wfn.org | Relationships built through ministry

[BethAH <BethAH@mbm.org>]

August 22, 2001
Beth Hawn
Mennonite Board of Missions
(219) 294-7523
<NEWS@MBM.org>

August 22, 2001

Relationships built through multicultural ministry in France

PARIS, France (MBM)  A Jewish woman who lost most of her family
in concentration camps embraced an anti-semite at a Christmas
party in St. Maurice, a suburb of Paris.  The setting was an
English class taught by Janie Blough.  Janies husband, Neal,
calls her a pastor to the unchurched.

Several years after the Bloughs arrival in France, where they
have been Mennonite Board of Missions workers since 1975, city
officials asked Janie to teach adult continuing education English
classes.  Over the years, the classes have grown from 15 to more
than 70 students.

A cohort system promotes group spirit among the students, who
range from teenagers to 80-year-olds.  My classes are an
intergenerational mix that one rarely finds in todays society,
Janie said.  Ive had some students for more than 20 years.
This doesnt mean that Im a failure as a teacher.  It is
apparent that the classes are meeting social needs for the
students, many of whom are professionals.  Barriers drop,
relationships are built, and conversations take place between
races and classes that couldnt happen anywhere else.

Janie encourages thinking with discussion questions such as, Do
you believe God exists? or Should couples live together before
marriage?  She also has opportunities to teach counseling
skills, such as when one of her students daughter and grandson
were brutally murdered.

Im seeking to create a safe space, Janie said.  People come
burdened.  They are tired from work.  But after a class where
they have had fun, they go home smiling.

Teaching English is a half-time job.  Janie invests the rest of
her time in the various ministries of the Paris Mennonite Center,
including translation work, ecumenical relationships and
hospitality.

Janie and Neal helped to found the center in 1988.  In the past,
it has provided a base for discussion of Anabaptist concerns, as
well as a home for the Saint Maurice Mennonite Church, a
multiracial congregation that grew out of a ministry among
African students at the Foyer Grebel.

Over the past two decades, both Bloughs have been deeply involved
in congregational leadership.  Although they continue to
participate in congregational life as encouragers, the Bloughs
have gradually turned over leadership responsibilities to other
members.

Though it is emotionally challenging, it is also time to
separate the church and the center, Neal said.  There is not
enough room available in the small facility for both the church
and the center to develop.

[Possible] solutions are limited because of real estate prices
and the fact that churches are not welcome in a lot of
neighborhoods.  The French see anything other than Catholic or
mainline Protestant as a sect.  In some media presentations,
Mennonites have been listed among the sects.

In this atmosphere of suspicion and misunderstanding, Neal has
appreciated being invited to participate in the
Catholic-Mennonite dialogues that take place under the auspices
of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the
Mennonite World Conference.  He also is professor of church
history in an interdenominational, evangelical seminary in
Vaux-sur-Seine and regularly lectures in other academic settings.

Neal anticipates three areas of involvement with the Paris
Mennonite Center in the coming years:
7 A French-speaking Mennonite network that links Africa, Europe
and Quibec.  Since its inception in 1997, this network, sponsored
by Mennonite World Conference and nine European Mennonite
agencies or institutions, has organized fraternal visits and
seminars in Africa and Europe.

7 Excelsis, an evangelical publishing house, is ready to launch a
collection called Anabaptist Perspectives to encourage the
production of more original Anabaptist material in French.  Neal
has made significant commitments to writing and editing. We
dont have the literature that we need [in the French language]
to teach, he said.

Among the first publications will be a book of essays on
eschatology and ethics, a translation of Mirror of the Martyrs,
papers from a symposium on John Howard Yoder, and a work on
reconciliation and forgiveness that is being written by Linda
Oyer, another MBM worker in France.

7 Developing a continuing education curriculum on Anabaptist
theology.  This will be worked on in cooperation with the
European Mennonite Bible School in Switzerland.

The Bloughs have three children for whom France is home.  Rachel
was married last summer.  She and her husband are continuing
doctoral studies in law.  David and Marc are university students.

They have begun to think several decades ahead to retirement.
With roots that spread across the Atlantic Ocean, will they stay
with their children and church community in France or return to
their American support network?

There are feelings of loneliness at times, knowing that you
dont totally fit in [anywhere] and never will, Neal said.  Yet
the Bloughs speak with enthusiasm about the richness of their
multicultural lives, and with gratitude for the privilege that
the North American church has given them of long-term ministry in
Europe.

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Lynda Hollinger-Janzen        PHOTO AVAILABLE