As a college student I spent my junior year in Barcelona, Spain, in the early ’70s. One incident still stands out in my mind, offering a reminder for me even today. Between the three of us, we did not share a common language, except the language of human need and desire to help. On our Christmas break, I traveled with two other friends by bus to Germany and then to Austria. I ended up sitting by myself but landed a tall friendly Spanish guy, Juan, as a seatmate. Juan spoke his native Catalan (the birth language spoken by most natives […]

By Chuck McKnight Pastor Larry Wright was leading a New Year’s Eve prayer service in a downtown Fayetteville, N.C., church when a man entered the building armed with a semi-automatic assault rifle. We know how these stories end. People die. Loved ones grieve. Social media becomes outraged. And then nothing changes. We wait for the story to repeat. But this time, the story went a bit differently. The man walked in with his gun in one hand and an ammo clip in the other. Pastor Wright says he was unsure whether the man had a round chambered in the rifle. […]

Editor’s note: Lauree Stroud Purcell is a freelance writer and mother of two teenagers in Harrisonburg, Virginia. This past fall, I was driving through town with my college freshman daughter beside me. She was with me for the afternoon, a rare visit, and we were enjoying a fun conversation as I passed by her middle school. Since being pulled over, I have been much more aware of my speed. Why had I not noticed the flashing yellow lights designed to remind drivers to slow down in a school zone? Unfortunately, I was so interested in what she had to say […]

Sierra Hull has been wowing audiences with her mandolin skills since she was a teenager. It was years ago that I had the chance to see her live in concert. Then she already played with amazing skill, but she also shared the space generously with her band, and created a fully entertaining experience. Hull hasn’t released a CD in five years—time for her to embrace the questions and quests that come with traveling through the early 20s of life. Weighted Mind opens a window into what those five years contained. Hull is now so much more than an amazing mandolin […]

Democracy, transparency and good governance become catchphrases during political campaigns and election cycles. In Haiti, these issues contribute to the deepening debate around mining. As the legitimacy of Haiti’s government continues to be questioned, some of Mennonite Central Committee’s partner organizations have expressed concerns that a proposed mining law could be passed by presidential decree without consent of the legislative branch and, more importantly, without consulting the Haitian people. In 2013, the World Bank provided technical support to Haiti’s government to update the country’s mining law, making it more attractive to the Canadian and U.S. mining companies already interested in […]

By Charissa Zehr Democracy, transparency and good governance become catchphrases during political campaigns and election cycles. In Haiti, these issues contribute to the deepening debate around mining. As the legitimacy of Haiti’s government continues to be questioned, some of Mennonite Central Committee’s partner organizations have expressed concerns that a proposed mining law could be passed by presidential decree without consent of the legislative branch and, more importantly, without consulting the Haitian people. In 2013, the World Bank provided technical support to Haiti’s government to update the country’s mining law, making it more attractive to the Canadian and U.S. mining companies […]

Blackened trusses stand against the sky above the walls of an old church that burned. I often pass the corner where the church has sat since long before I knew the neighborhood’s name, long before I was born. Though our time calls upon us to make difficult choices about the work we do in our churches, our broader communities and in the world, we can trust that God’s power is not limited by times of change and uncertainty. The first time I saw the destroyed building, I was on my way to another church next door. It has a dwindling […]

Room is not an easy movie to watch. Joy, known simply as “Ma” lives in captivity, kidnapped at the age of 17 by a man known as “Old Nick,” who locks her in a shed. She gives birth to a son, Jack, and the two of them live in what they refer to as “Room.” Nick visits nightly as Jack falls asleep in a closet, oblivious that his mother has been a captive concubine for more than seven years. Jack does not know he is in peril. He has lived in Room all of his life, and has never stepped […]

My middle daughter works for a symphony in a mid-sized city, and frequently we get to take in concerts when we visit. “Did you ever imagine when you were growing up that you would someday perform all over the world?” Last fall my youngest daughter and I attended a piano concert there with a young artist, Behzod Abduraimov from Tashkent, Uzbekistan (located in central Asia). He blew me away. His playing style was to hunch—potter-like—over the piano keys, indeed, sometimes curving his back and neck down to where his eyes were level to the piano keys. He pulled amazing sound […]

Editor’s Note: We’ve given up trying to regulate the creative geniuses who review films for ThirdWay.com. Our critics here have selected anywhere from 4 to 10 films for their “Top 10 List”; some go in reverse countdown order, and we’ve retained their formats. The writers also give their reasons how they came up with the number of films they included! OH, AND SPOILER ALERT IN JERRY’S SHORT LIST!! Finally, at the very end of this feature, we’re introducing a movie list from Nancy Myers. The films that made her list here all rate “5 stars” in her estimation. Nancy is Mennonite blogger […]