MBMSI appoints training and team health leader

Ray Harms-Wiebe, missionary to São Paulo, Brazil for 18 years, has been chosen to be Training and Team Health Leader for MBMS International. He will oversee the training of short and long-term missionaries and provide pastoral care for the current missionary team.

The Harms-Wiebe family.

Ray, the third of four brothers, spent his childhood in Chilliwack, B.C. His family was active in Mennonite Brethren church life and in learning about, praying for, and supporting missionaries. He married Judy Harms in 1983 in Brazil where Judy’s parents had served cross-culturally for many years. They have three daughters, Ashley Marie (15), Alanna Rae (13), and Alyssa Megan (11).

Ray and Judy served first in university ministry in Sao Paulo followed by ministry to people from different socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds. Over the last 14 years, as God opened doors for evangelization, they saw churches emerge among the poor and the wealthy.

Ray states, “Today, CCBN (Comunidade Cristã das Boas Novas) is a church of 180 members (300 attendees) based in two congregations and their respective cell groups. These congregations are presently planting three other congregations. Our desire from the beginning was to see these new churches experiencing Jesus, living community, planting new communities, and engaged in world mission.”

Ray has a Bachelor of Arts in Theology and Humanities from Columbia International University in Columbia, S.C and a Master of Divinity in Missiology from Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary in Fresno, Cal. He has written for various Mennonite journals and periodicals, and has been a professor at CENTRIM (São Paulo MB Training Center) and Fideles College in Curitiba, where he focused on ecclesiology and leadership.

In his new role with MBMS International, Ray embraces the vision to “transform communities through holistic church planting.” As team leader of training and team health, he will be encouraging life-on-life training that integrates practical experience and periods of community reflection. He plans to promote the mentoring and pastoral care of missionaries, and their teams, as they journey through various phases of ministry. He will be based in Abbotsford.

—Joanna Felts, MBSMI release