MCC: A house block for a home

First House Block submitted by Nancy Friesen, Oregon

By Cathryn Clinton

AKRON, Pa. -- Quilt squares depicting houses are being used to raise money to rebuild homes in a cyclone-torn area of Bangladesh.

Throughout 2007, house blocks or quilt squares depicting houses were collected for projects for Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) 2008 relief sales. The house blocks are being used to create quilts, wall hangings and other textile projects that will be sold or auctioned at relief sales.

Proceeds from these house block projects will help rebuild homes in an area of Bangladesh that was hit hard by Cyclone Sidr when it made landfall on Nov. 15, claiming more than 3,400 lives and destroying many houses.

To date, over 230 house blocks have been collected in the United States and Canada.

This house block project began after the 2006 "Share Your Heart" effort which collected heart quilt blocks. The project brought in more than $67,928 for MCC, according to Harriet Berg, relief sale coordinator.

Last spring, Phyllis Schmidt, a contributor to the project, was intrigued by the idea of the house blocks and decided to present it to her women's group at the Greensburg Mennonite Church in Greensburg, Kansas.

But she didn't get the chance. On May 4, 2007 a tornado tore through the town. While Schmidt's house in the country was spared, the tornado destroyed the homes of the other women in the group.

Schmidt's granddaughter, 8-year-old Hannah Funk cried when she visited Greensburg and saw the destruction. All the familiar sights including the grain elevator, the church and even the main street stores were gone.

Hannah loves to draw and wanted to help her grandmother, so she drew an imaginary house for Phyllis to use in a quilt block.

A Bangladesh traveling quilt was inspired by Colleen Graber of the Mennonite World Relief Sale in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. During last year's sale, Graber led children in creating house blocks in the children's activity center.

The traveling quilt will go to relief sales to be used as a symbol while information on the Bangladesh house building project is shared during the auctions. Donations are then taken from the floor and will go toward the project.

To learn more about the house block project watch for updates on http://mcc.org/reliefsales/quiltprojects/. For a schedule of 2008 relief sales in the United States and Canada, click on http://mcc.org/reliefsales/.

Cathryn Clinton is a writer for Mennonite Central Committee.


Permission to post this article received from:
Ed Nyce
Media and Education Coordinator
Mennonite Central Committee
phone: (717) 859-1151 #282
email: ebn@mcc.org
website: http://mcc.org/reliefsales/

Sweetheart Dinner

Saturday evening hubby and I ventured out into the cold rain (at least it wasn't ice or snow) to attend the annual Sweetheart Dinner at my parents church, Southwest Presbyterian in Wichita, Kansas. First a little history: Dad was raised Mennonite, but when he got out on his own there were many places that didn't have Mennonite churches. Dad's dad, my grandfather CP Heinrichs told my dad that he didn't care what church he went to as long as he went to church. The first church that I remember was the Presbyterian church in Dodge City, Kansas. We moved to Wichita when I was in the 1st grade and attended Southwest Presbyterian growing up. The church is about 5 or 6 city blocks from my folks home and I often walked home on nice Sunday afternoons.

In my early years at the church only the section from the left of the double doors (above) existed. Dad's company, Evan's Steel Bldg. Co. Inc. built the addition to the right.
Below is inside the sanctuary, the outside pictured above. Prior to the addition, the sanctuary doubled as the multipurpose room. We had folding chairs that everyone helped to fold up after the service so other activities could be held.
The Sweetheart Dinner is held in the addition and the men of the church bring their grills and set them out back (under the awning when it rains) and cook up wonderful, juicy, bacon wrapped steaks. The meal began with a salad and baked potatoes are served with the meat. The meal is finished up with pie and ice cream. This year's entertainment was a young college girl from a neighboring church. I hope to have more information about her to put on my KS Born Talent blog in the near future. The only camera I had with me was the one on my phone, so here's a little diddy I took of her introduction.

The meal was wonderful as always with the only complaint being that they ate too much. And the entertainment was excellent, everyone had a great time. The rain had let up a bit, and fortunately, hadn't gotten any colder.

South Side City Mission Minneapolis MN

I was going through some pictures that I had scanned at my Aunt and Uncle's house a while back and I just had to post his one. The only thing I know about this is that my great Aunt Katherine Klassen worked at this mission as a young woman. If anyone knows who any of these other people are I'd certainly like to have that information to put with the picture.

For Immediate Release

October 22, 2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Canada's most prominent novelist to speak at Hesston College November 2

Hesston, Kan. -- Canadian novelist Rudy Wiebe will be featured at an 11a.m. Friday Forum, November 2, at Hesston College. The forum, held in the sanctuary of Hesston Mennonite Church, is free and open to the public.Wiebe will also speak in several classes."Wiebe is one of Canada's most prominent contemporary fiction writers,"said John Sharp, Hesston College's Centennial history writer and history professor. "As a Mennonite writer, Wiebe is without equal north and south of the 49th parallel. He has won Canada's most prestigious awards,including the Governor General's award for fiction in 1973. He is professor emeritus of English at the University of Winnipeg."One might think of Wiebe as the godfather of Mennonite novelists," Sharp said. Among his novels are the following: Mennonite themes: Peace Shall Destroy Many (1962), Blue Mountains of China (1970), My Lovely Enemy(1983), Sweeter Than All the World (2001); Native American themes: The Temptations of Big Bear (1973), The Scorched-Wood People (1977), First and Vital Candle (1966), A Discovery of Strangers (1994). In his most recent work, a non-fiction book titled Of This Earth, Wiebe tells the story of his first 12 years of life in remote Saskatchewan, where his Mennonite family struggled to start a farm out of stony bushland. Wiebe will also speak at Bethel College, North Newton, Kan., and Tabor College, Hillsboro, Kan. For more information, contact John Sharp, phone 620-327-8248; e-mail:JohnS@hesston.edu.

Reprinted with permission from:
Phil Richard
Director of Communications Hesston College
620-327-8115
philr@hesston.edu

"Peace is not the absence of conflict, but the presence of God no matter what the conflict." -- author unknown