Mission and Service Workers

Many CMC members are serving people all around the world. On this page, you can read updates on their adventures.

 Lindsay and Asher Fast – Serving in Botswana with Mennonite Mission Network and Virginia Mennonite Missions

  • January 13, 2019Braais & Byes
    Lindsey and I were fortunate to take a gorgeous vacation and final African adventure to Cape Town over Christmas. We saw amazing, natural beauty and many things worthy of capturing with a picture. Alt …
  • October 31, 2018Assigning Worth: What do we put price tags on?
    As Lindsey and I are nearing the end of our two-year term of service in Botswana, I find myself reflecting over many things; even more so than usual. I’ve mentioned it before, but the pace of life her …
  • August 22, 2018The Importance of Investing in Youth
    Imagine growing up in a dry, desert terrain. The summers are long and hot. The winters short. You didn’t grow up with many toys in the house. You live with your grandmother and both of your parents ar …
  • May 18, 2018Reflections on Cross-Cultural Emotions
    Lindsey’s Thoughts My aunt sent us some proverbs recently about living in another culture (Jacob’s Proverbs on How to Live Happily in other Cultures, 1973). The first proverb is: “The psychological sp …
  • March 14, 2018Risks and Rewards
    We recently completed a 15-week cross-cultural discipleship course through Eastern Mennonite University. This course was designed to be apart of our service experience and involved international worke …

Jay and Sheri Hartzler – Serving in Romania

  • February 6, 2022Appreciating the Small Things
    This morning I was listening to Richard Rohr talk about six levels of intelligence.  He said we reach the sixth …Continue reading → …
  • December 20, 2020Potato Man
    Once a week I go to the market, whether I need to buy something or not.  I usually get apples …Continue reading → …
  • June 7, 2020Theater?
    “I don’t like this!  It’s theater!” This morning I observed three church services.  I say observed because one was in …Continue reading → …
  • March 9, 2020Stop and smell the roses
    Stop … and smell the roses. (They aren’t blooming now but you get the idea.) I confess that I am …Continue reading → …
  • December 8, 2019A season of wonder
    Advent, the season of anticipation and wonder.  This week the word “wonder” has been cemented in my mind.  On Tuesday …Continue reading → …

Amy & Giles Eanes – Serving in Colombia with MCC's SEED program

Greetings from Colombia.

The past few months have been full for both of us. We have had both sets of parents come and visit, travels for vacation and work, and holiday activities. Also, we have been kept busy going to doctor appointments and preparing for a new stage in life as parents! In the middle of May we are expecting a little boy that will be born here in Bogota.

Additionally, both of our jobs have kept us on our toes. The end of the year means lots of MCC partner project reports for Amy to help approve, translate, and submit as well as project planning for the new year. The 15th of February marked the end of this cycle of the 2-year Seed program which Giles helps to coordinate and thus was busy with closing activities for the Seeders. The next few months will bring a lot of changes as we start to transition out of our roles and start thinking about the next stage of life. We are planning to move back to Harrisonburg in late summer of 2018 and are looking forward to reconnecting with CMC.

Colombia continues to be a complex context. Over a year ago, Colombia signed a peace accord with the FARC guerrillas, and since then there has been a largely successful effort to demobilize and disarm. Unfortunately, there is little political will to put into law many of the parts of the accords related to social and economic reforms, and thus there is much uncertainty about what will happen. Many community and social leaders who support the implementation of the peace process, as well as environmental and human rights defenders, continue to be threatened and assassinated, further destabilizing regions – more than 170 have been killed since the signing of the accord. Additionally, congressional and presidential elections right around the corner lend more uncertainty to the process, since the next administration may or may not follow through on necessary legislation for implementation. This also affects the peace negotiations that have been going on for one year with the ELN guerrillas, which have currently been suspended. The situation in Venezuela has forced hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans from their homes in search of jobs, medicine, and food, and they continue to pour into Colombia, straining many communities and giving politicians fuel as they claim that an implemented peace accord with the FARC and voting for politicians on the left will turn Colombia into Venezuela. Meanwhile, U.S. aid to Colombia and support of peace negotiations is being cut at a critical time, with a concerning return to war on drugs-type rhetoric.

In the midst of these dynamics, Anabaptist churches and MCC partner organizations in Colombia continue to do the work of building peace in their local communities. Please pray for the safety of our Colombian brothers and sisters, as well as for their energy and encouragement as they navigate this post-accord time.

Much love,
Giles & Amy Eanes

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David, Rebekka, Immanuel and Liana Stutzman – Serving in Germany with Virginia Mennonite Mission

Hanna Heishman – Serving with Habitat for Humanity

  • March 23, 2017the art between us
    A few days ago, I found myself at an event called “the art between us.” It was an eclectic gathering of souls: women shared hard-learned truths in the form of slam-poems, some shared original music, a …
  • November 16, 2016"The Day After The Election I Did Not Go Outside"
    by HANIF WILLIS-ABDURRAQIB BUT for a moment, to drive to the soulfood spot on Congress ave. where utensils,large & made for the hands of no one living amongus, hang on the walls & where the woman behi …
  • October 6, 2016the dust settles.
    Recently, one of my housemates posed the most seemingly benign question toward me. We were marching down the street, recanting through memories and noting how delightfully odd it was to feel as though …
  • August 16, 2016Balance: A Reflection on the last two years — and a launch into the next chapter
    I have forever gravitated toward adventure, and my pull to explore and to know difference has made me feel like a restless wanderer. I perceive myself as one who loves deeply, but sporadically, and be …
  • October 7, 2015newness and familiarity
    I’m seated back in the valley that cradled me for so many years; the weathered Blue Ridge mountains are holding me once again. I cannot shake one of my most recent memories: winding through roads I kn …

Tabea Zimmerman – Serving in Bolivia with MCC's SEED program

  • April 21, 2018A Shameless Plug for Score Against Poverty
    I am not an expert on community development, managing NGO’s and monitoring programs, or even on food security, gender sensitization, or environmental conservation. But in the past few years as I have …
  • April 21, 2018Exchanging Ideas across Borders: A Trip to Zimbabwe
    Thanks to all the traveling I’ve been able to do through the MCC Seed Southern Africa program, I have stuffed my passport with visas and immigration stamps, and even had to get a new 52-pager last Aug …
  • March 2, 2018A long overdue update – mostly in pictures
    The past three months have been full of exciting travels, people, and learning. I spent a month in December-January in South Africa, both for personal vacation and work meetings. I got to meet and spe …
  • March 2, 2018Turning point
    I have reached a turning point with the relationships I am creating in Halumba. I have lived here long enough, spent enough hours around kitchen fires drinking tea and roasting maize, walked enough ki …
  • March 2, 2018How to accurately measure your crop yields
    Most NGO’s that run Conservation Agriculture (CA) and food security projects include crop yield measurements somewhere in their monitoring and evaluation strategies. We want to know how much maize and …

 

John, Jennifer, Jonathan, Rebecca, Caroline, and Nicholas Murch – Serving in Puerto Rico with Mennonite Disaster services

  • September 30, 2025our new names
    As part of my birthday festivities (of which included a surprise dessert party featuring five — FIVE! — cakes), the children presented me with a video of greetings from loads of friends and family. Wh …
  • September 24, 2025twenty years a home
    Twenty years ago this month, we moved into this house. We had three children back then, ages 5 and under. I was 30 years old and pregnant with our fourth.  2005: celebrating my 30th Fast forward to no …
  • September 19, 2025water kefir
    A few months back, I decided to try water kefir (pronounced kah-FEAR). I love my carbonated water — and I have the bulk tank of gas to prove it — but a naturally fizzy water flavored with a few pieces …
  • August 31, 2025If you give a mouse a cookie…
    For quite some time, we have wanted to get the milking equipment out of the downstairs guest room. But wanting something to happen doesn’t necessarily mean it will . . . unless you decide to host a yo …
  • August 18, 2025the quotidian (8.18.25)
    Quotidian: daily, usual or customary;everyday; ordinary; commonplace Stone Soup (the name of our small group) goes salady. Gochujang noodles: can you spy the secret ingredient to keep it saucy? Cream …

 

Selena McCoy Carpenter and Rand Carpenter – Serving in Kenya with Mennonite Central Committee

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Rose Shenk, Bruce Buckwalter, Christian, Andrew, Daniel, and Jacob Stoltzfus – Serving in Ethiopia with Mennonite Central Committee

  • March 29, 2021West With The Dawn
    The week before we planned to leave Ethiopia and move back to Virginia, I got covid. For a lot of people, this photo is what covid looks like. I recently read that up to 80% of virus-ridden folks are …
  • February 12, 2021Safe Passage
    ***Content warning*** This story is about the murder of a man and includes the sacrificial death of an animal. Abebe Degefu knows the price–and the freedom–of forgiveness. He, along with his community …
  • January 24, 2021Love in the Time of Covid: Goodbye David Ford, the Only Brony
    David sends a photo wedding card to Brony friends in the US David Ford is alive and well, and to my knowledge has not gotten the coronavirus. This is not that kind of goodbye. Ba Yesus sim! David Ford …
  • January 19, 2021Timket in the Time of COVID
    This is my forth Timket in Ethiopia. Even though I’m moving back to the US next month, I hope it is not my last. Timket a two-day outdoor party, decorated with velvet umbrellas, lavishly embroidered v …
  • December 30, 2020Love in the Time of COVID: Dawa for 2020
    I was born in East Africa. My dad was born here, and died here. My dad’s mother died here too, in a plane crash against the Ngong hills in 1969. I was one year old. But I’m not a Kenyan. As a white Am …

Other CMCers Living Internationally

John, Glenda, Anisa, and Karen Leonard – Serving in Nairobi, Kenya, with Rosslyn Academy