Mosaic News en Español

This article was originally written in Spanish, translated into English by Andres Castillo.

When you hear stories like these, there is nothing to do but start to thank God for our moments of personal dissatisfaction. Those same moments where one feels incomplete in a mission upon returning home, despite fulfilling plans and even receiving recognition from external voices. Each minute forms a whirlpool of frustration of its own, but it also becomes a moment of creativity, designed by God Himself to make way for something new.

Marco Güete returned to Kansas from Canada feeling similarly after attending a camp organized by the Mennonite church of Canada for Spanish and English speakers alike. Marco was on a mission to give workshops in Spanish on Anabaptist history and radical reform. Marco arrived at the site, laid out his material, and dictated his class. But in the course of it all, he felt that the class had not equally reached all the students. It was dictated in an academic language that was out of reach of many of the Hispanic students who didn’t have the theoretical basis to understand him.

From this dissatisfaction and a long flight, an idea was born: a biblical institute designed for people of any academic level. It would simultaneously serve those who could barely read or write and people who already had a couple of diplomas.

Marco arrived at his home determined to turn his fantasy into reality. A little while later he invited a group of pastors to a lecture hall in Kansas City. There, in the summer of 1986, after kneading and turning the idea over the fire a few times, the IBA (Anabaptist Bible Institute) was born.

At first the IBA had to borrow material from other institutions, but after a while they began to write their own books. Marco recalls especially the first two books that were written, the first on the History of the Radical Reformation and the second, two volumes, called Walking Through the Old Testament. The books were written by experts in the field, historians and theologians, but they still had the tendency to use technical language that was not easily understandable by all students. Marco set to work and tried to turn the texts into easy-to-understand teaching materials. In the end, he succeeded.

Marco Güete was director of the IBA for the first 14 years of its existence. When he stepped down, it had 12 centers, more than 80 students, 12 tutors, and almost all original material. The IBA became a biblical institute that visited churches, opening centers in the same communities where students graduated. Because of this, some conferences adopted the IBA as their pastoral accreditation program. The IBA helped churches in preparing its leaders, in preserving an Anabaptist missionary and theological identity, and in helping to strengthen the church in general. Five years ago Marco returned to leadership of the IBA and now invests his efforts in giving continuity and growth to the institute. The church in general thanks God for the blessing that is the IBA.

This post was originally written in Spanish by Javier Márquez and is translated into English by Andres Castillo.

“I feel sad. I feel angry, because I’m from Indonesia. I feel really angry, that’s how I feel about this whole situation.” Aldo Siahaan. 

“I’m sad and angry, but also open to learn about how I can rise up with my brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ.” Marta Castillo

“I am sad about this situation especially because I am living in the United States, a country that defends Human Rights.” Stephen Zacheus.

“I feel helpless. Asians are only 5% of the population in the United States. We are a real minority, and we do not know what to do. We do not know how to respond.” Benny Krisbianto.

We the Hispanic Church are not unaware of the attacks of hatred, discrimination, xenophobia and rejection suffered by immigrants in the United States, so we must feel closer than ever to our Asian brothers and sisters, in these days when they have become the focus of a wave of violence biased by hatred and ignorance.

“This Webinar is a space of encouragement for Asian-American leaders. Spirit of the living God, make this a safe and mutually transforming space for all.” With these words, the space for reflection and dialogue held by the Mosaic Conference called Seeking Peace and Justice in a time marked by Violence towards Asian-Americans opened on March 25.

As a church we seek to respond to this serious problem, and that is why we must feel in our hearts the same pain upon seeing the violence suffered by our Asian brothers and sisters as if it happened with a Hispanic person.

In our congregations, it is worth asking ourselves the same questions that were asked in the first minutes of the Webinar:

How do you feel about this?
How are you?
What are you experiencing?

We must remember that one of the fundamental calls of the Church on the part of the Spirit of God is that of unity, care among us, and a hunger and thirst for justice. May this short article serve us to address the subject also to the Hispanic churches, because this is something that also concerns us, encourages us to pray publicly in our congregations, to speak up as if it were our own people because in reality Asians are also our own people. We accept this and value the moment we understand the call of the gospel of Jesus in our lives together with his love.

This article was originally published in Spanish: La Peña De Horeb y Los Ex Presidiarios written by Javier Márquez, and was translated into English by Andres Castillo.

A few days ago, pastor Dania M. Hernández entered the building where her church meets on 11^th and Washington in South Philadelphia and found the following note:

“I need your prayer. I am a God-loving soul, in the streets without a shepherd, and I need prayer. –Medeste.”

Dania’s ministry began in her native Nicaragua, inherited also by a family that received and helped missionaries. At a very young age, God gave her the desire to serve. She was able to travel across her country, and learn to live what she calls “true life”: addressing the levels of need and poverty in the world.

Pastor Dania not only receives notes at her church, but also people from the streets, people who have had a very difficult life, and who have uncertain futures. In one case, Pastor Dania was even told: “I’m going to take my own life. You’ll be the last person I’ll talk to.”

These continuous occurrences characterize the ministry of the church Peña de Horeb. Since its birth almost three years ago, it has been a ministry that gives living water to souls who thirst for just a taste of grace and love.

Peña de Horeb, like many rock bands, was born in a garage—Dania’s. Pastor Dania took advantage of her transportation business to share the Word and started a small group that originally planned to meet only for Bible study. At that time, she was part of Centro de Alabanza, where she had learned the Mennonite vision of reaching out to others and of community service.

Shortly after starting the Bible study, Dania reached out to someone who had invited a group of ex-convicts to attend the service at her home. She was frightened, she told them. In response, the person told her not to worry, that they were going to show up anyway—and they did. Fifteen ex-convicts arrived in a van and went straight down to her basement.

“That day, the Lord led our service,” explains Pastor Dania.

That day, the pastor had the support of Pastor Aldo of Philadelphia Praise Center (PPC). His church has also found great, timely support from different people of Mosaic Conference, such as Steve Kriss, Marta Castillo, and Noel Santiago. Pastor Dania and her community are a church that has received the revelation of God to effectively share Christ with the neediest around them, just as God promised that He would give drink to His people in the desert.

Publicado en: PROTESTANTE DIGITAL – Kairós y Cronos – El Reino de Dios, política y ciudadanía. Entrevista con César García (II)

Translated to English by Andres Castillo.

We continue the conversation with César García, General Secretary of Mennonite World Conference, about his book What Is God’s Kingdom and What Does Citizenship Look Like? (Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, 2021). MWC is not only formed by Mennonite churches, but also includes other Anabaptist communities.

Q: César, based on what you said in the first part of our conversation, would you say that the Gospel has economic dimensions?

A: The word “Mammon” comes from Aramaic, transliterated to Greek in the New Testament and only used four times by Jesus to mean wealth, money, or riches. By analyzing what Jesus says about Mammon in Matthew 6, we can come to understand how the economy of Mammon is different and even contrary to the Kingdom of God. “You cannot serve both God and Mammon.” Let’s start with a look at how Jesus talked about money. By creating this character, he warns us of the possibility that God competes with another master in our lives: material possessions. Possessions can enslave us, creating confusion about our purpose, source of happiness, and safety.

Q: What you’ve told me reminds me of anabaptist theologian Ronald Sider’s Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger: Moving from Affluence to Generosity. How do the teachings of Jesus about not giving in to Mammon come together for Mennonites and Anabaptists?

A: From an Anabaptist perspective, the uncontrollable desire to possess things drives us to sin, but the Spirit of God frees us to practice helping mutually. What I’ve described here as the economy of God requires a significant change in our paradigms. Getting to the point where we limit ourselves for the common good is a miracle, but that’s exactly what our world needs. Nations search desperately for alternatives to consumerism due to the harm it’s causing to our planet. Economists today propose strategies of political control if we want to survive as human beings. There is more consciousness of the need to restrict our insatiable way of life to recuperate the health of the planet. Curiously, Anabaptists have been teaching this for centuries, what we simply call “a way of life” due to spiritual discipline. That spiritual discipline teaches us, among other things, to: 

• Choose things based on their function rather than the social status they might reward us with. 
• Reject anything that causes addiction.
• Enjoy things without owning them.
• Avoid using credit as much as possible. 
• Refuse things that are the product of the oppression of others. 
• Appreciate and take care of God’s creation.
• Practice generosity.

Q: Changing the subject a bit, what can Christians do to influence society?

A: As Christians know, the church is called to carry the message of reconciliation with God and among human beings. However, the way the message is told has not always been consistent with the results we are looking for. When we analyze the history of the church, we can identify various ways in which the church has responded to this responsibility, various forms in which the church has played a role understood as a people of reconciliation facing society.

The first focus can be called conversionist. It has to do with the belief that the only thing we have to do in order to transform society is put a few Christians in positions of power.

The second option, which can be called transformationalist, seeks to transform society by changing power structures with the implementation of Christian values. 

A third option, the separatist impulse, has to do with distancing oneself from society while rejecting any possibility of fundamental societal transformation.

I’d like to suggest here that, from an Anabaptist perspective, there is another possibility. This possibility seeks to encourage societal transformation through the promotion of healthy understandings of religious freedom from the margins of society.

Q: Would you please explain this other possibility?

A: In the Anabaptist tradition, the nature itself of the church requires the separation of church and state. Given that faith cannot be forced, religious freedom is necessary to guarantee the possibility that the faith springs up. The voluntary decision to follow Christ is evident through baptism, the point of entry to the church. That implies that the church is formed by believers that have decided to voluntarily form a new community—that of the Kingdom of God. This way of understanding the Christian faith and the church demands liberty to choose our own beliefs, values, and ethics. It also implies that there will be people who will choose to not follow Christ. The possibility of saying no to the faith and to Christian values must exist in order to assure that there is an alternative community to that of this world. 

Q: Religious freedom, therefore, is not a synonym of using the power of the state to “christianize” society. What is it?

A: Religious freedom avoids the temptation to depend on human governments to promote the faith, values, or ways of life of Christians. Seeking ways to obtain legal privileges for our own religious group that are higher than those of others is fundamentally incompatible with this perspective. Religious freedom implies the possibility to choose between different beliefs or none, between Christian ethics and others. The policies and values of the Kingdom of God must only be accepted voluntarily by a society through a process of genuine interaction that includes people of other religions as well as those without faith. Christian ethics must present themselves convincingly, with arguments so persuasive that communities of people of different beliefs implement them as a response to their own beliefs, not by force. Laws that reflect Christian values must be determined through dialogue, negotiation, and consensus among people who don’t share the same faith. 

From this comes the conclusion that one of the first ways in which the Christian community influences the society that surrounds it has to do with letting all voices be heard, even those that oppose it. Followers of Christ must stand up for the inclusion of people of other religions and people without faith in the establishment of rules for society. Governments govern for all, not only for Christians. God isn’t interested in coercing people into behaving in ways that aren’t the results of beliefs. Christian ethics—a life that reflects the transforming gift of the grace of God in a Christian disciple—is not for Buddhists, Muslims, Jews, or those without faith; but rather, for the followers of Christ. 

Q: Today in Latin America, there is a growing temptation to be imposing, to believe that it is necessary to make laws that punish those who don’t follow the rules they consider to be Christian. What do you think of this?

A: Influencing within our society in ways that don’t respect religious freedom, that don’t allow people to choose their own lifestyle, will side us with those who throw stones. It will make us oppressors instead of oppressed. It will make us act in a way that will paralyze others with fear.

“Take it easy” was the last thing I heard Adamino Ortiz say to me over the telephone. Whether he meant to calm me or wish me luck in his own Puerto Rican style, I was left with doubt. There was a certain irony about it. Learning more about this man, who always seems more active and hardworking than ever, more of a protagonist than ever, a man who never truly retires; makes it hard to believe that he really means those words—“take it easy.”

The Passing of Two Wives

Whether or not it was irony that came from his mouth, it is certain that he has had to take it easy in many difficult, crucial moments. The passing of two wives, being let go from the architecture company where he finally found footing in the United States, and a lack of initial accommodation in a Christian church are some. Apart from these isolated occurrences of “taking it easy,” his journey as a whole tells a different story.

Adamino Ortiz is one of the latinos who has made a name for himself in Pennsylvania through his work. He has shared a table with governors, been recognized by human rights organizations, and by the state itself. It seems that he has always helped develop new programs or lines of action that help diminish the needs of latino immigrants who need the most help in his area—all as a result of long years of work, collaboration with teams, and an anointed, laborious vocation.

Puerto Rican of the Purest Strain

He is a Puerto Rican of the purest strain from a methodist background, able draftsman of engineering and architecture, and conscientious objector in his youth. At age 29, he moved to the United States as an answer to a letter from his older brother, who, already living in the States, invited him to come as well. Adamino accepted, and in a short time traveled to the northeast of the country.

In The Mennonite, readers will find a detailed article from March 2011 about Adamino’s life with the title “Organizer Extraordinaire for God.” It is a summary of his professional life and his journey as a christian, which he has been on for the last few decades with the Mennonite church, giving us years of service and brotherhood.

God has Brought you with a Purpose

The Mennonite’s article tells that a retired North American missionary who served in Costa Rica, John Lenko, told Adamino once: “God has brought you with a purpose.”

When Adamino was let go after seven years of work as a result of staff cuts in the architecture company he worked for, he stopped his job search participating in the start of an ambitious project that would help immigrants in Pottstown, PA called ACLAMO (Latin-American Communal Action of Montgomery County).

For Adamino, this job became his ministry. “I served the Lord by helping the community,” he states. While it only dealt with cultural programs at the beginning, he helped to implement areas oriented toward social services. To meet this objective he started at the ground level, taking a census of hispanic people in the county—around 10,000 people.

The organization dedicated itself to offering social services, among those the connection of immigrants with job opportunities, teaching English, healthcare connections, basic education for children, and help for the elderly with social security. Adamino’s vision was even bigger. He understood that immigrants also had spiritual needs, and for that reason he tried to link his services with ministry. 

Today, ACLAMO continues its work years after Adamino stepped down as its director. The organization continues helping latino immigrants and has even increased its services and area of action, with offices now in Norristown as well as Pottstown.

This article is translated to English by Andrés Castillo. Original article appears in Mosaic News En Español: Crónica de Dos Huracanes en un Viaje a Honduras por Javier Marquez

$500 from Mosaic 

The original plan was for Juan José Rivera to go back to Sarasota on November 20th, after three arduous, jam-packed weeks of work in Honduras. He’d been there for a few days, visiting Mennonite congregations, preaching and collaborating with the churches located around the city of San Pedro Sula. He carried a sum of money for basic necessities—$500—that the Mosaic Missions Committee had given him. But all plans would fall to the ground, or—more graphically described—destroyed, flooded, and erased by the hurricanes.

Tons of Water, Overflowing Currents

Pastor Juan José was visiting his native land accompanied by his wife, Elena. He had been living in the city of San Pedro Sula, in the house of members of one of the congregations he had plans to visit. Then, hurricane Iota came directly upon the city as an inferno measuring to the tons in water, with overflowing currents that made the roads disappear, creating lakes where there used to be soccer fields, and waterfalls where the hills of the city once were.

The rain wasn’t much more than a heavy downpour, but the real terror came from the wind, whose power uprooted trees and de-roofed houses. People were lost, and the turmoil was national, not only city-wide. Juan José and Elena had to seek refuge in a hotel when their host house flooded with water. They helped as much as they could, even trying to remove water from the house to rescue what was lost. At the end, they had to give up. On the way to refuge, in the street, they saw the way the people struggled unceasingly, their eyes defending themselves from the trauma of the present while trying to save their properties. Many yelled for people who wouldn’t be found, while others looked through the puddles for food, clothes, and even money. For Juan José it was frustrating to not be able to help, to watch, with his own eyes, people drowning in the currents of water that ran through the city.

An Out-of-Commission Airport

Many things were canceled, the plan was totally interrupted, but Juan José and Elena were daring more than ever to collaborate with the imminent torrent of necessity growing around them. Their mission there was to serve, although with a plan of activities defined, in that moment, after the untimely ruining of their timeline, they looked for a way to help the most they could. Also, the news that the airport was out of commission, making it impossible to return to the U.S., made it clear that there was more time for them to serve than was planned.

They traveled to the south of Honduras to the Choluteca region. There they collaborated in what they could, handing out meals, tending to the wounded—however much was needed. Many were left with nothing, and the pastor and his wife helped whoever they could. Pastor Juan José wrote a report afterwards with the specific names of those who were supposed to receive economic help from him. The original sum had doubled, leaving him to cover it with his own money at the time.

Children Rummaging through Trash, Asking for Money

One of his projects is the appropriation of a piece of arable land that he’s lent to rural dwellers in the region to work and live off of. All of this was lost, destroyed completely by the passing of the hurricanes. They now need double the help—help to restore the land, and help to work it. It was at one of these sites where pastor Juan José saw—in an event that surely duplicates itself in the entire country—children rummaging through the trash, asking for money, pulling adults by the arm, all with the same question on their lips:

– “Do you need any help with anything? Do you have any work for me?”

Finally, the pastor and his wife returned to their home in Sarasota on December 16th. The memory has remained in their hearts, just as it happened, since they left Honduras.