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.

New partnership in Mexico

Posted on October 9th, 2009 by Timothy Fries

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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YAGM scales Stuff Mountain

Posted on September 4th, 2009 by Sue Edison-Swift

Kaitlin Nelson, a new ELCA Young Adult in Global Mission serving in Mexico, writes of her recent transition from college graduation to ELCA missionary in the latest edition of Cafe, Women of the ELCA’s e-newsletter.  Below, find brief excerpt from her article.   After reading the excerpt, consider these two questions (and share any thoughts they spark as a comment).
1.  When have you faced the need to “let go” to go?
2.  After a major sort of stuff, what are you glad to have shed, grateful to have kept or sorry to have tossed?
–Sue Edison-Swift
Mountain of stuff
Since I can take very little with me, I am going to have to get rid of stuff.  Sorting through items from my apartment at college (that now line the walls of my parents’ basement), I realize that the objects are valuable because of the memories they bring. They are reminders of gifts received from family and friends, quirky purchases, and hand-me-downs.  The items that I have to donate will go into one bin, things that will be discarded will go into another, and those that I will save are going into a third container.  Even though I will not bring this collection of stuff along, it has been a part of me and discarding it is not easy.
 As I wrestle with questions about what it means to be transformed by the new realities I will face, I trust that my faith journey could not be whole without doing this.  –Kaitlin Nelson

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Influenza doesn’t stop ordination celebration in Mexico

Posted on May 6th, 2009 by admin

ordination-765153Thanks to the Rev. David Brandos, ELCA missionary in Mexico, for sharing this update.

During the past couple of weeks we here in Mexico have been living with the restrictions established by the Mexican government over the influenza outbreak. We were caught by surprise on Thursday night, April 23, when we learned that classes at all levels would be cancelled on the following day because of concerns about so-called “swine flu.”

We had big plans for Saturday, April 25, since the first three woman graduates of our Lutheran Seminary were going to be ordained together in a special service here at the Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd as the first Lutheran woman pastors in Mexico. Because of the flu situation, there were questions as to whether to proceed or not, but we did. The attendance was much lower than we originally expected, since the government was heavily discouraging any type of large public gathering like a church service. You can see in the photo of the ordination how a number of people were wearing surgical masks.

After almost two weeks of no school, no religious services, no restaurant service, and no other activities involving large numbers of people, things are now returning to normal. However, what has been most difficult for the majority of people is not so much dealing with health issues but with the disastrous effects that all of this has had on the Mexican economy. Many people here have been without work. Foreigners are now afraid to come to Mexico or to have any contact at all with Mexicans, even when they are perfectly healthy. For a good article on these problems, see: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8035802.stm

Please continue to remember all of us in your prayers, including especially those who have been hit hardest by this crisis.

–David Brondos, ELCA Missionary in Mexico

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