Category: JoinHands

​

Our last JoinHands grant helped Ripple Church, a new Mennonite congregation of Mosiac Mennonite Conference, to purchase an existing church building for their meeting place and community center in Allentown, Pennsylvania. This dynamic congregation is active in their neighborhood as they provide ministries for children and youth, meal service, and a place of belonging. When I presented our $40,000 JoinHands grant to this church I was impressed with their diversity, level of sharing, and inclusion of people from within their community.

Our next JoinHands grants will go to Mennonite building projects in Burkina Faso and Columbia. Our first is for Iglesia Menonita Caminando En Esperanza in Bogota, Colombia—a six-year-old church plant in a very large borough in Bogotá, Colombia with over 1,200,000 people. Thanks to offerings and a loan from the National Colombian Mennonite Church, they purchased a two-story building. Previously paid rent is now applied to the new property. The church is renovating this building for church gatherings, Christian education, and store front shops to sell their baked goods and rent for income to support their ministries. In addition to the grant we will make, this church invites volunteers from Canada and the US to assist with various repair and remodeling work. Contact me if you are interested in volunteering to work at this project.

Our second grant will go to Kodeni Evangelical Mennonite Church in Kodeni, Burkina Faso. This church plant has outgrown the small building it was using. Another Mennonite church bought land for this congregation. Members of Kodeni have put a lot of work and sweat into the project by making their own concrete blocks (shown to the right) and a sister Mennonite church has helped with building the walls. With good relationships with their predominately Muslim neighbors, Muslim youth have also helped with construction—a remarkable illustration of Christians and Muslims living together in community. Our grant will assist the church to complete their building project.

To make these grants, we need to raise $13,800. Please consider contributing to these projects. Learn more about JoinHands and opportunities to give by visiting mennonitemen.org/joinhands or by emailing US Coordinator Steve Thomas, SteveT@mennonitemen.org.

​

Throughout 2020 and 2021, when the effects of COVID were hitting the US and exposing glaring inequality across the country, many churches were stepping in to meet needs in their communities.

Centro de Albanza, a small Latino congregation of Mosaic Mennonite Conference, offered its facilities in South Philadelphia to meet the new needs of their community. The congregation, along with several local agencies using their space, provided Covid tests and assisted with ID card registration. They also provided space and supervision for kids taking virtual classes whose parents needed to work and didn’t feel comfortable leaving their kids at home alone.

The congregation received a grant from Mennonite Men’s JoinHands program in 2020 to help renovate the 160-year old building. The grant helped replace a leaky roof, install more efficient windows, and generally allowed the congregation to continue offering their building as a place of ministry and outreach for the community.

‘Its definitely our priority is to share the Gospel and have activities related with discipleship,’ said pastor Fernando Loyola. ‘We have two other churches that share the building, one is Indonesian and the other is Burmese.’

Together the three congregations continue to serve their community and make the word of God known in South Philadelphia. To learn more about assisting congregations in purchasing or renovating their first church building, visit mennonitemen.org/joinhands.

​

In late December Mennonite Men completed its fundraising for a $40,000 grant for Omaha Chin Christian Church in Omaha, Nebraska. With the release of these funds, the congregation will be able to move forward with their church building project on the outskirts of the city.

​

Since its beginning as refuge for those distanced by the church, the group that turned into Ripple Church has kept its focus on caring for its neighborhood and the vulnerable living there. Its community-

focused approach means Ripple provides a community of support and place of worship for our neighbors of whom many struggle with addiction, mental illness, trauma, and abuse which is often further complicated by isolation, homelessness, and incarceration.

Ripple has met in five different locations in the city of Allentown, Pennsylvania. In each new location, the congregation needed to adjust its rhythms to accommodate the new space and neighborhood. With each move, valuable relationships were lost and leadership development was hindered.

In 2018 the congregation moved into St. Stephens Outreach Center owned by Christ Lutheran Church (CLC) in Allentown. As the relationship between the two congregations grew, so did the mutual idea of a permanent space to grow roots and become a stable presence in the neighborhood. CLC

Mennonite Men’s next JoinHands grant will assist Ripple Church, a Mennonite congregation of Mosiac Mennonite Conference, to purchase this building. Ownership of the building will provide stability for this growing congregation and allow them to put down permanent roots in their neighborhood where they currently offer ministries for children and youth, sit down meals each Sunday for those attending, a clothing closet with hygiene/food pantry, to go meals twice a week, a community garden, Bible studies, and a community of belonging for members who are often isolated. Church leaders state, ‘Purchasing this building will give the church a permanent home and provides a safe location downtown for many people who are not welcomed in other areas of the city.’

To assist this congregation in purchasing this building in Allentown with a JoinHands grant, Mennonite Men needs to raise $40,000. To learn more about JoinHands grants or to make a gift, visit mennonitemen.org/joinhands.

​

Construction work on a new Angolan Mennonite-Brethren church building was recently finished, giving the congregation a permanant meeting space for the first time. The Galilee Parish of Calunga, part of the Igreja Evangélica Irmãos Mennonitas em Angola (Evangelical Church of Mennonite Brethren in Angola) had been meeting in an airport hanger while during construction. A recent JoinHands grant of $10,000 from Mennonite Men assisted the congregation in constructing a roof for their unfinished building.

The IEIMA, along with several other Mennontie Brethren Church groups in the country, resulted from the interaction of Angolan refugees in Congo with Mennonite ministries in that country following conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the 1980s.

In a recent letter to Mennonite Men, the pastor, Maiala Kibango, writes that, ‘The conclusion of this work brought much joy and is a great benefit for the community in general and this congregation in particular…[We give] thanks to you for all your efforts, and sacrifice in having helped us financially to accomplish this work, which seemed difficult but today has become a reality. Our gratitude to all the AIMM (Africa Inter Mennonite Mission) team and to all international partners who have thought of IEIMA and of the Mennonites of Angola in general.’

The JoinHands Mennonite Church Building Program, we provide grants to help new congregations acquire their first church building. Mennonite Men has given over 2 million dollars to new congregations for this purpose. We invite individuals and congregations to give to JoinHands. We especially ask churches pursuing building projects to give as a way of sharing resources and serving ‘fair balance’ with congregations in need.

​In 2019, Assembly Mennonite Church in Goshen, IN completed a building expansion project to meet the needs of their growing congregation. Early in the project, the congregation decided to tithe a portion of the funds being spent on the project to JoinHands, a program of Mennonite Men that assists congregations build or buy their first place of worship.

‘We feel it’s the right thing to do, for more established congregations to help the newer ones,’ said Steve Thomas, U.S. Coordinator for Mennonite Men. As a result, the tithe benefited Mara Christian Church, a growing congregation composed mostly of people who moved to the U.S. from Myanmar (formerly Burma), now owns the church building it had rented. The JoinHands grant the church received made that transformation possible.

Members of the North Carolina congregation are ‘thinking about their lives as people of God. The spiritual vitality there is good for others to see,’ Thomas said. He added that Mara Christian Church members invested a good deal of ‘sweat equity’ in renovating the church building it purchased. Those who receive JoinHands grants ‘often are people without a history of power and privilege,’ Thomas said. ‘Often, they’re people coming from a situation of real need.’

Assembly Mennonite made the decision to think beyond themselves during the building project out of their understanding of financial stewardship. The congregation had earlier received a church loan from Everence that was aimed at aiding younger churches, so members of the congregation felt it important to pass on that benefit now that their congregation had reached a level of maturity.

Mennonite Men invites other established congregations to consider sharing a portion of building project expenses with newer congregations through the JoinHands program. More details can be found at https://mennonitemen.org/joinhands.

Fundraising for the two projects, with a combined cost of $14,000, will begin this summer. Contributions of $10,000 will assist the congregation in Angola construct a roof for their unfinished building (pictured). This group currently meets inside their church walls under a temporary roof.

$4,000 will complete the construction of a church building in Kinshasa DR Congo. Members of the congregation in Kinshasa continue to meet for worship in an airport hangar until they complete their building.

Mennonite Men continues to raise funds for the grant approved in 2021 for Hmong Mennonite Church in Westminster Colorado. Approved grants are awarded to congregational projects once the full amount has been raised. For more information on contributing to or applying for a JoinHands grant, visit mennonitemen.org/joinhands

​Grace and peace to all beloved brothers and sisters, God bless you mightily.

The Mennonite Church of Vila Virginia – Ribeirão Preto SP – Brazil is completing 56 years and seeking to serve the Lord in what we understand is the mission of the Church, PREACH THE GOSPEL. In 2019, after praying and understanding that it was the will of the Lord, we acquired land in a new neighborhood with 7,800 houses and 30,000 residents, 20 km away from the church to plant a new church, Igreja Evangélica Vida Nova. By faith we bought the land in 120 months installments.

We started the work in a collapsible tent on the sidewalk of the land, then in November 2020 we acquired a fixed tent where we had our worship until in September 2021 a gale destroyed the tent. We didn’t stop the services, we reconvened in the little tent we had started.

With the money received from the Mennonite Men ($10,000 – R$50,000) we started the construction of the new church building. This week we are finishing the basics and are already using the new church building. The total cost of the work was R$120,000, we received donations, sold pizza, feijoada (delicious stew made with beans), lasagna and held two bazaars. We are closing this part of the construction with a deficit of R$12,000 reais, which we are paying in installments. We are planning to create a facade for the front of the church church, paint, put in the ceiling and build the Sunday School rooms, but this is for the future, as we are going to plan on how to raise the funds.

Regarding the work of the church, we were never paralyzed. We have Sunday morning meetings. In March we will start: 1) Meeting

We are very excited, and firm in the work that the Lord has given us. We believe that the Lord has something very precious to do in this place. We appreciate the donation received, which was fundamental for the construction of the church building. We have been working hard to raise funds among ourselves, but we are also open to donations that may come from other churches.

The congregation from Vida Nova, Brazil, received a grant from JoinHands, a program of Mennonite Men in 2020 that raises funds for congregations seeking their first church building. Read more about JoinHands projects at mennonitemen.org/joinhands.

A three-part series of events in October and November 2021 provided an opportunity for 26 men to learn and unpack narratives around masculinity, faith, and equity. Sponsored by Mennonite Men and Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, including the Church Leadership Center and the Institute of Mennonite Studies.

Events were facilitated by Ben Tapper of the Kindred Collective, a nonprofit that provides leaders with the tools necessary to overcome systemic problems that undercut the value of every person. Teaching helped unpack some of the ways that patriarchy and white supremacy have been interwoven.

Participants were given the space and tools to dissect their own narratives so they can see where they’ve been influenced by patriarchy and white supremacy and how these aspects of their story may undermine their core beliefs or their desired values.

Teaching by Ben Tapper emphasized that the work of combating racism and patriarchy must begin at home, with ones self before we can begin to begin this work in the church, so deconstructing and rebuilding our own understandings is foundational. ‘The institution of the church has helped uphold patriarchy and white supremacy throughout history and so has a huge responsibility in breaking them down,’ said Ben during the first of the three events.

The opportunity to begin some of this work as a group of men was an important aspect of the series for many of the participants. ‘It was a healthy space to not only receive more information about masculinity as a social construct and type of socialization but also to practice being vulnerable with other men,’ said one participant.

Steve Thomas, U.S. Coordinator of Mennonite Men, helped to plan and lead the series. ‘I think what impressed me most is how powerful it was for men to pull together their life stories and share these with others,’ said Steve. ‘So few men had done this before and as they shared their narratives with each other they identified deep wounds and gifts. It was moving to see men share heart-to-heart about what it means to be men and struggling with how we are socialized. It was also an opportunity to face the privilege White cisgender men have and acknowledge how this impacts other genders and other men of color.’

Following the event, participants were given prerelease copies of the forthcoming book, Strong, Loving, and Wise: Joining Conversations for Men, written by Steve Thomas and Don Neufeld. The book invites men to reflect on their experience of God, Jesus, and the Spirit and explore how identity, gender, values, and practices shape us. It gives tools to help men pursue shalom in their personal and communal lives. The book will be published in the coming months.

​The church-building project in Samogohiri, Bukina Faso that began in 2016 with prayer, some small savings, and the collection of sand and gravel and other materials, is nearing completion following much hard work on the part of the congregation. Samogohiri Mennonite Church received a JoinHands grant from Mennonite Men in 2021 to help aid the completion of their first church building.

Fabe Traore, member of the Samogohiri congregation, has been part of the project since the beginning: ‘when we saw the estimate of 30 Million FCFA ($51,570 USD), we did not know how to mobilize all of that money to build quickly. However, with the $10,000.00 that we received from you, we have been about to advance a great deal.’

This sum helped the members build the entire building, with only the carpentry for the roof needed to complete the project.

The construction has been done primarily by members of the congregation. The mason is a member and is supported by all the other members in the labor. Congregants have divided into teams to complete different aspects of the construction.

Says Traore of the congregation’s active participation, ‘It is a work that reinforces our communion and our sense of giving to the work of the Lord. Through this communion and engagement, we see the hand of God in the work. Everything that everyone brings they bring with an open heart. We are very thankful to the Lord for this project.’

The congregation thanks all who contributed to the Join Hands program that contributed to their new building. JoinHands, which began in 1985 as Tenth Man, has distributed over $2 million helping churches in the United States, Canada, and internationally to build or purchase their first building. Learn more at mennonitemen.org/joinhands.