April 2008

Venezuela - Brett Klingenberg writes for a six-member YES team serving with Shalom Mennonite Church in Venezuela, “If I were to use one word to describe church here it would be family, in every sense and meaning of that word. In Shalom your past doesn’t matter, what matters is the new life you are living right now; everyone is equal and important. When you come to Shalom, you are adopted. It is even hard to tell who the parents and grandparents are of the babies because they get passed around so much, and everyone is willing to take their turn.”

When the YES team went with a team from Shalom to visit a sister congregation Dani Rupp said, “Our team sang Zephaniah 3:17 for special music during worship. I gave a brief introduction to the song in Spanish, Jeremy read the verse in Spanish, and we sang in English. Later we were told by a few people in the congregation that they were moved to tears by the song. They really had no idea what we were singing, but God transcended the language barriers and they were able to relate and worship with us. Not only did we connect with God in new and powerful ways, we also bonded as a team and with the people from the Shalom and Pelenque congregations.”


February 2008

Guatemala - At the invitation of the K’ekchi’ Mennonite Church in Guatemala, Ruben Carrasco, president of the Peruvian Mennonite Church and Pastor David Quispe Cruz, who accompanied him from Peru, spent two weeks visiting K’ekchi’ churches and leading a pastors’ seminar, November 26-29.

Galen and Phyllis Groff, workers with Eastern Mennonite Missions, who helped facilitate the exchange said, “The K’ekchi’ really identified with the stories of the Quechua. As indigenous peoples in the Americas, both share a similar history of suffering and marginalization. One K’ekchi’ pastor told us that in all his studies he had never experienced sharing that touched him so deeply.”

As they travelled around Guatemala visiting K’ekchi’ churches and ministries Carrasco told the leaders, “We see you as our older brother, and we have come to learn from you, as well as minster.” (EMM began work in Guatemala in 1968, and in Peru in 1986.)

Phyllis said, “We were impressed by how well Ruben and David worked together as a team. David is a gifted speaker, but worked under Ruben’s leadership. The Lord used them to awaken the K’ekchi’ leaders to a greater sensitivity to God's voice.”

Groffs said that as the Peruvians ministered together with a blend of humility and authority, the K’ekchi’ brothers came to see the Peruvians not as “little brothers” but as peers in ministry.

The Quechua brothers emphasized the need for continuous prayer. “How can we experience God’s power if we aren’t seeking him?” they asked. “Pastors may know a lot about God and preach his word, but not know his voice. God wants to speak with us daily so that we can impact others for him. God wants to release us from the wounds of the past that hinder us from hearing his voice.”

The group spent much time in prayer, seeking God to release his power in the lives of the pastors. “We all felt the holy presence of God and experienced the ministry of the Holy Spirit,” Phyllis said.

Groffs said that the group is hopeful that these meetings were only the beginning of much more fruitful interchange between the two groups.


August 2007

GUATEMALA - As they walk with the K’ekchi’ Mennonite Churches in Guatemala, Galen and Phyllis Groff spend countless hours visiting homes and churches. Phyllis wrote, “After a visit to a church on Sunday we were served a meal by one of the church leaders, but then as we left his wife handed us a live chicken to take home. This gift humbled us. Why should we deserve such a gift of love? This leader had accompanied Galen to the youth studies the past three days, and we had served him some meals from our house as he was staying in town. We asked the neighbors to raise the chicken for us since we don’t have a place to keep chickens. They can keep the eggs for feeding their children.”

After years of walking with church in Guatemala, the Groffs reflected on the passion of Christ as they have experienced it in Central America. They write, “In the U.S. we put our major emphasis on the joy of the resurrection and sing happy songs on Easter Sunday morning. Here more emphasis is placed on the suffering of Jesus and much thought is given to how we can identify with his suffering. Could it be that the people of Guatemala live with suffering and so are drawn to identify with the suffering of Jesus? While we in the States like to pretend that suffering doesn’t exist or that it is far from us? We like the victory and joy of the resurrection. We quickly pass over the sad parts that include pain and suffering and go on to the happy ending. I believe that Jesus wants us to ponder both his suffering and the victory of the resurrection story.

“The churches here continue to grow. The local Mennonite Church recently had an all-night prayer service. We decided to attend thinking that we would leave at midnight, but we stayed until they ended at 4 a.m. The hours flew by quickly. There was singing, scripture, testimonies, and prayer with breaks in between for fellowship. The bonding with the family of God made us feel like we had been in a family gathering. We rejoiced to hear the report of another K’ekchi’ Mennonite Church that baptized 52 new believers during their Easter services. Pray that these new believers would grow in their faith and find the victory of Jesus’ resurrection.”


July 2007

PUERTO MONTT, CHILE
Nancy and Michael Hostetter, with Deborah, Elizabeth, Jordan, Victoria, and Christina, serve with EMM in Chile.

Last Saturday Bekii, along with our daughter Elizabeth and Eliana, from the church, hosted a Dance Workshop for little girls. It was two hours long and Bekii prepared a teaching on creativity, dance and Jesus. She also prepared a choreography to a short song. The girls were equipped with flowing skirts. Out of 5 potential little dancers, only three came. We had to laugh, but Bekii, Eli, and Eliana invested their time as if 20 girls had been there.

On Sunday, the little girls then presented their dance along with Jordan and Eliana's husband, Ricardo on guitar. I mention everyone's name because this is a great victory in our church. It is the first time the children have been guided and taught the beauty of dance in such a way to bless the congregation. Also, Bekii helped Elizabeth end Eliana come out of their "shell" somewhat.

On the following Monday night, at Elizabeth's ballet class, the conversation kept turning to God. Keep in mind that Elizabeth has been in this school 10 years, with the same professors and nearly all the same students. Well, our daughter, now 15, and pretty secure in her personal walk with the Lord, was able to share about the Person of Jesus Christ. She came home so excited. Eli's points of view were well received, most likely because of her consistent witness and good character. It was the first opportunity she has had to share with her teachers and students together.

But what a coincidence – or may I say “isn't just so cool” – how she invested in the little girls on the weekend, and right away God opened the door for her to share the gospel at her ballet school on Monday?!

PERU - Alisha Sangrey and Jessica Shugart are on the Peru GO! team

Since we arrived, both of us have been working at PROMESA. The first graders are adorable. There are twelve of them in our class, and most of them don’t speak much English. It has been an adjustment living in a place where we don’t understand a lot of what people are saying.

After a week and a half, we are finally becoming more acquainted with travel around the city. The Combis (large vans that speed from bus stop to bus stop to get you where you need to be) and taxis are a lot less intimidating now. We are enjoying the mountain life too. The mountains surrounding the city look like a painted back drop. Nights are very cold here so we sleep with sweat shirts and sweat pants and electric blankets. It’s also the dry season here, which means that there is dust everywhere. We’ve decided that the bottoms of my pants and our shoes are just going to be perpetually dirty.

Last Sunday we went to an evangelical church with Hilda and Vilma (our roommates) out in a tiny little town outside of Cusco. The church was thriving on the love of God. Their worship was so genuine and their prayers were so beautiful and from the heart. We ate lunch at their house, which was a wonderful cultural experience!

All in all, everything is great. God is faithful and he has been continuously opening our eyes to his glory everyday. It’s been a stretching experience so far, so we would appreciate your prayers for our continued adjustment to the Peruvian culture.


March 2007

GUATEMALA – As Galen and Phyllis Groff visit K’ekchi’ villages in Guatemala, Phyllis fills every spare moment with ministry to the children who always gather. First she blows bubbles or plays a game. Then she sits the children down for a Bible story, and they memorize a Bible verse together. In one community they visited, Phyllis spent an hour interacting and teaching the children. The pastor put some benches outside of the church so the neighbor children who don’t attend church felt free to come and listen too. Their mothers also came to see what was happening. It was a fun way to spend time while the pastor’s wife was busy preparing a meal for the guests. That evening the children repeated their verses in the church service, and even the neighbor children came and participated. Seeing the effectiveness of this children’s ministry, the pastor requested Sunday school materials from Groffs so that the children can be taught regularly.


February 2007

PERU – John Kreider has been working to facilitate trips to Cotabambas, Paruro and the Colquemarca area, remote regions where small Quechua churches have sprung up and are continuing without regular pastoral leadership.

Recently John took a team of 8 church members from near Cusco, along with their bedding and food in the truck. After an uneventful trip up and down mountains and around countless switchbacks, they arrived at the town of Colquemarca late in the afternoon. He dropped off four of the team members there and pressed on to a more distant location, Totarani, where they led a worship service and spent the night sleeping of the floor.

The next day they visited around the community and then two of them hiked to the neighboring town of Huaccoto, to see how the church was doing there. The people wanted to hold a service that evening, so they spent the night there after the service.
The next morning their hostess made breakfast of a thick, drinkable wheat porridge and toasted corn. As they left the house, a neighbor called them over and served them a large bowl of soup. Feeling quite full, they said good-bye and walked down to Totorani where they joined their team mates and drank another cup of thick porridge.

John was feeling uncomfortably full by this time, so he tried to pack up the vehicle and leave before anyone offered more food, but before they go off another neighbor offered a full meal of rice, potatoes, and meat. People feel bad if you don’t eat their food, so this was his fourth meal before 8 am.

Back in Colquemarca, on Sunday morning, the whole team held a joint service for five of the scattered groups. It was market day so people from the neighboring communities often come to town anyway that day. Then it was a long drive back to Cusco through sleet and rain – praying that the new little churches will continue to grow and thrive in spite of this minimal contact.


December 2006

BOLIVIA – As a four-member YES team arrived in Bolivia to serve at the Stansberry Children’s Home, team leader Rachel Albrecht noted some of the special graces. “On Sunday we all went to church with our host families. My family goes to church a couple blocks away, and my host parents’ son is the pastor there. Guess what the first verse we studied was? Our team’s theme verse, 1 Peter 3:15! ‘Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.’ Then, we sang a bunch of songs in Spanish and guess what one of the songs was? ‘Take me into the holy of holies’ – one of our favorite songs from training at the Harrisburg Discipleship Center. Later that night we returned for the actual sermon part of the service, and guess what one of the verses that the pastor read was: one of only two that our Spanish class was required to memorize in Spanish! Do you think all of these things are just coincidence? I refuse to believe so!”


November 2006

NICARAGUA – When Steve Shank, representative to Latin America for Eastern Mennonite Missions, visited a fall missions training Managua, Nicaragua, he was awed by what he had witnessed. During the first part of the meeting, national leaders from Central American churches related to EMM and Rosedale Mennonite Missions got acquainted with one another’s mission experiences and brainstormed about how they could participate in training and sending Latin missionaries to Asia. But on the second day when the mission leaders returned from lunch they saw 10 missionary candidates from Honduras, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua kneeling in front of large maps of China and Thailand praying and weeping.

Shank said, “I was deeply moved by the vision and passion of the Latin American missionaries. We all fell silent and joined in the intercession.” Shank said that after the prayer meeting the whole tone of the conference changed. As the leaders witnessed the deep sense of burden and call in their young people’s lives, they drew together. It was exciting to sit back and watch the group of 30-40 Latins wrestle with questions about mission training and finances. As a next step, the group planned to have a larger meeting for mission leaders from both Central and South America in April 2007. The leaders also expressed a desire to become better equipped for ministry in Europe, the Muslim world, and the Buddhist world.

As Shank helps prepare for the April conference which will be hosted by Amor Viviente in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, he noted, “This is an important time for casting vision and building momentum for missions in Central and South America.”

GUATEMALA – Galen and Phyllis Groff continue their work with the K’ekchi’ Mennonite Churches. Phyllis says, “We asked God to show us where to go one Sunday as we hadn't booked anything for that day. That week a pastor stopped by to request a visit to his community. We accepted and traveled two hours on very rough roads. We took another Kekchi pastor along. The community was delighted to see us.

One of the highlights of our visit was on Friday when a group of leaders went up to Pedro's house to pray for his son-in-law who was sick.  While we were there God gave us a very special time of ministering together. Pedro shared a dream in which he saw a spring of water coming up inside the new church building.  Because there is a slight problem of flooding in the area, he was fearful that this dream was a sign of problems.  It was a joy to be able to share with him Jesus' words in John 7 about living water flowing from our innermost beings, and the story of the water coming out of the temple from Ezekiel 47. We prayed believing that God's Spirit will flow out into the Cahabon area bringing new life in the desert.”


July 2006

MANAGUA, NICARAGUA – An inter-Anabaptist youth retreat on April 13-15 drew 120 young adult leaders from the six Central American countries of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Belize, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua.

Steve Shank, EMM’s representative to Latin America, served as guest speaker. He reported that after he asked forgiveness of the Latin Americans for the way the U.S. has contributed to conflicts and oppression in their countries, the Holy Spirit took over. They had a three-hour long foot-washing and reconciliation meeting. The Costa Ricans invited the Nicaraguans forward. People washed each other’s feet, embraced, and asked forgiveness for the ways their countries have looked down on each other. Then the Guatemalans and the Belizians ministered to each other. Border conflicts and tensions between the El Salvadorians and the Hondurans dissolved in a bucket of warm water.

Steve said, “In the coming years we’re going to be seeing more missionaries from Latin America to the rest of the world. They’re going. Nothing can stop them. They have the zeal and the passion and are only asking for assistance with training.”

CAHABON, GUATEMALA – Galen and Phyllis Groff report that several years ago in an area resistant to evangelical witness, an angry man burned the newly purchased truck of Pedro, a Mennonite believer. The unpaid loan for his truck left Pedro a heavy debt which he paid off slowly. When Groffs asked him, “How did that affect your faith?” he told them, “It was hard, but I didn’t loose my faith.” Later he learned who had burned his truck, but he chose not to retaliate. The people in his community saw Pedro’s strong faith in God and his forgiveness. His love touched their hearts. Years later the man that burned the truck was forced out of his house and it was burned. He was forced to leave the community for his continuous evil deeds. Pedro told us, “I felt really sorry for him as he has lost much more than I had. I realized than that he had to pay for the evil he did.”


May 2006

PUERTO MONTT, CHILE– The five-member YES team recently took a ten-day trip to Choele Choel, a small town in the middle of Argentina. Team leader Mike Mellinger writes, “We arrived right after the youth of the Mennonite church had a retreat. The youth had experienced healings, miracles, and other amazing things from the Holy Spirit, so this was an exciting time to be with them. They were very friendly, and we quickly became friends. It was neat to observe their worship. The whole church jumped up and down to the music, and when someone went up for prayer, the pastors would anoint them with oil.”

Back in Chile, the YES team had been helping with children’s camps on the islands off the coast of Puerto Montt. Mike says, “We had a camp at the island of Tenglo for kids from broken and separated families. The last night we had a campfire and some of the kids accepted Christ. Our prayer is that when rough times come, they can remember their decision.”

Katie Burkholder says the best part about her first three months in Chile was realizing how she’s grown. In the beginning she didn’t want to travel to the islands or the mountains. Riding in a boat for six hours and experiencing life without running water or electricity was something she dreaded. But God gave strength. She says, “Going without electricity and running water is definitely a good opportunity to live like much of the world does. As we step out of our comfort zones, God gives us the strength to walk through each hardship.”


March 2006

GUATEMALA – After a recent missionary prayer and fellowship gathering, Galen and Phyllis Groff returned to their parked car to find that someone had robbed parts from the stereo and stolen their tools. This brought back fears from past robberies. As Phyllis struggled to sleep that night, she said, “I asked God to remove the fear hanging in my heart and mind. I fell asleep and in the morning a song came to me, and a prayer for those who had robbed us. I asked God to give me an opportunity to bless them. They are lost without the Savior’s love.

Soon after this I traveled with some K’ekchi’ women leaders to a community an hour's drive away. There was a group of about 50 women from three different churches. Several had walked for two hours to get to the meeting. I shared my night's struggle with the women and told them how God had helped me. They prayed for me in a way that touched me deeply.


October 2005

CUSCO, PERU – Dawn Weaver recently had the chance to visit Cotabambas, a region high in the Andes Mountains where the church has been growing rapidly. She says, “Sunday was an eventful day with a fifteen-minute sermon on both child dedication and baptism. John Kreider, one of our EMM team members, did a good job of tying it all together. What followed was a beautiful sight of parents laying their hands on and praying for their children, anywhere from infants to 12-year-olds. As we closed the morning’s events, fifteen people went forward to accept Christ, but the baptism list was already long and finalized. They’ll be the first ones for the next baptism. Because so many were being baptized, the leaders offered one big prayer for everyone, and then people entered the water two by two. Forty-seven people, young and old, braved the frigid Colca waters to publicly declare their faith. Then there was a double wedding with food and dancing, before we gave a hearty farewell to our new brothers and sisters."

Two months after the big baptism in Cotabambas, John and Cindy Kreider went back to hold a leadership training seminar for 30 leaders from six new fellowships in the region. Cindy says, “On Saturday we had classes on tithing, introduction to the Bible, personal hygiene, leadership, freedom, and spiritual growth, followed by an open service in the evening. On Sunday, we held a church service, and a baptism for three people, followed by communion. The communion service was a first for these people, so John explained things for over an hour before we served it. I taught the class on hygiene. It was eye-opening to be cooking and living in the conditions these people deal with. Life is not easy, yet the people are hungry for God’s word. It reminds me of the passage in James 2:5: “Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised to those who love him?”


August 2005

CUSCO, PERU – Ron Shultz reports that the Peru Mennonite Church's first official school has been up and running for about five months. He says, “Although we are currently working with only nine four- and five-year-olds, God has been paving the way for us to open the doors and get a year of experience ‘under our belts.’ We are also working at completing the necessary documentation to begin with first grade next year. This past month we had a little program and lunch for the mothers to celebrate the gift that they are to their families and to the school. The children sang several songs, recited a poem and several of their Bible memory verses, and performed a short skit. Each week I introduce at least one new song during our devotional time in the mornings. This past week we started singing the song, ‘God is so Good.’ We have also been able to sing it in Spanish and Quechua. The children ask to sing it every day!”

CUSCO, PERU- Ron Shultz reports that the new Mennonite church primary school is off to a good start. Ron says, “One of my favorite parts of the day is the first 30 minutes when we are all together – singing praise songs, sharing a Bible story, and praying together. They are also memorizing a verse each week. After our devotional time, we divide into two groups – one for Spanish instruction with Miss Gloria, and the other with me for lessons in English. After two hours, we switch groups. The students are now adjusting well to our schedule. At first many of them were a bit overwhelmed, I think, with the materials, classroom, and individual attention that they are not accustomed to receiving. Thanks in part to the small number of children that we have this year, they are learning a lot. We should be finished with the required Peruvian objectives by August, which gives us through December to advance in other areas.”