News

MEDA to mark 60 years at Wichita convention

MEDA’s 60-year history of tackling poverty through business will be celebrated at the organization’s annual convention, Nov. 7-10 in Wichita, Kansas.

The agency was established in 1953 to provide assistance and investment capital so Mennonite refugees in Paraguay could start businesses. The idea caught on and soon MEDA was assisting the poor around the world. Today it works with 227 partners in 56 countries to improve the lives of 18 million families.

Some of that history will be reviewed during an evening of storytelling led by Tim Penner, a MEDA board member from Kansas, Kim Pityn, MEDA’s chief operations offi cer, and Wally Kroeker, director of publications. A live auction of unique items will cap the evening, with proceeds going to MEDA’s GROW project (Greater Rural Opportunities for Women) in Ghana.

The convention’s plenary topics include: • “Global Food Production and Security: Solutions Creating Hope for the Planet” with Robert Thompson, visiting global food scholar at Johns Hopkins University and former World Bank director of agriculture and rural development. He will address challenges facing smallholder producers in the developing world and farmers in North America. • “Dreaming of Synergy: Leverage for Impact Beyond Our Success” with David Haskell, co-founder of Dreams InDeed, which seeks to strengthen social entrepreneurs in diffi cult regions. He will illustrate principles that unlock the power of networks to dramatically improve transformational outcomes. • “Overcoming Obstacles on the Path of Hope” with Marion Good, entrepreneur, former credit union executive and now development offi cer with MEDA. She will share stories from around the globe of overcoming barriers to achieve success.

A pre-convention seminar on “Sustaining Your Family Business” will be held the afternoon of Thursday, Nov. 7. Family business specialist Lance Woodbury and attorney

Comments? Would you like to comment on anything in this magazine, or on any other matters relating to business and faith? Send your thoughts to wkroeker@meda.org Timothy Moll will address succession, balance, legacies and working through confl ict to bring about healthy change.

More than 30 seminars will explore professional development, business and MEDArelated topics. Such as: • What Matters to Your Employees • Building Leadership Opportunities for Women • The Keys to Sales Success • What Boards and Board Members Need to Know • Whole-Hearted Leadership in a Noisy World • The Entrepreneurial Spirit of Orie O. Miller • Making the Internet Work for You

Local tours will visit businesses like Excel Industries, Learjet, Harper Industries, Belite Aircraft, Jako Farm, Mennonite Press and Flint Hills Design, and attractions such as an underground salt museum, historic Wichita, Cosmosphere and Space Center and Kauffman Museum.

Sessions will be held at the Hyatt Regency Wichita. For more information go to www. medaconvention.org or call (800) 665-7026. ◆

Merle Good drama set for Off-Broadway

Merle Good is a rarity among Mennonite entrepreneurs — a businessperson who is also a playwright.

His long record as an artistic entrepreneur includes summer theatre, a movie (Hazel’s People) based on one of his books, magazine publishing and the founding of Good Books and Good Enterprises Inc.

Now his newest play is opening Off-Broadway. The Preacher and the Shrink runs Nov. 2 to Jan. 5 at the Beckett Theatre, two blocks west of New York City’s Times Square.

Good has described the play as a story of alienation between a father and a daughter and the people who try to help. It includes pastors, mental health professionals and sexual harassment in the church.

He told the Mennonite World Review that the story idea grew out of his observation that mental health professionals were taking “listening

Merle Good

roles” previously fi lled by ministers. His play explores the impact of that shift on human communication, asking “Are the listening professions doing it better or differently?”

The seven weekly performances will be at 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays, with afternoon matinees on Saturdays and Sundays. Tickets are available online at www. Telecharge.com or by calling 1-800-432-7250. ◆

Cooking entrepreneur launches weekly show

Her cookbooks have sold more than 11 million copies. She has more than 600,000 Facebook fans. And now, Phyllis Good has launched a weekly cooking show, “Cooking with Phyllis.”

“My goal has always been to enable persons who may lack the experience and confidence to cook for their families and friends,” says Good, a cooking entrepreneur who with her husband Merle owns stores and a publishing enterprise. “My other goal is to encourage families to sit down and eat together as often as possible.”

“Cooking with Phyllis,” a weekly 2-5 minute web show featuring Good, debuted on July 17 on www.fix-itandforget-it.com. It also debuted on YouTube that same day.

In each weekly show, Good, from Lancaster, Pa., will make one recipe from start to finish. Many of these recipes originate in one of the books in her bestselling Fix-It and Forget-It Cookbook series. She will also demonstrate stove-top and oven recipes on the show from some of her other cookbooks.

Good will provide not only instruction, but also hints about the food, equipment and preparation so viewers can prepare each dish on their own.

The show’s companion website, www.fix-itandforget-it.com, will include the full recipe and grocery list, as well as cooking tips.

Good hopes also to host other cookbook authors, chefs and bloggers, from time to time.

Good is a home cook, former teacher and author of the entire Fix-It- and Forget-It Cookbook series (and member of the MEDA board of directors). In every episode, she aims to make sure viewers get the information they need in a concise, straightforward and inviting way.

“Various bloggers and e-tailers are interested in featuring ‘Cooking with Phyllis’ each week,” says Kate Good, assistant publisher at Good Books. “Our hope is to attract as many as a million viewers weekly.” ◆

Letters

Business with an energizing pulse

For some time now I’ve meant to write you about the pleasure Marketplace gives me. The upgrade in paper and layout has added to its quality, sense and feel. The issues are a veritable story telling, a focus of what it means — the very spiritual feel of it — to be in business with a central, energizing pulse. Thanks for compiling and editing each issue.

I’ve had the pleasure of sharing my copies with others not acquainted with our background and orientation; said one “what a delight it must be, and is, to do business in and with a purpose.”

Don’t become weary in doing this good! — Jack Dueck, Waterloo, Ontario

Phyllis Good demonstrates a dish during her new weekly cooking show, “Cooking with Phyllis.” The five-crew, three-camera team from New York also does the cooking segments for the Bon Appetit site.