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A denomination known for its traditional way of life and pacifist convictions has spread out across the region.
The well-kept lawns and exquisitely maintained houses in the town of Filadelfia could be part of any prosperous neighborhood in Europe or North America. They’re actually in rural Paraguay, and most belong to Mennonites, a denomination known for its traditional way of life and pacifist convictions quickly spreading across Latin America.
Paraguay, a landlocked South American country, is home to one of Latin America’s largest Mennonite communities. In a country of just six million around the size of California, Paraguayan Mennonites are particularly prominent as some of the largest landholders, as well as dominant in dairy and agricultural industries.
Arriving in Latin America just a century ago from Canada, the US, and Europe, the Mennonite experience is marked by frequent migration—and believers’ ability to put down roots and sustain their culture.
“I think it’s fair to say that there’s always been an impact everywhere the Mennonites have arrived,” said Delmer Wiebe, a Mennonite theologist who grew up near Filadelfia. “A highly developed work ethic has always left deep traces and brought many changes. God has blessed the effort. And that blessing has often been transformed into social and community aid.”
Low German Mennonites, as a socioreligious community, trace their origins back to 16th-century Western Europe. Not be mistaken for the Amish, who are also who are also Anabaptist, the Mennonites are named after Dutchman Menno Simmons (1496–1561) and emerged in the wake of the Protestant Reformation, coalescing around ideals of nonviolence, adult baptism, and separation from worldly temptations.
As they moved from the Netherlands to Germany to Ukraine, Mennonites ...
from Christianity Today Magazine
Umn ministry
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