Hand in Hand Global Mission Support Blog Digest

Jisella Ibarra is living for a year in Malaysia through the ELCA Young Adults in Global Mission (YAGM) program. The program relies on coordinators who facilitate the young adults’ ministry and provide mentoring and spiritual guidance. To support a YAGM coordinator, go to www.elca.org/missionarysponsorship.

Poverty in urban Manilla.

Recently, I took a trip to the Philippines thanks to some additional support from home. (Thanks Dad!) I work with Filipino and Indonesian immigrants, so I wanted to see where most of my kids were coming from and why so many people immigrate to Malaysia from the Philippines.

It wasn’t very hard to miss the high degree of poverty. We hear about poverty and we are saddened by it. But I have to say it is really something else when you are in the middle of it all and can breathe in its intoxicating reality.

There were kids begging the tourists for money just to be sent away empty handed. At times you could spot a group of kids counting their coins just hoping that it would be enough to feed all of them for the night. And at the next corner there would be a poor child lying on the ground too weak to get up. I doubt they had families to take care of them or a home to go back to.

There were many Filipino women with desperate looks in their eyes accompanied by white men. I can’t imagine how terrible their situation was to give into prostitution and live with it as if it was a normal part of life. It shocked me to see how open this community was to this matter.

Never in my life had I felt as vulnerable as I did then, just to imagine what all of these women go through just to survive. My heart screams “That isn’t life.” I just ponder in agony, where is the love that Jesus came down here to teach us? That selfless love all Jesus’ followers should have?

As I have come up to this point in my YAGM year and have experienced so many things I never could have imagined, I feel that the main purpose for my time here in Malaysia is about seeing things that we miss in our ordinary lives because we are too busy to stop and take a closer look. It’s about giving into vulnerability and letting our hearts to be broken by the injustices of this world. It is when we are most vulnerable that we are able to see with more clarity what God wants us to see and give ourselves into his plan.

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Brian and Kristen Konkol are nearing the end of their service as ELCA missionaries in South Africa, where they have been coordinators for the Young Adults in Global Mission program. To support any of the ELCA’s 230 missionaries, go to www.elca.org/missionarysponsorship.

Kristen and Brian Konkol and their son, Khaya.

I have already begun to hear others speak of our departure from South Africa as the conclusion of our global missionary service.  I totally disagree with this assertion, for in many ways it is only the beginning. I believe wholeheartedly that God’s global mission through Jesus is about reconciliation, transformation and empowerment, thus a global Christian missionary is one who seeks to reconcile, transform and empower, by the grace of God, and for the sake of the world.  I cannot see myself stopping such activity at any point, as everywhere is the “mission field,” each day constitutes numerous “mission trips” and every local action has a global reaction.

In a world that possesses division and violence, I believe God is on a global mission of reconciliation, and I plan to participate fully within in. In a world were billions of people scrape through life in spirit-destroying poverty, I believe God is on a global mission of transformation, and I plan to participate fully within it. In the midst of a world that is thirsty for compassionate servant-leaders, I believe God is on a global mission of empowerment, and I plan to participate fully within it. And so, our global missionary work has not concluded, but it will transition to something new, and by God’s grace I look forward to this new, exciting, and challenging chapter.

Kristen, Khaya, and I will return to North America and always seek to learn about the joys and struggles of the people whom we are called to accompany. In addition, we will always discern who God is and who we are in the midst of such diverse settings, and we will always consider how we may contribute to what God is doing to and through an ever-changing and increasingly complex world. We will remain mindful of the lessons we learned in Guyana, South Africa and beyond, we will hold tight to the wonderful friendships formed, and we will continue to be shaped in the years ahead alongside whatever local and global community we are placed.

And so, as we enter into this process of transitions, decisions and additions, Kristen and I ask for your ongoing thoughts and prayers, for just as so many have loved and supported us throughout the past years, we trust that such encouragement will continue in the time ahead. We look forward to this next chapter of life and ministry. We thank God that so many will walk this journey alongside us, and we look forward to all that God will do “to us all” and “through us all” in the years ahead.

Pastor Brian E. Konkol
Project Co-Coordinator, South Africa
Young Adults in Global Mission

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The Rev. Miriam Schmidt is an ELCA missionary in Bratislava, Slovakia. To support  Miriam, or another of the ELCA’s 230 missionaries, go to www.elca.org/missionarysponsorship.

The Rev. Miriam Schmidt

So here we are, at home, in Bratislava — in Slovak, “doma v Bratislava.” We arrived on Feb. 3.

The Bratislava International Church, of which I’m the new pastor, has become the — often temporary — church home for a remarkably diverse group of people over the last two decades. Refugees, ex-patriots, teachers, businesspeople, students, volunteers, government officials and many more from more countries than you can count have come, and still come for Sunday morning worship. Off the top of my head, some of the countries of origin presently represented include Jamaica, Nigeria, Uganda, South Africa, Great Britain, the United States, Indonesia, Korea, Denmark, Norway, Israel, Mexico, Hungary, and of course Slovakia. but this is hardly a complete list. In addition, many of the people who come to the International Church have lived in still other countries around the world before they found their way to Slovakia — Jordan, Morocco, Togo, Namibia — to name a few.

The pastors who have served this congregation since 1994 have come from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, but those who come to Bratislava International Church come from many different denominational backgrounds: Presbyterians, Pentecostals, Assemblies of God, Church of England, Roman Catholics, to name a few. There are also Lutherans from the United States and from the Evangelical (Lutheran) Church in Slovakia.

But somehow by the power of the Holy Spirit and the call of God through Jesus Christ we manage midst all these differences to gather on Sunday morning around Word and Sacrament, to pray and sing, to worship and fellowship together. Thanks be to God that such a thing is possible at all! And I give particular thanks that my family and I have the opportunity to take part in this temporary church home of Bratislava International Church over the next (at least) four years.

Besides being pastor of the Bratislava International Church, my other work through ELCA Global Mission is to coordinate the ELCA’s Young Adults in Global Mission Program in Central Europe. I am now in the process of setting up sites for the four YAGM’s who will be coming to Central Europe next fall for one year. The young adults who come to serve here will intersect with the Roma (or Gypsy) people of Slovakia and Hungary.

Those who come here have no small task. In fact, I am a little in awe of the (as yet unknown!) young adults who will come to be Central European YAGMs next year.  But even more, I am grateful for the chance I have to meet and accompany these young adults through a year of life and work abroad. I hope to provide comfort, prayers, and some practical nuts-and-bolts assistance along the way.

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The Young Adults in Global Mission (YAGM) program is reliant on coordinators who facilitate the young adults’ ministry and provide mentoring and spiritual guidance.  The Rev. Peter Harrits is the coordinator for Malaysia. To support a YAGM coordinator,  go to www.elca.org/missionarysponsorship.

YAGM participants navigate a labyrinth.

“In the beginning was the Tao (道), and the Tao was with God, and the Tao was God …”

These words, the opening words to the Gospel of John as translated into Chinese, sound both comfortingly similar and utterly different to my ears. The familiar “Word” has here been rendered into the unfamiliar word ”Tao” — and with it the passage unfolds in a slightly different manner.

Of course when we use ”Word” in English translations of the Bible, we don’t actually mean the words we see on a page or speak in everyday speech; rather it is an attempt to reflect the original Greek word “logos” — a term pointing to the reason or logic behind all that is.

Likewise, when the Bible was translated into Chinese the character that was chosen was not the one for the spoken or written word but Tao — a rich word meaning path or way, pointing to regularity, order, and harmony. In all three languages, in this text, the word in question ultimately refers to Christ.

I learned all of this on a retreat I took with the Young Adults in Global Mission (aka YAGMs) I serve to Hong Kong. Staying at Pilgrim’s Hall at Tao Fong Shan Christian Center, we spent our days learning about Chinese spirituality and other religions in the region, trying to bridge the gap between Eastern and Western thinking, and contemplating the claim and the call God has already made and extended to each of us.

If I understand it correctly, and believe me when I say I’m a novice, part of the Tao is recognizing that everything has its own way or form of being. Year in and year out flowers and trees will bud and bloom in one way, cancers and diseases progress in another. There is an inherent beauty of regularity and balanced order to it all.

In my role as country coordinator for the ELCA’s YAGM program in Malaysia, I’m learning that there is truth to this concept embodied in each of the eight absolutely unique young adults who have been called to serve here. They each have their own sense of humor and areas of strength, as well as remnants of brokenness and moments of vulnerability.

While the theological language I’m most familiar with speaks in terms of each young adult being lovingly created in the Image of God, equipped with a certain set of gifts, talents, skills, and abilities and called to be bearers of Christ, the Word, in all that they do, the word Tao reminds me that each has a certain mode of being as well.

Through their year of service, of walking as resident aliens in a strange land, it is my hope and prayer that they may begin to discern the path — Christ, the Way — that is both before and within each of them.

For the opportunity to accompany them in that journey, and your prayerful support, I give thanks.

— Peter

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Austin and Tanya Propst are the new ELCA Young Adults in Global Missions (YAGM) coordinators of Madagascar. They have recently completed their language studies. Here they share a video of a gift of song they were welcomed with at a Lutheran church near Antsirabe. The YAGM  program is reliant on the coordinators who facilitate the young adults’ ministry and provide mentoring and spiritual guidance.  To support a YAGM coordinator, go to www.elca.org/missionarysponsorship

Singers offer the gift of music to Austin and Tanya Propst, who were visiting the congregation in Madagascar.

We’ve learned it is not uncommon for a congregation to share their gift of song with visitors.  We have been blessed many times with such beautiful singing.  Enjoy this (rough) video from a Lutheran Church outside of Antsirabe we attended. Click this link: Worship Music

Enjoy the tunes!

- Austin & Tanya

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Elizabeth (Liz) Frey is part of the ELCA Young Adults in Global Mission (YAGM) program, spending a year in Malaysia teaching English as a second language. The program is reliant on coordinators who facilitate the young adults’ ministry and provide mentoring and spiritual guidance. To support a YAGM coordinator,  go to www.elca.org/missionarysponsorship.

Young Adults in Global Mission participants are commissioned in September 2011.

I recently listened to a sermon regarding these verses from 1 Corinthians 9: “I have become all things to all people, that I might by all means save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share in its blessings” (verse 22-23). The pastor explained the text as Paul crossing social boundaries that his society had built up. He was taking risks in order to tell anyone and everyone about Jesus. Paul was jumping the lines that separated people in his day.

This mental image got me thinking: As a YAGM, how am I crossing lines in pursuit of sharing God’s message?

First, just being a YAGM forces one to cross a line.  That line could be cultural as in stepping from the consumer culture of the U.S. to living a simple life in a new country. As a YAGM, I left the American culture I was immersed in for 23 years to become part of a culture I knew very little about.

But, there are many more lines that I have had to cross since coming to Malaysia almost six months ago. I have become a teacher. I don’t have a degree in education, but here I am teaching English several days a week to future pastors. I have become a meat-eater. This is mundane, but in a culture that does not facilitate to vegetarians, I crossed a line in order to immerse myself here.

Most importantly, my faith has crossed a line in the months that I have lived in Malaysia. Honestly, I was a “Sunday Christian” prior to coming to this country. I only thought about God on Sunday, while I was at church. I never read my Bible and rarely prayed. I had faith, but it wasn’t part of my daily life. Living and working at a seminary has changed me in dramatic ways.

Being in Malaysia has changed me in amazing ways. I live my life with God in mind. I have crossed a line and become something all for the sake of trying to live out the gospel.

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Austin and Tanya Propst are the new ELCA Young Adults in Global Mission (YAGM) coordinators for Madagascar. They have just arrived in what will be their new home for the next four years. The YAGM  program is reliant on the coordinators who facilitate the young adults’ ministry and provide mentoring and spiritual guidance.  To support a YAGM coordinator, go to www.elca.org/missionarysponsorship.

After 43 hours, from Asheville, N.C., to Tana, Madagascar, Tanya and Austin Propst arrived at 2 p.m. local time with no lost bags, very little sleep and hot sunshine to greet them.

Madagascar!  Yes, we have been called to be the coordinators for the ELCA’s Young Adults in Global Mission program in Madagascar. We will walk with the people of Madagascar, as we work with young adults from the United States who feel God pulling on their heart strings, to experience God on a global level. So what does that mean? Stay tuned and we’ll find out together. We will be in Madagascar, living in Antananarivo (say it, three times fast!), for a four-year commitment, so we’ll have plenty to talk about.

There is a saying in Malagasy, “Tsihibelambana ny olona,” which is roughly translated to mean that all people together are a great broad mat. That to me means unity; oneness that can be felt, enjoyed, and shared by all people. Tanya and I are super excited to be embarking on a journey in Madagascar, where the people understand that we are all from the same mat. We are one.

We’ll keep you up-to-date on our adventures to come!

Austin

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The ELCA Young Adults in Global Mission (YAGM) program is reliant on coordinators who facilitate the young adults’ ministry and provide mentoring and spiritual guidance.  To support a YAGM coordinator,  go to www.elca.org/missionarysponsorship. Andrea and Luke Roske-Metcalfe are YAGM coordinators in Cuernavaca, Mexico. Here Andrea provides a snapshot of some of the young adults’ work.

Looking for a lost dog and learning responsibility.

During November and December, I visited all my Young Adults in Global Mission volunteers at their work sites.  Before they arrive (and even sometimes after they’ve been here for awhile), these volunteers often have very romanticized notions about what it means to be a missionary of the ELCA. This is often also true of their friends, families and supporting congregations.

We don’t tend to imagine that they spend their days carrying large quantities of condoms from place to place on the subway, or setting fires in dry, open fields or pushing wheelbarrows full of small children around the streets, shouting over and over the name of a lost dog.

But, indeed, that is what they do, at least here in Mexico. Let me explain.  Kyle works for Casa de la Sal, an HIV and AIDS treatment, prevention and educational organization in Mexico City.  He spends his days giving workshops to people of all ages, dispelling myths about HIV and AIDS (both of which are much more prevalent here than they are in the U.S.), and teaching the basics of safer sex.

Ian works on Rancho La Troje, an organic farm and permaculture education center. The day I visited, he and the other farm hands were doing controlled burns to prevent wildfires from sweeping across the hillside.

And Kent works for Caminando Unidos, an alternative education center in Cuernavaca.  The center’s dog had run away the day before I visited, and the curriculum there is very hands-on.  The staff wanted to teach the children responsibility and the value of looking out for one another.  So half the school, everyone from babies to staff in their mid-20s, went on a dog-hunt!  Kent piled the four youngest in a wheelbarrow, and we were off.  We didn’t find the dog that day, but those kids took care of one another, and they took care of their dog in the only way they knew how.

These are only three of my volunteers this year, but suffice it to say that all seven of them are serving their communities in ways that they, their supporting communities, and even I could never have imagined. They are living and learning and loving alongside God’s people here.

Andrea Roske-Metcalfe

Erin Lee is a part of the ELCA’s Young Adults in Global Mission (YAGM) program. She’s spending a year in Montevideo, Uruguay. The YAGM program is reliant on coordinators who facilitate the young adults’ ministry and provide mentoring and spiritual guidance.  To support a YAGM coordinator,  go to www.elca.org/missionarysponsorship.

YAGM participant Erin Lee, caught in a lighter moment.

 In theory I love the idea of accompaniment, the ELCA model for global mission. Everyone coming together as equals, and supporting each other so that together we can further the work of the church. So what you might ask is the problem? Well, living out accompaniment is not as simple as it sounds (or at least sounded to me). Because the focus is building relationships, there is often not a tangible project to work on, thus there is also no tangible result.

But every once in a while I  have a shining “ah ha!” moment where I feel like I really get it. This is the story of one of those moments:

I recently went to Buenos Aires for the weekend for a churchwide assembly. One of the people who went with us to represent Nuestro Salvador (my church here in Montevideo) was Marisol. She is the mom of the kids the pastor and I work with on Saturday mornings, and she also works in the church. She is really nice, but I hadn’t really talked with her. But in Buenos Aires we drank a lot of mate (a traditional tea drink important to the culture) together and had some bonding moments. Then on Saturday morning when we got to her house she wasn’t there, but she had left her mate and terma with hot water ready for us on the table.  Drinking mate together with someone is how you share community here. When someone offers you mate, they are inviting you into their life. I felt so loved and included by the simple action of Marisol leaving her mate there on the table for me.

I felt like for the first time I really understood how accompaniment could work. I pray that God will continue to remind me of this when I get focused on “achieving” things so I won’t lose my focus on the people I am here to love.

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