This interview was originally shared on the MennoNerds website, April 7, 2014. MennoNerds is a group of Anabaptist-minded bloggers “who ‘geek out’ over things related to Anabaptism. A MennoNerd also tends to love technology and likes to use it to feed their ‘habit’ of Anabaptist stuff.” For more about this network, visit their About page.
By MennoNerds
Over the foreseeable future at MennoNerds.com we will be interviewing Anabaptists from around the world in our “Global Anabaptist Conversations” project. These conversations hold a significant value to us in North America simply because it is easy to “North Americanize” well, pretty much everything, which includes our faith traditions. These stories will unveil to us Anabaptists around the globe relentlessly pursuing shalom unique to a particular place and particular time. Our Anabaptist faith is rooted in place, and these stories from different places around the world will be a gift and inspire you.
This interview with Darnell, Regina and Jon in the Philippines is the first in this series. Their bio’s are written below, but are also part of the intro to the interview. Enjoy.
[youtube=http://youtu.be/VMUkscfP4gI&w=520]
“Darnell and Christina Barkman and their two boys Cody and Makai are Mennonite Church Canada Witness workers. They’ve lived in the Philippines for 3 years serving one year as Peace and Reconciliation workers of Peacebuilders Community Inc. in Mindanao Philippines. This is an area recovering from the continued impact of a very recently settled 400 year old armed conflict dating back to Spanish colonization in the 1500′s. The Barkman’s are in their second year with the new PeaceChurch Philippines in Metro Manila. Peace Church has initiated and is developing the Philippines Anabaptist Network, a gathering of leaders from every sector who discuss and act on the Anabaptist Christian perspective.
Regina Mondez is a Filipino Mennonite, a member of PeaceChurch Philippines and the national Coordinator of theIntegrated Mennonite Church of the Philippines where her father is a Mennonite Pastor. Reg has served in the church her whole life and in the last 4 years worked with 2 different peace building organizations in conflicts between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Government of the Philippines and also the Communist Party of the Philippines and the Government of the Philippines. She blogs at http://www.radicaljourneyist.blogspot.ca/
Pastor Jon Soriano is a former Catholic, who turned Baptist and during seminary in the 1990′s discovered the Anabaptist movement. He is a pastor of Church @71 in San Pedro, Laguna and he is passionate about Peace Theology and its new found significance in the Philippines local and national context.”