This fonds contains three diaries the first from 1945 until 1987 which appears to have been recopied. The first diary gives memoirs and accounts of Penner’s time in India including personal stories, politics, weather, and major news events. The first diary also includes loose pages in the back from 1981 and 1993, other loose pages are included with no specified year. The second diary spans from 1988 until 1990, and the third from 1990-1992. These two diaries are from Penner’s retirement in Winnipeg, Manitoba and include memoirs, personal experiences, news, and medical topics such as AIDS. Penner’s bible has prayers and notes throughout, in the back there is a short timeline of her first trip to India. In addition, This fonds contains a letter written by Penner to her adoptive relative Doreen Loewen in 1956 while she was in India, recounting her work in the hospital and teaching Sunday school. Finally, also included are Penner's business card and two pins; one of these pins is a nursing pin, and the other contains a photo of her late parents.
A small set of personal papers created by a service worker and missionary who served with Mennonite Central Committee in China and the General Conference Mennonite Church in Taiwan (Formosa). Materials include reports and newsletters, correspondence, photographs and photograph albums, and miscellaneous materials.
Personal papers of a Mennonite pastor affiliated with the General Conference Mennonite Church who was a pioneer in interracial and urban ministry in the mid 20th century. These papers are divided into two series:
Papers of a Mennonite missionary couple stationed in India and Ghana, with interest in the mission field in Nigeria. Divided into the following series:
(1) Correspondence, Subject Files, and Miscellaneous, 1944-1977
The La Junta Mennonite School of Nursing (La Junta, Colo.) Alumnae Association was founded in 1956. The association not only helps nursing school classmates maintain a sense of community, but also supports nursing students at Mennonite colleges through scholarships. Materials in this collection include governance and adminstrative documents of the association, the alumnea newsletter (1944-2008), scholarship fund correspondence and records, reunion materials, lists of graduates, class correspondence, photographs, alumnae studies, a scrapbook created from yearbooks, and miscellaneous materials. Of particular note is a phonograph record of the class of 1946 singing its class song, "Onward and Upward."
La Junta Mennonite School of Nursing (La Junta, Colo.) Alumnae Association
The collection of the Mennonite Medical Association includes minutes and reports, convention materials, membership lists and news releases, correspondence, photographs and albums, and audio recordings from 1944 to 2003.
Mennonite Medical Association (Harrisonburg, Virginia)
Personal papers of a lifelong peace activist from the Mennonite / Anabaptist tradition. Materials include journals, personal and professional correspondence, reports and articles associated with his work for International Voluntary Services (IVS) and Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT), lectures and speeches, photographs, and remembrance books compiled after his death. These papers also include Synapses: Messages, newsletters of a grass-roots human rights and spirituality organization based in Chicago in the 1980s and 1990s.
Records documenting congregational life of the (Old) Mennonite Church's urban mission in Chicago, Illinois. Materials include a membership ledger, records of events and organizations associated with the mission congregation, Sunday school records, financial records, and photographs.
Dockets, minutes, correspondence, and miscellaneous records of the board that governs the semi-independent magazine associated with the Mennonite Church USA. Includes an employee policy handbook and photographs of staff members.
Records of a department of the Mennonite Board of Missions that worked to strengthen and support racial and ethnic minority congregations, to assist the church in relating to minority communities, to serve as liaison between militant groups and the church, and to help the church understand and practice the radical discipleship of Jesus Christ. Materials include council minutes and publications, photographs, and correspondence and subject files of minority council leaders.
Mennonite Board of Missions. Minority Ministries Council
These records document the institutional history of a Mennonite turbuculosis sanatarium in Swink, Colo. that ultimately became the general hospital for the community of La Junta, Colo. Other names by which this institution have been known include Mennonite Hospital and La Junta Medical Center. In 1998, the hospital severed its association with the Mennonite Church and adopted the name Arkansas Valley Regional Medical Center.
Records include board meeting minutes, early correspondence of long-time administrator Allen H. Erb, and financial records. The gradual process of the city of La Junta assuming responsibility for the hospital, which began in the 1960s, is also well-documented.
La Junta Mennonite Hospital and Sanatorium (La Junta, Colorado)
The papers of Vernon and Evangeline Matthies Neuschwander primarily document relief and service work to Russian Mennonite refugees after World War II. Materials include correspondence, poems, testimonies, and songs by Russian Mennonite refugees, reports and correspondence pertaining to Mennonite Central Committee relief work in the Netherlands and Paraguay, a diary kept by Evangeline Matthies Neuschwander during her Europen relief work, correspondence between Vernon and Evangeline Matthies Neuschwander, and a well-labeled photograph album documenting Evangeline Matthies Neuschwander's relief and service work. Other materials include records of Vernon Neuschwander's Civilian Public Service work, family and genealogical materials, Evangeline's writing and reminiscences, and miscellaneous materials.
Daniel H. Coffman served as a deacon at Prairie Street Mennonite Church (1893-1899), Olive Mennonite Church (1899-1904), and Clinton Brick Mennonite Church (1904 - 1941). This collection consists primarily of Coffman's correspondence to his brother and sister in Virginia as well as his daughter in Indiana, and contains information regarding church conflicts from 1898 to 1903. Also in this collection are histories of the Daniel H. Coffman family and the Samuel H. Eldridge family, as well as a photograph of the Eldridge family circa 1890.
