Mennonite
Central
Committee

Basking in a diversity of cultures

Gladys Terichow
July 13, 2006

Sung-eun (Mary) Kim marveled at the willingness of her fellow Summerbridge participants to interact with each other, despite their cultural differences.

"We are totally different, yet we can learn from each other," said Kim, who is from South Korea and has been studying in Canada the past six years.

She and 12 others were in Winnipeg in June for a Summerbridge conference. Summerbridge is a summer program supported by MCC Canada, provincial MCC's and sponsoring churches. The program enables people to support church ministries in their home communities for eight to 17 weeks. More than 100 people have participated in this program since it began in the mid 1990s.

"It is wonderful how diverse we are—it is wonderful to meet other people drawn to the same program," said Miriam Argueta of Kitchener-Waterloo, Ont. during a three-day conference in Winnipeg held in June for the participants. Thirteen of the 17 participants attended the conference.

Argueta, sponsored by the First Mennonite Church in Kitchener-Waterloo, is spending her summer supporting new Canadians who have arrived under refugee programs.

One of these families is a mother and six children from Somalia—a family sponsored by the First Mennonite Church. She is also supporting the Mennonite Coalition for Refugee Support, a cooperative effort of four Mennonite congregations in the Kitchener-Waterloo area.

Meanwhile, Kim, a 2006 graduate of Columbia Bible College in Abbotsford, B.C., is spending her summer supporting the community ministries of Living Hope Christian Fellowship in Surrey, B.C.

"This church is like a snapshot of heaven—it is a church where people from all cultures feel welcomed," said Kim, explaining that the Mennonite church is led by pastors from four countries—Canada, Nigeria, Taiwan and Austria. The church is located in a multicultural neighbourhood in North Surrey.

One of her responsibilities is developing and conducting a community survey to identify needs in the community. This door-to-door survey, she added, will help the church develop ministries that meet "real needs" of the community and build relational bonds between the church congregation and community.

This is the first year that Petitcodiac Mennonite Church in New Brunswick is sponsoring a participant. "It's a great opportunity to have a summer job, to learn about MCC, to grow spiritually and provide practical support," said Caitlyn Geldart.

One of her summer projects is helping her church start a children's club. "It will be really nice to get more children involved in our church," she said.

This is also the first year that the Northern Cross Community Church, a congregation in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Labrador, Newfoundland, is sponsoring a participant. Yanaël Queval is serving as a camp counsellor at the Labrador Christian Youth Camp, a camp for Innu and Inuit children.

Other participants and sponsoring churches are Johnson Wong, Richmond Chinese Mennonite Brethren Church, Vancouver, B.C.; Felipe Morales, Primera Iglesia Evangelica Hispana, Medicine Hat, Alta; Ligia Murillo, Primera Iglesia Hispana, Edmonton, Alta; Robert Troung, Calgary Vietnamese Mennonite Church, Alta; Christine Arsenault and Élise Anne Bansque, Église chretiénne de Saint-Laurent, Que; Benjamin Charbonneau, Église chretiénne de Saint-Jerome, Que; Patricia Nagant and Patrick Rochon, Église chrétienne de Terrebonne-des-Moulins, Que; Marianne Passarelli, Communauté chrétienne internationale de Montréal, Que, Gerald Blaquiere, Restigouche Valley Church, Campbellton, N.B.; Lisa Francis, Gateway Community Church, Sackville, N.S.; and Thomas Sudbury, The Pool Mennonite Brethren Church, Moncton, N.B.

 

Gladys Terichow is a writer with MCC Canada