AMBS president honored

Nelson Kraybill honored for ten years of service at AMBS

In a surprise gesture during Pastors Week, the Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary board honored Nelson Kraybill for ten years of service as president of the seminary.

Janice Yordy Sutter, Yvonne Diaz and Randall Miller Jacobs, the Elkhart-area members of the AMBS board, called Nelson to the podium at the end of the third plenary session of Pastors Week on Thursday, January 25. Ellen Kraybill, his wife, joined him and the full house in the seminary’s chapel rose for a standing ovation.

Nelson and Ellen received several gifts from the board, including a piece by Caribbean artist Luis Luma entitled, “Banana Jesus.” It depicts Jesus doing something common people in the Caribbean do routinely—harvesting bananas. Yvonne concluded the celebration with a prayer of thanksgiving and blessing for Nelson and the seminary.

Nelson began serving as AMBS president in January 1997 after serving as Programme Director at the London Mennonite Centre in England, pastor in Vermont and high school teacher in Puerto Rico. A frequent speaker in congregational and conference settings, he teaches and preaches widely on issues of mission, allegiance, early church, and the book of Revelation.