Summer Programs with MCC

This past summer, people of diverse ethnic backgrounds such as African-American, Asian/Pacific Islander, Latino and Native American were invited to work with a church or organization in their home communities for the summer. This program, supported by MCC and local churches, helps young adults develop leadership skills and build relationships with other workers and leaders. More than 1,000 people have participated in the program since it began in the early 1980s. 

 

This year West Coast MCC had a special request for the Summer Service Workers: to speak at 5 or more churches on behalf of MCC about Global Families, Congo, the Summer Institute, or the Summer Service Program.

Summer Service workers represented Mennonite, Mennonite Brethren and Brethren in Christ churches in Portland, Fresno area, Los Angeles, Riverside, Phoenix and Las Vegas.

 

As part of their training, the Summer Service Program workers participated in the June 2009 West Coast MCC / Fresno Pacific University Summer Institute on Globalization, Anabaptism, and Peacebuilding. 

Mennonite Central Committee in cooperation with Fresno Pacific University participated in training young people seeking to serve a global church by offering a two-week learning institute in at Fresno Pacific University that combined multidisciplinary study of the impacts of global interconnectedness with international and local case studies of its effects on communities. The institute integrated study, reflection and case analysis of globalization in light of the biblical witness, historical Anabaptist theology, and peacemaking. It stimulated participants to consider not only the impacts of globalization on their lives but also how their lives and lifestyles impact the world. Using a multidisciplinary approach it required teachers and learners alike to wrestle with the complexity of global integration from theological, economic, sociological, cultural, ecological and political perspectives and to use the tools of each discipline to analyze its effects in Central California and beyond. 

 

 

Here are some quotes from the students who participated in the GAP Summer Institute:

 

“It was truly a rewarding experience that I will never forget. It gave me a chance to learn so much about shalom and God.”

 

“I feel truly blessed to have been there… This program, specifically my environment class, showed me how and why we abuse the world around us, and also offered advice on how to spread peace and preserve the earth that God has created.”

 

“The best part about these past two weeks was the fact that we worshiped everyday. I liked that the message in the morning was somehow applied throughout our days.”

 

“West Coast Mennonite Central Committee understands that we as people need to be the change that we seek, that the world as it is, is not the world as it ought to be, that we can make a different by extending out our hands to those in need because that’s our call as followers of Christ, caring in his name by   restoring hope where it is needed, koinonia (love) towards those around us and shalom (peace) where there is none.”