Amnesty for SangMin Lee

It was Tuesday, December 31, the last day of the year 2019, when Sangmin Lee called me with excitement to report news of his amnesty. Early in 2014 Lee was sentenced to 18 months in prison for refusing, on the basis of his faith, to complete his mandatory military service. Although Lee was freed on  Keep Reading…

SangMin Lee reflects on time in prison

Sang-Min Lee, the South Korean Mennonite conscientious objector so many of you were praying for, visited the Institute for the Study of Global Anabaptism and Goshen College on December 8, as part of a longer visit in the United States. In April of 2014, SangMin was sentenced to eighteen months in prison for his faith-based refusal  Keep Reading…

Sang-Min Lee released from prison

Last year we shared the story of Sang-Min Lee, a Mennonite conscientious objector sentenced to 18 months in prison. The global church and others who resonated with Sang-Min’s peace witness responded by writing him letters and praying for him. Over the course of a letter-writing campaign supported by Bearing Witness, Justapaz, and Mennonite World Conference,  Keep Reading…

Stanimir Katanic

Stanimir Katanic’s story is written by Marcia Lewandowski, who interviewed Katanic in 2014 about his experiences as a Nazarene conscientious objector in Yugoslavia. I met Stanimir Katanic as an 83-year-old man living in Ohio. In our interview, Stanimir requested to speak about the years of his imprisonment as a young man in Serbian, rather than English.  Keep Reading…

Jakob Aron Rempel

Elder Jacob Aron Rempel was probably one of the most important personalities among the Mennonites of Russia in the 20th century, both in terms of his theological education as well as in his extraordinary personality and public activities. In 1929 he was arrested by the USSR’s secret police force (GPU) for his religious affiliations. He spent  Keep Reading…

Anna Wipf and the Believers of Alwinz, Romania

With thousands of believing refugees crowding into the Sabatisch community in Slovakia in the 1620s, every day brought its share of adventures. Nearly every day some died from the cold, hunger, and disease, while more kept coming. Then, in the thick of things, Bethlen Gabor came. Bethlen Gabor was the ruler of the land of  Keep Reading…

Write a letter of encouragement to Sang-Min Lee

Over the past few weeks, we’ve shared on the blog and on Facebook about Sang-Min Lee, a young Mennonite from South Korea who has refused to fulfill his mandatory military service, as a matter of faith and conscience. On April 30th, Sang-Min was convicted and sentenced to an 18-month prison term. Many people around the  Keep Reading…

Samuel Kakesa

©CreationSwap/BalazsToth

The following excerpt is taken from Vincent Ndandula and Jim Bertsche, “An open Bible at rebel headquarters,” in The Jesus Tribe: Grace stories from Congo’s Mennonites, 1912-2012 ed. Rod Hollinger-Janzen, Nancy Myers and Jim Bertsche (Elkhart, IN: Institute of Mennonite Studies, 2012): 82-87. Co-published with the Institute for the Study of Global Anabaptism. By the  Keep Reading…

Update on Sang-Min Lee’s case

On Tuesday, we posted about Sang-Min Lee, a young Mennonite in South Korea who has refused to fulfill his obligatory military service. Yesterday we received some surprising correspondence from him. The judge has delayed his trial, without any explanation! So Sang-Min is not in prison at this moment, which is reason for rejoicing. At the  Keep Reading…