I did not write yesterday, but I will
today.  It is Saturday [September 27, 2008] and we have completed the Appreciative Inquiry
Sessions in Nicaragua.   Tomorrow we will go to church and
meet with 3 partners and church partner groups and then will visit some
projects over the next two days.  Hopefully on Wednesday, I will
be on my way home and arriving by the evening.  It continues to
be wonderfully warm, quite sunny ... and very humid here.  
I do like this weather... so long as I don't have to walk or run in
it for any distance.   

The AI Process is interesting. 
It begins with some introductory stuff and then we work in groups ...
for much of the same time, beginning by interviewing each other in "unlikely
pairs" of people ... people who don't know each other too much,
or at all, if possible.  And then the rest of the steps tend to
relate to what was said in that conversation.    By the
end of day two, we had created a chart of priorities for MCC for the
next 10 years.   We were 38 people, about 20 of whom are staff
or Country

Reps from the various countries in
Central and South America (but there are also some very impressive church
leaders and partner organizations present)...so each group comes up
with some priorities, then each group chooses the primary ones, and
writes them on lines coming out of a circle in the centre of the graph
... and then each person is handed 5 stickers and we all get to place
those on the chart on the wall.  In the end, the one about "MCC
becoming or working as a Global Community, and not a North American
based organization" got more votes then any other priority (but only
by one point).  "Peace Initiatives and Sustainable Development"
work came in very close as a second.   There was a lot of
interest in creating alliances with non-Mennonites and also Mennonites...
but in the end only 7 people added a colored sticker to the "Alliances"
one.   The one with highest priority had 33 votes. 

The "Global Community" came out
of a conversation in our group, where a

Man from Chiapas, Mexico told us he
is hoping MCC can become a friendly partner.  He says that in 4
years with MCC as a partner organization, he has never yet been told
what MCC actually is...he says Akron sends him no information and when
they do, it is usually in English ... etc.  Ona, the Bolivian Pastor
with whom I share a room, once told me that 24 years of minutes in Santra
Cruz, of the meetings between MCC leadership and the Mennonite Churches
in their village, are all in English.  And they are now archived
in Bolivia, where no one from Bolivia will ever read them. 

We are moving out of the hotel this
morning and I am afraid that where we are going we will not have email. 
So...a quick summary of the final day: 

We divided into about 7 groups...each
one tackling one of the main issues from the previous day.  Our
group included; Brazil, a Mexican partner, myself, Honduras, Nicaragua
and a church leader from Honduras.   Over about 2 hours...
we came up with a set of values for MCC and a new organizational chart. 
Something like this...  

The primary value will be that MCC
will function as a Global Community, not North American driven. 
We believe the churches in the North are ready for this, and that the
primary obstacle is neither the churches nor any donors, but MCC itself. 
We added a footnote that in 3 years, Arli might need to resign, along
with the entire Bi National Board, to make room for any new possibility. 
Arli could then be rehired ... but by a new board.   The essence
of the new structure would be that all the MCCs as they now are would
dissolve over 4 to 8 yrs.   The MCCs in Canada would become
ONE organization, with counsels at the provincial level if needed. 
The Ex-Directors would become Coordinators, so that in fact, we could
function as a community and not slowly evolve into an organization with
a bunch of CEOs running it, and one CEO at the "top".    

There is a very strong wish here to
make MCC a Community and not CEO and Board driven. The commitment to
an Anabaptist orientation and the priesthood of all believers is very
strong.   Each continent would have One Board, or, as in the
case of Africa, Asia, Europe, South America and North America... there
would be room for two or three Boards reflecting their giant and very
different regions. The same applies to Canada and the USA.  
In the end, about 12 MCCs again, with then ONE Board with reps from
each of the 12, and that Board runs the International work of MCC.  
Whether it is based in Akron or not... the people here don't really
seem to care about the location.  But they are ready to be treated
equally. 

Additionally... there would be a counsel...
an advisory group of key organizations, Mennonite and Non Mennonite
... like Mennonite World Conf, MEDA, others...who can advise MCC ...
they would meet maybe one time a year, but would make no decisions. 

Got to run... breakfast and out the
door to church.

Abe Janzen

Executive Director

MCC Alberta