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Threshpective: COVID-19 is a justified threat

Bethel College student reflections on the COVID pandemic.
International students deal with COVID-19

Bethel College students reflections on the COVID pandemic.
Coaches encourage their current and incoming athletes to remain active during COVID-19

Bethel College student reflections on the COVID pandemic.
Editorial: COVID-19 and college life

Bethel College student reflections on the COVID pandemic
When will the COVID-19 vaccine reach Bethel College campus?

Bethel College student reflections on the COVID pandemic.
Bethel College COVID-19 Update: July 26, 2021

Bethel College President Jon Gering gives an update on COVID status and procedures at the college as the fall semester approaches.
Mennonite Life 2021 stories of pandemic life

The annual issue of Bethel’s journal leads off with a collection of reflections by recent Bethel graduates about what it has meant to consider “slow time” over the past 12-18 months, forced by the realities of a global pandemic.
Interview with Dale Shenk

Kyle Stocksdale interviews Dale Shenk, longtime Bible teacher at Bethany Christian Schools in Goshen, Indiana. Shenk reflects on his experiences growing up and working in a variety of settings in the Mennonite church as a pastor and teacher. Shenk also reflects on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on his life and his faith community at Berkey Avenue Mennonite Fellowship.
Exploring public health around the world without leaving home

This year-long Global Health Virtual Practicum is a partnership between Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) and Goshen College. It is designed with young adults in mind.
COVID-19 Kits in Middle East

Describes MCC's efforts to address Covid needs in the Middle East
Quarantined Three Times

Quarantined Three Times
An Easter Blessing in Covid Time

In Matthew 6:26 Jesus points "to the birds of the air" as examples for us. They fly in their sphere and joyfully sing to cheer each other and us. With these feathered friends beside us, we did not feel lonely or forsaken though isolated from fellowship in Covid Easter time nor in the days following.
The View from My Window

Do you ever catch yourself staring off into the distance, maybe looking out the window and getting lost in the wind rustling through the trees for a moment or two? Though the pandemic has disrupted just about every aspect of our daily life, looking out the window can be grounding and can offer some peace. We've reached out to MCC workers around the world to catch a glimpse of the views from their windows. We've asked them to describe how their life has been impacted by the pandemic and to show us the view they see every day. So take a virtual trip and jump into a new reality with us. We hope this change of scenery will give you a chance to pause and remember our MCC friends around the world.
PPE in the Produce Aisle

It's May 5, 2020, about 8 weeks into coronavirus reality, and I've postponed grocery shopping as long as I can. I grab the respirator we had lying around the garage for dusty projects, snap on safety goggles over my glasses, and pull on rubber gloves. I'm ready for the grocery store! I snap a selfie in the produce aisle at Stauffer's of Kissel Hill in Rohrerstown, PA. Viewing the photo from today's vantage point, what stands out to me most is that we still know comparatively little about SARS-COV2. We're regularly learning of variants emerging. Instead of looking outdated, this level of personal protective equipment is just one step away from the daily masking and handwashing and avoiding crowds that have been a regular part of life for about a year now. I also think about the web of Lancaster, PA Mennonite community. Stauffer's is a regional grocery chain that's duking it out with Whole Foods and Wegman's and appearing to remain buoyant. Roy and Florence Stauffer started the business as a produce stand in Kissel Hill, near Lititz, PA, circa 1930s. I've included a few photos from a history display in the Rohrerstown store. In 2003 I interviewed Rhoda Stauffer Oberholtzer, Florence and Roy's daughter, for my master's thesis research. She talked about growing up alongside the family business, and one of her comments stuck with me. She said something very close to: "We all worked together. We learned you work because there's work to do, not because you want to or because it's fun."
My COVID Happy Place

How has COVID affected me? Well, to be honest, I’ve not hardly noticed it except it would be nice to go to a warm location right now. Two years ago I was looking for a new creative outlet and decided to try painting. Well, to my surprise, I loved it and began by painting on wood slices for Christmas ornaments. From there it evolved to acrylic paintings, then on to water colour painting. I love painting birds and have done quite a few of those along with pet portraits. I am self-taught and am so grateful to God for bringing this hidden talent out in me for such a time as this. Painting puts me in another world that brings me such peace, joy, and satisfaction. Everyone should try something new. You just might find out you have a hidden talent in you, too!
Community Mennonite Church, Harrisonburg, VA Worship

Community Mennonite Church in Harrisonburg, VA pivoted to online worship as the spread of the coronavirus and subsequent lockdowns impacted Harrisonburg and the United States. This weekly worship format has continued since then. Members of the congregation and the pastoral team contribute music, children's stories, and sermons which are edited together by the church administrator Ben Bailey. The service is emailed out to members and publicly available on YouTube.
Passing the Light

Since the church community was not able to meet in person for a Christmas Eve candlelight service, Assembly Mennonite Church organized and created a virtual candle lighting experience. Members submitted videos of themselves passing the light in their homes, which were combined and set to music. It was a meaningful opportunity to connect with each other and feel the presence of God as we gathered virtually to celebrate Christ's birth.
Love in the time of COVID-19

In this series of blog posts, Rose Shenk reflects on the impact of COVID-19 on work, lives, and relationships in Ethiopia. Shenk and her spouse Bruce Buckwalter lived in Ethiopia from 2016 to 2021 as Country Representatives for Mennonite Central Committee.
Wolfe Wood Co.

"I have always loved working with my hands and within the last few years I have found the love of woodworking. With each project I gain more knowledge and skills of the trade. "Due to COVID-19 I found myself with more free time and I started filling this time with creating woodworking projects. I quickly realized that this could become my dream job! "I seek to make quality products, made from Canadian wood and materials. I love experimenting on different projects that I dream up. I also enjoy collaborating with customers to make beautiful custom pieces that are just right for them." - Jesse Wolfe, Woodworker and owner of Wolfe Wood Co.
Finding something to do

"Finding beauty in the backyard...aka finding something to do! #stayhome #staysafe" is the original caption I gave this photo on my Instagram account @selennawolfe. This post was during the COVID-19 pandemic when the Manitoba provincial guidelines asked people to stay at home and I decided to take in the nice weather while staying at home.
Christmas Unbounded

It occurred to me that the deprivations of the pandemic had some similarities to deprivations in Russia and even to the deprivations in first-century Bethlehem.
A COVID Christmas Party

On Thursday afternoon, December 17, Mennonite Church USA Executive Board staff - from 9 different states - gathered for a virtual Christmas party. Activities included a Christmas crown contest (with gold, frankincense, and myrrh themes), a guided painting activity with Kelly Frey Martin, and pre-distributed snacks.
Merry Covid Christmas, God! A Chaplain's Lament

I am a hospital staff chaplain. Last Monday (12/7) we had a very difficult day when four patients on the ICU with Covid-19 were removed from their ventilators and died minutes later. Just a couple family members of each patient were allowed to come see their loved one (per hospital protocol) before they were removed from the vents. This was the worse day yet for our nurses and other colleagues on the ICU since the pandemic started. This lament was the result of one: an assignment for a unit of Clinical Pastoral Education that I am currently taking in which I read it to the class on Thursday and they loved it. And two: the deaths on the ICU that Monday and the experience I had in a local store the next. And I suppose a response so far to the pandemic through my eyes as a hospital chaplain who is trying to serve.
"Creating space for God"

On Saturday, November 21, Assembly Mennonite Church pastors Anna Yoder Schlabach and Lora Nafziger, along with the Worship and Christian Formation committees, organized an outdoor Tabernacle experience for church youth and their families. The event took place in the meetinghouse parking lot and included self-led, physically distanced activities such as a life-sized model of the Tabernacle, tours from the High Priest, and Exodus-related crafts. The same afternoon a physically distanced and masked choir met in the parking lot to record hymns for virtual worship the next day. The event capped a 6-week Exodus Bible study.
The Drama of a Rural Community's Life Cycle

Rural communities depend on the health of the agrarian cultures that compose them. These cultures grow out of the symbiotic relationship between a particular landscape and the human community that lives on and uses the land. Agrarian cultures had their origin in the development of agriculture and gave birth to the civilizations and empires of history. Based on the exercise of hierarchical power characteristic of their nature, empires and civilizations are always a threat to the welfare of their agrarian cultures, that by nature tend to be local, relational, reciprocal, and ecological. This is the story of the three Anabaptist agrarian cultures--Swiss German, Low German, and Hutterian--of the Freeman, South Dakota, rural community, and their sojourn within the empires of civilization through the centuries. More specifically, this is the story of their birth, growth, maturation, and death (or rebirth?) in the particular landscape of the Great Plains to which they came from Russia in the 1870s. Here we see the agrarian cultures' struggle to adapt to the new environment of the Great Plains and to maintain their unique identity while living within American society. This is the drama of a rural community's life cycle!