Prayers of gratitude and intercession

Africa

One of the events that bring people together among our people are funeral wakes and funerals. 

Sometime last year, we had one of our church leaders have his wife taken to be with the Lord. It was a challenging time not only to the man, his family and the church, but the community as well. The community gathered every evening for four days before the actual funeral. 

The man who lost his wife was a pastor and a respected leader. The death of this dear woman brought together church leaders and people who would otherwise not ordinarily meet and worship together! 

The speakers and preachers on each of the days came from different churches and denominations. The unity of the body of Christ became a reality to many. Christ was lifted high, and the funeral wake literally became a revival of some kind. The presence of Christ was felt as the Spirit of God touched many who participated in these services. 

Funerals are generally accompanied by mourning and grieving. In this instance there were signs of loss, but for the greater part it was indeed celebrating the life of one who had exemplarily walked with Jesus. 

An exemplary walk 

Testimony after testimony came from people who were not part of the church expressing how this departed sister and brother (the husband) had significantly touched their lives. 

At the funeral service, one of her workmates (the deceased was a teacher) gave a touching testimony. When other teachers went on strike demanding what they believed to be their rights, the deceased never participated, believing that for her teaching was a calling. The welfare of children was her priority. 

Parents’ representatives also testified of the same and that over the years the children she taught almost always produced the best results. 

At her funeral, many people who had absolutely nothing to do with the church attended her funeral and testified of God’s love and goodness and the worth of following Jesus. 

Let me point out that funeral wake gatherings are more or less cultural and expected. However, it is the Spirit’s demonstration of unity of the church and the reality of the transformative power of Jesus that was experienced during that time. 

People still testify about that funeral wake to this day. The transformative power of Jesus made this funeral different from among many. 

For us Christians and indeed many others, the funeral wake, and the funeral itself made the words Paul in Romans 14:7-9 come alive. These words continue to encourage us: 

“For we do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.” 

Amen. 

—Danisa Ndlovu is the MWC regional representative for Southern Africa. He is [role] in the Brethren in Christ Church in Zimbabwe. 

This article is adapted from the speech he presented at Renewal 2024, “Transformed, together we live Jesus” 6 April 2024 in Brazil. 

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Indonesia

My wife and I have pastored together for 25 years at a church in downtown Jakarta with a congregation of around 250 people. We really enjoy our ministry’s call to grow together with the congregation we pastor. 

We have one daughter who is now in her sixth semester of medical school preparing to become a doctor. 

Since our time in the seminary, my wife and I have been mentors to more than 120 teenagers. We discipled them so that many of the active members in the church today are the teenagers we mentored. 

If I were asked what position or role is the most meaningful, it would be being a father to the many foster children we have brought into our home as part of our family. I treasure this more than all the other roles I have held in our synod or national church or even globally. 

A home with open doors 

This story began when my wife and I were still dating at a seminary in Salatiga. 

We had the same passion for loving children and young people, guiding them to know the Lord Jesus and to grow in all aspects of their lives. We both realized that our existence is only due to God’s grace; and we wanted other people to also experience God’s grace. 

After we got married and our daughter was 10 months old, God sent a young man to us. He had no parents and was rejected by his family. His body was emaciated and he had a burst eardrum due to violence from his uncle. 

A member of the congregation took him to our place and that night we agreed to take care of him. He stayed with us for many years. We were able to guide him to meet the Lord Jesus. 

That young person went on to complete theology and mission studies and has been serving for 10 years as a missionary in the interior. 

Since then, God has sent many children from various regions and ethnic backgrounds to our home. 

Some 43 children have become part of our family. Generally, they are from poor families in villages and remote areas who don’t have a father or mother. Several of them have special needs or have conditions like epilepsy that need to be controlled by a doctor. 

Bringing so many children into our home is not an easy thing. From the beginning we were committed to using our own money, which was very limited at first, even for daily meals. As pastors our income is not large. It became difficult when our foster children increased from 4 to 10 then 13 and then 17. Yet we see it as our calling to bear all their living expenses: food, clothing, school fees. 

For two years we ate salted fish almost every day (which made my wife suffer from high blood pressure). But we never regret doing it because God gives us joy. 

In the way of God 

The hardest thing is not how to provide food, but how to educate our children in the way of God in light of their different family and cultural backgrounds. 

We are not creating an orphanage, or even a dormitory for children. Instead, we are making them part of our family. We often tell our children that this is their home and this is a family, so that they rediscover the warmth and security of a family they never had. 

Our goal is not only to allow them to pursue their dreams, but to educate them to become transformed by Christ and find their callings as his disciples. 

When our daughter was in elementary school, she once asked: “Mom and Dad, why do you bring so many children into our house? Our house is so full. It would be nice if it was just the three of us living alone, and everything was mine.” 

However, when she was a senior in high school, she wrote an essay for a writing competition hosted by the biggest newspaper in our country. 

“I was born as an only child who should be able to enjoy that blessing without needing to share with others. But my father and mother brought many children to be raised in our house, which meant that I had to share everything, including my father and my mother. At first, I was sad and found it difficult to accept. But my parents were very loving people who longed for other children to feel God’s love and have a future. They allowed their lives to be disrupted so that they could become trees that sheltered many vulnerable people. Today, my house is filled relatives from all across Indonesia. I now understand that life must be shared. Where is the beauty of life if it is only lived for yourself?” 

We shed tears as we read her reflection, grateful that she has also discovered that the true meaning of life is found only when we share. 

As it turned out, she won the contest. 

Currently, many of our children have graduated and are pursuing their vocations as pastors, missionaries, teachers, nurses and working in the marketplaces. If they ask, “How can we repay you for all the kindness you have shown as our father, mother and sister?” we always answer, “Repay it by sharing God’s love with others so that doesn’t just stop with you. We look forward to visiting you seeing many children in your families.” 

Of course, there are many dynamics in this whole process – many joys and sorrows. But God has allowed our dream to be fulfilled. 

Pray that our children will continue to become believers and faithful disciples, serving God according to their gifts and callings. 

Blessed be the name of the Lord! 

—Agus W. Mayanto is the Mennonite World Conference Regional Representative for Southeast Asia. He and his wife Rosmaida are co-pastors of GKMI Cempaka Putih Jakarta in Indonesia since 1999. 

This article is adapted from the speech he presented at Renewal 2024, “Transformed, together we live Jesus” 6 April 2024 in Brazil. 

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Colombia

Called and chosen for God’s purpose on earth.

Where there is vision there is provision. 

When the intention is to bring heaven to earth, it has God’s full support. 

Thirty-three years ago, we heard a call for evangelism and church growth. 

We began to participate in the Mennonite congregation in our home town Anolaima. At that time the pastor Peter Stucky gave us the endorsement to participate in the leadership and direction of this community. In those days there was a decline in membership to the point of wanting to close. 

In the municipality of Anolaima it was never easy to evangelize because of its cultural background. We began the tasks of evangelizing in places outside the temple (church building). We wanted to preach the gospel where the lost were. 

So we decided to go to the schools to preach to the children and to the young people, providing them with biblical principles and values as tools. 

We also organized family conferences with the sole purpose that they would know us as an open broad-minded alternative, developing a culture of the kingdom of God. 

We created a school for businesspeople as a model of self-sustainability. 

We worked in the parks recovering spaces as an example of service and living better. 

In those days, we received a vision from God to create a park to evangelize from nature – where the heavens tell the glory of God and the firmament announces the work of his hands (Psalm 19). 

So we dreamed of a park in the midst of nature recreating the Word to help in the meeting of needs and delivery of the good news of salvation. 

Why a park?  

We couldn’t understand it but we began to dream without knowing, without money, but intent on it being God’s dream. In a meeting of fifty people from the church and using a clay vase as a symbol of our intention, we sowed a sunflower seed and gave birth to God’s dream of building a park so as to create a kind of tourism involving conversion and transformation. 

It took some time before we were able to invest in a property. We saved US$ 30 000, bought and sold a 6 000 m2 property for US$ 45 000, and then acquired a 51 000 m2 plot of land for that amount. 

When the vision is from God, faith becomes the currency that buys without money, since the seller charged US$ 75 000 and honoured us by sowing the remaining amount. 

God is always faithful to provide for his own dreams when we make them our own. 

We have had to learn to trust God: the work is God’s; we only accompany him. 

An encounter with God 

“IgleParque” (church park) presents moments from the biblical narrative in a natural setting. We respect nature, making the most of its majestic colours, diversity of birds and animals to enrich the biblical panorama. 

Over the year, we attend to some 2 000 to 3 000 visitors including young children, families and congregations who spread the news by word of mouth. 

Our purpose is to encourage visitors in their faith and in each of their felt needs, whether emotional or physical; to bring direction, light to their paths, through the knowledge of Jesus Christ. 

We transmit a message of peace, since this is our mission as Mennonites. 

IgleParque is an open space in a natural environment where visitors take with them an “unlimited” experience with God, since this project´s skies break the barrier that hinder their encounter with their Creator. Creativity is the primary instrument for a different evangelization, contemporary but with biblical elements. 

For those who visit it, the park is a voice of hope because for any need there is a solution. There are 17 spaces to share biblical advice and interact with the good news of salvation. 

IgleParque is a blessing not only for the visitors but for the city itself, since through it there has been blessing to hotels, restaurants and transportation. Due to its proximity to the capital city Bogotá (we are only 70 km away), it has been a meeting point for international visits. IgleParque has become a place to visit that opens a door for evangelism. 

God has given us the strategy for an evangelization without limits. It is a two-hour tour that recreates faith, history and conviction for those of us who need God. 

The park is at 60% of its construction, according to the vision, but the community is committed to finish what God faithfully began with us. 

Passion drives the work 

For more than 10 years, we have developed the IgleParque project step by step. It is a process with ups and downs, but we do not lose heart because God has given us his strength. We are learning to build by the power of the Word, faith and perseverance, making the impossible possible and the invisible visible. 

In the process God has added people, one after another until we became a team and a family with the passion to turn a dream into a reality. 

We have learned to build on the model of Jesus serving and managing divine, human and physical resources and transforming them with the creativity and blessing that God places in our hands. 

We hope to be inspiration, motivation and testimony for the fulfillment of the Great Commission to go and make disciples of the nations from the perspective of a peacebuilding gospel (Matthew 28:19) but above all of faith in God and his Word. 

—Eduardo and Lucy Bautista are pastors in the community of leaders at Iglesia Menonita Anolaima, Colombia. 

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