wfn.org | Supporters hear of healing ministry

[Beth Hawn]

Microsoft Mail v3.0 (MAPI 1.0 Transport) IPM.Microsoft Mail.Note
To:  'Worldwide Faith News'
Date: 1998-09-16 14:20
Priority: 3
Message ID: A8DF42A53E4DD211AAB0006008075ABF
Conversation ID: Supporters hear of healing ministry 

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September 16, 1998
Mennonite Board of Missions
Beth Hawn
219-294-7523
<NEWS@MBM.org>

Mission supporters hear of healing ministry in Spain

GOSHEN, Ind. (MBM) - On a muggy September evening, more than 225   
supporters of Mennonite Board of Missions and its mission partners   
gathered at Pleasant
View Mennonite Church for MBM's second annual Hand in Hand Dinner to hear   

stories of hope and healing from Burgos, Spain.

The stories came from eight people representing a ministry that provides
drug rehabilitation, advocacy for prisoners, and compassion and care for
AIDS patients.  The ministry, whose Spanish acronym ACCOREMA translates
as the Christian Association of Communities for the Rehabilitation of
Marginalized People, is headed by Jos‚ Gallardo, who served as the main s
peaker for the evening.

One by one, Gallardo introduced each of the seven people who accompanied
him, and spoke briefly about how Jesus had transformed their lives   
through
ACCOREMA, healing several of them of their drug addictions and the
underlying spiritual emptiness that lay at the heart of their difficult   
lives.
MBM has provided financial support and mission workers to the ministry   
since
its inception 20 years ago.

One young man, Guillermo, joined Gallardo at the podium to tell his own   
story
while Gallardo translated into English.  It was the story of a life   
marked by
violence, drug addiction and frequent incarcerations in prison until
Guillermo's brother introduced him to ACCOREMA.

"The first thing I sensed at the ministry center was that people really   
loved
me," Guillermo said.  "I wasn't used to that kind of treatment. ... I   
decided to
stay and keep fighting [for recovery]."

The experience brought him to faith in Jesus, helping him to work through   

his personal troubles and begin reconciling with his wife and daughter,   
who
had been alienated from him as a result of his problems.

Also among the seven people accompanying Gallardo were his wife, Carmen,
and their adopted daughter, Sonia. Carmen works with ACCOREMA's
women's ministry, and Sonia credited her adoptive parents for her happy
childhood, which she said was in spite of having been born to biological
parents too mired in their own problems to care for her properly.

Gallardo reminded the audience of the importance of "passing the mantle   
of
missions to our young people.  This is the challenge we bring this   
evening:
to continue this vision of ministry, and to help young people as they   
start
their lives of service,"  he said.  By providing this support, he told   
the
audience, "you are an important part of the renewal of the church in   
North
America."

This theme was sounded earlier in the evening by 18-year-old Lee Green,
recently returned from a short-term mission assignment with ACCOREMA in
Burgos, Spain.  Green spoke of many of his friends who, like him, were
involved in mission assignments around the world.

"My friends and I are part of the movement of the real God," Green said.   
   

"My generation will do good things because God has called us.  We want to   
go to
the mountaintops and shout how much we love Jesus."

Green is the son of MBM President Stanley W. Green, who thanked audience
members for their ongoing support through prayer, financial support and
their own mission work.  "We stand on the brink of a new century," he   
said.
"It is a gift and an opportunity.  God is giving the Mennonite family   
another
century of possible ministry around the world."

The Sept. 12 dinner was the second annual Hand in Hand dinner, which was
instituted by Mennonite Board of Missions to honor and celebrate the work   
of
mission partners around the world.

* * *

Ann Graham Price       PHOTOS AVAILABLE