Doing Church
Foothills Mennonite Hosts Senior's Exercise Group
with Erwin Strempler, Visitation Pastor at Foothills Mennonite

In
the fall of 2015 members of the neighbourhood community association
asked if they could use our lower auditorium for a group of seniors for
an exercise program. Kate Janzen was the Outreach Trustee at the time
helped facilitate the request. Two University of Calgary students
volunteered to be in the instructors. Rudy Wiens and I
(left), Foothills members, volunteered to set up the chairs, make coffee and clean up for the weekly morning session.
In the meantime, this early group effort has become an important time
for a church to connect in a great way with our wonderful community.
Various instructors have made the hour of exercise a healthy
preoccupation for seniors in our neighbourhood community.
Several people have reported that the exercises have helped in a number
of ways. In my case, when we started I usually had to sit down for part
of the exercises when we did not use the chairs to hold on. With my age
and mild diabetes, I had a balance problem when we started. Now after
getting four years older, I can do those exercises when we do not use
chairs, and the question of balance is nearly gone, at least
significantly reduced.

Looking
over the many name tags we have used since 2015, there must have been
over 80 people from the community who have joined us at one time or
another. The average weekly attendance is 20-30.
I think the relationship to people in the community is very
important. They find out that we are a Christian congregation and just
normal people. During the coffee time, we sit around the tables, and
frequently the conversation takes on personal comments, faith concerns,
church-related questions. We inform them of our special programs, and
invite them. More and more of the community people join us at our
Christmas

Choir
Program. Last week our jr. youth raked leaves for seniors in our
neighbourhood. Routinely they contribute items for our MCC bins. This is
a very meaningful relationship between the church and our neighbourhood
community.