Anabaptist Witness Blog

Welcome to our blog, a forum to foster discussion and share ideas from different corners of the Anabaptist world. It is regularly updated with short reflection pieces, reactions to articles, comments on current events relating to mission, and more. If you are interested in contributing, please review our guidelines and contact information.

Morning

By H. J. Recinos | Posted on May 6, 2018

spring morning begins with the conspicuous perfume of flowers in the air, a few stars still yawning, the light covers used last night thrown aside, a warming sun gently rising in each heart, dingy faced bums living on the streets showing wide smiles, mothers imagining fairy tales to the sound of the wind in trees, […]

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Another

By H. J. Recinos | Posted on February 17, 2018

A poem by h. j. Recinos in response to the school shooting in Florida on Ash Wednesday after another school shooting horror again swells sorrowing hearts faster than any can say the Lord’s name, more innocent blood ran the halls in Florida on Ash Wednesday to make the nation fall into unearthed darkness, the speechless […]

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The Season | Miracle ©

By H. J. Recinos | Posted on December 19, 2017

For the Advent season, two poems from h.j. Recinos. The Season I often wonder about how many tears are shed when trying to make sense of the expensive politics planting crosses on the side of the road to keep company some day with the towered wall planned with deaf selling walks. little is ever said […]

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Sutherland

By H. J. Recinos | Posted on November 7, 2017

this year death has torn open our hearts from public squares, to schools, movie houses, parks, malls, and the sacred halls of church. in the circles made for prayer, no one even imagined more than twenty-four thousand innocents dropped by the barrel of guns into the earth’s dark void. when the glad times are recounted, […]

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The Sting

By H. J. Recinos | Posted on October 2, 2017

the history toward which the country slides will be memorized in the future with unglamorous words, a bitter taste on tongues, the sound of heaped up wailing, and the Rose Garden haunted by all the anonymous dead in the deserts, mountains, cities, and islands in the middle of vast seas. the future made last week […]

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What (De-)Radicalization

By Hansuli Gerber | Posted on September 17, 2017

When I first heard the terms “radicalized” and “radicalization” used by media and political leaders in reference to Islamist terrorist activity, I was irritated. I had learned forty-five years ago about the “Radical Reformation.” Although this language isn’t the exclusive possession of my tradition, the term “Radical Reformation” certainly stands for something profoundly transforming, deeply […]

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Dreamer ©

By H. J. Recinos | Posted on September 6, 2017

they count us just things to be tossed, faces without names for ruthless might to strike, mere newcomers without human rights, dreamers condemned by the politics of hate, children for the whip hardened politicians say God will praise, young people painted wrong by high-flown speeches that aim to hurl us back to lands never known. […]

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Why Spain?: Rationale for European Missions

By Josh Garber | Posted on February 19, 2017

Josh and Alisha Garber are Mennonite Mission Network workers who have served in Lithuania and are making the transition to a new ministry in Barcelona . “Why Spain” is the question provoked in the title. Why indeed?  The following blog post and accompanying video are a reflection on the meaning of mission work internationally and […]

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Cultural Exchange and Applied Anabaptism: A Journey From Indonesia to the USA

By Heri Purwanto | Posted on February 5, 2017

We, as Anabaptists, should place Jesus Christ at the center of our faith, community at the center of our lives, and reconciliation at the center of our work.1 As part of the Anabaptist community in Indonesia, I want to be able to implement these three key principles in my own life, though it is often […]

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Effective strategies for building missional churches: lessons learned in multicultural mission collaboration

By Nelson Okanya | Posted on February 3, 2017

This article is an adaptation of a Plenary Presentation the author gave at for the Council of International Anabaptist Ministries in Columbus Ohio, January 2016. Lessons from Multi-Cultural Missions Collaboration For about two centuries, Western missions operated on a paradigm that can be described as “from the West to the rest.” In this paradigm, I […]

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