Mennonite Brethren in Istmina, Colombia

In 1953 Colombian president Gustavo Rojas Pinilla passed the Treaty of Missions, an agreement that designated the most unpopulated regions of the country—geographically large but representing a small percentage of the population—as Mission Territories under the direction and control of the Catholic Church. In these years the Mennonite Brethren Board of Foreign Missions (of North  Keep Reading…

Katherine Wu

For many years during difficult financial times, aboriginal families in Taiwan would sell their young daughters to the prostitution industry controlled by the underground mafia. Child advocate groups estimated there were 60,000 child prostitutes at the time. Katherine Wu (Wu Fang-fang), a Mennonite pastor in Hualien, Taiwan, became aware of this situation and determined to  Keep Reading…

John Schrag

John Schrag was a prosperous Mennonite farmer who lived Harvey County, Kansas. He was a member of the Hoffnungsfeld (Hopefield) Mennonite Church. In 1917 when the United States went to war against Germany, Schrag refused to buy bonds to help pay for the war. Many Mennonites reasoned that war bonds were like taxes. Payment could  Keep Reading…

Binh Thanh Congregation (1975-2003)

This story of the Binh Thanh congregation in Ho Chi Minh City (then Saigon) begins in the weeks following the People’s Revolutionary Army’s takeover on April 30, 1975. The following excerpts are taken from: Luke Martin, Nguyen Quang Trung, Nguyen Thanh Tam and Nguyen Thi Tham, “The Mennonite Church in Vietnam,” in Churches Engage Asian  Keep Reading…

Tulio Pedraza

In 1948 the assassination of Liberal political candidate Jorge Eliécer Gaitán touched off a ten-year civil war in Colombia. In nearly the same year, Colombians joined with Mennonite missionaries to form the first Colombian Mennonite congregations. But the civil war cast a long shadow over the church’s early years. Because Protestantism was seen as a  Keep Reading…

Salvador Alcántara

Pastor Salvador Alcántara, from the rural precinct of El Garzal, Simití, Sur de Bolívar, Colombia, is an exemplary and inspiring man. He is a husband, father, grandfather, pastor of the Foursquare Gospel church in El Garzal, farmer, president of the local comunal action council (junta de acción comunal), and vice-president of ASPROAS—the Alternative Producer Association  Keep Reading…