The Mennonite Story, St Jacobs
1406 King St N N0B 2N0 St. Jacobs, ON, Canada

Greetings from the Mennonite Heritage Village (MHV)! Sorry to see that you had to close your Interpretive Centre with COVID-19. We did for two months, but then reopened in May. As a museum we feel it is time to engage more in peace education and improving society’s wellbeing. A few years ago, a group of Mennonites from our area felt that more needed to do more to pass on the peace position that we have held for the last five centuries. MHV with this group of concerned citizen...s is now establishing the Dirk Willems Peace Garden near our pond and windmill (just like the original depiction in the Martyr’s Mirror!). It is the first monument of the Anabaptist Dirk Willems in the world and will tell of how he turned back to save his captor from drowning in frigid waters instead of running away. A peace garden is a first for MHV, as is raising funds on the crowd-funding website Kickstarter. There are several intriguing tiers of rewards including a wood-cut style Willems t-shirt. Here’s the link: https://www.kickstarter.com/.../the-dirk-willems-peace... With your help we can make this project ‘go viral’ in Mennonite circles around the world. Please check out the website and recommend it to all your contacts! Here’s the link if you want to download and share our video with your church and others: https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aqiidy2tl3sjalt7Qg4RQb1roGA?e=EOXz7F Every bit counts. We only have 30 days until November 6th (the Friday before Peace Sunday) to raise $20,000. Together, we can make the Dirk Willems Peace Garden a reality and provide a place to learn about peace and compassion in our violent world. Gary Dyck Executive Director See more

Looking back at the start of MCC Thrift Stores...which have re-opened with safety protocols to protect from COVID19. NO change to proceeds still going to MCC Mission works!

Recent racial issues bring up many things I had never seen before, including this reference to early North American Anabaptists: Christopher Eric Hitchens was an English-American intellectual, philosopher and social critic who expressed himself as an author, orator, essayist, journalist and columnist.