wfn.org | Event will mark 120 years

[BethAH <BethAH@mbm.org>]

July 18, 2001
Beth Hawn
Mennonite Board of Missions
(219) 294-7523
<NEWS@MBM.org>

July 18, 2001

Event will mark 120 years of Mennonite work with MBM

ELKHART, Ind. (MBM)  For 120 years, Mennonites have been laying
their hands on a broken world through Mennonite Board of
Missions.  To celebrate that legacy, hundreds of people at
regional conference events are placing paint-coated hands on a
banner of blessing, symbolically extending their prayers to
future mission efforts at an MBM celebration here Labor Day
weekend.

North American Mennonites will gather Sept. 1 - 2 in Elkhart
County, Ind., to celebrate 120 years of work with MBM.  Handing
on the Legacy: Celebrating 120 years of MBM, 1882-2002 will
feature an alumni brunch and reunions; a banquet reviewing six
score years of history; and a mission festival, hog roast, and
service to commission Mennonite mission efforts in the new
Mennonite Church USA.

Stanley W. Green, executive director of the new MC USA mission
agency, will outline the vision of a missional church, in which
the entire Mennonite Church will be fully engaged in mission . .
. across the street and around the world.  Green and Robert
Jack Suderman, the new mission executive for the Mennonite
Church Canada, also will be on hand during the hog roast,
allowing participants to grill the new mission executives with
questions or ideas for the future of Mennonite mission.

Events are open to all MBM alumni, staff and friends.  Child care
is available.  For more information, call 219-294-7523, e-mail
Legacy@MBM.org or visit our web site: www.MBM.org/legacy.

The weekend of events begins Saturday morning, Sept. 1, with
brunch reunions at tables organized by program and location in
the Athenian Room, the ninth-floor banquet hall in Elkharts
tallest building (home to MBM since 1976).  The afternoon will
include a golf outing, an open house at MBM offices (including
historical displays), and a tour of Mennonite historical sites in
downtown Elkhart.  Stops on the tour will include the home of
John F. Funk, who organized the Mennonite Evangelizing Committee
(the precursor to MBM); the first location of the Mennonite
Publishing House, where Funk began publishing Herald of Truth
(later known as Gospel Herald); and the original home of
Mennonite Board of Missions and Charities for seven decades at
1711 Prairie Street.  Free time will be available in the
afternoon so smaller groups can organize individual
get-togethers.

Saturday will conclude with a 6-9 p.m. celebration banquet at
Greencroft Senior Center in Goshen, Ind.  The event will feature
interviews with past and present MBM presidents and chairs of the
MBM Board of Directors (living and dead) as well as other ways to
reminisce about more than a century as a community in mission.
Tickets for the brunch and the banquet are $7.50 per person.

On Sunday, Sept. 2, participants will be free to attend morning
worship at area congregations. At noon, a free hog roast and
mission festival will begin on the grounds of Waterford Mennonite
Church on Goshens south side.  The festival will feature plenty
of activities for families and children, such as clowns, games,
activities and a multicultural serving of music. As part of a
plan to grill the new mission executives, participants will
have an opportunity for more individualized interaction with
Green and Suderman.

The weekend culminates in a 2 p.m. commissioning service for the
future of mission in the Mennonite Church USA.  The service will
feature music, an outline of the new vision for mission, and the
bringing together of the hands of blessing from across North
America.  Registration is available by phone, online at the MBM
web site (www.MBM.org/legacy), or by means of a printed
registration form being distributed in the summer issue of MBMs
Missions NOW magazine.

Mennonite Board of Missions extends the whole gospel to a broken
world through ministries in 50 countries.

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MBM staff