Saturday, June 29
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INTERNATIONAL VISITORS

General Board general secretary Judy Mills Reimer shares a hug with Toma Ragnjiya of Nigeria.

Although their countries are separated by thousands of miles and a variety of cultural differences, the guests bringing messages at the International Visitors Dinner at Annual Conference each told a remarkably similar story.

The churches in Brazil, the Dominican Republic, and Nigeria are growing, they are full of hope, and they continue to need the prayers and presence of the Church of the Brethren in North America.

Speaking to a crowd of about 120 Conference attendees, including close to 25 who have visited Nigeria through the years, representatives from the church in each of those three countries emphasized a theme of love and unity.

Ordained minister and Bethany Theological Seminary graduate Marcos Inhauser, a native Brazilian, told of his dream to bring the Church of the Brethren to the South American country.

"All of us, we have dreams," he said. "We become pregnant with our dreams. We feel that we have something inside that must come out."

He and his wife waited 11 years for the birth of their dream, and now it is growing faster than he ever anticipated. Hoping to begin five churches over a five-year span, he announced that five churches have already been started in the first year.

About 100 people meet for worship and Bible study, with four new pastors serving in a variety of ministry capacities. Inhauser is now asking for missionaries from the North American church to come to Brazil.

Marcos Inhauser

"We need to look forward, to see what is the essence of being Brethren and of being a Brazilian church," he said. "We need some of you to come and give us the taste of being Brethren. I cannot teach it; we must live together to learn it."

Addressing the Conference attendees as moderator of the church in the Dominican Republic, Felix Arias Mateo, using an interpreter, assured listeners that his church is a Church of the Brethren that has love for everyone in the United States and everyone who has contact with the church.

He spoke of the unity within the Dominican church, and of the deep, personal connections typical of the Church of the Brethren that have solidified and strengthened bonds between members and across national borders.

There are 14 congregations currently in the Dominican, with 869 active members (1,386 if those who have not yet been baptized are included), five preaching points, and three new projects just under way. "It will not stop," he said, "because it has been blessed by God."

The Dominican church is seeking ways to reach out to the neighboring country of Haiti, taking a message of love and unity to people in desperate need of both.

Nigerian church president Toma Ragnjiya also spoke of a bond between the church here and abroad. "Whatever we are doing in Nigeria, we are doing it together," he said. "Everything we do is associated with evangelism and witnessing to people about Jesus Christ."

Translator Nadine Monn with Dominican Republic moderator Felix Arias Mateo.

With 460 active congregations, 300 ordained ministers, and a membership of about 200,000 people, the church continues to grow and work to train more ministers to serve its fellowships.

Though Muslim women in Nigeria are limited in their activities, the Church of the Brethren women are active in singing each Sunday, conducting Bible studies, making crafts, and helping at hospitals. The Nigerian church is ministering to nomadic people, visiting camps to greet them and bring them the message of Christ. The church offers a tree planting program to slow the advance of the Sahara Desert and provides dynamite to blast through rock and provide wells for people.

Digging toilets, he said, is the most effective thing the church has done, a ministry that brought many people to Jesus.

The methods vary--from teaching computer skills at a poor school in Brazil, to reaching out across political borders to people with physical and spiritual needs, to providing trees for Muslim neighbors to plant. The results remain consistent. The love of Jesus is shared, person to person, and these international churches continue to praise God for the blessings God grants them.