World Of Witness - Uruguay

Ministry

The church in Uruguay contends with a society that is increasingly secularized, families suffering a high incidence of divorce, and an economy heavily dependent on its large neighbours–Argentina and Brazil. The Study Centre of the Mennonite Churches of Uruguay provides needed discipleship and leadership training for the congregations located in and around the capital city, Montevideo. Students are organized into study groups for evening classes in congregations near their homes. This program, developed in 2004, is now expanding to 2 levels of programmed teaching modules for students to use in their study. Jesús Da Silva, Hermann Woelke, and Edgardo Gabarrin travel as tutor-mentor-teachers to the churches for personal and class instruction. Mennonite Church Canada Witness contributes financially to help make this program possible. The Mennonite church in Uruguay is made up of 15 Spanish speaking churches (Convención) and 4 German churches (Konferenz) with a total of 1350 members. New Mennonite congregations are also being formed by Campomisión (rural mission). This initiative helps to bring together vision and people from the Convención and the Konferenz in a coordinated way to share Christ with people who do not know him and begin new groups in rural towns where there are no evangelical churches.

Celebrations

• The enthusiasm with which the students are preparing themselves to serve in the church.
• Vision for outreach and growth in the congregations.
• Continued development of the Study Centre program to include some new, rural congregations as well as a second, more advanced level of curriculum.

Challenges

• Effectively providing Anabaptist theological instruction for the diversity of Mennonite congregations.
• Coordination of ministries among the rural and urban, Spanish and German speaking congregations.
• Encouraging holistic ministry in the churches

Partners

• Mennonite Mission Network (MMN)
• Convención de las Iglesias Menonitas en Uruguay (Uruguay Mennonite Conference)
• Konferenze der Mennonitengemeinden (German Mennonite Conference)

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