Hand in Hand Global Mission Support Blog Digest

This "blog digest" is brought to you by the ELCA Global Mission Support team. Here you will find posts and re-posts by ELCA missionaries, ELCA Global Mission churchwide staff, and other friends.

Music for a Troubled Soul

Posted on February 28, 2011 by Hand In Hand

Carol and Jim Sack

Carol and Jim Sack

Jim and Carol Sack send greetings from Tokyo. Their ELCA ministry includes Pastoral Harp, in which Carol offers a prayerful presence through voice and harp one-on-one at a person’s bedside. She tells of a recent moving experience at a hospice where she volunteers each week:

Tanaka (not his real name) was not dying physically, but he had become completely hopeless and full of despair, so he was dying in his spirit.

Seventeen years ago he had committed a horrendous murder that had become famous in all the newspapers around Japan.  He had been released after many years in prison, but now he was struggling in his daily life and had come to the end of his rope.

We invited Tanaka san to lie down on his bed and relax. At first I played only the harp for a few minutes. His body was stiff, his hands were clenched, and his face looked tense.  Then I began to sing with the harp. For some reason, when the voice began, Tanaka san just seemed to melt — and then he started to cry and cry and cry. I continued the music for about a half hour, and he just kept weeping.

When the music ended, he said something amazing: “A long time ago, I did a terrible thing. I am so sorry, so sorry, so sorry…”   We usually do not use many spoken words at the bedside but, wearing my cross, I said only, “We all do things that we regret. But we are loved. And you are loved.”  And then we left, shaking hands, by this time all of us moved to tears.

Later I realized what I had been singing to Tanaka san at that time.  It was an “Agnus Dei,” a Gregorian chant in Latin, which means “Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world, have mercy on us.”

Somehow the meaning of this Gregorian chant seemed to enter into his heart directly through the Holy Spirit. Tanaka san knew somehow that his sin had been taken away, and he responded with confession and repentance. It was a very mysterious and holy moment for me.

Grace and Forgiveness in Japan

Posted on February 24, 2011 by Hand In Hand

Saturday, February 12, 2011, Japan Calligraphy from ELCA missionary in Japan

Christine Eige, ELCA missionary in Japan, recently experimented with calligraphy.  She described the painstaking process:

As I practiced, many times I wished that I had a delete or undo button; one small mistake could mess up the whole picture, and that really started stressing me out. I would start out fine but inevitably make a mistake, get even more frustrated, and then make more mistakes. Finally, I paused long enough to examine the word in front of me: megumi (grace). Then the light bulb above my head suddenly lit up. I was trying so hard to do my calligraphy perfectly, but that’s not how grace works. Grace is God’s free gift of forgiveness that is not based on anything we do. God looks at our mistakes and says, `Of course you can have another chance; Jesus died to take away those sins and mistakes of your past.’

ELCA missionary Christine Eige

ELCA missionary Christine Eige

In December, Christine visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and wrote this poem:

ONE MOMENT CHANGES ALL

A flash of light and a booming noise—
Heat and radiation devouring all in its way.
Flesh and clothes melting into one,
parched throats gasping for air,
seeking relief, but instead, finding black rain.
Radiation running rampant through bodies,
vital organs failing one after another,
and so many beyond recovery or care.
A whole world turned upside down,
yet the suffering only just beginning.
“Papa, please help me!
Make the pain go away.
Where are you?
I need you.
Don’t leave me this way.
Where are my little sister, my mama, and friends?
What happened to my home?
When will the nightmares finally end?”
God looks down from heaven,
his heart broken in two.
Jesus opens his arms wide saying,
“Forgive them, Father,
for they know not what they do.”

Christine Eige is an ELCA missionary teaching English in Japan.

Missionaries reflecting on mission service – Paula Powell

Posted on February 15, 2011 by Franklin Ishida

Paula was in South Africa with the Lutheran Communion in Southern Africa where she worked with the HIV/AIDS program. She served July 2006 through June 2010. Prior to her service, Paula resided in Greeley, Colorado.

Look at all the lonely people

Posted on February 8, 2011 by Franklin Ishida

Fishing boats on GangesAfter several days of meetings in early February, I joined the staff of Lutheran World Service India Trust (LWSIT) and partners from around the world for a cruise down the Ganges River in Kolkata.

[LWSIT is an Indian organization that engages in community development, empowerment for women and children, and disaster response in Kolkata and several states of India. LWSIT is supported in part by an ELCA World Hunger grant.]

The river cruise was meant to be a lighter relaxing moment away from conversations and dealings on the programs and great challenges at hand for LWSIT (okay, it was on what is  basically used as a ferry — not very “cruise” like). As we were leisurely making our way down the river, sipping on tea, we came upon dozens of fishing boats (see photo). They were all sitting there, one large flotilla, in what perhaps is a good fishing spot.

Right at that moment, the next song that blared over the sound system of our cruise boat was Eleanor Rigby by the Beatles.

It struck me right then and there: “Ah, look at all the lonely people … All the lonely people, where do they all come from? All the lonely people, where do they all belong?” These lyrics were about the people out there.

I’m not saying the fisherfolk floating in their boats were lonely per se, though loneliness is part of the job of fishing at times. But out there; all out there in the world are lonely people.

Kolkata is where Mother Theresa roamed the streets ministering to the poorest of the poor, the neglected ones of the city. She once said: “The most terrible poverty is loneliness, and the feeling of being unloved.” Kolkata is a crowded city; everywhere you go there a people.  As you walk the streets of Kolkata, you see these forgotten people. As you roam the squatter districts, you see these people. Those coming and going; walking, on buses and trains, sitting on the sidewalk; even the well-dressed or those in virtual rags: if you look into their faces, how many are lonely? 

This all has made me think anew the role of the church and church-sponsored agencies that engage communities. It would be easy to overcome poverty in places like India with money and physical attention. But are we not more about building up human dignity, life and community? That is church at its best.

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

ELCA missionaries serving in Cairo back in the US

Posted on February 3, 2011 by Hand In Hand
Pastor Peter and son Liam at the Cairo Airport. Picture from the CNN website.

According to the latest ELCA news release, the 10 ELCA missionaries who serve in Cairo and family members are now in St. Paul, Minn., their temporary home until they are able to return to their assignments when the crisis in Egypt subsides. Members of Nokomis Heights Lutheran Church, Minneapolis, a congregation Johnson previously served and who now sponsors the Johnsons, met the missionaries at the airport. Members also provided the missionaries with supplies and personal items, such as winter coats. Members of Roseville (Minn.) Lutheran Church, longtime sponsors of ELCA missionaries and the apartments the missionaries are staying at, also provided support.”
Read more…

One of the members of St. Andrew United Church, where Pastor Peter and Intern Pastor Paul serve, filmed this video about recent violence at the church.

Pastor Peter commented by website on recent violence at their church:

Due to our location across from the High Court buildings, St. Andrew’s United Church of Cairo has seen much activity in our neighborhood: protesters, tear gas, gun fire, etc. A few nights ago, the church was broken into by looters, though it appears nothing valuable was taken from the property. The next day, members of the church took church valuables to their homes in several locations around Cairo for safe keeping. The facade of the Guild Hall and a few windows have been damaged by bullets. Although the door of the sacristy was broken, the sanctuary appears fine.

Robert O. Smith, ELCA Global Mission Director for the Middle East, noting that none of the church’s symbols were harmed during the incident, observed that these looters were likely looking for something to sell rather than an expressing any anti-Christian sentiment.

The missionaries left with “mixed feelings,” according to the news release, and with the people and companions of Egypt in their hearts.  They look forward to returning when they can.

“Don’t worry, Peter, she is my mother now”

Posted on February 2, 2011 by Hand In Hand

ELCA missionary Peter Johnson, Pastor at St. Andrews United Church and director of St. Andrew's Refugee Services (StARS), with some of the graduates of StARS.

Ten Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) missionaries arrived safely in Istanbul, Turkey, Feb. 1, after they left Cairo, Egypt, on a chartered flight provided by the U.S. Department of State. The missionaries were among hundreds of U.S. citizens who were advised by the U.S. government to leave the country amid protests, some of them violent, against the government of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

One of the ELCA missionaries, Pastor Peter Johnson, is the pastor at St. Andrews United Church and director of St. Andrews Refugee Services.   His mother, Mary Ann, was visiting Peter, his wife, Michele, and their three children when the protests began. 

According to his father, Peter tells the story of being distressed when they dropped Mary Ann (who had to travel separately) off in the hands of the taxi driver who would take her to terminal. The taxi driver, well known to them from life in Cairo said, “Don’t worry, Peter, she is my mother now”, to which Peter responded, “I guess that makes us brothers”.

The ELCA missionaries serve companions and church-related organizations in Cairo, including St. Andrew’s United Church, St. Andrew’s Refugee Ministries and the Evangelical Theological Seminary.

The missionaries are on their way to the US before a careful review of the situation determines what will happen next for them.  Mary Ann is reportedly on her way back as well.

Other ELCA missionaries serving in Egypt are Erin Odgers, Lansdale, Pa., a teacher at St. Andrew’s Refugee Ministries; the Rev. Mark and Linda Nygard, Minot, N.D., who both serve at the Evangelical Theological Seminary; and Paul Schick, an intern at St. Andrew’s United Church, and his wife Stephanie. Schick is a student at Wartburg Theological Seminary, Dubuque, Iowa, an ELCA seminary. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) missionary who traveled with them is Denise England.

Read ELCA news release    |   Read Bishop Hanson’s statement on Egypt

In thanksgiving for the return of our missionaries, we continue to pray for the people of Egypt, that violence cease and peace and justice will prevail that will bring a better life for all Egyptians.