My Faith History

I currently attend Breslau Mennonite Church. Breslau is small compared to some Catholic or Orthodox churches but is average sized for a Mennonite church. There are usually about 130-140 people at services during the school year but in the summer most often there's only 80-90 each Sunday. About a quarter to a third of the church are seniors, two thirds are aged 20-60 and the rest are probably youth and children. 

There are two pastors at my church, one who works full time. He speaks about 3 Sundays a month and visits people at their homes and help people when they're sick. He also does the weddings and funerals at the church. The other pastor is the youth pastor who only speaks about once every two months or so but comes leads Jr. and Sr. Youth events and leads the youth Sunday school. 

The worship service is usually close to the same every Sunday but sometimes the order of things are different or there's something special on a certain Sunday. The services are probably considered more informal depending on what you're comparing them to. Most people dress up a bit but it's okay just to wear regular clothes. There's also a friendly atmosphere in the services and pastors or worship leaders sometimes even make jokes when they are speaking. 

We don't have communion every Sunday like some churches but we have it every few months and there's sometimes different themes to the services. There are also Christmas and Good Friday services that aren't always on Sundays. 

At the start of our usual services the worship leader welcomes everyone to the church and does a prayer. The worship leader can be anyone from the congregation. They usually also lead the sharing of joys and concerns, offering, scriptures, prayers and the benediction at the end of the service. Scriptures are read during the service at various times and they are always different (unlike at some other churches where they read the same ones each week). 

The music is pretty important at my church and there are usually a few different instruments during each song. The piano, organ, trumpet, flute, recorder, drum, violin, cello, saxophone and guitar have all been used at a service I've been at. Lots of different kinds of songs from the Hymnal, Sing the Journey and Sing the Story books are sung at Breslau. There are usually about 5 or 6 songs each Sunday. 

The kids are involved in the service during children's time when someone usually tells them a story. They also get to run up to the front and put money in a box during offering. 

The pastors usually do the sermon for 10-20 minutes and it is usually on a certain theme the rest of the service is based around. Occasionally, guest speakers or other people in the congregation do the sermon. Sometimes lately there has been someone from the congregation do "An Entrepreneur Story" or "A Moment in Mission" or "A Peace Story" after the sermon. This shows some of the things my church emphasises: serving God by serving others on mission trip or in work - and peace. 

The sharing of joys and concerns is usually comes after this and anyone in the church can say something if they want. There is usually one more congregational hymn after that, then the benediction and the piano postlude and the service is over. 

I like the way my church worships. It's very comfortable and it's always interesting. In the foyer they always have juice and coffee for after the service. 

Sunday school starts after a while. It's split up into Age 2-3, JK-Grade 1, Grade 2-5, Grade 6-8, Grade 9-12 and adults. After Sunday school we sometimes have potlucks or the youth group does soup fundraising lunches. Those happen about once a month or so.

The youth group also has events for Jr. and Sr. Youth. We have a retreat at Chesley Lake Camp for a weekend in September and we also have weekly events. Some are activities like bowling, playing in our gym or doing scavenger hunts and some are service events like helping at the Food Bank or serving at Out of the Cold. My youth group also went on a service trip to Montreal in August and we are planning to go to Winnipeg for the Mennonite Youth Conference next summer. It's fun being part of a youth group that we can do fun things and learn about God and our faith with. Breslau Mennonite Church is a good church for me.

There are a lot of differences and similarities between my mom's family history and my dad's family history. 

My mom comes from a Swiss Mennonite background. Her ancestors came from Switzerland with a lot of other Mennonites to Pennsylvania. From Pennsylvania, they moved to Markham, Ontario. Henry Wideman who was part of the group that moved to Markham and started Wideman Mennonite Church. That is where my mom went as a kid. Her family has been part of Mennonite churches for many generations. 

My dad though came from a Russian Mennonite background. His ancestors started out in Northern Germany (which is why my dad speaks German) and moved to Russia when Catherine the Great invited people to move there to farm (and Mennonites were good farmers). My dad's parents were both born in Russia. They both left Russia and moved to Paraguay when they were young because of the Russian Revolution and the persecution of Mennonites. There was an option to go to Canada then but they weren't accepted. 

My dad was born in Paraguay and him and his family later moved to Vancouver because they had some family there already. My dad also attended a Mennonite church as he grew up. He attended First United Mennonite Church in Vancouver. 

My parents both attended to Canadian Mennonite Bible College (now Canadian Mennonite University) where they met. They decided to move here to Kitchener after they got married. They started to go to Mannheim Mennonite Church in 1986.

My parents attended Mannheim for 23 years and I attended there for 11 years but in 2009 we decided to change to Breslau. Breslau Mennonite Church was founded around 1815 (then called Cressman Mennonite Church) when the Cressmans moved to the area from Pennsylvania and started having worship services in one building into 1826. 

In the 1834 the log building that Benjamin Eby's church (now First Mennonite Church in Kitchener) was moved to a farm in Breslau (the location of the church now) because Eby's church needed a larger building. In 1856 a brick church was built and the log building was moved and became a house which still stands today. Cressman Mennonite Church used this building until they built a larger one in 1908. That building is currently where all the Sunday School rooms are now. 

There were three additions to the church after that - 1968, 1977 and 1991 - that brought the building to what it is today. The name was changed from Cressman Mennonite Church to Breslau Mennonite Church during the 1968 renovation. There is now a new sanctuary, gymnasium, library, nursery, offices, front foyer, a smaller fellowship hall and a courtyard in between the new and old buildings. In 2009, the year we arrived, the 175th Anniversary of the church in Breslau was celebrated. 

There have lots of traditions and practices that my parents have done with my siblings and I. One practice as most Mennonites and Christians do is that we always pray before our meals and we sometimes even do German prayers since my dad's family speaks German. We also go to church every almost Sunday which should be normal for most Christians. My mom and dad have made sure the youth group is important as they were both involved in youth groups at their churches when they were my age and they really enjoyed it. 

My family also has lots of traditions at Christmas and Easter (which mostly have to do with food). At Christmas time my Dad always makes lebkuchen and peppermint cookies that his mom makes as well which comes from the Russian Mennonite tradition. He also makes a snack mix called "Nuts and Bolts" around Christmas. My mom makes more North American traditional Christmas desserts like shortbread, rocky-road-marshmallow bars and candy cane bark. She also makes caramels which her mom and probably other generations of her family has made. 

We also usually celebrate advent, leading up to Christmas by opening advent calendars (the chocolate ones and the real ones that have verses). In the past we have also lighted candles on the four Sundays before Christmas and read out of the Bible and sang Christmas songs. 

On Christmas Eve, my parents also both had traditions. My mom's was to hang a stocking and receive a few things in there. My dad's was to put a plate out under the Christmas tree and in the morning there would be candy on it. We use both traditions. At Easter, my dad makes another Russian Mennonite dessert called paska. It's a lemony type bread or cake that has icing on top. There is also a lemony spread that goes with it. Some other Russian Mennonite foods my dad makes just on regular occasions are rollkuchen, which is a deep-fried bread type food that we usually eat with watermelon in the summer. He also makes buns called zweiback sometimes and a cabbage soup called borscht. He also makes pluma moos which is a soup made of dried fruit that's usually for dessert (it isn't my favourite Russian Mennonite food). 

On Sunday evenings a tradition that my parents both had was to eat simply. My dad usually had a meal called faspa which is when they usually had borscht, zweiback with meat and cheese and pluma moos. They usually has people over for that meal as well as for the afternoon. My mom's family would normally eat simply (like just popcorn or some snacks) on Sunday evening because for Sunday lunch they would have people over and have a big meal. It's cool having different traditions from both sides of the family. I will try to pass these on when I am older. 

I have had many important mentors and role models but my most important ones are my parents. They have taught me to treat others with respect and think about how other people feel. They have also taught me to be responsible and punctual. Especially with going to church: when I was younger I used to complain that I didn't want to go to church but they always made me go. It was good that they taught me to be committed because if they would've gave in and we would've got in the habit of not going to church it would lead to us not going at all. 

I think the reason I didn't want to go then was because hardly any of my friends at school went to church or Sunday school and there wasn't anyone my age at Mannheim so I didn't think it was normal to go. I didn't enjoy it. It's not that Mannheim was a bad church, I liked the people there, there was just no one my age (other than my brother) I could relate to. So that's why my parents thought we should move to a different church. Joel and I would've been the only people in the Junior Youth group if we didn't change. 

Anyways, we went around to a few different churches and we decided that Breslau was a good one for us. There was a good youth pastor and youth group, there was people my age, there were some people my parents knew and the gym was also a good reason. My youth pastors and youth sponsors have also been important mentors and role models for me. They've made it fun and interesting to learn about faith. Of course being part of a good sized youth group and going to Rockway has been good because I can learn with people with the same values and beliefs that I've been taught. 

It's good to know that other people think that violence, physical and verbal, is wrong. It's nice to not be the only one in a group my age that doesn't swear every other sentence or know the names of all the guns in a war video games. I'm glad that I can feel (more) comfortable talking about what I believe. I'm thankful that I'm part of a Mennonite church, school and family.

I think a strength of my heritage is that our traditions have been kept no matter what. My grandparents and generations before them on my dad's side have kept all their traditions, beliefs and language (German) even though they've moved around to a number of different countries. 

There's not many people I know who eat some of the same things their grandparents, great-grandparents and even greater-grandparents ate. My mom's side has also kept their main traditions and beliefs; they've been here for many generations but they haven't been influenced by others here and they've continued their tradition of being Mennonite and attending church every Sunday. If they had been influenced I might not be going to Breslau or Rockway. 

I don't see many weaknesses in my faith heritage but it might be because I'm bias. One weakness could be though that is that the foods of my tradition aren't very healthy. Potlucks are also a good Mennonite tradition but they are also not the best for our health. Even though the foods from my tradition aren't that healthy that's still something I want to pass on to the next generation so they know what background they are from. I could try to find healthier ways to make them though. 

I will also try to teach the next generation the beliefs of Mennonites and get them also in the habit of going to church every Sunday. It would be mean not to pass down these traditions that I'm so lucky to have.

"A Brief History of Breslau Mennonite Church." Welcome to Breslau Mennonite Church. Breslau Mennonite Church, 2009. Web. 18 Nov. 2012. http://www.breslaumennonitechurch.ca/node/6.