Former MBMSI missionaries die

Two long-time missionaries with Mennonite Brethren Mission and Service International (MBMSI) died recently.

Ted Fast

Ted Fast, who served parts of five decades in a variety of missionary roles in India, alongside workers in the Indian MB churches, died in Dallas, Ore. Nov. 29 after a brief illness. He was 81.

“His death is one more milestone marking that generation of career missionaries,” says Harold Ens, former MBMSI general director.

Between 1951 and 1969, Ted and his wife Esther, who survives him, were based at the MB mission station in Deverakonda, working at promoting village evangelism, mentoring leaders, supervising construction projects and doing administration. This was a time of significant transition in the mission work in India as national church structures were being developed.

From 1970 to 1980, the Fasts made their home in Dallas, where Ted served in a pastoral role. They maintained close communication with colleagues in India and Ted made short-term ministry trips there.

In 1980, the board of MBMSI asked the Fasts to return to India for further long-term ministry. They were first based in Shamshabad, where Ted taught in the MB Bible Institute, then moved to Bombay where they helped with a new outreach to Telegu speakers.

They returned to Dallas in 1987, but Ted made two additional short-term fraternal ministry visits to India over the next five years. He was much loved by those who were his students and colleagues. “We have lost a great missionary,” says R.N. Peter, faculty member of the MB Centenary Bible College in India.

Paul C. Friesen

Paul C. Friesen, a career missionary to Peru, died Dec. 6 as a result of injuries sustained in a car accident the previous day in Hattiesburg, Miss. He was 75.

For parts of five decades, Paul and his wife Maurine served among the Ashaninca people of the eastern Peruvian jungles. They arrived in Peru in early 1960 and continued to serve, most recently as retiree missionaries, until the time of Paul’s death.

In the early years they lived in a small jungle town where they developed a ministry to the tribal group. Slowly, some of them became Christians and the church spread to many villages over the following decades. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, the people experienced tremendous persecution from communist guerillas. Many teachers and pastors were killed because they would not give up their faith in the Lord.

The Fasts moved to the larger city of Pucallpa in 1968 for the schooling of their five children and so Paul could teach at the Indian Bible Institute run by the Swiss Indian Mission. He had also become fluent in the Ashaninca language and worked on many translation and writing projects for the Ashaninca church.

“Paul was greatly loved by the Ashaninca church leaders and will be greatly missed,” says former Latin America secretary and MBMSI general director, Harold Ens.

The Friesens had established a home in North Newton, Kan., but made yearly visits to Peru to continue the translation work. They had just renewed their passports to return at the end of January. Their son Mark, who lives in Peru, will oversee the continuation of the translation and the material ready for printing that his father had on his computer.

—from MBMSI releases