The executive director of Mennonite Central Committee Canada will retire from the position on Friday. Don Peters has served in the role for 16 years which makes him the longest serving executive director in MCC Canada's history. He started on September 1st, 2001. Peters reflects on his almost two decades in the post.

"My image for my own tenure as executive director is that I've been running a relay, I've been running one leg of a relay. My leg of the race is going to end at the end of this week on September 30th and my job now is to pass this baton to someone who's going to run for all his/her strength, it's a 'his' in this case, during the entire length of that person's tenure."

Peters says the role of MCC has changed significantly during his time as executive director. He refers to the end of March, 2012 when the organization changed its operational model. MCC binational was dissolved and the responsibility was given to MCC Canada and MCC U.S. which made them jointly responsible for everything MCC does outside of North America. He feels that change has worked out very well.

Peters says one constant during his time at the helm is that the need for MCC services continues to grow faster than it can respond.

"I wouldn't say that it's frustrating to hear about all the disasters but it can be overwhelming. And it can also be overwhelming for the people who are supporters of MCC and want to help. But we urge them not to be frustrated to the point of stopping because we do have a role to play and the interventions are helpful for the people we can reach."

He notes another thing that has changed over time is MCC's choice to speak out as an advocate for people who are not being heard such as in Palestine.

"It's a matter of attempting to give voice to people who don't have a voice, whether that's in Palestine or in other parts of the world. I don't know that it's political. It's certainly not political with a capital P, it doesn't have anything to do with a party. Things are political because they involve power and they involve imbalances and they involve distribution of resources and they involve military and they involve control. So it's a matter of taking the voice of people, whose voice has not been heard, and helping that voice become heard."

As he prepares to stand down as executive director, Peters shares some thoughts about areas where MCC may need to get more involved in the future.

"The pattern that we're seeing in the weather patterns of the hurricanes, for example, and the drought situations. I've had small farmers, people who've got two or three acres, saying they've never seen weather like this. I think that's something that, internationally and domestically, we're going to have to pay an awful lot more attention to than we do now. I think that the number of conflicts that we have going in the world now, and we forget about a whole bunch of them, it seems like it is aggravated now in comparison to what it's been. And, I think a third area is migration of people. This movement of people from the African states, some of them failed states, and from the Middle East area, that movement of people into Europe hasn't been seen for a number of decades. That factor is a factor that MCC will need to consider and respond to as the years go by. Those are three areas that would give me a lot of concern and attention as I think about MCC's international reach and its domestic engagement."

He is sharing those thoughts and much more this week with Rick Cober Bauman who will succeed him.

Peters says it's hard to say how his time as executive director of MCC Canada has changed him.

"It's easier for me to think about what the role leaves with me, what the experience leaves with me or leaves in me. And I think one of the things is that I have very clear images of people whom we've served around the world, who symbolize multitudes of people in the same conditions and roles in life. When I walk away from here, that'll stay forever. The concept of service in the name of Christ is very deeply oriented in me and I will look for those avenues of service, even outside of MCC, and I'll be able to find them."