Hand in Hand Global Mission Support Blog Digest

Four gift cards are available to announce gift donations to ELCA Missionary Sponsorship and ELCA Global Gifts (e.g., Lutheran Schools in the Holy Land).  Contact Global Mission Support to request the “Remembering” memorial-gift card and the “Thanking,” “Celebrating,” and “Honoring” tribute-gift cards.

Thankful blessings, Sue
P.S.  In the cool new ELCA Good Gifts catalog, find Global Mission Support gift-donation suggestions on pages 14-15 (“inspire”) and pages 18-19 (“partner”).

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Singapore is the meeting point of many church traditions within Asia. One of the challenges for Jeff Truscott, ELCA missionary teaching worship at Trinity Theological College, is to introduce students to the theology and practices that have shaped church worship throughout history.

Truscott and students experiencing an Easter Vigil

In a recent class, he led his class in experiencing the Easter Vigil. Many students come from non-liturgical traditions. For them and even those who do have liturgies, the vigil gave new meaning to baptism within the context of the theology of Christ’s death and resurrection.

Truscott reports that students found special meaning in the service of light and the service of readings from the Old Testament. “The strong symbolism in the service communicated powerfully to them,” he says.

After this vigil experience, students submitted a paper that reflected on how they could use, adapt, and possibly augment this service for use in their own churches and traditions in different Asian countries.

This was just a start. Next semester, Truscott plans to have his worship and liturgy class celebrate the entire Paschal Triduum during a one-day long retreat/workshop that will be open to the entire seminary community.

Y. Franklin Ishida
Director for Asia and the Pacific, ELCA Global Mission

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A friend shared this true story with the Rev. Heidi Torgerson, associate director for Global Service.  Heidi shared it with me and secured permission for me to share it on the “Hand in Hand” blog digest. 
Enjoy! —Sue

After Bible study one morning, a member of the congregation I serve stopped by the office.  She told me that she has an annual tradition:  as a birthday gift to herself she writes a check for the number of years she’s been on this earth and gives it to a charity she’s not supported before.  

 She said she had been struggling to figure out where the money should go until hearing the sermon my co-pastor preached.  In his sermon, the pastor mentioned the new missionaries we’re supporting as a congregation, Brian and Kristen Konkol, who serve in South Africa.

 ”That’s when I knew where my gift should go,” she said.  “I grew up in South Africa.”

 When I handed her the Hand in Hand newsletter with Brian and Kristen’s picture and a bit of their story; she nearly danced in my office. The place they are living is the same place she went to school and lived for a while. She truly felt that God was calling her to help support them.

Her joy spilled over like sunshine in my office.  As I told her how to direct her gift for the Konkol’s missionary sponsorship, I felt like dancing, too.

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Join Operation Thanks-Giving!

Make and send “I’m thankful for you” cards to your sponsored missionaries and other service personnel  connected to you and your congregation.

During the month of November, “Hand in Hand” blog posts will share “I’m thankful” stories and reflections offered by ELCA missionaries and sponsors.   Encourage others to subscribe to the blog and receive new posts by email; just follow the link on the right-hand column of http://blogs.elca.org/handinhand.

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The Rev. Rafael Malpica Padilla, executive director for ELCA Global Mission, sent this post during his visit in Malaysia and Singapore.—Sue

Six Young Adults in Global Mission (YAGM) serve in Malaysia with the Basel Christian Church. They offer educational services in church schools that serve the general population.

On October 14, 2009, I visited a special school for children coming from the economically marginalized rural-communities around Kota Kinabalu.

The school, Jireh House, provides residential, educational, and health programs to the participants. One of our YAGMs, Jacob Dalager, a graduate from St. Olaf College, serves here. As we met, Jacob greeted me with familiarity. I could not place him until he mentioned his parents, Pr. Karl and Holly Dalager.  We had met before!  In 1996, I was introduced to nine-year-old Jacob when his parents went to Colombia as ELCA missionaries.

God continues to raise up young and faithful leaders like Jacob and our other YAGMs. God uses parents like Karl and Holly to rear their children in the faith, instill in them a passion for service, and empower them to participate in God’s mission in the world.    Soli Deo Gloria!
—The Rev. Rafael Malpica Padilla

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The Rev. Rafael Malpica Padilla, executive director for ELCA Global Mission, sent this post during his visit in Malaysia and Singapore.—Sue

Reacting to the communist takeover in China, in the late 1940s the British government in Malaysia relocated the Chinese population to “New Villages” to the north of Kuala Lumpur in the region of today’s Ipoh.

Beginning in 1953, missionaries from the ULCA and LCA (ELCA predecessor church bodies) served the Chinese community in these villages. They engaged in “pioneer evangelism,” planting the seed of the Gospel and laying the foundations for strong congregational ministries.

These seeds found good soil and helped to root the Lutheran Church in Malaysia and Singapore.  For example:  The Rev. Philip Lok, born in the new villages and educated in the mission schools, is bishop of the church.  The leaders that were formed by our missionaries now direct the evangelical outreach in their lands.

As a result, the work of the Lutheran Church in Malaysia and Singapore among the Orang Asli is supported by the ELCA Global Mission in different ways.  One ELCA missionary, a seminary intern, serves with the Lutheran Church in Malaysia and Singapore.

At its August 2009 convention, the Lutheran Church in Malaysia and Singapore received five congregations into membership. These are congregations among the Orang Asli, the people of the land.

Raising Leaders

On October 8, 2009, I visited one of these communities in Kampong Sekau. That morning 14 people were baptized and 12 confirmed. We gathered around water, bread and wine to witness to God’s mission of creating and sustaining community.  Made one by the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and overcoming cultural and linguistic barriers, we worship together in the Semai language.

The Lutheran Church in Malaysia and Singapore and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America walk together as companion churches.  Together, we reach out with the good news of the Gospel.
Soli Deo Gloria! —The Rev. Rafael Malpica Padilla

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“I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, and for this reason I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers” (Ephesians 1:15).

“Ordinary Saints” (Lutheran Woman Today, November 2009, pp. 6–9) is a missionary story.  ELCA missionary Christa von Zychlin, its author, shares how ELCA missionaries Barbara and John LeMond care for Barbara’s mother, Oriet, as they serve in Hong Kong.

It’s a story for All Saint’s Day, one that celebrates the priesthood of all believers and our ordinary, extraordinary vocations.

It’s a Thanksgiving story.  Despite difficult circumstances—or perhaps especially because of difficult circumstances—the LeMonds are thankful for past and present blessings and gifts of grace.

It’s a “mothers” story, particularly affirming and encouraging for children who love and care for a dependent parent.

Read “Ordinary Saints” in the November 2009 issue of Lutheran Woman Today magazine.  To download and print the article visit www.elca.org/handinhand (look for the link toward the bottom of the right-hand column).

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The Fall 2009 issue of the Hand in Hand newsletter is ready to

• read online.  Visit www.elca.org/handinhand.
• distribute.   To request as many free copies as you can use, send Global Mission Support your post-office and UPS addresses, the number of copies you need, and when you need them.
• reproduce in bulletins and newsletters.  Three articles from this issue are available as bulletin inserts:
  • “Stepping out of the boat? Reach for Jesus!”
  • “Teaching hope in the Holy Land“
  • “Operation Thanksgiving Card“*

* If you or your congregation participates in ”Operation Thanksgiving Card,” please share the story! 

Thankful blessings,  Sue 
Sue Edison-Swift is assistant director for Global Mission Support.

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This message is taken from David Brondos’ most recent newsletter. He is a missionary serving as a faculty member at the El Seminario Luterano Augsburgo, or Augsburg Lutheran Seminary, the seminary of the Iglesia Luterana Mexicana (ILM) which is a member school of the Theological Community of Mexico.

The Theological Community of Mexico is a consortium of seminaries which will now be incorporating some new partners. One of these partners is AMEXTRA, the Mexican Association for Rural and Urban Transformation which works on projects in the areas of health and education programs, emergency relief, income generation, and care for the environment. AMEXTRA has historic ties with the Lutheran Church here in Mexico and has worked for many years with the ELCA. AMEXTRA seeks to develop partnerships with local churches in order to implement programs. According to Eugenio Araiza, the General Director of AMEXTRA, their vision is to have churches become involved in community activities aimed at holistic transformation.

AMEXTRA wanted to strengthen its biblical and theological base for its programs, while the Theological Community looks to relate Christian theology more with practical aspects of social transformation. Social issues such as poverty, injustice, violence, and discrimination must be challenged by religious communities. And the reality in which people live cannot be transformed without transforming the way they see themselves, other people, and the world around them.  From the perspective of the Theological Community, any leadership training that divorces theology from the work of transforming communities, society, and the world should be regarded as inadequate.

Through this new partnership AMEXTRA will be able to draw on the resources and network of relationships developed through the Theological Community to expand its mission of helping local church leaders acquire the vision and knowledge necessary to promote holistic transformation in their communities. At the same time, the Theological Community will gain from AMEXTRA’s resources, expertise, and network of relationships. Students at the Theological Community will have opportunities to learn more about holistic transformation and be involved in related programs. This new partnership will help the students and churches gain a new vision for integrating community service into their mission and ministry.

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