Relief: Winter 2020

A feeding kitchen in a lumber mill represents one of the earliest relief responses of the fledgling MCC in southern Russia (present-day Ukraine) in the early 1920s. Hunger stalked communities in southern Russia during these years. Mennonites and their neighbours were bent under the triple burdens of violent conflict, typhus and famine. To this day, thousands of descendants of the families that lived through these conditions a century ago recall how corn meal porridge served in these feeding kitchens symbolized both an outpouring of God’s love from distant sisters and brothers and the difference between life and death for their parents, grandparents and extended family.

In this special centennial issue of Intersections, authors explore ways that MCC has extended relief assistance in the name of Christ in scores of countries around the world over the past one hundred years. Articles cover the breadth of the MCC century: from this first and founding relief effort in southern Russia; to relief and reconstruction efforts undertaken by MCC Pax workers in post-World War II Europe; to partnership with Mennonite churches in Central America and Indonesia in the 1990s and the 2000s in responding to the devastation of Hurricane Mitch in 1998 and the Indian Ocean tsunami of late 2004; to relief and reconstruction efforts in this past decade following earthquakes in Haiti (2010) and Nepal (2015).

• MCC in Russia: the first two months by Aileen Friesen
• Reflections from Pax (1951-1976) compiled by Alain Epp Weaver, Frank Peachey and Lori Wise
• Shifts and continuities in MCC’s humanitarian relief program by Amy Martens and Tom Wenger
• “Engaging in a peaceful and helpful activity”: MCC and Mennonite Disaster Service by Kevin King
• Learning from MCC’s relief efforts after Hurricane Mitch by César Eduardo Flores Ventura
• Lessons from MCC’s response to the 2004 tsunami by Jeanne Zimmerly Jantzi
• Indonesian Mennonites and trauma healing in the wake of the 2004 tsunami in Aceh by Paulus Hartono
• Listening (again) to the MCC Katrina Listening Process by Andrew C. Wright
• Lessons learned from MCC Haiti’s humanitarian relief initiatives after the 2010 earthquake by Herve Alcina
• Recovery through coordination: MCC and the 2015 Nepal earthquake by Avash Karki and Ryan Fowler
• The use of cash and voucher assistance for protection outcomes in humanitarian assistance by Annie Loewen
• MCC, local partnerships and humanitarian standards by Bruce Guenther