Reflections from Paraguay: Coming together in the way of Christ

Charlotte Rosenberger, Plains

A highlight of attending Mennonite World Conference in July was to observe firsthand the miracle of the Mennonites in Paraguay.

Months of reading the stories of Mennonite migrations to Paraguay (1927-1947) were etched in my heart and mind before this journey began. Up from the Rubble by Peter and Elfrieda Dyck and Garden in the Wilderness and Like a Mustard Seed by Edgar Stoesz told their stories–groups of refugees from Germany, Russia and Canada with journeys through war and hardships to the only country in the world that would take them– Paraguay. The hardships did not end when they arrived as immigrants in Paraguay. There was typhoid fever, war in the Chaco between Paraguay and Bolivia (1932-35), crop failures from drought, flooding, and grasshoppers.

How did they get through all this? Thousands emigrated back to Canada or Germany or East Paraguay– but most stayed. It was their strength of community and their faith in God that held them together and propelled them forward.

My husband, Henry, remembers as a young child in the 1950’s when some men from the colonies in Paraguay came to Franconia Conference as part of a North American tour to raise money. They needed money for credit to buy farm machinery to tame the “Green Hell”, as the landlocked Chaco wilderness of western Paraguay was nicknamed. They sat at his parents kitchen table, telling their stories.

Now we are privileged to see this miracle with our own eyes. Our Tour ‘Magination bus with Edgar Stoesz as our storyteller traveled west from Asunción, 250 miles on the Trans Chaco highway (which Mennonite Pax participants helped build in the 1960’s), to spend two days in the colonies of Menno and Fernheim and the indigenous village of Yalve Sanga. The landscape is barren and dusty with bottle trees and scrub brush. It is winter. They have had a drought this past season with a poor crop yield.

We attended a Mennonite Brethren joint church service in Filadelphia on Sunday evening, in German, Spanish and indigenous languages. We were told it was the first time they had such a service. We visited schools, museums, a craft expo, retirement community, hospitals, dairy, peanut processing and storage, co-op store––institutions that would look good in our communities.

When the first Mennonite settlers arrived in the Chaco, they weren’t told that indigenous peoples lived there. They learned to know and work with the indigenous tribes, who had no concept of land ownership. Today, indigenous people own land, have their own co-op, schools and hospital, though many work in the colonies. Each ethnic group has preserved their own culture and language in their churches. At first glance, it seemed like segregated communities. We learned, however, that the German people valued their language and culture and felt equally strongly about preserving indigenous language and culture.

The “co-op” in each colony owns the land, builds and runs the institutions, provides health care and community infrastructure. It is the current day example of the early church in Acts. For example, the hospital at Kilometer 81, a thank you gift to Paraguay for giving them a home when there was nowhere else to go, is world renowned in the treatment of leprosy. The facility is funded by the co-op and staffed by many volunteers from the colony providing largely free services.

Planning for this Mennonite World Conference brought together in new ways the eight conferences that participated (German, Spanish, Indigenous). The combined choir of German, Spanish and Indigenous members sang together on the last evening illustrating this coming together in a beautiful way.

The communion service shared together on the last evening brought Anabaptist believers from around the world together with tears of joy. We are brothers and sisters together in Jesus Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit.