wfn.org | Annual visits between partner congregations

[Beth Hawn <bethah@mbm.org>]

Mennonite Board of Missions
<news@MBM.org>
November 14, 2001

Annual visits between partner congregations connect people

ELKHART, Ind. (MBM/COM) - During a recent visit to the Willow 
Springs Mennonite Church in Illinois, Wanda Sieber, part of a 
delegation of 10 Argentine Mennonites visiting Illinois 
Mennonites, marveled at the Lord taking her to places she had 
never imagined.

A little more than a year ago, Sieber - the daughter of former 
MBM workers Alice and Floyd Sieber - along with Marlene Dorigoni 
and another Argentina Mennonite woman, Waleska Villa, moved from 
Patagonia, Argentina, to Chile to start an outreach of the 
Argentine Mennonite Church.  Since the move, they have started a 
Bible study in a poor neighborhood, a second study in a wealthy 
neighborhood, and a prison ministry.

To be taken to places by the Lord they've never imagined is their 
hope and desire, too, said Cal Zehr, pastor of Willow Springs.

Willow Springs was one of four Illinois Conference Mennonite 
congregations strengthened in their faith by the visiting 
Argentines.  The four IMC congregations formed Arm in Arm in 1998 
to collaborate with MBM, the Argentina Mennonite Church and 
Mennonites in the Patagonia region in the Patagonia Mission 
Project, an effort to plant new churches in Patagonia (and now 
Chile).

In addition to providing support for church planting, Mennonites 
in Patagonia and Illinois exchange visits.  On the odd-numbered 
years, Illinois congregations host Argentine visitors and on 
even-numbered years, Argentina welcomes an Arm in Arm delegation.

Juan Sieber, Wanda's brother, pastor of an Argentine 
congregation, led the delegation of Argentine Mennonites.

The regular visits build deep connections.  "People have said it 
has helped them to feel so much more connected than ever before 
with missions in another country," said Marilyn Toelke of 
Freeport Mennonite Church, one of the Arm in Arm congregations.

The Argentine delegation visited the Hopedale Mennonite Church, 
where Juan Sieber stayed on as a three-week visiting pastor.

While Sieber was at Hopedale, the congregation tried an 
Argentine-style worship, which uses a worship team that plays 
music and leads the congregation in 45 minutes of singing. 
Interspersed with the singing are prayers for healing.  The 
Choele Choel Mennonite Church congregation sees the singing and 
prayer as preparation for about 45 minutes of preaching.

"He is a little more charismatic than we are used to," said Mark 
Birky, a Hopedale member.  Still, he added, "I think the 
congregation responded very favorably."

Partly as a result, the congregation has started a Thursday 
evening prayer and praise service with Boynton Mennonite Church 
in Hopedale.

The Hopedale congregation has made other changes due to its 
interactions with the churches in Patagonia.  "We have begun to 
call our own youth to ministry," Birky said.  "Our current 
pastor, Kurt Walker, grew up in the congregation.  Another one of 
our mission-minded youth has taken a pastorate in a nearby 
congregation."

Freeport youth have also been influenced by the Arm in Arm 
partnership, Toelke said.  Four years ago, the congregation 
hosted Sieber and his family for several months while Sieber was 
on sabbatical.  Jennifer Oyer, a Freeport high-school senior at 
the time, translated for Sieber's sons when they attended school 
during the sabbatical.  In the spring of that year, Oyer went on 
the Illinois delegation to Patagonia.

Now, Oyer is a senior in college and is planning to spend next 
year in Patagonia volunteering at a school.

During the Illinois visit, the Argentine delegation spent a 
Sunday evening with the Willow Springs Mennonite Church. 
According to Willow Springs pastor Cal Zehr, the two 
congregations blended well.  As they worshiped God together, it 
became clear that "we were on the same channel," he said.  "We 
were able to go beyond the limits of language and culture."

Illinois Mennonites have been equally influenced by their own 
visits to the Patagonia region of Argentina.  Eldon Dean Nafziger 
of Hopedale recalled the time in March 1998 when he and his wife, 
Laverne, slept in the church bus after a day of assisting 
bricklayers building a church in a remote Argentine mountain 
village.  The temperature dropped to freezing that night.

The next morning, when the diesel bus refused to start, Sieber 
assured Eldon Dean that delays are God's timing.

"That didn't quite fit with the theology of this North American 
Mennonite who likes to keep to a schedule," Nafziger said.

As they continued on their journey, they saw a young indigenous 
woman with her baby walking along the road.  As she had a 20-mile 
walk ahead of her, she gratefully accepted the ride they offered. 
  Soon, Marta, one of the Argentine volunteers helping build the 
mountain church, began to share the good news with the young woman.

When they let her off at her destination, she said, "Please, come 
and visit me."  Since then, Argentine Mennonites have kept in 
regular touch with the young woman who, along with her husband 
and others in her village, have become Christians.  Mennonites 
from a nearby city meet with them in the village every other week 
for worship and teaching for adults and children.

Nafziger has learned that even delays in the journey become part 
of church planting in Patagonia, Argentina.

In addition to the annual exchange of visits, the Illinois and 
Argentine partners have each committed to raising funds to plant 
churches in the Patagonia region.

* * *
Rich Foss for MBM