Hand in Hand Global Mission Support Blog Digest

Dana Dutcher is an ELCA missionary stationed in Tokyo. She teaches conversational English and works with several ministries of two congregations, Koishikawa Lutheran Church and Hongo Lutheran Church. To support Dana, or another of the ELCA’s nearly 250 missionaries, go to www.elca.org/missionarysponsorship.

Dana Dutcher compares getting to know people in Japan to cracking coconuts.

One biggest hindrances to developing the Christian church in Japan is the sense of “community.”

Japanese people tend to be like coconuts, hard on the outside, layer upon layer of hard exterior, taking forever to crack into. And I have cracked a coconut before — trust me, it’s hard. But once you finally get through all the exterior hardness there is a soft fruit and milk on the inside where a friendship can form.

Americans on the other hand tend to be like peaches. Soft and easy to penetrate on the outside, but once you get into the core, we get harder to crack. Americans easily open up their group and accept you in, instant friends. I have met people on airplanes and heard their life stories before takeoff. But Japanese people on the other hand , it takes years to really get to know someone. They are guarded and careful with what they share. This characteristic can make it difficult when trying to integrate people into new groups, as in bringing people into the church.

Many of you reading this have been Christians your whole life. We’ve been surrounded by Christianity our whole life, so for us being a Christian is easy. I didn’t lose anything by being a Christian. My family didn’t disown me; my friends didn’t leave me. I didn’t bring shame upon my ancestors. But for a Japanese person who converts, these are some of the issues that they face. Turning your back on hundreds of years of tradition to become a Christian isn’t easy. Leaving the community of your old friends and family to join a new community of Christians is not something that happens over night here. It can take years, even decades, before someone feels their ties are strong enough to a new group to commit themselves. This is where the challenges for the church in Japan arise.

You can read more from Dana at her blog, The Land of the Rising Son.

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Philip Nelson works with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Cameroon and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Central African Republic. June Nelson is a nurse in the Pan African Academy of Christian Surgeon’s clinic. To support the Nelsons, or another of the ELCA’s nearly 250 missionaries, go to www.elca.org/missionarysponsorship.

Philip and June Nelson

Dear friends,

This last weekend was very exciting for me.  We brought a group of Imaniiya here to Ngaoundéré to two of the church services on Sunday.  The church members got a chance to see and meet the Fulani people that are coming to believe, even with the persecution that they have been through recently.

At night a group came over to my house and three of them asked to be baptized.   They asked to do this at night because they wished to do this in secret.  I am not a pastor so we called Pastor Abdulaye Jean, who is a chaplain at the Hospital here, to perform the baptism.  I will give them English sounding names to protect their identity.

Sally is a beautiful young woman of 17 has been going to high school here in Ngaoundéré.  She will be staying with a Fulani family in Ngaoundéré, who are Christians.  One of the wonderful things about this group of Imaniiya is that, even though they come from a Muslim tradition, they worship with their women giving them voice in their worship.

Adam, 36, has lost his cattle due to the persecution he has suffered since starting to follow Jesus that he went through.  He led the singing of the group and loves to make up songs to express his faith.  He will be returning to his village as a child of God.

Abner, 33, has been with the group in Gomana for several years and has joined the children in town to learn to read and write in French.  He is being taught by the son of the village chief.

On the south side of our house here is a rose bush that is blooming right now. The smiles on the faces of those baptized reminded me of the blooms that are just opening now full and beautiful, infectious both in radiance and warmth.  God is wonderful; please pray for these people as they go back to their village and take up their changed lives.

Blessings,
Phil

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The Rev. Kevin Jacobson is a parish pastor and leadership developer in the Evangelical Lutheran church in Suriname. To support him, or another of the ELCA’s nearly 250 missionaries, go to www.elca.org/missionarysponsorship.

Anna Marie Baal took the first shovel of dirt.

I was very happy with the turn out at the ground-breaking ceremony of the new Paulus Church in Lelydorp,  Suriname, on Sunday, August 15. About 75 people were in attendance.

We were guided by St. Paul’s words to the Ephesians:

“In Christ the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling-place for God.”

Anna Marie Baal, 86, took the first shovel of dirt. She and her family donated the land about 40 years ago with the current existing building on it. That building has been renovated and will be used as a Sunday school and fellowship hall.  She is so excited to be having a new church built on the property.

Every family in attendance was given a red candle and asked to take it home, light it and say a prayer for the church every Sunday between now and when the building is completed.  Our hope and prayer is that it will be done this year by November 15, when the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
Suriname celebrates its 270th anniversary.

Pastor Kevin L. Jacobson
St. Jozefstraat #16
Paramaribo, Suriname

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The Rev. Paula M. Stecker works with the Lutheran World Federation Haiti office in communications and ecumenical relationships. To support  Paula, or another of the ELCA’s nearly 250 missionaries, go to www.elca.org/missionarysponsorship.

Pastor Paula M. Stecker

The last leg of a recent journey back to Port au Prince from Miami was on a 737 jet. As we sat in the waiting lounge, my Haitian friend looked around and said, “I think I may be the only Haitian on this flight.” Wow! We verified that there were only about three Haitians on a flight so full they paid people to stay behind. Who was going to Haiti? It was many groups who were going to give a helping hand. It is summer and America is going to save Haiti.

Here’s the rub: While Haitians are very appreciative of the help they have received from so many, they would also like to do more of the reconstruction themselves. The Haitian carpenters, painters, welders, farmers, teachers, doctors and nurses would like to work for a fair wage and be able to pay for their food, their rent and the school fees for their kids.

Haitians are not looking for charity alone. Charity has kept many Haitians alive through the worst of the aftermath of January 2010, but it is not sustainable. Charity doesn’t demand the changes that would permit them to raise up a new Haiti. They are asking for a break from the international community in order to fund new industries. They would like to see high schools and colleges in the cities outside of Port au Prince as a sign of the beginning of decentralization of power and privilege.

The Lutheran World Federation has done a great job this past year and a half of supporting a wide variety of activities where Haitians are rebuilding Haiti.

But how do we approach this bigger problem? It will take more than charity. How do we hold the world accountable for the promises made in March 2010 to help Haiti move to a new place?

Some of you have been to Haiti. You have heard and seen the issues firsthand. All of you have a voice, both as church and as citizens. Our voices can bear witness before governments and institutions like the United Nations, and we don’t even need to get on a plane to do it. We can pray for a more just nation, a more equitable economy, where life is more than the sum of disasters survived. If all our voices were at the Lord’s disposal for such a time as this, the result could be even more dramatic than the earthquake.  What do you say?

Peace,
Pastor Paula M. Stecker
cpstecker@comcast.net

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Sarah and Peter Grow-Hanson’s international service began with Peter’s seminary internship and Sarah’s volunteer service in Morogoro, Tanzania. This experience eventually led them to Senegal in 2001, where Peter was called to serve as the director of the Cultural Center Galle Nanondiral (House of Mutual Understanding), an ELCA-founded center providing a wide variety of community programs to a mostly Muslim population in Dakar. In 2008, Peter began serving directly with the Lutheran Church of Senega as theological advisor for leadership development. Sarah has served as academic coordinator for the School for International Training’s (Vermont) study abroad program in Dakar.

To support any of the ELCA’s nearly 250 missionaries, go to www.elca.org/missionarysponsorship.

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Robin Strickler is director of the Rwanda School Project in cooperation with the Lutheran Church of Rwanda. To support Robin, or another of the ELCA’s nearly 250 missionaries, go to www.elca.org/missionarysponsorship.

Students created a banner for the big day.

Birthdays in Rwanda usually don’t merit much attention, but we celebrated the official birth of our school on May 7 and it was a wonderful occasion. In the days beforehand, everyone scrubbed, swept, washed and dusted the school and we hoisted our first official Rwandan flag on a wooden pole. Workers put up a blue and white striped tent and plastic chairs on our newly rooted grass yard and volunteers festooned the balcony with swathes of green fabric and our student-made RLS banner.

Yet I still worried, It’s nice to look good, but is the program ready? However, despite the fact that our guest of honor was unable to attend, the students impressed the 200 people present with their poise and creativity and we enjoyed the energy and celebration of traditional dancers.

Students prepared skits in Kinyarwanda, with the funniest featuring a plot with a poor student heading to the USA on scholarship and a wealthy student lying to hide her bad grades from her businessman father, who it turns out, also lies about his bad grades in the past. Students’ creativity with props had the audience rolling in the aisles with laughter – a Mercedes Benz was a Chinese checker board for a steering wheel and two boys walking alongside the “driver” holding mirrors for the rearview mirrors. The “Boeing jet” was a wheelbarrow with the word “Boeing” taped on it. In my speech, I said that in Rwanda we are growing brilliant young people, and the students’ performance made my words even truer. When the afternoon ended with a double rainbow, it seemed quite poetic.

Last week, Ignace approached me at my desk. He’s a tall young man whose emotions are always written on his face, and with his brow knit, he looked at me and saw that I was trying to do several things at once. “Auntie,” he said, “you are busy as a bee!” He was learning about similes and metaphors in English class. To carry it a step further, we are a hive of activity and the harvest is sweet! We are indeed blessed!

Grace and peace,
Robin Strickler

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Mark and Linda Nygard are ELCA missionaries in Cairo, Egypt, where Mark is a professor at the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo. To support the Nygards,or another of the ELCA’s nearly 250 missionaries, go to www.elca.org/missionarysponsorship.

Vevian, Redda, and Fouad, looking happy in the graduation receiving line.

Aug. 5, 2011

Dear friends of the Egypt-Nygards,

On June 10, 22 graduates of Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo (ETSC) walked across the platform of Heliopolis Presbyterian Church to receive their diplomas. Nineteen of them received the bachelor of theology degree and will serve as pastors in the churches of Egypt and Sudan. Three of them were Master of Arts in Theological Studies – our program. Let me introduce you to them and their theses. It will help you reflect on the work that you are part of at the seminary. We are proud of them.

• Redda Thabet Ibrahim is a seasoned pastor in his 40s serving a large church in Assiut. He was interested in Old Testament passages where Israel was commanded to destroy entire towns of those they conquered. To his Muslim neighbors, these verses seemed to suggest that our so-called religion of love also sanctioned violence. His thesis, “Some Explanations for the Command of Yahweh to War and Ban in the Book of Joshua,” addresses ways we can understand this.

• Fouad Shaker Fouad Sedky, an Egyptologist by training, explored what Jewish sources around the time of Christ had to say about an early Old Testament monotheist in a thesis, “Jethro in the Jewish Tradition:  Pagan or Proselyte?” Fouad is a presbyter in Helwan just south of Cairo, and serves the seminary as coordinator of the Organizational Leadership and Management program under me as well as head librarian.

• Vivian Farok Beshara is a pharmacist on the Delta who is fascinated by languages. She has taught Greek, studied Coptic, and mastered English besides her own native Arabic. Only such a person could have used all four languages in a single thesis, “Al-As‘ad Hibat Allah Ibn al-‘Assāl: His Contribution to the Formation of New Identity of Copts in Egypt through His Critical Translation of the Gospel of Luke.” Vevian argues that her 13th century scholar purposely avoided Muslim vocabulary in translating the third Gospel and suggests possible reasons why.

Sincerely in Him,
Mark and Linda Nygard

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The Rev. Fred and Gloria Strickert are ELCA missionaries in Palestine. Fred is pastor of the English-speaking congregation at the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Jerusalem. To support the Strickerts, a Young Adult in Global Mission coordinator or another of the ELCA’s nearly 250 missionaries, go to www.elca.org/missionarysponsorship.

YAGM particiapnts see the world through different eyes.

We have been blessed this past year here in Jerusalem with six amazing, dedicated, and talented young adults (we call them YAGMs) who have impacted our lives and the lives of the Palestinian church, while taking a giant step that means they will never see the world in the same way as before.

The YAGM program remains the ELCA’s best kept secret—even after 10 years.

I still remember the day 12 years or so ago when my academic advisee, Brandon, walked into my Wartburg College office announcing that he had decided to take a year off from college for this new ELCA program in England called “Time for God” — that was what the program was called that first year. I tried to talk Brandon out of it. “I’ll never see you again,” I told him. “You’ll just drop out of school.” Instead, Brandon returned a year later a different person, a new and improved Brandon, a Brandon who had new eyes for his academic work, a Brandon with a strong sense of calling for work in the church.

Over the next years, I found myself encouraging students to apply for this new YAGM program. Hearing about their experiences, I learned a lot about the world and the global church. I also came to realize what a gem the ELCA has in this life-shaping program.

Consider the impact that 419 YAGMs have had on the church returning from a year of service over these last 10 years — 40 to 50 every year.

Now after a year, we have said our farewells to our six YAGMs, who living and working side-by-side with Palestinian Christians have changed the perceptions about Americans while having their own eyes opened about people mostly neglected and often inaccurately maligned in the media.

By now, our six YAGMs — Janelle, Sarah, Abby, Trena, David and Luke — have arrived in the States, readjusting with culture shock but energized, and realizing they will never be the same. Two are heading to seminary this fall, one to grad school in social work, one to Lutheran Volunteer Corps, one to a community art program, and one to serve as a recruiter for ELCA Global Mission before later enrolling in Dental School.

In Jerusalem, there is an empty spot without them. By the end of August, however, we will be welcoming Michelle, Sara, Megan, Alma, Courtney, and Laurin-Whitney as they begin a year as Young Adults in Global Mission.

So we invite your prayers for the entire YAGM program throughout the world and especially here in Jerusalem.

Fred and Gloria Strickert

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