A member of a Bible Chapel located in Oakville, Melissa Khedar, will be part of a mission to Paraguay that will help refurbish a missionary office, as well as join efforts in building bridges between Christian and Muslim groups in the South American country.
The week-long mission trip will take place from February 10 to 17 as part of the church’s local missionary efforts. The missionary arm of the church will send a group including Khedar to Asuncion, the largest city and capital of the country of over 6.7 million people. Paraguay has urban and rural poverty rates of approximately 25% and 34%, respectively.
As part of the mission the group will also meet with Paraguayan Muslims to help with the local kids’ soccer programs. The missionary group will also help teach Spanish to the Muslim immigrants in the country.
The Bible Chapel partners with UK-based OM (Operation Mobilisation), whose mission is to extend Christian outreach to parts of the world that the faith has not reached. The Oakville contingent is working in conjunction with OM’s Latin American Service Centre to deliver the aid and outreach.
An international missionary organization run by Christians in the UK, OM was established in 1957 and has been operating missionary programs around the world for over 60 years. It has emerged as one of the global leaders in Christian missions, humanitarian activities, and community development initiatives.
Melissa Khedar and the missionary contingent will have an opportunity to visit a country that possesses a complex blend of indigenous and Spanish colonial history. Throughout its history, the country has experienced several hardships, with war and political instability hampering the progress of development efforts.
“We know that despite tremendous progress by our organization and others, there remains so much to be done in terms of access to healthcare and education, and access to jobs,” says Khedar. “We’re ready to spend time with people and see what kinds of things we can do to help. We’re also hoping to build some faith-based bridges across our cultures.”
Paraguay is bordered by Brazil, Argentina and Bolivia, and despite its colourful cultural dynamic, the country is often overshadowed by its neighbours, receiving less international attention as a consequence. This adds an extra layer of urgency to the efforts of missionary visits like the Bible Chapel’s in supporting the country’s development programs.
Paraguay has never really experienced what you’d call “smooth sailing”; war and political instability have been a feature of its history since its independence in 1842. The historical reverberations of such challenges cannot be ignored in the development context as such interruptions have repeatedly forestalled progress on a number of fronts. Despite some wins, many sectors, from health to education, still remain below acceptable standards due to the reality of poverty in many regional areas, particularly in the rural countryside.
The toughness and resilience of its people, however, is well documented by their overcoming hardships through creative problem solving and ingenuity, something that both their neighbours and the international community alike has taken notice of. And so this Canadian effort led by the Bible Chapel in Oakville will help propel development forward in its own modest way, while providing a morale boost and new spiritual connection between the two cultures. With an intention of offering meaningful assistance, they seek to improve the lives of those they encounter who find it difficult to fulfill basic needs despite their creativity and resilience.
The Oakville delegation, together with their UK partners at OM, are sowing new seeds of hope toward a brighter tomorrow based on faith, compassion and generosity.
