During a two-day conference hosted by the Garifuna churches in Belize Tim Groff was excited and encouraged to watch Orelle Castillo from Dangriga, lead the youth part of the conference, lead worship and preach!

Stacy Nofziger Prknová has served with EMM in the Czech Republic since 2011. Just like the colors yellow and blue turn into green when blended, Stacy is finding that she is being transformed as she lives and serves in Prague - the land of 100 spires.

While Quechua culture has garnered the attention of American audiences with the recent film “Dora and the Lost City of Gold,” one Mennonite school in Peru has worked quietly to educate Peruvian children and protect their culture for nearly 15 years. In the shadow of the live-action adventure film that features the Quechua language, The PROMESA school made a little more “noise” as they broke ground for the construction of a new academic facility.

A small, new initiative has begun for children with disabilities in Sierra Leone. The initiative seeks to create value for children with cerebral palsy, autism, Down syndrome, learning disabilities, those who are blind and/or deaf, and others.

David W. Shenk, who serves on EMM’s Christian-Muslim relations team, had a note sitting on his desk. It read, “You are invited to participate in dialogues with Muslim university students in the United Kingdom. Your books are okay.”

Phil and Linda Gottschalk serve in the Netherlands training pastors and missionaries at Tyndale Seminary. From time to time they have the opportunity to share the exciting stores of some of the people they have been privileged to help train.

For the first two months that Eric and Janelle* were in Germany, they were living in a makeshift apartment. The apartment consisted of a small kitchen, a bathroom, and two open rooms where their family of five slept, ate, sat, and played. They were thankful for the space even if it was temporary.

Webster’s New World College Dictionary defines the term “déjà vu” as “an uncanny feeling that one has been in this same place or had this same, specific experience before, although it is actually new to one.” Some of EMM’s newest workers are experiencing this feeling — like they’ve done this before — getting ready to relocate to a new place to serve in cross-cultural mission.

What happens when an EMM worker serving in Spain meets a Romanian-speaking man in a Spanish prison? For Rolando,* he looked back to the formative mission experience he had twenty-three years ago. Rolando was an EMM YES team leader for a team that was sent to Romania in 1996.

As the recent school year was wrapping up, there were picnics and celebratory meals for Lea.