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Blonde, Blue and Beyond

TAMPA, Florida (USA) — Paraguay’s First Lady has high hopes for the 2009 Mennonite World Conference assembly in her country.

For one thing, she expects it will put to rest any preconceptions that all Mennonites are blonde-haired and blue-eyed.

“People will be looking at us and they’ll see that being Mennonite is a faith issue,” Maria Gloria Penayo de Duarte told an audience of 450 at the annual convention of Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA) Nov. 2 in Tampa, Florida.

“When I introduce myself as a Mennonite, people ask me if I speak German, if I was born in the Chaco,” Mrs. Duarte said in her lead-off keynote speech. “People are often confused about this. The true evidence of being a Mennonite is the faith. I’ll be so happy in 2009 because then people in Paraguay will understand. When all Mennonites gather, from different cultures, they’ll understand the true concept of what it mans to embrace the Mennonite faith.”

She said she was also excited by how the preparations are bringing Mennonites together as a team. “We have eight different Mennonite conventions [conferences] in Paraguay, but we’re working together. It’s beautiful to see the unity in the way we’re working. The indigenous population is also very motivated and they are working on this as well.”

The teamwork will have a lasting effect, she added. “The deepening communion will be very enriching. It will help the church in Paraguay mature.”

Mrs. Duarte traced her own spiritual pilgrimage, describing herself as a “daughter of God” and an “adopted Mennonite.”

Her husband, current president Nicanor Duarte, had just become the country’s minister of education 12 years ago when she sensed a new spiritual longing. While she had been brought up with moral values, “there was a hole in my life.... I didn’t know the concept of a loving God,” she said. “I gave my life to Jesus and he became my rock.”

In 1997 she was baptized and joined the Raices Mennonite Brethren Church in Asuncion, where she attends regularly with her six children (and husband when his schedule allows).

Mrs. Duarte also participated in a workshop titled “Why Should the Global Church Come to Paraguay in July 2009?” She was joined by Larry Miller, MWC general secretary, Alfred Neufeld, chair of the national coordinating council for the Paraguay assembly, and Merle and Phyllis Good, MWC communication consultants.

“We need your blessing; come and bless us,” Neufeld told the North Americans. “We need your correction; come and correct us. We need your counsel; come and counsel us. We need your encouragement; come and encourage us.”

Did the Paraguayan leaders have any worries about hosting such a large gathering?

“Nothing worries me because we have placed everything in the Lord’s hands,” said Mrs. Duarte.

Added Neufeld, “It is God’s will that you come.”

To which Miller responded, “Mrs. Duarte says it’s in God’s hands. Alfred says it’s God’s will. Then I have to say, ‘Why worry?’”

— Wally Kroeker, editor of MEDA's Marketplace magazine