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Menno
Klassen, for example, devoted his whole life to peace and relief
efforts.
“After
the war I volunteered three and a half years with MCC [Mennonite
Central Committee]. During the first 6 months I was in charge
of the food collection centre in Winnipeg, from where canned goods
were shipped to war sufferers in Europe. We also processed donations
of wheat from Mennonite farmers throughout Western Canada, milled
it into flour and shipped it to Europe to help relieve hunger
there. The next 3 years were spent in agricultural service in
the Mennonite colonies in the Paraguayan Chaco. Soon after my
return to Canada, I began serving as a member of Manitoba Peace
and Social Concerns Committee under MCC.
“Since
then, my wife Aggie and I have been deeply involved in a number
of other peace, justice, environmental and human rights projects.
For our vacation, we have taken educational tours to Jamaica and
Haiti, Mexico, El Salvador and Nicaragua, the Mexico/U.S. border
where we studied the refugee and migrant labour situation, the
Philippines (with MCC), Paraguay and Bolivia. We have learned
to understand and identify with these people in their struggle
for dignity, economic and social justice and peace.
“After
returning home, we found ourselves interceding for them, the free
speaking and working for the unfree. On each trip we learned that
much of the suffering of the people in the world stems from unjust,
self-seeking North American foreign policies. We have been trying
to explain this to the Canadian public through slide presentations,
letters to editors of various newspapers and to our Members of
Parliament. As members of Amnesty International we have written
letters and wired complaints to third world governments that violate
human rights, urging them to change their inhuman policies.
“After
doing this intercessory work for some time, we decided to call
our home “The House of Intercession.” The footer on our letterhead
features the words of a familiar song: No one is an island, no
one stands along. Each one's joy is joy to us, each one's grief
is our own. We need one another, so we will defend each one as
our sister or brother; each one as our friend.” [ASP,
110-111]
John
L. Fretz served four and a half years in forestry camps and other
alternative service. He doesn't regret a minute: “If I had to do
it over again, I believe I would do the same thing.” Although he
would have liked to have chosen another type of alternative service,
he knows that “our type of service was probably the best that could
be arranged in the short time available to set up the program with
the government.” Even though the service wasn't his first choice,
it was generally beneficial to Canada and the COs.
“Most
of us became more aware of the scriptural teachings on peace and
nonresistance, and the importance of love and reconciliation,
in the face of violence. As a result of my experience, I wanted
to do more positive service, so I spent a two-year term in MCC
relief work in France …. Service such as in MCC is a more positive
kind of witness." [ASP, 79]
Fretz
includes a direct challenge at the end his story: “Perhaps more
effort should be made to form an ongoing church-operated peace-corps
type of service which would be an alternative to military service.”
In many ways, the Mennonites have already done that.
 David
Goerzen suggests that after high school young people should do some
voluntary serice. Do you think this is a good idea?
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