Alberta Missions Fellowship hosted at PBMC
EMC Director of Global Outreach Gerald Reimer (right) prays for Nancy Friesen, an EMC worker in Bolivia. (Ruth Konrad)
Picture Butte Mennonite Church (PBMC) graciously hosted an EMC Missions Fellowship. This newly revised gathering aims at building awareness and relationships with EMC churches.
Around 100 people gathered from all over southern Alberta on May 31, 2026. After a brief introduction and history of EMC Missions, we heard a report from Nancy Friesen. Nancy, whose home church is PBMC, has served in Bolivia with EMC Missions for the last 10 years. Bolivia has around 140 colonies with over 150,000 Plautdietsch (Low German) speaking Mennonites, and only five percent are estimated to be born-again believers.
Nancy’s journey to Bolivia started in 2015, when she joined a work team for three weeks. After returning to Canada, she could not get Bolivia out of her mind. So in 2016 she returned to teach English for one year. Ten years later, she’s still teaching. Her first few years were spent in Villa Nueva before transitioning to Amanecer. In 2023, Misión Evangélica Menonita bought land adjacent to Belice Colony and named it Amanecer, which means sunrise or new beginnings (from Luke 1:78–79, the theme verse for the work there).
Houses were moved onto the land for Nancy and her coworkers, Benjamin and Bertha Kauenhofen (Aylmer EMMC in Ontario). Funds flowed in and the building was quickly completed. The small school started in 2025 with four students and grew to 14 students in 2026.
The program wrapped up with brief updates on each of the other EMC mission fields (Mexico, Paraguay, and Spain), and an introduction to Project Builders. To find out more about the work in Bolivia, go to www.emcmissions.ca/bolivia.
Audio is generated with AI voice technology.
