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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Lessons Learned: Serving with MCC changed his life
Henry J. Rempel hands out sweet-potato cuttings to Somali refugees.
Henry J. Rempel, high school biology teacher. Served with Mennonite Central Committee in Somalia (1980-1983), Uganda (1990-1991) and Ethiopia (summer of 1999).
"I was permanently changed after living in the Horn of Africa. I witnessed extreme poverty and people dying. Yet I also experienced the largest human generosity in my lifetime. I saw people give away much of what they owned in the name of friendship.
I went for short periods of time with very little to eat and drink. Water was at a premium in refugee camps. Today I try to live in a way that reflects the reality that many in the world don't have the abundance we do. I try not to waste water. I feel obliged to do this.
When I think of how our Canadian lifestyles create life-threatening climate change for others, I see the faces of my friends. If more people had this same direct connection, they too might be led to further change in how they live."
-- compiled by John Longhurst
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition January 18, 2012 0
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- Return to Africa
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Africa is one complex and gloriously unmanageable 'theme' to choose to kick off our 2012 series, Our City Our World, which is why it took up the whole newspaper on Jan. 18.
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Hard-working Chinese immigrants, once banned, have risen to the highest echelons of Manitoba.
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German immigrants have played a surprisingly large role in the development of the province.
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Arriving in Manitoba in the 1870s unprepared for a brutal winter, Icelandic settlers and their descendants have left their mark on our province.
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Industrious Italians rose from peasant roots and adapted to Canadian society by mastering L’art d’arrangiarsi (the art of getting by).
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It used to be the only time Prairie folks met Spanish-speaking people was when they vacationed down south. More often now, they're the people next door.
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When the first Middle East families immigrated to Manitoba, mosques were unheard of and even yogurt was exotic. But now all that has changed.
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A booming Filipino community nearly 60,000 strong has transformed Manitoba.
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As the city's Indo-Canadian population experiences dramatic growth, its pioneers recall their warm Winnipeg welcome.
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Scarred by Holodomor, the Ukrainian community helped shape Winnipeg's cultural mosaic.
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Manitoba's history is built on a foundation provided by settlers from the U.K., who came here seeking better lives.
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