Jan. 12, 2004 issue
Missionary to Peru dies
By Wynn Goering MBMS InternationalHATTIESBURG, Miss. — Paul C. Friesen, 75, of North Newton, Kan., a career Mennonite Brethren missionary to Peru, died Dec. 6 as a result of injuries sustained in a car accident the previous day in Hattiesburg.
For parts of five decades, Friesen and his wife, Maurine, served among the Ashaninca people of the Peruvian jungles.
“His 45 years of ministry in Peru have born eternal fruit,” said Randy Friesen, director of BMS International, the MB mission agency.
A native of Buhler, Kan., and a graduate Bethel College in North Newton, Friesen pastored and taught in Kansas and then served in a migrant ministry with Mennonite Central Committee in California and an extension work of the Zion Krimmer Mennonite Brethren Church.
The Friesens arrived in Peru in 1960. The following year, the KMB conference merged with the MB conference, and the Friesens served with MBMSI.
The church among the Ashaninca spread to many villages. During the late 1980s and early ’90s they experienced persecution from communist guerillas. Many teachers and pastors were killed because they would not give up their Christian faith.
Friesen worked on many translation and writing projects for the Ashaninca church.
The Friesens established a home in North Newton in 2000 and made yearly visits to Peru to continue the translation work. They had planned to return to Peru at the end of January.
In addition to his wife, Friesen is survived by five children, Susette, Mark, John, Paul Jr. and Bruce; 11 grandchildren and a great-grandson.
Mark is in Peru with his family and serves as an airplane mechanic and missionary to Motorcross racers where they have an established church. Mark will oversee the continuation of Translation and the material ready for printing that his father had on his computer.
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