Fwd: 100 years of creative mission work in Argentina

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From: Mennonite Mission Network <Beyond@mennonitemission.net>
Date: Mon, Nov 18, 2019 at 1:00 PM
Subject: 100 years of creative mission work in Argentina
To: <info@gehmanmennonitechurch.org>

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Mustard Seeds November 2019 Mission worker José Oyanguren (left) visits with Toba Qom leader German Díaz about plans for the expansion of the Centro Educativo Sayaten (Qom Knowledge Educational Center). Díaz and Oyanguren have worked together on many proposals to improve educational opportunities for indigenous people. Photo by Linda Shelly. 100 years of creative ministry in Argentina For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ. —1 Corinthians 3:11 In 1917, two families packed up their lives and set out to answer the call of the Holy Spirit. Mae and Tobias (T. K.) Hershey, their two children, Beatrice and Lester, and Emma and Joseph (J.W.) Shank and their children, Elsa and Robert, were the first Mennonites sent as mission workers to South America. They eventually settled in rural Buenos Aires province and began ministries in the town of Pehuajó.  This past September, the work of the Hershey and Shank families and all that came after was celebrated by commemorating the anniversary of the first baptisms of the Mennonite church in Pehuajó, Argentina.  During the next 100 years, creative ministry has characterized the Iglesia Evangélica Menonita Argentina (IEMA, Argentina Evangelical Mennonite Church), and the church spread across Argentina.  By the mid-20th century, the IEMA was taking responsibility for church planting, and by the mid-1990s, regional church-planting mission programs began forming. In the following years, Mennonite Mission Network helped create partnerships with clusters of congregations in the United States. Delegates from North American partners attended the celebration in September and experienced Argentine pastors and mission workers preaching, teaching, sharing about church planting, and running businesses that support missions in their context.  In addition to starting Spanish-speaking churches, in the mid-1940s, missionaries felt called to branch out beyond central Argentina to the indigenous people of the Chaco province. Since 2012, Alfonsina and José Oyanguren have led this ministry, sent by the Mennonite Church of Bragado in partnership with Sonnenberg (Kidron, Ohio) and Pike (Elida, Ohio) Mennonite churches through Mission Network.  In her retirement years, Sara Buhlmann is planting a new church in a growing neighborhood of Trenque Lauquen, a distance from the congregation in the center of the city that was planted by missionaries almost a century ago. People from other Mennonite churches form weekend construction teams to work on the church building seen in the photo. Photo by Linda Shelly. The Oyangurens work with indigenous leaders to support the use of the Toba Qom language through Bible ministries in the churches and at the Centro Educativo Sayaten (Qom Knowledge Educational Center). The educational center hosts a recording studio and FM radio station, as well as multiple educational opportunities, including the Castelli Bible Institute and a program for high school completion. After graduating, students can continue their education to become bilingual teachers.  German Diaz, a Toba Qom leader who works closely with Alfonsina and José, explained, "We continue to talk with students about studying and then coming back to participate with and for their people. We are trying to help them understand their history so their studies will help their people."   Understanding history is important for the broader church as well. Sara Buhlmann, a retired gynecologist and current Argentine church planter, reflected: "The significance of the centennial is the celebration of the dream achieved by those who, 'leaving everything,' came to bring us the good news. They did not 'look at it from afar,' but believing in God's faithfulness, they came. The challenge for the next century is the same, to carry the message 'to every creature.'" Give today so that more creative ministries can share the good news around the world. A note from the director What a privilege to be present in Argentina for two centennials in two years! In September 2017, a celebration marked the 100th anniversary of the arrival in Buenos Aires of the first Mennonite missionaries in Latin America. They dedicated two years to studying Spanish, learning the culture, discerning where to start, getting to know Argentines who would support this new ministry, and sharing their faith with neighbors. Then in October 1919, the first believers were baptized in the town of Pehuajó, marking the beginning of the Iglesia Evangélica Menonita de Argentina (IEMA).  For Mennonite Mission Network this centennial marked 100 years of walking with the IEMA and reflecting on the transitions from  beginning a new ministry, to seeing it develop in the hands of Argentine brothers and sisters, and then grow through Argentine mission programs.  During the past two decades, mission partnerships involving churches in the United States have contributed to mutual communication, inspiration, and relationships. Participants from Sonnenberg (Kidron, Ohio) and two Atlantic Coast Conference Pennsylvania churches, Akron and Ridgeview, joined Stanley and Ursula Green and me as the Mission Network delegation at the centennial. We appreciated the opportunities to worship and imagine together what God will do through the church in the future. P.S. Thank you for your part in supporting ministries in Argentina and around the world.  Give Now Copyright © 2019 Mennonite Mission Network, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because of your relationship with Mennonite Mission Network. "UNSUBSCRIBE" WILL REMOVE YOU FROM ALL MISSION NETWORK SUBSCRIPTIONS. Use "update your preferences" to remove your name from this list ONLY. Our mailing address is: Mennonite Mission Network P.O. Box 370 Elkhart, IN 46515-0370 Add us to your address book. Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.