"There was a lady who prayed to God for a deeper spiritual experience in her life. She wanted to know God, she wanted God to reveal Himself in a true and real way," Marc begins to tell us, with a determined voice and a youthful gleam in his eye. "One day, she had a dream, a strange dream. She dreamt of a line of people heading towards her house, coming from the northeast. Until, one day, a couple actually arrived at her house. When she saw them, she asked them where they were from. They didn't say what country they were from or the city they had come from. They simply replied, 'We came from the northeast'. What is the likelihood of such information? She immediately accepted them as God's answer to her prayers!"
Marc, 47, was a pastor in the South German Union and had finished an 8-year term as a youth director of the Baden-Württemberg Conference. It was a moment of decision in his ministry and for his family. Invited by some friends, he heard about the Mennonite communities of German origin, with whom they were carrying out first-contact work, in the region of San Ramón, three hours from the big city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra.
"I thought we should help, and we felt the call to missions. I immediately understood that it was not a project for a month or a year, as it takes time to gain the trust of the members of these communities," says Marc.
Marc and his wife Wendy, 45, decided to set out on a mission adventure--in this case, to serve the conservative German Mennonite colonies that have lived in this South American country for decades.
Who are the Mennonites?
The Mennonites are a group of Anabaptist Christians, founded by the Dutch preacher Menno Simons, in the 16th century. Some of these members, seeking places with large available spaces and wide educational and social freedoms, moved to Bolivia, bought land, signed agreements with local authorities and founded colonies. "Some colonies reject modernity, from secular habits to simple household appliances. In some colonies, there isn’t even any type of engines... the carts and ploughs are pulled by horses," reports Wendy. In the lowland regions, they have developed communities with a peculiar lifestyle of renouncing modernity and their way of life, based on extended families, rural life and a strict adherence to community norms.
"They are closed communities, with little contact to society and limited knowledge of the outside world. But some people aspire to more at the spiritual level. Basically, they live without the pleasures of the world, but they do not know the joy of salvation either. We want them to discover it," says a convinced Wendy.
The Mission
Marc and Wendy have been in San Ramón for five years and are preparing to stay for another five with their two children, Noah, 12, and Caleb, 9. They are working there with the support of the Baden-Württemberg Conference, the South German Union, the Inter-European Division and the General Conference, with whose means they have developed an impressive work of building up infrastructure, launching projects and creating initiatives.
"Currently, our project consists of a schoolhouse with dormitories, a large room for church service and events, a lifestyle center, and vegetable gardens for projects with students. We even have a multi-purpose room where we hold concerts," says Marc. "The concerts are great for getting closer to people. These groups are used to praising without music, which is considered a sacrilege, becoming too worldly. They just sing a capella," he adds.
Wendy interjects, enthusiastically.
"Music is very important here! When we came here..."
Wendy, an American born in Puerto Rico, says her family didn't speak the German, but it didn't take long to learn. Today, her children speak English, Spanish and German, and actively participate in the missionary life of the family. She continues:
"I did not want to believe that they did not sing as a form of praise, that they did not feel the pleasure of music offered to God. It was a great joy for me when two families asked me to teach music to their girls. I am not a music specialist, but we had to start a project. Today, we have 65 students who take lessons in seven different instruments in our music school." Wendy smiles, gratefully.
Education: meaning and purpose
“The school is very important for our project.” He explains that the school was born out of a desire to fulfill an integral education, with Adventist vision and philosophy, offered to the children of the colony. A redemptive tool. Currently, they receive 36 students, distributed in classes between kindergarten until sixth grade. The quality of the teachers, the division of classes by age, the surrounding space, and, of course, the music - all contribute to supporting families and directing the children to Jesus.
"We need space, a lot more space and more volunteers," says Wendy. "There are many Bolivian families wanting to enroll their children, but we have no places and with few students the prices are higher. And we need more volunteer teachers to help us here, educating the precious children."
Marc also begs for more support and appeals for goodwill, a spirit of mission and a quest for an adventure with purpose. "What we need most is people to help. This community has 100,000 people just here in Bolivia, and many more abroad, and it's just us and one other family working. We need more, for here and for the settlements around Santa Cruz. And, of course, funding to bring them in."
"For example, we need teachers. I regularly visit the inmates in the Santa Cruz prison. Many are there because they have been marginalized by their colonies. When I'm away, it all falls on Wendy and the other volunteers," he confirms.
Future guaranteed in the missions
While Marc and Wendy talk to us about their extraordinary experience, their children read, sitting at the table. Gloria, an Italian colleague of ours, walks in and joins the conversation. Wendy introduces her to Caleb, the youngest.
"This lady speaks Italian, like your cousin who we are going to visit. Do you want to learn Italian from her so you can talk to your cousin? It's similar to Spanish."
Another language for Caleb to learn? Who knows, it might come in handy. Receiving talents and skills from God makes sense when they are applied to mission and they give life purpose, the best purpose. Marc, Wendy and their kids have found theirs. And they are committed to passing it on to the next generation.
