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Fresno, Calif.
MBMS International explores true meaning of partnership


In 1971, Mennonite Brethren mission leaders from North America met in Fresno, Calif., to discuss how to build true partnerships with MBs in other countries. Issues of how to nurture mutuality, respect and responsibility were not easily solved. MBMS International, the mission agency of the Canadian and US MB Conferences, continues to face these issues today.

At meetings this April, staff and Board members outlined several new initiatives aimed at increased partnership with its partners around the world.

A variety of tensions cloud the creation of true partnerships. Cultural and theological differences can cause misunderstandings. The affluence of westerners often leads to a perception of power, making them unequal partners. Sometimes decisions that are made according to the policies and wishes of one partner are not acceptable to the other.

To some degree, solutions are being defined in places like Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo and India. North American missionaries that MBMSI sends to those countries report to the national conference of the country where they are serving, as a part of that conference’s ministry structure. This year, Gordon and Gwen Nickel will begin serving as missionaries to Muslims in India, under the direction of the India MB Church. The Nickels are one of about a half-dozen long-term MBMSI missionary couples currently serving under the direction of a partner conference.

MBMSI has also begun to tap into the human resources of 13 MB conferences around the world. Administrators from Latin America, Africa and Europe are responsible for mission programs in their respective regions. Workers from Japan, Germany, Colombia, Brazil and Congo are partially funded by their own conferences but minister in another culture, as part of the MBMSI mission team.

MBMSI will be recommending to the Canadian and US MB Conferences this summer that four Board members – some of whom could come from outside North America – be appointed by the eight elected members. As well, the proposed bylaws would allow for ownership to be opened up to other national MB conferences in the future.

Harold Ens, general director of MBMSI, was on sabbatical last year. He visited with leaders of the Indonesian Mennonite Church, a partner of MBMSI for several decades. Indonesia is the world’s largest Muslim nation.

While in Africa, Ens visited the Meserete Kristos (Christ the Foundation) Church in Ethiopia. When communists took over Ethiopia, MKC had 14 congregations with 5,000 members. Despite government persecution, believers met in cell groups and multiplied. Today, the MKC has grown to 150,000 members and has a strong ministry to Muslims. There are so many new congregations that the MKC needs assistance in leadership training. The MKC has invited MBMSI to partner with them.

While in Democratic Republic of Congo, Ens and several other MBMSI staff met with Congo MB Church leaders and students training to be missionaries. At a consultation on partnership in cross-cultural mission, they identified needs for people, prayer, administration and finances. In the coming year, MBMSI will be sending missionaries in partnership with the Congo MB Church for the first time. Masolo and Isaiko Manunga will be missionaries to neighbouring Angola, sent by the Congolese church but with joint financial support and under the supervision of the MBMSI program director.

Last year, MBMSI completed an exhaustive evaluation of its leadership training programs around the world.

MBMSI is committed to leadership training programs that involve sharing people and resources across national, cultural, and linguistic borders. This involves having North American missionaries partner with workers from the country where they minister, so that a mutual training function and accountability system is in place. MBMSI will continue to share training resources and work in partnership with MB Biblical Seminary and other anabaptist institutions. It will continue to provide support for the production and distribution of anabaptist materials on topics such as discipleship, peace and social ethics, evangelism and church planting.

Franz Rathmair, director for European programs, was recently approached with a request that MBMSI help find church planters for Ukraine. Church Partnership Evangelism, which sends short-term evangelists, has also reported that a group of churches in Ukraine has indicated interested in joining the MB church.

MBMSI will begin to explore the possibility of reaching into Ukraine with strong support from Slavic MB churches in North America. MBMSI’s “Global Mission Guidelines” include a goal for expanded work in eastern Europe prior to the year 2005. Ministries in the FSU include: St. Petersburg Christian University renovations and faculty support; outreach of Ray of Hope mission and evangelical churches in the Omsk and Vologda regions of Russia; a partnership with other Mennonite agencies to jointly sponsor the Moscow Mennonite Center for at least another three years has been renewed.

Evaluation

Over the past two years, MBMSI has undergone major structural changes. Now, it is considering how to solidify its relationships with MB churches and individuals by commissioning an evaluation of its constituency relations and media efforts.

“We are moving to ownership by the national conferences in Canada and the US,” said Ens, “We want to be sure we are fully able to move forward in the light of these new structures.”

One of the central changes has been hiring mission mobilizers in four regional offices: Winnipeg; Abbotsford, B.C.; Wichita, Kan.; and Fresno. The mobilizers are the key contact between churches and the mission agency.

“We have for some time been seeking to change our communication methods, to adapt to how our churches want to be involved in mission,” said Ens. “At the same time, we want to hold true to our mandate of sending long-term missionaries who plant churches through evangelism, social ministry and training of leaders.”

The goal of the evaluation is to assess the agency’s methods of communication, from print materials and videos to missionary and staff relationships with churches, to fundraising methods. An external consulting firm has been hired to design and oversee the evaluation.

The evaluation will include surveys, interviews and focus groups with pastors and lay leaders, church members, missionaries and staff in Canada and the US. It will measure how the constituency views MBMSI’s programs, communications and services.

A written report is scheduled to be completed September 1 and will be processed by the Board at its October meeting.

Paraguay Bible education

Melvin and Gudrun Warkentin are missionaries in Paraguay.

Twenty-seven students are enrolled at the Indian Bible Institute (IBI), up from 26 last year. Students come from 19 different Indian communities and five language groups. The number of Angaite and South Lengua students has increased as a result of new church planting endeavours initiated by both German Mennonite and national churches.

Melvin told the story of Benito Fleitas, a new student who is meeting the challenges of illiteracy. He is the result of an outreach by a group of Lenguas into his community. He came to the school completely illiterate, but eager to learn. “I began teaching him to read and write outside of class time, and he is making excellent progress,” Melvin reported. “Not knowing if he could follow our class lectures, I was apprehensive about quizzing him orally in front of his classmates during our first class test. With a big grin on his face, he unashamedly answered correctly all my questions.”

Gudrun and Melvin Warkentin, with their children Carmen, Miriam and Delbert, serve with MBMS International in Paraguay.

Gudrun teaches English, Bible and philosophy of education courses 13 hours a week at a nearby high school. Melvin teaches courses in Psalms, Acts, family, discipleship and Spanish full-time at IBI.

As a ministry of the Paraguayan MB Conference, IBI seeks to provide stability to the growth of existing churches, and to equip workers to plant new churches in areas that have no significant Christian witness. The Warkentins serve under Light to the Indians, the Paraguayan inter-Mennonite mission agency of German Mennonite churches in the Chaco region, and are mission associates with MBMSI.

Worship in Congo

Faith and Murray Nickel are missionaries in Democratic Republic of Congo. They have three children, Elias, 12, Julie, 9, and Denee, 7. Faith reported on a typical church service in Congo.

Services are three hours long, beginning at 10:00 a.m. and ending around 1 p.m. Each Sunday morning solos are received with resounding approval by a humming congregation. During the service, the congregation spends some time in private prayer, but prayer is never a time of silence. A gentle susurrus (French for “murmur”) of praises fill the air.


The congregation stands for all the hymns and choruses. The crowd of worshippers bend and sway to the complex rhythms of clapping hands and the shrill beat of the maracas. Newcomers are welcomed with a rousing welcome song: “Hand in hand, united we march joyfully into eternity, serving you.”

The offering is the best part of the service, the pinnacle of joy. In a country where people struggle to put food on the table, the offering can take up to half an hour as participants weave their way to the front and deposit the thank offering in a basket. Then the music builds, the drums get louder, and people spill back into the aisles, swaying, clapping, whooping, singing at the top of their lungs.

Then comes the sermon. The pastor often asks members of the audience to read the Scripture passages. His questions are not rhetorical; he looks for answers from the people. The sermon is liberally peppered with “Amens” and “Hallelujahs”. There are not many sleepers in the crowd.

Sometime near 12:30 p.m., the congregation files out of the church row by row to the soothing rhythm of the last choir number. But the participation doesn’t stop here. The people shake hands with every person leaving the church. A friendly “shalom” is exchanged. Around 1 p.m., people head for home.

New training initiatives

The 1999 convergence of Youth Mission International and MBMSI has begun to produce new visions for short-term mission training and long-term service. New programs have been proposed that would see closer ties to MB churches and agencies in North America, as well as partnerships with church conferences around the world.

“YMI has ten years of experience training MB youth through short-term mission experiences, while MBMS International has been involved in mission in over 50 countries for the past century,” said Ens. “We’re continuing to bring our programs together, to build vitality and long-term growth.”

One of the first concepts being developed out of the convergence is partnership with local churches in training for short-term mission. Plans have begun to form a short-term mission program for adults and families, using the discipleship model that YMI uses with youth. A resource team will train and debrief participants, to maximize their faith formation.

The qualities of short-term mission for adults and young families are similar to that of youth mission, according to Randy Friesen, YMI’s director. “Short-term mission combines both a mission and a discipleship experience,” he said. “The training camp, assignment, team life and debriefing retreat encourage growth in spiritual disciplines, evangelism and team work – all valuable skills that adults and young families require as well.”

Beginning in fall 2000, Bethany Bible Institute in Hepburn, Sask., will send third-year students through the TREK program, a nine-month mission program for college-age adults. Students will gain course credit for participating. Columbia Bible College in Abbotsford, B.C., is also interested in providing short-term mission assignments for its students through YMI.

Eight of the long-term missionaries being sent by MBMSI this year have experience in YMI programs. Because of YMI’s track record of training young adults for future ministry, MBMSI has decided to strongly encourage the use of YMI as a training and discipleship resource for long-term mission candidates.

As well, the Board has recommended that all of the agency’s office staff be given the opportunity to participate in YMI assignments. The short-term mission experience, including having staff raise funds to cover their own costs, would give them needed insight into the challenges of overseas mission.

“When people go on a short-term assignment, they learn first-hand what it’s like to take risks and stretch themselves,” said Friesen. “They get to fellowship with the global church in very real ways. We want our office staff, who may otherwise never get overseas, to share in that growth experience.”

In the future, YMI staff will serve other MB national conferences interested in establishing similar programs. YMI will work through its partnership in the global discipleship training alliance, an Anabaptist-related alliance of short-term mission and discipleship programs.

“We’d like to work with one new national conference every year, to help them set up their own youth mission and discipleship program,” said Friesen. “It’s vital that YMI serves alongside youth mission programs around the world, so that our young people learn to be global Christians with a heart for all God’s people.”

 – adapted from reports from MBMS International

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Last modified August 29, 2000.

© 2000 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
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