The year spent with ELCA Hunger Advocacy Fellows enhances our work and ministry at the D.C. and state public policy offices in the ELCA-affiliated network where they are located and enriches their future encounters with a year spent loaded with opportunity, networking, discernment and engagement.  

In the 2022-23 cycle, three leaders are placed through funding of ELCA World Hunger in California, Ohio and Washington, D.C. where they’ve expressed eagerness to connect, learn and grow as they help work for a world where all are fed. 

 

Savannah Jorgensen (she/her):

Savannah Jorgensen is currently serving with the Lutheran Office of Public Policy – California. Before joining the ELCA, Jorgensen received her master’s degree in Atmospheric Sciences from Texas A&M University. She also holds her bachelor’s degree in Meteorology from Valparaiso University.  

With these education foundations, this Fellow has a passionate interest in environmental justice and climate change policy, so she is very excited to work in advocacy in Sacramento. In her free time, Jorgensen enjoys singing, spending time outdoors, and relaxing with her cat. 

 

Jillian Russell (she/her):

Jillian Russell is currently serving with Hunger Network Ohio. Russell graduated from Capital University in Columbus, Ohio where she studied Youth Ministry and Christian Education and Psychology. While in her undergraduate program, she focused her education surrounding the intersection of religion and agriculture and on how religious groups can engage members in new and exciting ways and advocate for one another. This encouraged Russell to find a passion in outdoor ministry where she served two summers at both Agape Kure Beach Ministries and Rainbow Trail Lutheran Camp.  

Currently, Russell serves on the synod council of the ELCA Northwestern Ohio Synod. As an ELCA Hunger Advocacy Fellow, she hopes to continue her work in building connections between people of different faiths, traditions, and backgrounds while also advocating for state and local issues surrounding these topics.  

 

Kayla Zopfi (she/they): 

Since August, Kayla Zopfi has been serving with D.C.-based advocacy staff on the ELCA Witness in Society team. Zopfi graduated from Concordia College, Moorhead, where they studied Religion, Political Science and Interfaith Studies. Through her coursework and involvement, Zopfi became interested in understanding how people’s core values affect the way they see and interact with their communities and the world around them, and found her passions for institutional reform and storytelling.   

Zopfi recently concluded a Lutheran Volunteer Corps year of service with the ELCA Minneapolis Area Synod, where she was the Communications and Administrative Associate. Outside of work, Zopfi loves podcasts and audiobooks, talking about the Enneagram and astrology, and building new connections! 

 

Colleen Montgomery, Salem,VA

Warm-up Questions

• Did you ever have toy like was like you? If so, how was it like you? 
• What toy would you be excited to buy a younger sibling, cousin, or neighbor for Christmas? 

Like Me, Like Christ

Shoppers across the country are buying toys for Christmas presents for the children in their lives. While many toy manufacturers have increased the racial diversity of their dolls and action figures, there is a segment of children who still don’t see themselves in the toys they find under the tree on Christmas day. Children with disabilities and medical conditions. 

 

Roanoke College (one of the ELCA’s colleges) has a chapter of Toy Like Me whose purpose is to adapt toys to look like children who have disabilities and medical conditions. Toy Like Me recently hosted a modfication day where they modified nearly 200 toys for children in the Roanoke Valley in Virginia. 

Volunteers from the club and wider campus community added cochlear implants, insulin pumps, and other assistive devices. Dolls, stuffed animals, and action figures are customized to the requests of many families. The club also modified toys with port-a-caths to be given to local hospitals for children when they are diagnosed with cancer. 

 

Founded by biology professor, Frances McCutcheon, Toy Like Me has been modifying toys since 2016. McCutcheon also teaches classes at the college on differ-abilities where students are able to spend 48 hours experiencing what it is like to live with a disability. Students then make recommendations to the college on how to improve accessibility across campus. 

Toy Like Me has helped make Christmas a little brighter, and the students are helping to make their college community a more accessible and welcoming community. 

Discussion Questions

• How do you think a child feels when they receive a toy that is like them for perhaps the very first time? 
• Have you ever had a classmate who had a disability? What modifications were in place to enable them to be a part of the classroom community? 
• How does someone with a wheelchair get around your school?

Third Sunday of Advent

Isaiah 35:1-10

James 5:7-10

Matthew 11:2-11

(Text links are to Oremus Bible Browser. Oremus Bible Browser is not affiliated with or supported by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. You can find the calendar of readings for Year C at Lectionary Readings.)

For lectionary humor and insight, check the weekly comic Agnus Day.

Gospel Reflection

In Matthew 11, John the Baptist, a prominent prophet of the time, wants to be sure that Jesus is the real deal. If Jesus was a modern day celebrity, John would want to know that Jesus had the little blue check next to his photo on social media. Jesus points to the restoration of people who experience sight loss, mobility concerns, skin diseases, and hearing loss as a sign of his divinity and as validation of his status as Son of God. Only the Son of God could heal like that. 

However, we do a disservice to the people that Jesus restored if we view them only as proof for God’s plan or if we lump them all together as people that Jesus healed. Each person that Jesus touched had a whole life, a whole story, a family, hopes, and dreams. Their illness or disability presented challenges for their daily living. 

One of the main reasons for those challenges was the social separation that the wider society forced on them. Instead of finding ways to care for the sick in community or to empower those experiencing a disability to contribute to the community, they shut them out. Cast them off. Forced them to live isolated lives. 

For those who were sick, the healing that Jesus provided saved their lives. Yet for those who experienced blindness, loss of hearing, or mobility challenges, the restoration returned them to community. In a different place, in a different time, these people could have led full and happy lives with their disability. But Israel at the turn of the millennium was not that time or place. Jesus allows them to re-enter the life of their family, to work, and maybe to be partnered.

We are like Jesus  when we join in the work of making our communities accessible to all people. As with all projects meant to serve and support, this work is best done in conversation and collaboration with those we hope will benefit from it. When possible, letting people with disabilities take the lead in the design of adaptations or renovations is best. Then the wider community can help fund, build, and celebrate the inclusion of more of God’s beloved children. 

Discussion Questions

• If someone in your group or church has a disability and they would be comfortable sharing, invite them to tell the group about what is like to come to church. 
• How does it feel when you are left out of a game or activity that you wanted to be a part of? 
• How can you be more mindful in your everyday life of those who move through life differently than you?

Activity Suggestions

• Find a wheelchair or office chair with wheels and take it the parking lot of your church building. Pretend that you are a worship leader and need to get into the building, use the restroom, and then make it to the lectern. Were you able to complete the tasks? What modifications would need to be made in the building for a person who uses a wheelchair to be a worship leader? What modifications would need to be made for a person in a wheelchair to be the pastor or deacon? 
• Go onto the ELCA website and use the Find A Congregation tool to search for accessible churches near you. How far would you have to travel to attend a church for each of the categories under accessibility/disability?
• Learn sign language for your favorite Christmas hymn and incorporate it into your Christmas Eve worship, even if it is just from the pews. Some tutorials can be found here.

Closing Prayer

Creating God, you made each body different. Each of us is able to experience creation and share love with the world, even if we don’t all do it in the same way. Use our gifts to help make our community more accessible and welcoming to all people, however our bodies and minds work. Amen. 

 

ELCA World Hunger is excited to announce the addition of a new staff member, Everdith Landrau. Read more about her below! 

Hi everyone, my name is Everdith Landrau, also known as Evie, and I am delighted to join the ELCA World Hunger as Director of Networking and Engagement.  I am a native of San Juan, Puerto Rio by way of Manhattan (Spanish Harlem), New York.  I am an ordained Minister of Word and Sacrament with the Presbyterian Church, (USA).  My grandmother fostered the love of service early on in my childhood.  Growing up in an urban setting both in Puerto Rico and Spanish Harlem exposed me to the many struggles of hunger, food insecurity and poverty in Black and Latinex communities.

My service to the Church has taken different forms, including ecumenism, inter-faith relations, faith formation, youth and young adult ministry, art/healing movement, and food justice and advocacy.  As an ecumenical leader with my local congregation and the World Council of Churches, I collaborated in various justice service programmatic projects and critical theological reflection.  My doctoral research was focused on the health disparities of African American women in Charlotte, NC.  I researched the realities of how health disparities, hunger, food insecurity, and entrenched institutional racism prevents the flourishing of many Black and Brown communities in the South and the United States.

Much of my passion for prophetic justice has been nurtured by mentors, my spiritual formation alongside Black and Brown siblings and immigrant communities.  I have been honored to be a pastor in North Carolina while participating in community engagement and networking between diverse communities.  In many of our churches, we addressed hunger through soup kitchens, food pantries and intentional advocacy projects with local officials and nonprofit organizations.  I believe in the power of building resilient communities and creating brave spaces of dialogue, action and prayer.

In my free time, I enjoy exercising, creating handmade jewelry, dancing, and playing with my three-year-old daughter, Aluna.

This past Sunday, across many Christian traditions, the season of Advent began. This season begins with apocalypse, revelation. Contrary to the popular and colloquial use of the term apocalypse, it does not mean “end of the world.”  Quite literally, apocalypse means revelation, pulling [the curtain] away. When a play begins there is an apocalypse – the curtain is drawn, and the show is revealed. When I was a child, every morning was apocalyptic; my mother would pull the covers off me, my day began exposed to the chilling reality of a new day.  

Recently, I was honored to represent Lutheran Disaster Response alongside Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton and Bishop Pedro Suarez of the Florida–Bahamas Synod in bearing witness to the initial response and relief work in southwest Florida after Hurricane Ian. Many described the scene as apocalyptic – in both senses of the word. The power of creation manifest in a hurricane like Ian is awesome and horrifying. 

Disasters are apocalyptic. The fragility of human society and engineering is revealed in piles of rubble; the disparate impact disaster has on poor and working people, which are disproportionately communities of color. Mansions are left standing among the rubble of the homes of those who could not afford hurricane-resistant architectural upgrades. Those with strained finances fall further and further behind those with ample extra grain silos.  

Advent is also a season of hope. How can we hope in the midst of disaster, apocalypse? Jesus does not promise that his followers won’t be without suffering. In fact, throughout the Biblical witness, God is present in the midst of desolation and destruction. Even last Sunday, Jesus promised to be present during apocalypse, revelations of who we are as people, communities, and a society. The divine is not a source of the destruction, but the source of life which endures in its midst. Among the destruction in southwest Florida, one apocalypse of many, the Fountain of Life is alive and working through aid workers, emergency service providers, and neighbors offering mutual support; God’s voice echoes with those demanding justice; people from around the world are sharing their time and talents. Martin Luther is famed for teaching that humans are “simultaneously sinner and saint.” The apocalypse of disaster reveals both the shocking evil and persistent good. In this season of Advent, I invite you to join me in discerning the ways God is present in the midst of disaster, discerning what God is calling us to do, and participating in God’s saving, healing, feeding presence. 

 

 

Pastor Matthew Zemanick (he/they) is the Program Director for Lutheran Disaster Response Initiatives.

 

 

The Horn of Africa is experiencing its worst drought in decades. Through the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), ELCA World Hunger is working in the Kakuma region in Kenya alongside the local government to help build the capacity of families to respond to and withstand worsening droughts in the region. LWF initiatives include training in climate-smart farming practices, building and repairing water wells, managing the water supply, promoting hygiene and more.

The stories below reflect the impact of our work together to end hunger through ELCA World Hunger.

Kojo

Kojo is a mother who lives in the Kakuma Refugee Camp in northwestern Kenya. The stresses of drought facing the Horn of Africa, compounded by the global food crisis, have had a big impact on Kojo and her three kids.

“We did not have fresh food, and at the time no one in the whole village practiced farming,” Kojo said. “It was difficult to get food. The children survived on one meal a day, and there wasn’t enough for everyone.”

Things improved for Kojo when she attended trainings, supported in part by ELCA World Hunger, to learn about “net-house” farming. This method of farming, employing net-enclosed structures, is cost-effective and allows Kojo to cultivate crops year-round, regardless of harsh climate conditions such as drought.

With the skills and tools to practice this method of agriculture, Kojo now has a sustainable source of food. “My life has really changed,” Kojo says.

I am able to provide food for my family, and I sell some of the produce to my neighbors. In turn I am able to buy things like soap and sugar. I feel better, my children are in good health, and I get some money from selling my farm products.

Equipping mothers such as Kojo to support their families goes even further than the fresh food on the table. Ensuring economic stability keeps kids in school, improves their health, relieves social pressure on those who have migrated to the area and prevents children from having to enter the labor market.

As the drought in Kenya and the rest of the Horn of Africa intensifies, the work ELCA World Hunger supports becomes all the more critical. Kojo is eager to expand her net-house farming for greater success as the effects of climate change deepen. “I hope we can plant more varieties of drought-resistant crops and establish another net house for even greater returns,” Kojo shares. “This way we will be able to generate more income for our families and uplift our community.”

The persistent drought is causing an uptick in migration in the Horn of Africa, and our partners such as LWF in Kakuma Refugee Camp are receiving more requests for services — especially education and agricultural training.

“I am really grateful for the support,” Kojo said. “This will go a long way in ensuring sustainability in food production in our communities.”

James and Esther

James and Esther work hard to shield their 12 children from the stinging effects of the current drought in the Horn of Africa, its worst in four decades. Every day, as the children play joyfully outside the family home, James and Esther wonder if they will be able to pull together one meal for the family.

“What do you do in an environment where everything has dried up?” James said.

“Part of our way of dealing with this biting hunger has been to survive on a single meal a day or supplement our diet with wild fruits. Sadly, the fruit trees that once lined the riverbanks have also dried up.”

Esther has noticed how mothers struggle to nourish their children: “Being a mother of 12, I know the pain of watching children cry for food and water. Thankfully, we now have a nearby well maintained by LWF.” The well has significantly eased the burden of obtaining water, so families have more to drink and cook with. “Women in this village are relieved that they no longer have to endure the five-hour walks to fetch water at a seasonal river,” Esther explained.

 

ELCA World Hunger at work in the Horn of Africa

Up until recently, we were celebrating improvements in the work to end hunger, but decades of progress have been undone by the lingering effects of COVID-19, the rise in violent conflict and the intensifying effects of climate change. The commitment to local, sustainable and adaptive farming is essential in reclaiming that progress.

ELCA World Hunger funds programs around the world that accompany people facing hunger and poverty. In more than 60 countries, including the United States, we walk alongside companions who are hard at work providing food, health care, agricultural training, safe water, education, livelihood support and more.

The Horn of Africa drought is only one example of the emerging and urgent needs facing ELCA World Hunger partners. We are well-positioned and ready to respond to these needs and many more as our partners and companions request financial support.

Alex Zuber, Harrisonburg, VA

Warm-up Questions

Can you think of a time where you felt like no one heard or understood you?  What did it feel like to be overlooked or even misrepresented?  How did you try to be understood or be noticed?

Truly Listening?

In recent weeks, our country has been rocked once again by gun violence targeting the LGBTQIA+ community.  On the eve of the Transgender Day of Remembrance, a lone gunman walked into Club Q—an LGBTQ friendly nightclub in Colorado Springs, CO—and opened fire, killing 5 people and wounding 17 more.  The shooter was subdued by an army veteran and a trans woman who acted with incredible bravery, but not before Daniel Davis Ashton, Raymond Green, Kelly Loving, Ashley Paugh, and Derrick Rump were added to the litany of those who have died at the hands of anti-LGBTQIA+ violence.

Like the devastating 2016 shooting at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, this act of violence bears an extra measure of cruelty in that it happened at a club which has so often been a place of safety, refuge, and affirmation for a community that faces daily fear and rejection by family, friends, and strangers.  Comfort, love, and community flourished in  Club Q, where the patrons simply wanted to be seen, loved, and valued for who they were made to be.  In this heinous act, a place of sanctuary was violated, and this act should serve as a wake up call to people of faith who have been a part of perpetuating anti-LGBTQIA+ bias for far too long.

As the voices of the LGBTQIA+ community have cried out from the wilderness of pain, sorrow, and fear over these last weeks, it asks the question of the church as a whole… are we truly listening?

Discussion Questions

• Mass shootings in the United States have become all too frequent in recent years.  Were you aware of this act of violence?  How prevalent has this story been in your circles of conversation and why?
• What have you heard LGBTQIA+ siblings say in recent weeks about how they are feeling in the wake of this violence?  If you are an LGBTQIA+ person, have you had someone with whom you could share and process your feelings?

Second Sunday of Advent

Isaiah 11:1-10

Romans 15:4-13

Matthew 3:1-12

(Text links are to Oremus Bible Browser. Oremus Bible Browser is not affiliated with or supported by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. You can find the calendar of readings for Year C at Lectionary Readings.)

For lectionary humor and insight, check the weekly comic Agnus Day.

Gospel Reflection

Matthew 3 bridges the gap between Matthew’s birth narrative of Jesus (which includes Christ’s genealogy, birth, visit from the Magi, flight to Egypt, and the death of the infants of Bethlehem) and the beginning Christ’s public ministry at his baptism.  In this story we see God’s faithfulness through the generations, God’s assuring presence with Joseph, and God’s deliverance through Egypt (again!).  In the midst of this  we also see the cruelty of those with the most power.  Furious that he cannot thwart the coming of a new king, Herod kills the children of Bethlehem.  This is the climate into which John the Baptizer raises his voice in Matthew 3.

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near,” John proclaims from the margins of society.  Wearing camel’s hair and eating locusts and wild honey, John is anything but mainstream and acceptable within Herod’s court.  Heard but misunderstood, John is consigned to the fringe of society with his message of judgement against those who abuse and hope for those who are crushed.  

Like the LGBTQIA+ community, John finds his place and people on the outside, building a movement where he finds others who are suffering under tyranny.  He sternly rebukes the Pharisees and Sadducees who come out to see him, calling them a brood of vipers and imploring them to bear fruit worthy of repentance.  These leaders are part of a religious system  that has created circles of insiders and outsiders.  The kingdom of heaven which John proclaims has no such circles.  The kingdom is a gift from God for all people, and John’s fiery words are meant to burn away all the bias and indifference that would allow these religious leaders to see anyone as an outsider to the gifts of God.

Perhaps the baptism of John can wash across the generations with a flood of justice.  Perhaps the fire of Christ can burn away the institutional indifference and disdain which consigns our LGBTQIA+ siblings to a place on the margins.  The way of the Lord which John proclaims is lived by Christ, who calls all people to his way of grace and peace.  But in order to walk this way, we all must bear fruit worthy of repentance.  This is a difficult lesson to hear, because the kingdom of heaven is deeply disruptive to the oppressors, and it is freedom and life to those who have been oppressed.

Advent is a time for waiting, a time when we practice giving space to hear and see the ways that God’s kingdom is moving around us.  John the Baptizer asks of us, “What then will you do when you hear the voice of one crying out in the wilderness?”  For the sake of those being crushed by injustice, for the sake of those who are told they have no place, for the sake of those who have heard that grace does not belong to them… I pray that the Church of Jesus Christ will answer as one, “We will prepare the way of the Lord!”

Discussion Questions

• Have you ever felt challenged rather than comforted by the words of the gospel?  If so, share how that experience changed your perspective.
• John deals firmly and directly with those he feels are perpetuating injustice. What instruction do you imagine John the Baptist might offer you regarding your own repentance?
• How might the church better hear and care for the needs of our LGBTQIA+ siblings who may be hurting in the wake of the violence in Colorado Springs?

Activity Suggestions

• Practice active listening within your small group.  Split into pairs and have a have a one-on-one conversation with your partner about what concerns they have in their life or their community.  Practice “active listening,” where you summarize their statements with “I hear you say…” or “what I think you’re saying is…”.  Do not offer commentary on their reflections, rather ensure that they are being heard and that you are aware of the needs around you.
  • Use your active listening skills and make a point to check in with friends and neighbors in the LGBTQIA+ community to hear how they are feeling. Offer no commentary, but hold space for their feelings and honor their suggestions for what the way forward looks like.
• Even if  you do not have friends or neighbors that you know of in the LGBTQIA+ community, you can try to understand that community’s  experience.  Organize a small group to study “Dialogues on Sexuality” from Augsburg Fortress.  This study will allow you to explore seven unique perspectives and experiences by reading opinions from leading voices on this topic.

Closing Prayer

Stir up your power Lord Christ and come.  Give us ears to hear the voices like John who cry out from the margins with a word of challenge and hope.  Prepare in our hearts the way of your Son, that all may know the kingdom of heaven has come near, through Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

Mary Houck, Decatur, GA

Warm-up Question

• Name a favorite celebrity or a public figure you admire. How much do you know about them and what they stand for? 
• Should famous people be held accountable for what they believe personally? For example, can you listen to someone’s music, read their book, or watch them in a movie, even if you know their values are different from yours?

Are You Awake?

Public figures, from social media influencers to celebrities to politicians, talk about how “woke” they are.  The term has developed more layers of meaning in the past few years. For example, in one of the key races of the recent midterm elections it was used as a campaign strategy. A candidate for Senate in Georgia, Herschel Walker, used it as an insult for his opponent, Raphael Warnock. Walker wanted the religious right to vote against Warnock because being “woke” meant he was a radical liberal. Governor DeSantis, just re-elected in Florida, also decried the “woke” agenda during his campaign and even signed the ‘Stop W.O.K.E.’ Act, designed to limit what teachers can say in their classrooms on a variety of topics. But  “woke” didn’t start out that way. 

The term “woke comes out of the civil rights movement of the 20th century, when it was used by black people to encourage each other to be more aware of structural racism and to  join in efforts to combat it. In recent years, it has been used more widely than ever on social media and in the news. 

In 2020, following the death of George Floyd, Ahmad Arbery, and others, there was a national wave of interest in learning more about racism and other social issues. Many people started using the term to identify themselves or others as being part of this movement— as people who cared enough to know the truth about how their society was treating some people unfairly due to their race, gender identity, sexual orientation, or disability. 

Unfortunately, many people also continue to resist the idea that there is anything wrong. They see our society as already fair to everyone. They put the blame for inequality on certain individuals or groups, saying they could be more successful if they just tried harder and stopped complaining. Public figures and groups trying to appeal to this mindset have taken up the term “woke” as a way to describe people they don’t like. Journalist Ishena Robinson writes, “To some, woke is now a derisive stand-in for diversity, inclusion, empathy and, yes, Blackness.”

Discussion Questions

• How would you define what it means to be “woke”? Do you see it as a good or a bad thing?
• How does it feel when you learn something disturbing about American history or society? How does it feel when you belong to the group being treated unfairly? How does it feel when you belong to the group benefitting from the unfair treatment of others?
• Does the new information change the way you act, speak, vote, or spend your money? 

First Sunday of Advent

Isaiah 2:1-5

Romans 13:11-14

Matthew 24:36-44

(Text links are to Oremus Bible Browser. Oremus Bible Browser is not affiliated with or supported by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. You can find the calendar of readings for Year C at Lectionary Readings.)

For lectionary humor and insight, check the weekly comic Agnus Day.

Gospel Reflection

In Matthew 24, Jesus gives the disciples a variety of warnings and images about the end times and Jesus’ second coming. He repeatedly emphasizes the need to be ready—it could happen today! However, Jesus does not intend for us to live in a constant state of panic. 

Every year during Advent, as we prepare to celebrate Jesus’ birth, we also read Bible passages about the next time Jesus will come. We look forward to that time when all creation will be reconciled to God, when all the ways humanity has messed it up won’t matter anymore.

However, we are not meant to just sit around waiting for God to do all the heavy lifting. God invites us to be co-creators—to help make, through our daily actions, words and prayers, the world God intends. Jesus spends lots of time teaching people how to live in community with each other, pay attention to the needs of their neighbors, and question the oppressive systems and inequalities in their society. Obviously, he wants us to create change.  That is a long-term project. 

It is still true, however, that Jesus wants us to be ready at any moment. On any given day, there is something we can do to make God’s kingdom a reality here and now. When we learn about history from a variety of perspectives, when we call people out for bigoted or insensitive jokes, when we listen with open minds and hearts to each other’s stories, we invite Jesus to be present in that moment with us. When we approach our family, friends, and neighbors (not to mention ourselves) with empathy and compassion, when we give to organizations fighting for justice and equity, when we use our voices to create positive change, we invite Jesus to come again.

This kind of awareness/wakefulness (or “woke-ness”) takes practice. We all start with values and perspectives from the families and communities in which we grew up.  Some are good and true—some not so much. It takes work and a lot of listening to be truly awake, as Jesus implores us to be in this passage. None of us get it 100% right all the time. The good news is that every day we get a new chance to wake up (both literally and figuratively). We get a new chance to live as if at any moment, life as we know it will end and something new and beautiful will take its place, something we helped to create. 

Discussion Questions

• What do you do to feel ready for something? Ready for school in the morning? Ready for a big exam? Ready for a competition (athletic, musical, academic, etc.)? 
• What about getting ready for Jesus? How is it similar or different? How often do you feel ready?  
• Sometimes it seems like there are endless problems to learn about.  It can be overwhelming to think about injustice and inequality all the time. We all have to make some choices about which problems we focus on. What issues are especially important to you? Have you done any work in that area? What kinds of things could you do to help?

Activity Suggestions

• A “Woke” board: get a piece of poster board and make a collage from magazines that represents the issues your group cares about. 
• Having discussed which issues are important to the members of your group, are there any you all agree on? What could you do as a group to help? 
  • Create a strategy to raise awareness of the issue in your faith community, for example:
    • do a fund-raiser for an organization that does work in that area and tell people about why you chose that recipient
    • Create posters or flyers that can be hung up/ distributed. 
    • Create a presentation and/or skit. Share it in worship or host a special class to which the whole congregation is invited. 
  • Or, find out about an organization that is working on the issue, and create something to thank them for their work (cards, bookmarks, care package, etc.) Chances are high that they are overworked and underpaid (or not paid at all), and this kind of work often leads to burn out and discouragement.  A little encouragement can go a long way! 

Closing Prayer

Gracious God, we look forward to the day when all creation will be reconciled to you. In the meantime, awaken our hearts and minds to the realities and needs of our neighbors. Inspire us with creativity, determination, and endurance as we work to make your kingdom a reality here and now . Amen.

 

Following are updates shared from submissions of the Lutheran Office for World Community and state public policy offices (sppos) in the ELCA Advocacy Network this month. Full list and map of sppos available.

 

U.N. | ARIZONA | CALIFORNIA | COLORADO  | MINNESOTA | NEW MEXICO | OHIO | PENNSYLVANIA | TEXAS | WASHINGTON | WISCONSIN |

 

U.N.

Lutheran Office for World Community (LOWC), United Nations, New York, N.Y. – ELCA.org/lowc

Christine Mangale, Director

Women’s Human Rights Advocacy Training

• The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) in partnership with the World Council of Churches, Finn Church Aid, and Norwegian Church Aid held the Women’s Human Rights Advocacy Training in Geneva from 25-28 October 2022. The training reverted to its in-person format following the relaxation of COVID-19 travel restrictions. 
• Lutheran Office for World Community (LOWC) Director Christine Mangale joined LWF colleagues in the planning and facilitation of the training. Nearly 40 delegates from faith-based organizations participated in the training. ELCA participants included Witness in Society advocacy staff, Latin America and the Caribbean and Europe staff, and delegates from companion churches in Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean.
• The course enhanced participants’ advocacy effectiveness through U.N. mechanisms such as the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), Universal Periodic Reviews (UPR), Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), the Generation Equality Action Coalitions and other local and regional gender justice processes. The training also offered participants networking opportunities and a chance to meet with CEDAW commissioners and Geneva-based government representatives. 
• A resource, “Affirming Women’s Human Rights: Resources for Faith-Based Organizations”,  can be found here. 

Arizona

Lutheran Advocacy Ministry Arizona (LAMA) – lamaz.org

Solveig Muus, Director

LAMA Summit. The third annual LAMA Summit featuring Rev. Eugene Cho of Bread for the World was engaging, thought provoking, informative and fun for the nearly 40 clergy, LAMA liaisons and hunger leaders in attendance. The event consisted of opening devotions on 1 Kings 17; an introduction to LAMA and its policy priorities; the keynote address by Rev. Eugene Cho; small group conversations to process Rev. Cho’s address; a lengthy Q & A with Rev. Cho; an update on the new legislative districts; an update on current hunger legislation; a practical demonstration of advocacy; and advocacy practice speaking to legislators.

2023 Policy Priorities. The LAMA Policy Council met in November to review the year, discuss the social and political issues facing Arizona, and agree on what LAMA’s priorities would be for 2023. The council agreed LAMA’s primary focus will be to continue advocacy and education around Hunger in our most vulnerable communities, including partnering with hunger anti-hunger advocates around the state and launching the Arizona Anti-Hunger Alliance. In addition, LAMA will continue its work in Civic Engagement as it relates to our Lutheran heritage of being a publicly engaged church, encouraging participation in all areas of our government. Finally, LAMA will focus on Water, educating ourselves and our network on the complex issues related to water in Arizona.

Civic Engagement. LAMA’s work leading up to the election in support of its Civic Engagement policy priority involved efforts to register voters, encourage participation in the voting process, educating our network about ballot deadlines, ID requirements, polling locations, ballot measures, etc.

 

California

Lutheran Office of Public Policy – California (LOPP-CA) – lutheranpublicpolicyca.org

Regina Banks, Director

Meetings were held between the LOPP-CA office and California congregations during October to discuss the policy office’s positions on the upcoming ballot propositions. It was great to see a large turnout at those events! 

Election day has passed, but votes are still being counted in California and across the country –  and we expect mail-in ballots to continue coming in for a while yet. Currently, ballot propositions 1, 28, and 31 are passing with ‘yes’ votes. These propositions would enshrine the right to reproductive freedom in the California constitution, provide more funding for arts and music education, and uphold a law banning the sale of flavored tobacco products, respectively. The LOPP-CA policy council supported proposition 1 and 31 and took no position on 28, the arts and music education funding. Measures the policy council were against, including two on sports betting regulations, are currently receiving more ‘no’ votes and willould not pass if the results continue in this direction. 

The 27th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP27) is also taking place from November 6th-18th in Egypt, and Regina Banks is attending on behalf of the ELCA and LOPP-CA. You can find updates from her on our social pages throughout the conference. 

 

Colorado

Lutheran Advocacy Ministry Colorado (LAM-CO) – lam-co.org

Peter Severson, Director

COLORADO ELECTION RESULTS: Coloradans voted on 11 statewide ballot measures this election season. We are excited to report that all three measures which we supported have passed! 

• Proposition FF, Healthy School Meals for All, won with 55% of voters saying Yes! This will ensure that kids in public schools have access to healthy meals regardless of ability to pay. The program takes the place of a federal initiative that provided free meals to all kids through the first two years of the pandemic.

• Proposition GG, Add Income Tax Table to Ballot Measures, also passed with over 70% of voters saying Yes. This will require ballot titles and fiscal summaries for future measures affecting income tax to include a table showing how people in different income brackets would be affected. 
• Proposition 123, Dedicate State Income Tax to Affordable Housing, passed very narrowly, on a margin of 51% to 49%. This will dedicate 0.1% of the state’s income tax revenue to specific affordable housing programs. 

 

Minnesota

Lutheran Advocacy – Minnesota (LA-MN) – lutheranadvocacymn.org

Tammy Walhof, Director

ELECTIONS: Narrow poll margin reports proved false as the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party took all state offices, held onto the House, and flipped the Senate with a one-seat majority. Margins in several races suggest much ticket-splitting. Secretary of State, Steve Simon, had the largest margin over challenger Kim Crockett (who questioned 2020 election validity). Attorney General Keith Ellison barely prevailed, with votes primarily from urban cores. Governor Walz won by eight points over challenger Dr. Scott Jensen (who questioned COVID mandates).  

NEW MEMBERS: Minnesota House and Senate both lost many veteran lawmakers through retirement, redistricting, and elections. About 35% of both chambers are new.  

NEW LEADERS: Representative Melissa Hortman will remain Speaker of the House, but Representative Lisa Demuth will replace Representative Kurt Daudt as Minority Leader (first time since 2014 someone other than Daudt leads House Republicans). Demuth is anticipated to have a less confrontational leadership style. Representative Jamie Long will be the new House Majority Leader, so we are watching to see who will take over Energy & Climate leadership from Long.  

Both parties will have new leadership in the Senate. Senator Kari Dziedzic will be new Majority Leader, Senator Bobby Joe Champion will be the first person of color to serve as Senate President, and Mark Johnson of East Grand Forks will be Minority Leader (replacing Senator Miller, who chose not to run again after just 1 year as the head of Senate Republicans). Much remains unknown about committee chairs, particularly Agriculture, since most senators from rural Minnesota are Republican. 

 

New Mexico

Lutheran Advocacy Ministry New Mexico (LAM-NM) – lutheranadvocacynm.org

Kurt Rager, Director

A decade of advocacy… 

According to the 2022 Annie E. Casey Foundation’s KIDS COUNT Data Book that measures 16 indicators of child well-being in the areas of economic well-being, education, health, and family and community, New Mexico once again ranked 50th in the nation. Though the data used does not consider several key state-level policy changes made recently, the challenge for improvement is immense. 

On Election Day, 70% of New Mexico voters approved an amendment to the state’s constitution that advocates, including LAM-NM, believe will truly transform the health and well-being of the state’s youngest and set a standard for the rest of the nation to follow. Driving the decade long battle was the belief that every family and individual should have access to an affordable, evidence-based, and high-quality prenatal and cradle-to-career system of care and education. 

Constitutional Amendment #1 will authorize an additional 1.25% to be withdrawn annually from the state’s unique Land Grant Permanent Fund, financed by state oil and gas revenue and interest on the fund’s investments, which is currently valued at $26 billion. If passed by the U.S. Congress, it is estimated that an initial $150 million would be available to early childhood education, and another $100 million for K-12. Among the many proposals being considered, this includes expanding early childhood services like state-wide prenatal care, home visiting, high-quality childcare and pre-kindergarten programs. Other priorities include moving childcare worker average pay to $18 an hour and making permanent the policy change last year that made childcare free for most NM families. 

Over several contentious sessions, LAM-NM worked alongside numerous partner organizations, which together, formed the Invest in Kids, NOW coalition. While joyous about our victory, the coalition will now join with the state on the hard work it will take to create transformational programs for the future. 

 

Ohio

Hunger Network Ohio (HNO) – hungernetwork.org

Deacon Nick Bates, Director

ADVOCACY IN ADVENT: NOV. 29TH 

The Hunger Network and the Ohio Council of Churches are joining together to host Advocacy in Advent: A Lame Duck Lobby Day! We will discuss the important efforts we can take as a state to end hunger in Ohio and transform our criminal justice system to support neighborhoods, families, and communities to regain stability. You can join us by registering here: https://actionnetwork.org/ticketed_events/advocacy-in-advent . 

HUNGER ADVOCACY FELLOW: We are grateful to ELCA World Hunger for supporting a new Hunger Advocacy Fellow position in Ohio who will begin on November 28th.  

ISSUE 1 and ISSUE 2: Sadly, both Issue 1 and Issue 2 passed on election day in Ohio. Issue 1 cements cash bail into Ohio’s constitution. Issue 2 bans non-citizens and, due to a drafting error by the State Legislature, may also end up preventing 17 year olds who will be 18 by the election from registering to vote. “As a person with an early November birthday, this could have disenfranchised me from voting in my first election,” said Deacon Nick Bates, Director of the Hunger Network in Ohio. 

 

Pennsylvania

Lutheran Advocacy Ministry – Pennsylvania (LAMPa) lutheranadvocacypa.org

Tracey DePasquale, Director

In the waning days of the 2022 session of the Pennsylvania General Assembly, Lutheran Advocacy Ministry – Pennsylvania (LAMPa)  and fellow housing advocates applauded the passage of legislation lifting the cap on the state’s housing trust fund by $20 million.  

The increase, which brought the cap on revenues for the Pennsylvania Housing Affordability and Rehabilitation Enhancement (PHARE) Fund to $60 million annually, came on the heels of more than $375 million in American Rescue Plan funding targeted to housing and homelessness in the FY 2022-23 budget. 

Although LAMPa advocates and coalition partners in the Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania had pushed for bipartisan legislation that would have raised the PHARE Funding cap to $100 million over three years, the progress is welcome. Read more. 

In addition to surveying our network and Pennsylvania ministries about needs, LAMPa began meetings with coalition partners to begin informing our priorities for the next legislative term. LAMPa’s policy council will consider that policy agenda in December.  Trinity Lutheran Church in Camp Hill graciously hosted leadership from the Pennsylvania Hunger Action Coalition as that group shared updates and discussed potential areas for collaboration in fighting hunger in the Commonwealth.

LAMPa participated in planning for a Southwestern Pennsylvania Synod event to honor the work of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., continued organizing for the Homeless Memorial Blanket Project in Washington, D.C., and attended a regional faith-based environmental summit co-hosted by the Lower Susquehanna Synod. 

 

 

 

Texas

Texas Impact – texasimpact.org

Scott Atnip, Outreach Director

In preparation for the general election, Texas Impact participated in presentations in congregations throughout the state, including our Faith in Democracy Series with events in Austin, Houston, Dallas, and Denton. Faith in Democracy events included a faith leader panel discussing why our faith calls for participation in democracy and advocacy efforts, training on Texas Impact’s Election Center tools, and breakout sessions on key public policy issues. Texas Impact also targeted social media ads to encourage voting and supporting the election infrastructure as election workers or poll monitors.
 

Texas Impact’s Weekly Witness podcast is in the midst of a series outlining legislative priorities for the next biennium, including our 200th episode featuring Bishop Michael Rinehart, Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast Synod, discussing human migration.  

The popular Courts and Ports Program is re-launching with a new Immigration Education and Advocacy Manager, Fabiola (Fabi) Olvera Benitez coordinating trips to the Texas-Mexico border.  

Election results changed little in terms of state leadership, so Texans of faith are preparing for the Texas Legislature to convene in January 2023 in a session that could be very similar to 2021. 

 

Washington

Faith Action Network (FAN) – fanwa.org

Elise DeGooyer, Director

During Food Week of Action in October, the Faith Action Network (FAN)  hosted a Food Policy in WA webinar (linked on our YouTube page) with our coalition partners at Northwest Harvest. We also co-hosted two forums with indigenous writers Sarah Augustine and Mark Charles regarding the ways the Doctrine of Discovery continues to impact native peoples and lands. 

FAN helped organize faith leaders in a press conference in October with Governor Inslee and state legislators announcing protective legislation for reproductive choice and gender affirming care in our state. Here’s the recap of the legislation proposed.  

We are in full preparation mode for our hybrid Annual Dinner, Sunday evening, November 20, in Renton, Spokane, and online. Our biggest fundraiser of the year is also a time to come back together in-person after two years and renew our connections and solidarity for justice across the state. 

 

Wisconsin

Lutheran Office for Public Policy – Wisconsin (LOPPW) loppw.org

The Rev. Cindy Crane, Director

WEDNESDAY NOON LIVE: We interviewed outgoing Republican Senator Kathy Bernier about her views on elections in Wisconsin. Our conversation included the costly Gableman investigation and the Wisconsin Elections Commission. 

ELECTIONS: Governor Evers was re-elected. Michaels, his opponent, claimed he wanted to decertify the 2020 election. How elections are certified made our Secretary of State race unusually contested. At the time of writing this report, the election hasn’t been called. Earlier,  Lutheran Office for Public Policy – Wisconsin (LOPPW) interviewed Sec. of State La Follette (D) after extremists tried to prevent him from certifying the 2020 election. U.S. Senator Johnson was re-elected for a third term. The 3rd Congressional race was closer than expected. In the end, Derrick Van Orden, known for being present at the Trump rally just before the insurrection, won. After Wisconsin maps recently became more gerrymandered, the party that has the legislative majority won enough seats for a supermajority in the Senate but not the Assembly, which means the governor still has veto power. 

JUVENILE JUSTICE SYSTEM: A few of us from our coalition’s steering committee recently met with staff from the Bucks Basketball Team to discuss their interest in supporting our efforts in returning 17 year-olds to the juvenile justice system 

CARE FOR GOD’S CREATION: LOPPW had its second meeting with staff from Faith in Place and confirmed plans to organize a spring advocacy day. 

YOUTH: Representatives from six synods are working with LOPPW to organize our first high school youth gathering with a focus on advocacy, scheduled for April 14 – 16, 2023. 

Today’s blog post comes from DeAnna Quietwater Noriega.

 

DeAnna Quietwater Noriega is half Apache and a quarter Chippewa. She is the mother of three, two daughters and an adopted blind son. She was the eldest of five children in a close–knit American Indian family. As a result of congenital glaucoma, she became totally blind at the age of eight.

DeAnna was mainstreamed in public schools in Texas, Michigan, and California. She completed a bachelor’s degree in social science and did a year toward a master’s in social work at California State University Stanislaus. While attending college, she taught independent living skills to the blind for the California Department of Vocational Rehabilitation. She worked as a caseworker in Santa Clara County, California, before joining the United States Peace Corps. DeAnna and her sighted husband met while attending college, and Curtis joined her in the Peace Corps. They worked together to establish a school for blind children in the independent nation of Western Samoa.

Upon her return to the U.S., DeAnna spent the next seven years at home, raising children. During this time, she became active in the American Council of the Blind and in Guide Dog Users, Inc. She taught braille, instructed breastfeeding mothers as a La Leche leader, was a friendly visitor at nursing homes, and worked as a volunteer intake clerk at the welfare office.

DeAnna and her husband opened two Papa Murphy’s pizza franchise stores. She served as operations manager, doing inventory, ordering, supervising staff, and handling the cash register and phone during late afternoons and evenings.

After 14 successful years, they sold the restaurants to move to Colorado, where their two daughters were enrolled in college. DeAnna kept busy working as an instructor of braille and independent living skills with an adult education program in Colorado Springs. She remained active in many organizations of the visually impaired, serving as an officer at local state and national levels. She served as a founding board member of a nonprofit organization that opened a blind center in Colorado Springs. She established The Braille Books to Keep project for blind children in both Oregon and Colorado.

DeAnna has been a guide dog user for over 50 years and has taken an active part in passing legislation protecting service animals.

 

Who Are You!

By DeAnna Quietwater Noriega, an excerpt from Fifty Years of Walking with Friends

My uncle always described us as assimilated traditionalists. Men in our family went in to construction or the military. These were acceptable choices for warriors. Those who worked in construction usually left their families during the months when the building trades had work. They returned home in winter. Military families went with their men when possible and returned to the reservation when they weren’t allowed to go to posts in war zones.

My father was a master sergeant in the army and a full blooded Apache. My mother was born on the Isabella Reservation in Mount Pleasant Michigan. She is Ojibwa. My grand father was a six-foot 8-inch Full blooded Ojibwa who left the reservation to find work. He and my grandmother lost two of their 8 children to malnutrition and disease as toddlers. My mother was their first surviving child. She married my father at age fifteen and followed him to California where I was born when she was seventeen.

When I was four, I was living in Louisiana and had a black baby sitter. I asked her why her skin was such a pretty dark color. She said that god had made her with chocolate. White people were made with vanilla. I asked what flavor I was and she said a ginger snap.

When I was in the first grade living in San Antonio Texas, my teacher went around the room using last names to illustrate emigration. When she came to me, she said “Your ancestors probably came from Mexico.”

I shook my head and replied, “No, I don’t think so, I think we didn’t come from some other country but were always here.” I told her we were native Americans. My classmates asked if my parents wore paint and feathers. In all innocence I answered “Only on Sundays.” My mother wore a hat to Church with feathers on it. She used makeup then too.

When we were away from the reservation, people assumed my mother was Hispanic and tried to speak Spanish to her. My Apache grandparents spoke Spanish. I learned a little as a preschooler. I was lighter skinned than my brothers, favoring my maternal grandmother.  I often confused people who weren’t familiar with my Apache face. I have been mistaken for someone from the Philippines, or asked if I were Caribbean, Samoan, or even Eurasian. Until the flower children began viewing all things Native American as mystical, it wasn’t popular to be thought an Indian. People living near reservations held negative opinions of us, believing we were all alcoholics, came from broken families and obstinately held to beliefs that were little better than ignorant superstitions. Children were placed in schools where they were forbidden to speak their native languages. They were shipped far from home and forced to conform to mainstream religion and cultural beliefs. If we wanted to learn more of our culture, we had to make an effort to seek out elders who would teach us.

This has led to a gradual decline in the numbers of native people who remember who they are. Somethings I have learned by watching the adults in the family are:

Babies and young children are people too. They should receive the love and attention of the family. Native American babies aren’t left to cry but move from loving lap to lap. Small children are encouraged to master tasks to add to the well being of the family because all hands can make contributions.

Elders are to be respected and listened too. They have survived many things and can offer much wisdom.

If you have something and another doesn’t, then share. Gifting your little extra will come back to you someday when you may need it.

You are as the great mystery has made you. Value the gift of life and make the world a better place for having been born in to it.

Don’t fear death, it is just another change like birth. Just because we don’t know what to expect doesn’t mean it won’t be good.

We aren’t superior to our brothers and sisters who walk on four legs or swim in the streams or fly. All living things are equally the children of the maker. That is why we owe them respect if we take their lives to live.

These are the gifts I carry in my heart as I walk the world and they define who I am as much as my dark hair and high cheekbones or the fact that I became totally blind at age eight.