Argentine Relaunches

Argentine Mennonite Church has been a presence in the Argentine neighborhood of Kansas City for over 90 years. The church sees itself in a “relaunching phase” as they try to change patterns that have been part of the congregational culture for some time. Their main contacts with the neighborhood are: the Lunch Buddy outreach; connections with The Snack Shack, an after school program for Jr. & Sr. High School students; and Venture Club, an every other Wednesday evening children’s ministry. All are part of the greater mission of mentoring at-risk kids, many of whom are part of the 1400 homeless kids in the KCK area.

The Lunch Buddy outreach is a partnership program with New Stanley Elementary School across the street the street from the church. Members of the congregation are paired with students identified by the school as needing good mentorship and Argentine persons have lunch regularly with those students. The congregation and the school recognize that the needs far outweigh the available persons. Pastor Sandeep is preparing a presentation about the mission, work, and needs of the church to present in other Conference congregations in the hopes of attracting additional persons to join their ministry in Kansas City.

–Kurt Horst:  Regional Conference Minister