At the urging of twenty international delegates at the North American Conference in Reedley, California in 1984, the first Mennonite Brethren World Missions Conference in Curitiba, Brazil was born. An international executive and program committee was appointed to make plans and arrangements for the conference [Victor Adrian (chairman), Kilabi Bululu (Africa), Takao Nakamura (Japan), Jacob August Wall (Brazil), P.B. Arnold (Asia), Franz Rathmair (Austria), Herbert Brandt and Henry H. Dick (North America)].

When the first worldwide conference of the Mennonite Brethren met February 17-21, 1988 in Curitiba, Brazil some 805 registered delegates representing fifteen countries and about 160,000 Mennonite Brethren Church members focused on the theme "Mennonite Brethren Mission in the World." The conference, held in the Boqueirao Mennonite Brethren Church, was conducted in four and sometimes five languages, and its plenary sessions drew thirteen to fourteen hundred people daily.

Curitiba 88, or Awakening 88 as the Brazilians called it, had a three-fold purpose: to enable us to encourage each other in faith and life; to permit our understanding of our mission in the contemporary world to grow in such a way as to foster a common vision and strategy; and to forge a closer partnership in the mission of the church.

May this book--a record of the presentations, discussions, and activities at Curitiba 88--contribute to a larger vision of Christ's mission in the world.