Bishop Hee-Soo Jung and Bishop Carlos Poma signed a historic agreement of mission partnership between the Northern Illinois Conference and the Evangelical Methodist Church in Bolivia which has 190 congregations and about 10,000 members.

Bishop Carlos Poma, a young Episcopal leader who heads up the Methodist Church in Bolivia is proud of his indigenous heritage. He is of the Aymara tribe, the largest of dozens of native tribes in Bolivia. He heads up the church at a time when his country also is experiencing the political leadership of the first indigenous President, Evo Morales (also of the Aymara tribe) who was elected President of Bolivia in 2005. “There are those who have been in power for 500 years,” said Bishop Poma, “who cannot accept that an indigenous person could be in power. They are trying to undermine [President Morales] to prove that indigenous people do not have the capability to run a government.”

Bishop Poma told of Methodist missionaries coming to Bolivia, who gave up their lives or were tortured because their religion. Indigenous peoples were forbidden to read and write but missionaries began in a clandestine way to teach native peoples basic literacy skills. There were protests in the plaza with signs saying, “Gringo go home” but one of the kept working to bring the Gospel. Through this dedication, the Methodist movement began to grow in Bolivia.

Bolivia is the poorest country in South America and the indigenous peoples are particularly suffering under extreme economic hardships. Because of this, Bishop Poma told the Annual Conference that church leaders and members were begging Poma to find a way to get some help outside the country. At his installation as Bishop - he heard these pleas and spent several sleepless nights, wondering how he could make this happen because he had no contacts beyond Bolivia. After a few days and nights wrestling with these issues, he went to his office, where he experienced he said, “His first joy” – he learned that a Pastor from Chicago in the US, Rev. Orlando Moller was coming to Bolivia for a visit. His “second joy” was attending the World Methodist Council in Seoul, So. Korea where Bishop Poma met Rev. Oscar Carrasco, and the Chicago area Bishop Hee-Soo Jung. They asked him, "Brother, we have heard all about you and the challenges of the church in your country. How can we help?" His “third joy” is that Things are moving already to bond these two parts of the world together. An advance team including Bishop Jung and other leaders from Northern Illinois visited Bolivia last year. An outgrowth of that visit is the mission partnership agreement, and a number of VIM trips and a number of economic partnership projects are already in the planning stages.

Bishop Poma expressed appreciated for the partnership between Northern Illinois Conference and the Methodist Church in Bolivia. “What you are doing in outreach across the world, you are planting the seed of life,” said Poma. We are one is Jesus Christ. We are a beautiful mosaic.”