Return to the M.B.Herald Vol. 36, No. 8 Home Page
In the context of unending, unpredictable change, MB Missions/Services continues its efforts in global mission. Yet, some things never change. The Bible is our unwavering guide. When change brings insecurity, we can rest in the unchanging God.
Yet, many people groups remain very difficult to reach, and approximately 2,000 are without a significant Christian witness. MBM/S is committed to reaching its share of these unreached peoples. These include the Nanerige (Burkina Faso), Khmu (Thailand, Laos and the U.S.A.), Baluch (Pakistan) and Kyrgyz (Kyrgyzstan). Currently MBM/S is shifting some of its resources from work with older, existing conferences to these groups who have little witness and no sustainable church presence.
New Opportunities. The fall of the Soviet Union, the rise of Islam, the flood of people to the cities and the increasing prominence of Asian countries are profound new global realities that create opportunities for gospel witness. MBM/S is adjusting to these new realities, including forming a Muslim Ministry Team to strategize on how to reach this challenging and growing religious group.
While many groups have brought new start-up ministries to the former Soviet Union, MBM/S has taken a long-term, strategic approach by partnering with indigenous educational and church planting ministries. These partners understand the culture and language, and many were doing ministry before the walls came down.
MBM/S Priorities. MBM/S remains focused on evangelism, leadership training and church planting. It has recently expanded its team in Thailand while continuing to support North American church planting missionaries in Austria, Brazil, Colombia, Germany, Japan, Lithuania, Peru, Portugal, Russia and Uruguay. It also partners with Africa Inter-Mennonite Mission in Burkina Faso and Botswana.
MBM/S also supports outreach and training programs of the Indian, Indonesian, Paraguayan and Zairian conferences. While our relationship with these mature conferences has changed from parent to partner, scarce material resources make it as important as ever for North Americans to assist them financially. Our partners have much to contribute to mission in the form of workers, guidance, zeal and spiritual insight.
The shortest terms of service are mostly available through MB para-denominational organizations such as Youth Mission International and Church Partnership Evangelism. These are great opportunities for those who have only a few weeks to give, and they provide a good opportunity to taste and see what missions is about. These programs have a strong focus on spiritual growth in the participant. Funds for these efforts are usually self-raised.
MBM/S also has short-term service opportunities lasting for a year or two, including teaching English in Japan and China. MBM/S also affirms and facilitates Mission Associate service with several other mission efforts. MBM/S also facilitates the service of retiree volunteers, teachers, vocational workers and other "tentmaker" missionaries.
The MBM/S "Pastors Overseas Program" provides MB pastors with an opportunity to minister to our missionaries while gaining a better understanding of a particular mission effort. The result of this program has been blessed missionaries, excited pastors and churches with a renewed vision for missions. If you are a pastor, we strongly encourage you to participate in the POP program; it will change your life.
Rationale: Mennonite Brethren Missions/Services is the agency charged with carrying on those church ministries which cross cultural boundaries, and is the only instrument for doing so which is solely responsible to the Mennonite Brethren churches of the U.S.A. and Canada. This report incorporates the primary thrust of the document. A full-length copy can be requested from our offices and will be available at the Waterloo convention. An abbreviated brochure version will be published and distributed to all churches prior to the convention.
China: As partners in the China Educational Exchange, we are placing English teachers in Chinese universities that train teachers. We are currently looking for new candidates to place in locations near to where we formerly had missionaries.
India: In spite of the leadership tensions of recent years, many of the MB churches in India are vibrant and growing. We are focusing financial support on over 130 village evangelists, on leadership training efforts and on outreach to tribal, urban and Muslim people groups.
Indonesia: We continue to support the work of the Indonesian mission board, PIPKA, in church planting and discipleship ministries.
Japan: Our partnership with the Japan MB Conference is maturing. While we continue to provide them with some church planting workers from North America, they have sent two church planting couples to California, and this year sent a worker, Hiromi Takeda, to join our MBM/S team in Thailand.
Pakistan: Our commitment to be part of the team that is seeking to reach the Baluch people group has been tested. Due to family needs and visa problems, we have had no workers present in Pakistan since January, 1996. However, we continue to support the Baluch radio broadcast and hope to again place workers there this year.
Thailand: Our team in Thailand is growing as we continue in our long-term commitment to see a strong group of indigenous churches planted among the Khmu people group. Since many more of the Khmu live in Laos, we are also exploring ways of supporting ministry there.
Central Asia: Through our Muslim Ministry Team approach, we are also seeking to reach out to people groups such as the Kyrgyz and Kazaks in the Central Asian republics of the former Soviet Union.
Angola: The MB church in Angola emerged without North American missionary presence during a time of civil war in that nation. Now that the country is at peace, the MB conference there has requested help particularly in the training of pastors, church planters and other leaders. There is also a great need for post-war reconstruction. We hope to send short-term Bible teachers yet this year and perhaps have a longer term missionary presence in the future.
Botswana: As partners in AIMM, we provide a missionary couple for leadership training and social ministries among the African Independent Churches in this nation of southern Africa.
Burkina Faso: Also through AIMM, we co-sponsor the Bergen family in linguistic and evangelism ministries among the Nanerige people group of this West African nation.
Great Lakes Region: In partnership with the Zaire MB Conference and AIMM, we are supporting an effort to plant churches among the peoples of the Great Lakes region, which includes eastern Zaire, Rwanda and Burundi. This effort grew out of the relief and reconciliation efforts following the Rwandan massacres. While this work has been slowed by the civil war of recent months, a congregation of about 80 is meeting in Bukuvu as a result of this effort.
Zaire: In partnership with the Zaire MB Conference, we are helping to train pastors and other leaders, and also, through Church Partnership Evangelism and Youth Mission International, to evangelize in Kinshasa and the interior. A mission training school in Kinshasa is preparing Zairian missionaries for unreached people groups within Zaire and beyond.
Brazil: The merger of ethnic German MB churches with Portuguese-speaking MB churches into a single conference has resulted in a stronger partner for MBM/S efforts in Brazil. This partnership is now focused on support for Brazilian church planters and on the training of leaders, including the presence of missionaries in Sao Paulo.
Colombia: The maturing Colombian MB Conference is developing a growing vision for church planting in this nation and also a vision to send out cross-cultural missionaries to other lands. MBM/S is seeking to be a supportive partner in this vision, including the provision of some missionaries involved with training.
Mexico: MBM/S partners with the Christian Church of Peace, based in Guadalajara, in church planting efforts in four Mexican states. We also are partners in a coalition of Anabaptist agencies that is seeking to plant a multiplying cluster of Anabaptist churches in Mexico City.
Panama: MBM/S continues to provide some resources for evangelism and leadership training to the indigenous United Evangelical Church in Panama. Recent societal pressures have resulted in a decline in membership, and we are currently seeking ways to provide greater support to this partner conference.
Paraguay: We continue to provide financial resources to two partner conferences in Paraguay, one consisting of ethnic German churches and the other of Spanish-speaking churches. Current discussions include consideration of a broader regional training role for the Asuncion Bible Institute.
Peru: Our 30-year involvement with the Ashaninca people has been scaled back, as Mennonite Central Committee has taken responsibility for development work there. Our efforts continue to plant clusters of churches in the Piura and Trujillo regions of coastal Peru. The membership has doubled in the past two years. Our missionaries are involved in both direct church planting and leadership training programs.
Uruguay: We continue our efforts to plant a "professional class" church in the heart of Montevideo under the leadership of missionaries, with hopes that it can serve to strengthen the small Uruguayan MB Conference.
Venezuela: Through our seven-year effort at church planting among Chinese immigrants in Venezuela, a growing MB church has emerged in Caracas and another small group in Puerto La Cruz. Several congregations have emerged in other cities with other denominational ties. We are seeking to provide a resource missionary to serve this cluster of Chinese congregations in Venezuela.
Germany: MBM/S continues to provide church-planting missionaries in Bavaria, Munich and Dresden. We also provide teachers for theological training in Bonn and Brake. In partnership with the two German conferences, we are supporting German church planters and providing scholarships for advanced theological training.
Lithuania: We are partners with the Lithuania Christian Fund in seeking to plant a multiplying cluster of congregations known as the Lithuania Free Christian Church. This includes the provision of missionary church planters, leadership training resources and financial support for Lithuanian workers.
Portugal: The effort to plant a multiplying cluster of congregations in Portugal has been slow, but we are encouraged by recent growth in the first Lisbon congregation and the partnership with a second congregation emerging among African immigrants. We anticipate that missionary church planters will be needed for some years to come in order for a viable partner conference to emerge.
Russia: We are a partner in training at St. Petersburg Christian University by providing both long-term and short-term missionary personnel. We hope to provide a director for the Moscow Mennonite Center this year, and provide financial support for the Leadership Training Institute at Anapa operated by Kingdom Ventures. We are a partner with the Omsk Bruderschaft, a cluster of 52 congregations in Siberia with MB roots, in their evangelistic outreach to many parts of Siberia and beyond.
Eva and Peter Loewen (October, 1995)
Lawrence and Selma Warkentin (June, 1966)
Herb and Ruth Friesen (September, 1996)
John J. and Pat Klassen (December, 1996)
Maureen and Paul Friesen (February, 1997)
Ben and Fran Wedel (June, 1997)
John N. and Mary Klassen (November, 1997)
A major trend in the '90s is towards more short-term workers and fewer career (multiple-term) missionaries. Global Volunteers are self-supported workers usually under para-denominational organizations such as Youth Mission International and Church Partnership Evangelism. They are an important aspect of MBM/S's ministry. (Note: Statistics for these began to be gathered in 1993.)
I have been led by God to have a global vision beyond ministering in one geography and culture. . . . I have a dream that one day I will get to share the gospel with people very different from me but all part of the same global village.
In my studies, I am focusing on world mission with an emphasis on cross-cultural studies and church planting. Kinshasa is a big city with all kinds of people and much opportunity for cross-cultural work. Perhaps the greatest threat against Christianity is Islam. I want to know how we can respond to the aggressive evangelizing of the Muslims.
In North America, the great resources can give a sense of power and control. Africans, who have so few resources, have no illusions about power and must rely on God. I believe in sharing resources, but resources are much more than finances. We Africans have something to share from our spiritual resources.
Christine always felt attracted to God and wanted to pray to Him but says she always felt empty after the daily Muslim prayers and wanted something more. One day, she heard her brother praying behind his closed bedroom door. After talking with him, she found out that he had been a Christian for more than a year. The next Sunday, she went to an underground church with him and gave her heart to Christ. "It was the happiest day of my life", she says. "The second happiest was being baptized along with my mother, sister and brother."
It was due to Christine's bold witness that others in the family came to know Christ. It is exciting to hear her tell of confrontations she has had with Muslim clerics. They have tried to tell her that she is Muslim and needs to return to the mosque. With a broad smile on her face, she says she stands before them and boldly declares, "No, I am a Christian now."
Her heart is burdened for her relatives living in Iran, an area closed to the gospel. She feels God calling her to minister in Iran by bringing in translations of the Bible in the native language. She has been working with a Bible Society, learning some of their work, and is currently studying in SPCU to gain the necessary theological education for her work.
We feel privileged to have the chance to impact her life through our classes and contacts in the hallway. We trust that God will use the education she is receiving here to further His kingdom in areas we could never reach.
Rafael came to me desperate for spiritual guidance. He was a draftsman by trade, but unemployed, drinking heavily and suffering from insomnia. His second wife had left him, and he was certain that God had long abandoned him. A descendant of 18th-century German immigrants, he had been baptized and confirmed in the Lutheran Church, but the actual family religion had been Kardecism, a French form of spiritism. As a teenager, he had participated briefly in a Lutheran renewal movement, but soon found himself leaving the church behind.
Between marriages, he developed an intimate relationship with a young woman. When she realized that Rafael would not marry her, she went to Umbanda (an Afro-Brazilian form of spiritism) to put a curse on him. He suffered a series of familial and professional failures. To relieve himself of the curse, Rafael consulted a highly recommended spiritist medium in Sao Paulo. The recommended ceremonial baths did not bring the desired alleviation.
During the past five years, I have spent long hours listening to Rafael's story, reading the Manual of Life together with him, praying through his past experiences. Rafael prayed to have his spirit eternally tied to the Spirit of God about a year ago. He began to pray for transformation. God relieved him of his bondage to alcoholism, and he became conscious of his destructive behavioral patterns. He was reconciled with his wife and children. On November 24, 1996, Rafael and his wife were baptized together. It was not a cleansing ritual, but a proclamation of their new life in the Spirit. They continue to take steps toward complete healing.
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