Reviews

Worthwhile, indeed

It Was All Worthwhile: The Life and Times of Roy and

Clara Snyder (Pennsylvania German Folklore Society of Ontario, 2010, 115 pp.)

Roy Snyder couldn’t make it to MEDA’s convention in Calgary this past November — only the third one he has missed. It wasn’t because, at the age of 95, he was ailing or too frail to travel. No, he just needed to stay back in Ontario to be present at the launch of this book.

This is a folksy memoir, told in Snyder’s own style, along with a chapter telling the story of his wife Clara, who passed away in 2006.

Two sections were of special interest to this reader.

One is Snyder’s recounting of his long and distinguished career as a cattle breeder. The other is his involvement with MEDA, which he joined in 1963, a decade after its founding.

Snyder had few equals in the cattle breeding industry, though his personal modesty camouflages the full extent of his achievements. You almost have to read between the lines to discover that he was acclaimed as “the father of artificial insemination,” an honour perhaps lost on the average reader but nonetheless vital to anyone who produces (or consumes) dairy products. He pioneered the use of frozen semen and embryo transplants in cattle, even before it was financially viable. Under his innovative leadership, the Waterloo Cattle Breeders Association was the first organization in the world to use 100% frozen semen, setting an example for the rest of the breeding industry.

According to family lore, Snyder displayed an early aptitude for his chosen career. While he was still a pre-teen, a milk tester came to the family farm to certify the cows and was amazed that the lad could recite every cow’s lineage with precision.

Snyder still revels in the world of genetics, and rattles off names of the legendary Montvic and Rag Apple pedigrees, which apparently are the bovine equivalent of horse racing’s Sec-

He was a global leader in an industry that many of us barely know exists

retariat. Even an uninformed reader can be impressed by Snyder’s specialized expertise and commitment to a business that many of us barely know exists. Throughout his career he travelled to 80 countries

Roy Snyder has been attending MEDA conventions for as long as anyone can remember, missing only three. Here he is at the 2006 convention in Tampa, Florida.

building up Canada’s semen-exporting trade. He rubbed shoulders with dignitaries and prime ministers, including Canada’s John Diefenbaker and Pierre Elliot Trudeau. (Diefenbaker and his wife Olive showed up at the annual “Bull Night” of the Waterloo Cattle Breeders Association and ended up at the Snyders’ home to catch up on some rest.)

Snyder weaves in his involvements with church-related institutions, including his home congregation (Erb St. Mennonite), Conrad Grebel University College, and MEDA.

Those familiar with MEDA’s history will recognize the name Sarona, the organization’s maiden undertaking in Paraguay and recently immortalized by the renaming of MEDA’s investment division, now known as Sarona Asset Management, Inc. That first project aimed to bolster the vigor of the cattle being raised by the Paraguayan Mennonites. Sustained efforts (to which Snyder contributed by sending a shipment of Holstein semen) were so successful that the Mennonite colonies virtually dominate the country’s dairy industry today. Snyder describes a number of the MEDA projects he visited in the early years. One was a massive rice plantation that started with great fanfare but ultimately failed and lost a lot of money. “This was before I was on the board,” Snyder notes wryly.

He touches on one of MEDA’s earliest credit programs with indigenous Paraguayans, led by Erie Sauder. “The Indian population really knew very little about financial credit arrangements, and the Indians’ comprehension of how a credit program grew was established,” Snyder writes. “This was a great thrill for Erie. Many Chaco Indians became Christians and adopted the Mennonite way of life including farming.”

As was the practice in those days, MEDA trustees were assigned to personally oversee certain ventures. Snyder was put in charge of programs in Philippines and Bolivia, the latter country remaining a MEDA location for decades and producing many highly successful ventures.

He offers insights into MEDA’s difficulties in getting a

program launched in Tanzania in the 1960s, when much MEDA work was overseen by missionaries from other agencies. In time there would be 55 projects in Africa. Some produced dismal results, likely not aided by a prevailing suspicion among some missionaries and local Christians that incomegenerating efforts might lead to worldliness. Since many of them failed, that heightened worldliness never materialized.

With those drawbacks in mind it must have been hugely satisfying to Roy and Clara Snyder to visit Tanzania in the 1980s and see the great success of MEDA’s oxenization project, led by son-in-law Allan Sauder (now MEDA’s president).

Roy Snyder was recently asked in Sunday school whether his penchant for the inner workings of the breeding industry was a God-given talent. He replied, “Well, at the time I probably wouldn’t have said that; I was just interested in it. Now as I look back on it, it probably was.”

Whether mere “interest” or God-given talent, there are many life stories like this that deserve to be circulated to a wider audience. Roy Snyder is to be thanked for telling his. — Wally Kroeker

Executive Director, Nazareth Village

MENNONITE MISSION NETWORK is inviting applications for Executive Director of Nazareth Village, Nazareth, Israel.

Nazareth Village (http://www.nazarethvillage.com/) is an international ministry partner with Mennonite Mission Network, and is requesting applications immediately for a key leadership position.

The Executive Director will provide primary leadership for Nazareth Village, a re-creation of a first-century Jewish village, located in Jesus’ hometown. This Christian ministry requires an ED with a history of successful business management and financial oversight. An upcoming new project, the Discovery Center (a multi-functional education and research center), will demand visionary leadership in the development, construction and operations phases.

Qualified applicants will be committed Christians active in a congregation, have experience in combining faith and business, and possess an employment or educational background that includes organizational structure, operations, capital projects oversight, personnel management, and finance expertise. The successful candidate should have international life experience and sensitivity to Middle East cultural and religious dynamics.

Nazareth Village will welcome inquiries from applicants who have interest in a 12- to 15- month position as a transitional Executive Director, whose primary role is to help move the Village from an independent organization to functioning under the umbrella of Nazareth Trust, a not-for-profit organization with similar goals.

For either the interim or long-term positions, actual employment will be through Mennonite Mission Network, the mission agency of Mennonite Church USA. For further information, contact Ruth L. Guengerich, international personnel counselor, at RuthG@MMNworld.net, or call 866-866-2872, ext. 23062.