MBM/S announces changes in administration

Fresno, Calif.

Major personnel shifts will soon occur in several administrative posts of Mennonite Brethren Missions/Services, as three administrators have announced plans to pursue new ministries.

Communications and Media

Gary Hardaway, Secretary for Communications and Public Relations, and Lynn, his wife, have accepted teaching assignments with Liberal Arts Christian College of Lithuania, beginning in January 1997. They will go to Lithuania as MBM/S mission associates, responsible for their own support. Hardaway begins a six-month leave of absence from MBM/S Fresno office on December 15.

Temporarily taking over MBM/S communications will be Craig Hallman, current Secretary for Media in Fresno. By board decision the Media and Communications roles will be combined into one position, with additional secretarial help for Hallman. Administrative assistant Shelly Spencer will move from half to full-time.

However, Craig, with his wife Bridget, have been appointed by Middle East Media, an interdenominational agency working among Muslims, to head the MEM communications department. They anticipate moving to Cairo for language study around June 1997. They too will serve under MEM as MBM/S mission associates who raise their own finances.

Constituency Ministries

The Constituency Ministries desks, currently headed by Steve Klassen in Canada and Dale Warkentin in the US, will also merge into one post in June 1997. Warkentin will assume the overall work as Klassen, along with MBM/S missionary Ray Harms-Wiebe, seeks to develop a proposed mission training centre in British Columbia, projected to open next year. Steve also hopes to continue some part-time MBM/S representation in B.C. churches.

To strengthen constituency relations--and provide Warkentin with staff to reach 350 churches per year--the MBM/S Board approved a plan to appoint up to ten "regional mission advocates" to work per diem for MBM/S to present the cause and seek support in local churches.

According to General Director Harold Ens, "During 1997, they will make every effort to have at least four specific contacts with every MB church in Canada and the US." These include a person-to-person visit with the pastor, a meeting with the decision-making body, and presentations in both Sunday morning services and Sunday school or small groups.

Regional Secretary Desks

In addition to managing US constituency ministries since 1988, Dale Warkentin has served for several years as Secretary for Asia from Fresno. Efforts to find an Asian to superintend the work from within the region have not yet succeeded. Regardless of the outcome of the ongoing search, Warkentin will relinquish the Asia responsibility before June 1997, with Director of Programs, Dave Dyck, ready to take the Asia desk, if needed.

Ens also announced that during 1997 MBM/S anticipates the appointment of a Latin American to oversee that region, administered since June 1993 by MBM/S missionary in Bogota, Colombia, Harold Siebert. Harold and his wife Dorothy are currently studying at Providence Theological Seminary in Manitoba.

If the transitions in Asia and Latin America program leadership go as hoped for, all regional secretaries will come from and live in their designated area of program oversight.

Gary Hardaway, MBM/S communications and public relations

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