Hand in Hand Global Mission Support Blog Digest

Megan Stubbs, 17, is the oldest daughter of Randy and Carol Stubbs, ELCA missionaries in Tanzania where they teach music at Makumira University College.

Megan Stubbs playing cello at a wedding in Zanzabar.

What do you like about Africa?

I like the general attitude of the people: “You get there when you get there, take your time, you are always welcome in our home.” The pace of life is also slower than that in America. I also enjoy being able to go to the local market.

Do you know Swahili?

Yes. I’m basically fluent.

What do you miss about America?

First, I miss my family (grandparents, cousins, etc.) and our friends. The other thing I really miss is playing in an orchestra. I got the chance to go back to a summer music clinic in Madison, Wis., last summer, and I scored first chair in the honors orchestra! That was a really good experience. Little things that I miss once in a while are ice cream, bike riding and tree climbing (here you don’t do that because of the monkeys).

Do you like America or Tanzania better?

I don’t like either better. They are so different that I don’t even begin to compare them. However, I definitely feel “at home” here more than in the States.

What is the most wonderful thing and the most undesirable thing about being here?

The most wonderful thing is that we are always welcome anywhere and people are so warm and friendly. The most undesirable thing I would have to say is that when I venture out of Makumira and the surrounding village I am in a fish bowl. Except for the people that know me, I am just “the white person.” Sometimes I would just like to fit in, just a bit, and maybe go to a market or some place and not be charged at least twice the price because of my color (this is where bargaining comes into play). But even though sometimes it’s a bit wearing, I wouldn’t leave for anything!

What was your reaction when your parents told you “We’re moving to Tanzania”? Did you miss your friends?

Well, I thought it was AWESOME! I couldn’t wait to get here! I didn’t think much about leaving my friends because “we were only going to be here for one year.” Ha. Of course, once we got here, I loved it so much that when we were told we could stay longer I was elated!

What are you planning for college?

To be honest, at the moment, I’m not. I will concentrate on finishing high school first, and I am planning to stay here in TZ as long as I possibly can. If that means taking a year or two or three off between, that’s fine with me!

• » Comments (0)

Fred & Gloria Strickert are ELCA Global Mission personnel in Jerusalem where Fred is pastor of the English speaking congregation at the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer.

Honey Thaljieh

One day about 15 years ago, when we stood watching the boys kicking  around a soccer ball on the old Bethlehem Lutheran School playground (where the Dar Annadwa auditorium now stands), the ball went astray among a group of girls, doing what most 10- to 11-year-old girls would do. Most stepped back to avoid getting hit. But Honey Thaljieh  stepped forward, and with the kick of her foot sent the ball flying, beginning a long journey that would take her around the world on an amazing adventure.

From the Lutheran School playground in Bethlehem, Honey has emerged to revolutionize Palestinian attitudes about women’s sports and has taken up what one might call sports diplomacy, making it all the way to the White House with Hillary Clinton.

In the mid 1990s, when we spent a sabbatical in Bethlehem, Honey’s older sister Amal and our daughter Rachel became the best of friends.

The first intifadah spanned the years when Honey grew from 3 to 8. The second Intifadah corresponded to her late teen-age years. And she experienced some traumatic events living  just a stone’s throw from the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem — a cousin, Johnny Taljieh, was shot by snipers as he left worship after serving as acolyte.

Honey found strength by faithfully attending church every Sunday, remaining active in Sunday school, youth group, choir, and in the Lutheran School there at the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church. And Honey has made the most of it, completing her B.A. in business administration at Bethlehem University and becoming the head of the national sports programs for Palestinian girls and rising as a role model for girls growing up in Middle Eastern society.

Recently when we checked the news online, we saw a Huffington Post story with the headline, “Hillary Clinton Launches Girls Soccer Initiative,” and most of the quotes came from Honey, who was at the White House with other rising international stars.

Honey manages to find a positive spin on …  the restrictive conditions due to the occupation. “We have nowhere else to go and nowhere to put our energies,” she says. “We are just playing with our souls and spiritual abilities. It’s because we are strong, we are Palestinian, we face a lot of difficulties. We want to be something.”

The team is also at a disadvantage in that there are no regulation-sized fields in Bethlehem to practice.  Mostly they practice on the concrete surface handball court at Bethlehem University — a fact that has resulted in numerous knee injuries.  Honey recently threw out her knee and is undergoing rehabilitation.

Honey is the ideal role model for young Palestinian girls. Her “captain” armband is a reminder how she has always been a leader. The Palestinian patch on her jersey brings forth her patriotism and her role as a Palestinian ambassador of goodwill. And most of all, the cross around her neck, both on the field and off, witnesses to her strong Christian faith.

Who would have dreamed such a story when a 10-year-old Honey stepped forward to kick that soccer ball back to the boys on the Lutheran School  playground in Bethlehem?

Fred & Gloria Strickert

(For the full story on Honey, go to http://walkinjerusalem.blogspot.com/.)

• » Comments (2)

Ted and Janey Zimmerman are ELCA missionaries in Hong Kong.

"Ai" is the Chinese character for "love."

Dear friends,

“Ai” is the Chinese character for God’s love. I hear seminary graduates preach about God’s love when I attend Forever Grace Lutheran Church on the second floor of a crowded building. I hear about “ai” when I attend Abundant Grace Lutheran Church on the fourth floor of a huge apartment complex. I hear about “ai” again in the Sunday school lessons at Peace Lutheran Church up on the third floor of an old, weary apartment building.

It does not matter where one meets to worship; the message of God’s amazing love surrounds action and relationships. I think if Miss Hui and her sister, who are rearing their 7-year-old nephew plus working full time. They always bring their elderly mother to church and spend their Sundays with their church fellowship. I think of Mr. Tang who works at Hong Kong’s water facility and was the lay leader of the congregation during some difficult transitions. I think of Ms. Leung, who was in tears on Mother’s Day because her child had been taken from her many years ago. I think of Mrs. Jung, who at 88 is the best-dressed person at church and a leader of the congregation. She and family members were on the front page of the newspaper a couple months ago because of their caring contributions to the community. The list continues as it does in your own congregations among those whom we grow to love.

Ted and I feel blessed to see seminary graduates in action leading congregations like the three just mentioned. Plus, Ted has the joyful call to participate at the seminary’s preparation of others called to the ministry and church service in Hong Kong and other parts of the world. This year, about 80 students  graduated from the Lutheran Theological Seminary (LTS) and 14 from the evening lay person’s school on June 5.

Thank you for your encouragement as Ted continues to teach New Testament at LTS and helps develop church leaders to share “ai,” God’s amazing love for us.

Sincerely,
Janey and Ted Zimmerman

• » Comments (0)

Dana Olson is an ELCA Young Adult in Global Mission serving in the United Kingdom.

The Smart Chute

One of the boys I teach graduated from Springboard and I now have a new child, Micah, to teach. He’s also in Year 2, which makes him about 6 or 7.

Although Micah is a sweet boy who will do anything asked of  him, he has a very blank stare and seldom smiles let alone laughs (I had never seen either). Springboard uses a multi-sensory approach to teaching — which includes learning by visual learning (pictures), auditory learning (listening), and kinesthetic learning (movement). I like to incorporate as much kinesthetic learning (movement) into my lessons as often as possible, as I’ve found kids love to move (what a concept!).

Springboard has lots of materials to incorporate movement into lessons. One of them is using the Smart Chute, shown in the picture. You put a card with a picture in the top and then the answer (which is on the opposite side) comes out the bottom. I had used the Smart Chute with Micah a few times — he needed to be able to hear the difference between his short vowels and we were practicing this — and he had no idea how the picture turned into the answer after the card had been placed in the Smart Chute. When we were finished using the Smart Chute, and as I was putting the cards away, I dropped all of them thus revealing that the cards had the pictures on one side and the answer on the other side.

The biggest smile I have ever seen stretched across Micah’s face as he realized how the Smart Chute cards worked. This, in fact, made me smile, but what came to follow melted my heart even more.

Micah was then given two sentences to write. He succeeded in placing capital letters at the beginning of both sentences, placing periods at the end and spelled all of his words in both sentences correctly, all on his own!

After numerous expressionless lessons and thinking the big grin on his face earlier in the lesson was long forgotten, when he corrected his own work and realized he had no mistakes, I could feel his whole being beaming with pride at his perfect work.

Thank you so much for your continued support and prayers.

Dana

• » Comments (1)

The Rev. Viking Dietrich, an ELCA missionary, has been the West African regional representative of the ELCA. He has had responsibility for theological education, evangelism and interfaith dialogue.  He and his wife, Marissa, have lived in Ghana.

Marissa and Viking Dietrich

Dear sponsoring churches,

By participating in the Missionary Sponsorship program of the ELCA Global Mission, you have played an active and important part in what the ELCA accomplishes around the world through its Global Mission program.  As I leave service with Global Mission, I want to thank you for your congregation’s support of ELCA work around the world.

The 21^st century will see many changes in the international scene as technology continually binds once distant parts of the world into a more complex web of relationships.  In that global web, West Africa will be central to the vision of the universal church over the next century for two reasons.

First, as the church is changing demographically and growing more and more in the “non-western” areas of our planet. The density of West African Christian population places Nigeria and Ghana at the demographic center of 21^st century Christianity.

Secondly, West Africa remains one of the most impoverished and thus marginalized places in the world economy.  (Due to that) we, as members of the ELCA, are compelled to actively participate in the global context and seek new ways of being instruments of God’s redemptive work.

The ELCA, as a whole, has affirmed its commitment to witness and life in the global context.  The churchwide office, when it underwent organizational restructuring in the fall of 2010, retained the Global Mission Unit as one of now only three departments. Also, ELCA synods are developing stronger relationships with companion churches in other countries.  And again, congregations continue to play a major role in the ELCA’s global work through regular offerings (over 50 percent of Global Mission revenue) and also the missionary sponsorship program (over 25 percent  of Global Mission revenue).   ELCA congregations should feel that they own the work and approaches of the ELCA in its global engagement and publish them to their local community.

I pray that you, both individually and as a community active in God’s mission, will support the work of the ELCA globally, particularly in West Africa, even as you support local ministry.

Thank you!  God’s blessings,
Viking

• » Comments (1)

John Hoyle, an ELCA missionary in Japan, is an instructor of English as a foreign language at Luther Junior and Senior High School (Luther Gakuin) in Kumamoto and assists with a Lutheran congregation in Kumamoto.

John and Haruko Hoyle

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Thank you for your many messages of concern and support following the Great East Japan Earthquake. Unlike many hundreds of thousands of families, Haruko and I were completely untouched by the disaster. Your continuing prayers for strength for those affected, as well as your generous support through ELCA Disaster Response has been heartening.

I have new missionary duties at the Hongo Student Center. I lead eight adult classes of English conversation and five children’s classes at the Center. Students in my adult classes range from high school students to senior citizens. I have beginner, pre-intermediate, intermediate and advanced classes. The children’s classes are divided by age group: 3-, 4- and 5-year olds. Besides teaching English, I also lead a weekly beginner Bible class at the Center. The students’ questions really keep me on my toes! At Hongo Lutheran Church, I am in charge of an English Bible-study class on Sunday mornings and preside at the evening English service. It all makes for a very enjoyable and fulfilling week. I am deeply thankful that I have been able to continue my missionary service with my life partner, Haruko, by my side!

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

John Hoyle

• » Comments (0)