Mennonite Central Committee earns Governor General’s praise
KITCHENER, ON—Governor General Michaëlle Jean lunched on cold cuts, homemade bread and potato salad during a visit to the Mennonite Central Committee Ontario's office on June 14.
Jean dropped by the Kent Street office during a tour of Kitchener-Waterloo, which also included stops at Research in Motion (RIM)—home of the Blackberry—and the Magnetic North Theatre Festival.
MCC Ontario executive director Rick Cober Bauman says the visit was the result of Jean's interest in the work the Mennonite community is doing—especially in her native Haiti where the MCC has been active in relief and development since 1958.
"It was partly a thank you, an acknowledgment and an expression of hope," says Cober Bauman about the visit. "For her to come here was a boost."
During the hour and a half visit Jean greeted staff outside the office as she arrived and met with staff and members of the local Mennonite community for lunch. Cober Bauman says along with members of "longstanding" Mennonite congregations were refugees who had been welcomed to Canada by those older congregations. Cober Bauman says some of those, such as the Lao community, have then welcomed refugees from Burma.
"You get this ongoing gospel hospitality that says 'I've been welcomed, I've been shown the love of Christ and now we in turn want to show that love. It was part of the story we wanted to tell and one we think was heard well by Her Excellency," says Cober Bauman. "She talked about how that resonated with her being a refugee from Haiti and being welcomed by Canadians including people of the church."
The Governor General ended her visit by working on a quilt and preparing one of the MCC's disaster relief kits—telling staff and volunteers "the work you do makes a world of a difference around the world."
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