After years working in refugee camps in Africa with MCC, local resident Wilf Unrau is leaving for a new mission field that hits close to home.

A Mennonite himself, with family relations to old colony communities in Mexico, Unrau will be serving with Multi-Nation Missions Foundation (MMF) to serve Mennonites in South America.

Together with his wife Margaret, Unrau will use his fluency in the Low German language to teach the Gospel in Mexico, Belize and Bolivia, planting a church for people excommunicated from the old colony communities. He notes life can be very strict under the Old Colony system, with members excommunicated for studying the bible on their own without church supervision, buying a truck or owning a smartphone.

Unrau explains with many receiving the equivalent of a grade two education, they're sometimes left with an incomplete understanding of the Gospel. In some instances, he explains communities believe one cannot have the assurance of salvation because it leads to the sin of pride.

"So we're hoping to open their eyes and help them along," Unrau says. "I think they're an amazing group of people that have just not had the full potential of education come their way."

One future goal for the Unraus is to start a Bible school in Southern Manitoba to teach and equip the Old Colony Mennonite migrant workers that live in Canada during the summer months.

"There's a lot coming up to Canada," Unrau says. "It would be a great opportunity to teach them the Word and empower them and enable them to go back and minister to their own people and say, "there's more, you are able to think for yourself and you can read the Word for yourself.'"

He notes the Bible has only recently been translated into Low German. "It's not like they're a totally unreached people group, but with their unwritten language if the outsiders don't come out they are an unreached people."

This fall the Unrau will begin as interim pastor at a Low German church in Alberta, before leaving serving in Mexico and then Belize.