MWR : Prayer service planned for Bolivia rape survivors

Last updated November 24.

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Feb. 1, 2010 issue

Prayer service planned for Bolivia rape survivors

By Event organizers

WINNIPEG, Man. — An inter-Mennonite group of volunteers will sponsor a prayer and lament service for the women and girls who have been victims of sexual assaults and abuse in Manitoba Colony, Bolivia.

The service will be held at 7 p.m. Feb. 7 at at Morrow Gospel Church.

The service is open to all and has been planned as a result of concern over shocking reports in worldwide media in recent months of Mennonite men raping colony women.

Unverified reports state the rapes occurred over a period of several years and weren’t confined to Manitoba Colony.

Confusion reigns in part because while colony men have been jailed, the men reportedly later denied they had been involved, stating they had been tortured or threatened with torture, to confess.

New information is difficult to confirm.

Various church agencies are involved in seeking to assist the Bolivia colonies. The Bergthaler Church is working together with the Evangelical Mennonite Mission Conference. David Janzen, field director for the joint Bergthaler-EMMC work, said last week that a meeting of many of the Mennonite workers at Pailon, Bolivia, took place in late 2009. Campus Crusade and the Evangelical Free Church, as well as the EMMC and Chortitzer Mennonite Conference, were united in working together.

In a news release last July, Mennonite Central Committee called for non-judgmental “understanding and prayer” and noted that an offer of counseling assistance to Manitoba Colony was declined.

The purpose of the Winnipeg church service on Feb. 7, according to one of the organizers, Dora Dueck of Winnipeg, is to show love and compassion for, and solidarity with, the Mennonite women of Bolivia.

The service, states co-organizer Leona Dueck Penner of Winnipeg, is expected to include music, litanies of prayer and Scripture, candle lighting and stories of Bolivian women.

The service is open to all, and a free will offering will be held for a new women’s shelter presently nearing completion at Pailon, Bolivia.

“We would love to see $6,000 raised to pay for the kitchen and dining room in the women’s shelter,” said Abe Warkentin, another meeting participant.

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