Dorothy Siebert

Jesus, My Father, the CIA, and Me
Author: Ian Morgan Cron
You’re at an outreach event listening to a special speaker flown in for the evening to tell his amazing testimony. This book is that story. It’s a first-person account of how the author survived an alcoholic father and went on to struggle with his own alcoholism. In the end, he winds up as an Episcopal priest.

The Four Storey Forest: As Grow the Trees, so too the Heart
Author: Harold Macy
Move over Thoreau. Here is a man who not only observes the forest, but for 30 years has been steeped in the mystique of husbanding the woodlands. He and his family live off a thousand acres of forest by practicing one kind of “agroforestry,” the intentional integration of trees, crops, and creatures in a mutually beneficial operation.

Text Examined: 1 John 3:1-2 – “While I waited at an X-ray clinic, a man in a business suit shattered the peace and quiet with a loud cellphone call. I grew incensed and planned to crush Mr. Business Suit with a glare of contempt. But I was called in for my X-ray and didn’t get the chance.”

Text Examined: Luke 10:25-37 – “I left the house that morning charged up, feeling clean, optimistic, and pretty spiritual. When I arrived at the clinic, others were there, quietly chatting. As an elderly woman sat down beside me, I did the noble thing: put down my magazine and smiled.”

As a missionary in Colombia during the 1990s, Dorothy Siebert saw the dearth of materials available to Spanish-speaking pastors and church leaders. A dream was born to provide a resource for MB leaders and church members throughout Latin America, starting with Albert Enns’ biography.

I’ve learned that often when I think I’m helping, I’m actually interfering.
That’s what happened one day in Colombia, South America. During the first year my husband, Harold, and I pastored a church in a barrio in Medellin, we were newly arrived from Canada and had never attended a Colombian funeral. But when a young man, our church member, suddenly passed away, we were in charge of conducting the service.

Image: A Journal of the Arts and Religion
Editor: Gregory Wolfe
I felt embarrassed about the barebones sanctuary as I attended a service in a Mennonite church far from my home. Meeting that day was an ecumenical group of editors from across Canada: Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Baptists, and all shades of Mennonite. Surely some would miss their stained glass windows, paintings, and beautifully constructed buildings.