. The woman, on the other hand, was engulfed in the messa...

Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor once wrote a wise statement about how our well-being is reliant on one another. She wrote: “We don’t accomplish anything in the world alone and whatever happens is the result of the whole tapestry of one’s life and all the weavings of individual threads from one to another that create something.”

A second chance at love brought Jim and Kathy Wohlers together after both of their spouses passed away from cancer. At their wedding more than 8 years ago, Jim and Kathy served their guests communion and told them that as they started their life together, they would be hand-in-hand as husband and wife in service toward others.

Sometimes as an urban missionary, Michael Clancy feels like his task is an uphill battle. He envisions his work of discipleship like being a pitcher on the mound, and his students are the batters who keep striking out as they fall back into their addictions. Michael is presented with a new “batter” every three or four pitches. Over the past 14 years, he can count a small handful of men who are con...

Ever since she can remember, Amy Herr has struggled with believing in the lie that her voice doesn’t matter.

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact many people in nearly every country around the world. And EMM workers, serving in 30 different countries, have each experienced this outbreak in different ways. But in the midst of the unknown realities that lie ahead, EMM workers live courageously in the hope of Christ.

This summer, EMM Kingdom Teams will venture into a new region in Phenix City, Alabama. However, Alabama is not new to EMM — we began work there in the 1940s when we began sending evangelists.

Part of the Mennonite Church West Africa’s annual conference included a commissioning service for two men who are going out as missionaries. Less than one year after credentialing its first pastors, the church has discerned a call to start several new congregations.