Concern was expressed regarding a lack of mission trainees in 1996 and overall decline in the total number of long-term personnel in global service. In recent years, retirements and terminations have outrun recruitment.
As if to underscore the trend, the Board received the resignation of Miller and Isabella Zhuang, church planters among the Chinese in Venezuela. During the Zhuangs' two terms, two churches were started and dozens of new believers were baptized. Though occasionally aided by short-term assistants, they bore most of the workload alone.
Their resignation was acknowledge, but with a view toward the couple's eventual return to MBM/S. Meanwhile, the future of MBM/S involvement in Venezuela is uncertain due to lack of personnel.
The Board also sent a letter to Tim and Janine Bergdahl, on unpaid leave, inviting them to consider future Muslim-related assignments with MBM/S. The Bergdahls ministered in Central Asia for five years before being denied a return visa by the country in which they served. Their leave was also extended.
Historic new appointment
With evident excitement, the Board approved the joint international appointment of Hiromi Takeda as an MBM/S first-term worker to Thailand, beginning around March, 1997. She is the second missionary in the history of MBM/S to come from the Japan MB Conference. The first was Keiko Hamano, who served in Pakistan, 1988-91.More time for home ministry
Addressing the increasing need for more missionary speakers to minister each year in constituency churches, the MBM/S board redefined and altered the traditional "furlough", now known as "Ministry in North America" or "MINA". Three-year terms will now consist of 31 months in the cross-cultural assignment and five months of MINA--an additional month in the home country.One month of the five will be set aside for complete vacation, with no ministry responsibilities. During the other four months, workers will speak in churches; strengthen ties with supporting churches and prayer partners; participate in growth and renewal activities; raise funds; attend MB conventions; enrich relationships with loved ones, friends and community; and attend to needs for health care and counseling.
The new MINA policy is expected to almost double contact with constituency churches, which have been insisting on more face-to-face interaction with MBM/S missionaries.
Latin American commitments
With a new evaluation of the work in Brazil and Paraguay in hand, the Board addressed personnel needs in those areas.Since 1991, the Brazil team has shrunk from 19 to four funded missionaries (plus several self-supporting mission associates), due partly to new priorities and partly to attrition through retirements, illness and death. The Board committed MBM/S to maintaining two couples in Brazil to provide leadership training and church development resources to existing congregations.
It was also decided to explore assigning a single missionary or missionary couple to work for one term in Paraguay in a resource role with the Spanish-speaking Convention churches. The mission has not deployed such a worker in Paraguay since the 1980s.
In the next few months an administrator and a Board member will travel to the two countries to follow up the evaluation and consult on various partnership matters regarding personnel, subsidies, leadership training and scholarships, church planting strategy, and improving dialogue between the mission and national conferences.
Official thanks were conveyed to Don Peters, principal of the Mennonite Brethren Collegiate Institute, Winnipeg, for his excellent evaluation and report.
European developments
MBM/S missionaries Paul and Ina Warkentin were reappointed for another term of service, 1997-2000, in Bad Reichenhall, Germany (Bavaria), where they lead a developing church. The Warkentins have participated in church planting in Germany with MBM/S since 1982.The Board initiated an arrangement with an interdenominational German mission agency known as DMG (Deutshe Missiongemeinschaft) which potentially offers a new supply of workers. As Germany or Austrian Mennonite Brethren desire to enter mission service, they may enlist with DMG, which will help them raise support. DMG has agreed to second such workers who desire it to MBM/S teams. It has partnership agreements with more than 50 missions in various countries.
One German couple, Christoph and Antonia Haegele, has begun an eight-month internship with DMG with the goal of subsequent ministry with MBM/S. The Haegeles served as the pastoral couple of the Traunstein MB Church from 1987 until August. They anticipate commissioning to cross-cultural mission in September, 1997, possibly to Lithuania. They have two children, six and four, with another expected soon.
Gary Hardaway
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