HAMPTON, Va. (Mennonite Mission Network) – As the 100th anniversary of the General Conference Mennonite Church Commission on Overseas Mission (COM) approached, Tina Block Ediger, “the face” of the agency to churches in the United States and Canada, was the obvious person to produce a book to mark the occasion. That book, Window to the World: Extraordinary Stories from a Century of Overseas Mission 1900-2000, is now a lasting testament of Ediger’s significant contribution to God’s mission in the world.
Born April 25, 1931, near Steinbach, Manitoba, in Canada, Ediger worked for COM, predecessor agency of Mennonite Mission Network, in Newton from 1955 to 1981. She organized furlough visits for many missionaries returning to Canada and the United States. While working full-time, she also completed a Bachelor’s degree in English at Bethel (Kansas) College. Because of her loving personality and concern for people, she was known as “Aunt Tina” by many missionary children. Ediger traveled to 38 countries and often gave speeches in addition to writing, which included research on female mission workers.
For two years, Ediger served as the secretary-bookkeeper at Union Biblical Seminary in Yeotmal, India.
Tina Block Ediger died Oct. 16, 2014, at the age of 82. Memorial services were held Oct. 25 at Bethel College Mennonite Church of North Newton, Kansas, where she attended.
Download full-resolution image.She worked 11 years as secretary of communications for COM. Jeannie Zehr, the agency’s secretary of communications at the time, hired Ediger to write Window to the World, a coffee table book, which describes, through pictures and short stories, the first 100 years of mission work by the General Conference Mennonite Church. The book was published in 1999.
“Tina just seemed like the logical person because she knew so many of the people and the stories,” Zehr said. “We’re very proud of what she accomplished.”
The book chronicles service beginning in 1900, when the first mission workers arrived in Mumbai, India. A century later, more than 900 mission workers had served with the General Conference mission in 30 countries.
In the introduction of Window to the World, Ediger quoted a South African proverb to illustrate the importance of the book and its documentation of God’s work through missions: “If you inherit land, you have to farm it. If you inherit a story, you have to tell it.”
Ediger invited readers to share the stories in the book with their children and to use it as a resource. “May they inspire you to tell your own stories of faith, mission and service,” she wrote.
“Tina gave of herself unstintingly to strengthen ministries that would advance God’s healing and hope globally,” wrote Mennonite Mission Network Executive Director Stanley Green in a letter to the family. “It seems that for Tina this was a vocation, a calling, to share the good news of the gospel.”
Ediger was preceded in death by her parents, Julius H. and Katharina (Penner) Block; husband, Elmer Ediger; brothers, Jacob and Henry Block; sister, Anna Isaak; sister-in-law, Betty Block; nephew, Terry Block; and granddaughter-in-law, Jana Peters.
She is survived by three children: Elaine (Bob) Burdette of Mulvane, Kan.; Carol (Ron) Peters of North Newton, Kan.; and Mark (Jocelyn Milner) Ediger of Madison, Wis.; six grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren; brothers, William (Dolores) Block of Winnipeg, Manitoba; Jim (Helga) Block of Morden, Manitoba; Peter (Mary) Block of Steinbach, Manitoba; sister, Martha (Leonard) Epp of Brantford, Ontario; and many nieces and nephews.
###
For immediate release
Mennonite Mission Network, the mission agency of Mennonite Church USA, leads, mobilizes and equips the church to participate in holistic witness to Jesus Christ in a broken world. Media may contact news@mennonitemission.net.
