 We are pleased to have with us tonight Cesar Garcia, General Secretary of Mennonite World Conference, and Doug Clawson, Executive Minister of Mennonite Church Canada. They will come now to share briefly about how the forming Leaders Together campaign is already making an impact in their context. Good evening. My name is Cesar Garcia, General Secretary of Mennonite World Conference. As some of you may know, Mennonite World Conference embarked in a big project several years ago of writing the history of our Anabaptist churches in each continent. So for several years there were local writers doing research and writing about the history of our churches in each of our five continents. After they finished, and we now have these five books, some of us actually read those books. And then we discovered that there was one thing that was common to all of them. One thing that was, one idea that was repeated in each one of these five books. We meet an Anabaptist identity. Our churches in each continent said we meet, we are lacking an Anabaptist identity. And of course the question is why? What has happened during so many years where many of our institutions that work on theological training have been doing that, helping people to get theological education? Why churches in Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia and Africa are saying we need an Anabaptist identity? I want to offer a possible answer by telling you something that happened to me some years ago. When I was moving to Canada, I am originally from Columbia, South America. We were in the process of packing and a very important thing to take with us was a nativity scene. As you know for Colombians, when Christmas is coming, the idea of having a nativity scene is very important. But in the Colombian culture, the custom is that we don't place the body of the baby Jesus. We don't place it on the manger until December 25. On December 25, then we place the body of baby Jesus because baby Jesus has been born. So for several weeks of December, you see the nativity scene without the body of baby Jesus. So we packed that nativity scene and we took it with us to Canada. And when months later, we were getting ready for Christmas, we unpacked the nativity scene and then we realized, oh no, we have lost the body of baby Jesus. So there is this nativity scene without the body of baby Jesus. I would say that that is an answer to why in many places we are losing another disidentity. Because even though there are many, somebody would say maybe too many, theoretical and apoptist institutions, many of them have lost the centrality of the body of Jesus. Therefore, the nativity scene is beautiful, but they are not working in a close connection to the Church. So an apoptisman on a biblical scenario has decided to hear, to listen to the Church and to be sensitive to the needs of our global church and to respond to them as we have heard today as one expression of the Church of U.S. and Canada. And that is impacting in a very amazing way our theological identity in the world. And for that, we are in the Naval Conference immensely grateful. What we perceive during the coming years is enormous potential to keep shaping the body of Jesus. Thank you. Thank you for this opportunity. It's an honor to be here, an honor to have been invited. I began my role in Mennonite Church Canada in June of 2019 and very soon after got involved in the consulting that was going on with the congregations and asking what the seminary could do for the churches and with the churches. It was an honor to be asked and to then respond. And about a year later I received an invitation from Paula to be part of the Capital Campaign Advisory Committee. And I answered within a day that I would be willing and in fact very willing but I will admit that I was nervous when I said yes. And I felt nervous because in some ways I was feeling at that moment just a short time into my role that I was a bit like the widow at Zarathath who was by the town gate gathering sticks knowing the grim reality that was laying ahead for us in what I had seen in my first year in the role. And there were times over the course of that year even where tears had come to my eyes thinking I don't know how to solve this problem. Though I was very pleasant in my response to Paula, I did feel like it was Elijah coming and showing up and imposing himself upon what were very limited resources and a bit of a beleaguered constituency. Little did I know what God's plan was through all of this. Our experience in Mennonite Church Canada has since been one of the flower and the oil not running out despite all that has been happening in this campaign. There is an element of mystery to this of course but it has also been engineered to a degree by a campaign strategy that seeks to make sure there is enough resources in the jars to last a little bit longer and a little bit longer and a little bit longer. And what started as a worry about this being like the widow at Zarathath story has been transitioning for us into a Psalm 23 story where there has been a table prepared and there is enough oil even to anoint our heads and our cups are running over. Ask any of our international witness workers, as Cesar has said, or partners who are connecting to AMBS via the journey program or what is happening in Ethiopia or South Korea and this is what you will hear, cups are running over. So from the bottom of our hearts, the congregations, the regional churches, Mennonite Church Canada, thank you and bless you for first identifying yourselves with the church. Second, for not criticizing us for collecting sticks when we were losing hope. And third, approaching us with this opportunity to participate with what God was doing in the world and calling us to be part of it with you. Thank you and God bless you.