Written by Gerald Mast. The below text was originally presented as a sermon at First Mennonite Church of Bluffton, Ohio and published on Mast’s personal blog in January of 2015. In order to find our way into the story of Anna Jansz, we must travel from Zurich, Switzerland in 1525 to the north German city of Keep Reading…
Although some of the stories shared by Bearing Witness are available elsewhere in written form, many others are not. Rather they are family or personal stories shared with us in a letter, email, or, in some cases, an interview (see the stories of Paul and Suja Phinehas, Stanimir Katanic, or Tulio Pedraza for examples). This year the Keep Reading…
Like Paul and Suja Phinehas, featured in a recent story on the main Bearing Witness site, Naomi Tamura’s Christian faith makes her a religious minority. At Mennonite World Conference Assembly 16 in Harrisburg, PA, this past July, Tamura shared with us both the struggle and the opportunity that accompanies Christian faith in Japan. Both the Keep Reading…
In the Tamil Nadu region of India, Paul and Suja Phinehas serve as leaders of Gilgal Mission Trust, a member church of Mennonite World Conference. In August they shared with Bearing Witness some of the struggles they face as Christians in a predominantly Hindu society. Paul Phinehas’s grandfather worked as a healer in a Hindu Keep Reading…
Last year we shared the story of Sang-Min Lee, a Mennonite conscientious objector sentenced to 18 months in prison. The global church and others who resonated with Sang-Min’s peace witness responded by writing him letters and praying for him. Over the course of a letter-writing campaign supported by Bearing Witness, Justapaz, and Mennonite World Conference, Keep Reading…
Pour français cliquez ici Note: This story has been updated. In the village of Sidi, Burkina Faso, Mennonite Christians face losing access to the land they farm, because of a growing conviction that the requirements for land use in the village are in conflict with their faith in Jesus Christ. Land in Sidi is managed Keep Reading…
Carrie Mast, a Mennonite from Bluffton, Ohio, recently wrote a post for Bearing Witness about the process of adapting the story of martyr Jacques d’Auchy into a dramatic script with her husband, Gerald Mast, and their children. Her original post prompted a follow-up conversation with her and Gerald on teaching the Martyrs Mirror to children. We don’t Keep Reading…
Mennonite pastor Nelson Kraybill originally published the following reflection on his blog, Holy Land Peace-Pilgrim, after a trip to El Salvador in October. He has graciously agreed to share his reflection with Bearing Witness. This week an unscheduled airline layover in Central America gave me a day to explore sites related to the life and death Keep Reading…
In today’s guest post, Carrie Mast writes about developing a dramatic adaptation of the stories of Jacques d’Auchy from the Martyrs Mirror with her husband, Gerald, and their children. You can find their script, I Have Not Forsaken the Word of God: Jacques D’Auchy’s Confessional Struggle, at the conclusion of the post. Earlier this year, my husband, Keep Reading…
Stanimir Katanic’s story is written by Marcia Lewandowski, who interviewed Katanic in 2014 about his experiences as a Nazarene conscientious objector in Yugoslavia. I met Stanimir Katanic as an 83-year-old man living in Ohio. In our interview, Stanimir requested to speak about the years of his imprisonment as a young man in Serbian, rather than English. Keep Reading…