wfn.org | Quilts make perfect backdrop

[BethAH@mbm.org]

March 21, 2001
Beth Hawn
Communications Coordinator
Mennonite Board of Missions
phone (219) 294-7523
fax (219) 294-8669
<www.MBM.org>

March 21, 2001

Quilts make perfect backdrop at Brussels Mennonite Center

ELKHART, Ind. (MBM) – The Brussels Mennonite Center picked the
perfect Mennonite expression for its 20th anniversary celebration
in October 2000: quilts.

The center rented a church hall and hung 50 quilts from North
America on the walls.  One quilt was a work in progress to show
the art of quilting.

In addition, there were several quilts from a small Amish
community in southwest Belgium.

The idea for quilts came from Annie Hubinont, president of the
center’s board of directors.

“She wanted something that would be symbolic of the
Mennonite-Anabaptist movement, but would also be attractive to
the people of Belgium who’d never heard of Anabaptists,” said
J.B. Shenk of Goshen, Ind., who, along with wife, Betty, helped
set up the show.

Betty Shenk said quilting has become a popular pastime in Europe
and the 600 people who attended appreciated the show.

“People said it was one of the nicest shows they’d seen,” she
said.  “From the questions they asked, we knew they were
quilters.”

The weeklong quilt exhibit was just one of the celebrations that
took place in Belgium last October.

Mennonite Board of Missions also celebrated 50 years of work in
the country with a worship service attended by about 150 people.
David Shank, who, with his wife, Wilma, was the first MBM worker
in Belgium, gave the main talk.  The service also included
testimonies from local Catholic and Protestant representatives
and people who served in Belgium with MBM.

“As my wife and I led a prayer of thanksgiving during the worship
service, I was moved by the number of involvements that MBM
workers have had in Belgium over the past 50 years, and I know we
left some things out,” said J. Robert Charles, MBM director for
Europe and Africa, and first director of the Brussels Mennonite
Center.

Another part of the celebration was a seminar on mediation, which
is now the focus of MBM’s work in Belgium.  About 80 members of
the public attended the seminar conducted by John Paul Lederach,
who worked in Brussels with Mennonite Central Committee in the
late 1970s.

* * *

By Gary Kauffman for MBM news