Bible Study Among Mennonites: Miracles in Bolivia and Mexico

Bible Study Among Mennonites: Miracles in Bolivia and Mexico
Engelman family

The German School in San Ramón increases its influence. By Marc Engelman

Dark clouds pushed threateningly more and more in our direction. In the distance you could see the rain falling. Rain brings blessings, but right now we definitely didn't need rain. We were about to pour the foundation for the new dormitory/health center and the last thing we needed was rain. Workers were busy pouring the liquid concrete, but the rain was getting closer. We fervently prayed to God to deflect the rain. We were full of confidence that God would do another miracle like He did with the first building. Then I felt the first raindrops on my skin. How was that possible? We had prayed. Looking around we saw that the real rain shower was coming down around us. The few raindrops were just the foothills. We even saw a double rainbow (pictured) as a promise of God's grace to us. Once again God had parted the clouds and allowed us to pour the foundation dry. Only when we were completely finished did it slowly start to rain. The whole next day it rained nice and gently on the now poured foundation and saved us from watering. God's perfect timing!

New volunteers and vacancies

In January we got new volunteers from Europe who are busy helping us here in our ministry. Franz and Andy Nusime from Austria help us in the elementary school with mathematics and German, together with Julika Jakupec from Northern Germany, who has taken on general knowledge and other subjects. Her sister Carolin Jakupec works in the kindergarten with the little ones. We are thankful for every volunteer who puts his heart and soul into serving God and the people. In June of this year Jason, Anni and Tabea will leave us for Germany and we are currently still looking for a replacement in the music and primary school. If you know someone who is interested, please feel free to pass on my contact.

Big rush to the student places

At the beginning of February it was time to start a new school year. We started with 28 students in 4 classrooms - from kindergarten to 6th grade. The parents, many of whom would otherwise never come to an Adventist service, also attended the school opening service. A few months have passed since then and we are so grateful to God that we have been able to conduct face-to-face classes undisturbed by any virus. The kids are so thankful for that too. The teachers have already settled in well and the parents are grateful that their children can be at our school. During the registration phase in advance, there was a great rush and many parents were interested in sending their children to us. Unfortunately we had to cancel many of them because we are reaching the limits of our school capacity. After all, we are still in a temporary school building, which was initially intended as a home for the accommodation of teachers. We hope and pray that one day God will give us a separate school building where we can also offer high school through 12th grade.

Missionary journey to Mexico

At the end of March there was a special mission trip outside of Bolivia. Since the time of the pandemic, I have been in contact with Tina, an Adventist sister in Mexico, who received and forwarded our videos at the time. She is a former Mennonite but has been baptized for many years and has been involved in the Spanish-speaking Adventist Church in Cuauthemoc, Mexico. However, God has placed it on her heart to reach out to her Mennonite family and friends. For years, the local Mexican association has been trying to reach the 140.000 Mennonites in this large colony in the state of Chihuahua, in northern Mexico, but to no avail. At the end of 2021, the idea arose that I should travel there for 2 weeks to show them our mission material and to see what missionary work could be done there. Said and done. The local Adventists paid for my flight, so I was able to fly to Mexico in mid-March.

100th anniversary of the Mennonites

There they were celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Mennonites in Mexico this year. When you are there, you quickly notice that the Mennonites there are much more developed than in Bolivia. There are entire branches of industry and businesses that are networked as far away as Canada and South America. The Mennonites themselves are also much more open and less shy about speaking about their faith and accepting new things.

We started with visits and invited family and friends of Tina to evening lectures on current prophetic topics at the private home of our sister in faith Tina. Many were interested, but not all came. But those who were there came almost regularly to all the lectures. Through this group, which grew together, a home group could be founded, which still meets and continues with discipleship topics.

Conversation with a Mennonite

When I think back to our visits to the colony, I remember Bernhard. He likes to tell people about Jesus. Everywhere he goes. We visited him one afternoon. It was already evening and cold. We sat down in his garage, where the wind was still blowing hard. So we talked about the evenings and the individual topics. We then also came to the Sabbath and he said that none of that would be so important if you only have Jesus in your heart. We didn't see it that way, but we still had a nice conversation. In the end he was so glad we visited him that he thanked us several times. Then he asked me who paid for the flight. He pulled out his wallet and gave me 500 pesos (about $25) to support us. I then gave the money to my siblings. The next day he called Jakob, my companion, again and told him how happy he was about the visit. You don't get that kind of gratitude very often.

History of Mennonite Adventists in Mexico

During my visits there I also got to know Johann, who has been coming to the Adventist Church and has been baptized for a number of years. He picked up trash from a number of families and occasionally saw the interesting covers of discarded Adventist magazines, some of which he took home to read. This brought him into contact with the Adventists. The first Mennonite Adventist in Chihuahua was Tina's father, Henry. He was really only a Christian in name. He didn't find much meaning in his faith, so he tried to calm his heart with alcohol. One day he was visited by a book evangelist who spoke to them and left books. Heinrich told his wife that they would never read these books and that she should throw them away. But his wife saw things differently and so she secretly hid the books without reading them herself. Some time later everyone was at a funeral. At church, a Mennonite minister spoke about the Millennium, which sounded interesting. At the tomb, another preacher gave a short talk about the millennium too, but he said exactly the opposite of what the previous speaker had said. That made the father suspicious. Only one version can be true, not both! At lunch at home, he shared his thoughts with the woman. Hadn't they already received books from someone on the subject? But then he remembered that they were thrown away. To his great surprise, his wife then brought out the books of the book evangelist. He began to study the books intensively. The alcohol and some of his other bad habits were completely forgotten. He had only one goal: He wanted to find out the truth - the whole truth! He read the books day and night. While he learned a lot of new things, it all made sense and was based on the Bible. In the end he got to know the Adventist Church through the books and finally got baptized. His wife followed two weeks later into the baptismal waters. Both were the first and only married couple in the whole colony. His children were already grown up at that time and only two of them also decided to follow the new faith: Abram and Tina, the sister in faith who had brought me into contact with Mexico.

Her brother Heinrich was interested in the faith from a young age. At the age of eight he asked his school teacher at the time whether the Bible's Sabbath was the correct day of rest. At that time he got no answer! When I visited there in March of this year, I heard from him that after all these years he was still interested in the subject of the Sabbath, but still had questions. That's how we got to know each other. He brought me questions about apparent "anti-Sabbath" texts in Colossians 2,16:1 and 16,1 Corinthians XNUMX:XNUMX. We sat down quietly one evening after the lecture and I explained the background of these scriptures to him. I waited for objections, but none came. He was satisfied with the answers. At the end of the conversation, I asked him, "And what's next? Would you like to keep the Sabbath?” At first he said nothing. The next evening I asked him again what he was going to do with the Sabbath. He said, "If there's a German Sabbath-keeping congregation, I'll be there immediately!" I told him that we had plans to start a German congregation in the colony. At the moment, together with the North Mexican Association, we are looking for a German-speaking family with a medical background who can start a health mission among the Mennonites there.

When I think back on the lectures, the topic of Daniel 7 comes to mind. The subject of the Sabbath comes up via the little horn, because it was prophesied here that this power would change “seasons and the law”. And that, in turn, relates to the changing of the sanctity of the Sabbath to Sunday. We had already postponed the topic on the evenings before in favor of another lecture. Now it was Sunday evening and it turned out that more guests than usual had registered that evening. There was also a family who drove an extra 3 hours. It was 30 minutes before the evening started. We asked ourselves: Should we postpone the topic again? How would the new guests take that? Which topic was the best for the situation now? We were unsure. I went into prayer and presented my request to God. In the end I got the certainty to hold the planned topic about Daniel 7. It would definitely be exciting!

I went through the topic like the other evenings before without incident. Everyone listened with interest. At the end there was still time for questions or comments. I expected headwinds or big question marks. But nothing like that happened. I was surprised. Then a woman from the family who drove three hours said, "I'm sure we're supposed to keep the Sabbath! But we don't! We know the Catholic Church changed the Sabbath! But how are we to keep the Sabbath?” Her answer and questions amazed us all. We definitely didn't expect that. These questions then led to a very good conversation – also with the other guests. Everyone took the topic very well. At the end of my time there, this same family invited me from further afield to give a lecture series with them in the Mennonite Church. I am excited to see when God will give me the opportunity to do so. I would like to continue to pursue the interest this year - now that the doors are open.

Back in Bolivia

I would like to end this newsletter with a little story from our everyday school life: A woman visited us at school this week to enroll her three-year-old son in our primary school. You can always change schools in this country at the end of the trimester. She said that her son had behavioral problems and that she was looking for a good school for him. She had spoken to acquaintances and they had recommended our school to her with the remark: "Children there change their behavior for the better!" What a testimony of what God is doing among the children here in our school! We are the only Christian private school within a 70 km radius. God is great! He does his work – in us and through us! And we wish you the same!

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A project of the Baden-Württemberg Association

From: Newsletter Bolivia Project #17, May 2022

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