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Forest health, our health

One of my favorite Ohio-based organizations is the Arc of Appalachia. My introduction to the Arc came during a 2010 tree education course that rocked my world, bringing the forest to life in a way I’d never experienced. To borrow from this upcoming Sunday’s passage about Moses and the burning bush, it was the first time I glimpsed the plant world aflame with God.

This is how the Arc describes its work: We acquire and steward wildlands in the Ohio region. We create sanctuaries where people can connect with the...

Daily Connector | Sixty-five and counting | Paul Swartzentruber

Jan and I were married on August 20, 1955, at 7:30 p.m., at the Orrville (Ohio) Mennonite Church on one of the hottest days of the summer. Even now, sixty-five years later, I can still feel my sweat-soaked body in my navy-blue wool suit standing in front of the congregation to listen to the minister’s sermon and to say our memorized vows to each other.

We celebrated the anniversary of that occasion last week by spending two nights at The Lodge at Geneva-On-The-Lake, on the shores of Lake Erie. We could not have asked for finer weather or a nicer...

Daily Connector | Thinking Baseball: And Now the Offering... | Tim Stried

I have enjoyed reading the CMC Daily Connectors and getting to know many of you a little better. No matter how COVID-19 has or hasn’t affected our lives, each of us lost things, gained things, and learned new things about ourselves and others.

Beginning Thursday, March 12, one of the things I “lost” was sports, but for the non-sports people in our church, please keep reading, because this isn’t about “my teams” or wins and losses. To some, sports and extra-curricular activities may seem unimportant, but for kids, they are their connection to...

Daily Connector | Legos | David Emch

I’ve started seeing most of my clients again in person. I still have a few that are online, but it’s so nice to be back in my office – with all of my toys. Earlier this summer I took a continuing ed class on how to incorporate Legos into a play therapy session with kids. It was so exciting and right afterwards I put out a call to our network here in Chiang Mai asking if anyone had any Legos that they would want to donate. I got thousands. I literally have all of the donated Legos into two large plastic tubs. I had to ask that the donations be stopped....

“These are people!”

I was asked to submit a blog entry for Mennonite Church USA’s Learn, Pray, Join initiative focused on immigrant justice. This was my submission:

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“These are people!”

This was a favorite phrase of my friend Ruben Castilla Herrera. He had heard it from his mentor Cesar Chavez with whom he had worked organizing farm laborers.

Ruben would say these words in groups small and large, with a mix of moral conviction and exasperation.

It was through Ruben that our congregation met Edith Espinal and it was through this encounter that we...

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