Log in to your Account

The Mission Society recently celebrated the 25th anniversary of our ministry in Paraguay with a special event in Asuncion. President Dick McClain traveled to Paraguay to speak at the anniversary gathering.

The Mission Society first began work in Paraguay in 1988. The 6th Region of the Methodist Church of Brazil invited The Mission Society to partner in their ministry to Paraguay. Bishop Richard Canfield of Brazil and Norival Trindade, Sr., an attorney who served as the director of missions for the 6th Region of the Methodist Church of Brazil, came as guests to The Mission Society’s board meeting in May, 1986. These men had a vision for ministry in Paraguay and asked for our assistance in beginning that work. The Mission Society agreed, sending grant money and missionaries. The Rev. Austin Boggan was the first missionary sent by The Mission Society to Paraguay.

From the beginning, the team of missionaries and nationals in Paraguay has been wonderfully diverse. The missionaries have come from Brazil, the United States, Puerto Rico, and the Netherlands. Servants of Christ from Chile and Argentina were also among the earliest pastors who led the growing number of churches.

Strong in both evangelism and ministries of compassion, The Mission Society's work in Paraguay is illustrative of the agency’s emphasis on holistic ministry. Ministries today include vocational training, elementary and secondary education, a day care center, evangelism and church planting, a Bible school, and a variety of other endeavors. There are also outreach ministries to the Toba Indians, an Indian minority people group that is largely unreached.

“The invitation from Methodist colleagues in Brazil to collaborate with them in launching a new work in Paraguay came just two years after The Mission Society was founded. A dynamic partnership emerged, a work was begun, a church was born, and today there is a vibrant member of the world Wesleyan family. 

“The model of a North American mission agency supporting an effort whose primary leadership was from Brazil was a dynamic example of the changing face of world mission. Increasingly it is the churches of the Global South that are taking the lead in mission. Coming so early in the life of The Mission Society, the pattern established in Paraguay set our young organization on a trajectory of partnership and servant hood that has continued to this day.

“It was The Mission Society’s happy privilege to support the efforts of our Brazilian sisters and brothers in Paraguay in proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom, planting churches, training pastors and leaders, and initiating programs of health care, clean water, community development, education, and  agriculture to name just a few. We are indebted to the many women and men who have served as missionaries with The Mission Society in Paraguay, and join them in celebrating what God has done in that nation.

Together with them we offer the Communidad Metodista Evangelica del Paraguay both our congratulations and our prayers on their 25th Anniversary,” said the Rev. Dick McClain.