Oct. 15, 2014
New ministries in Zimbabwe, Zambia

A converted shipping container in Burure, Zimbabwe, is home to 20 computers used by elementary and high school students.

By Philip Knutson

Philip Knutson is the ELCA Global Mission regional representative for Southern Africa.

Recently I was privileged to accompany a delegation of six representatives of the ELCA on a Global Church Sponsorship visit to Zimbabwe and Zambia to learn more about programs and ministries supported through Always Being Made New: The Campaign for the ELCA and ELCA Global Church Sponsorship.

The Campaign for the ELCA seeks to raise $198 million in support of new and expanded churchwide ministries around the world including renewing and establishing new congregations and supporting programs for Disability Ministries, Youth and Young Adults, World Hunger, Malaria, International Leaders, Missionaries and Young Adults in Global Mission.  See more at: www.ELCA.org/en/Campaign-for-the-ELCA/.

We traveled to Bulawayo in Zimbabwe to see and hear about the progress in the building of a new church downtown as part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Zimbabwe’s church growth strategy. (Learn more about this new church atwww.ELCA.org/News-and-Events/blogs/HandInHand/447 and www.ELCA.org/News-and-Events/blogs/HandInHand/450.) Led by Mr. M. Dube, general secretary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Zimbabwe, we also visited the rural community of Burure In the north-central part of the country where the ELCA has assisted in building a clinic, which serves more than 7,000 people in the area. The malaria program officer also has an office near the clinic. The Infohut project in Burure, with 20 computers housed in a converted shipping container, enables elementary and high school pupils to learn vital life skills and gain knowledge about HIV and AIDS, peace building and computer technology.

In Zambia we traveled with the senior pastor, the Rev. Alfred Chana, from the capital city of Lusaka to the bustling copper mining city of Kitwe to visit the site of the new church building for the Mindolo congregation. The local pastor and members of the congregation showed us the recently laid concrete foundation and reported that the women of the congregation are busy raising funds as their contribution to the building of the new church. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Zambia has 35 congregations and five preaching points spread across six provinces. Of these 40 worshiping places, only four have permanent, brick structures with corrugated iron roofing. As a companion to Evangelical Lutheran Church in Zambia, the ELCA has included the proposal as part of The Campaign for the ELCA to support building 15 new churches as well as a church office and training center on the outskirts of Lusaka. For more information, visit www.ELCA.org/globalchurch.

Once again thank you for your continuing prayers and support and your participation in God’s Mission through the ELCA Global Church Sponsorship Program and The Campaign for the ELCA.

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Oct. 8, 2014
Traveling with the eyes of God

Great Rift Valley, Tarangire National Park, Tanzania

By Kathleen Rudrud

The following words by Henri Nouwen, “Traveling with the Eyes of God,” provide a good closing devotional thought to the six of us as we prepare to return from the ELCA Global Church Sponsorship trip to Zimbabwe, Zambia and Tanzania in Africa:

“Traveling — seeing new sights, hearing new music, and meeting new people — is exciting and exhilarating. But when we have no home to return to where someone will ask us, “How was your trip?” we might be less eager to go. Traveling is joyful when we travel with the eyes and ears of those who love us, who want to see our slides and hear our stories.

“This is what life is about. It is being sent on a trip by a loving God, who is waiting at home for our return and is eager to watch the slides we took and hear about the friends we made. When we travel with the eyes and ears of the God who sent us, we will see wonderful sights, hear wonderful sounds, meet wonderful people — and be happy to return home.”

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Oct. 6, 2014

A historic church in Tanzania

While on our way to visit ELCA missionaries Mark and Linda Jacobson, our travel group stoped at a memorial adjoining a historic church built in Tanzania in 1904. We are in Tanzania to learn about missionaries and ministries supported through Always Being Made New: The Campaign for the ELCA and ELCA Global Church Sponsorship. See https://community.elca.org/Tanzania.

Five of the ELCA Global Church Sponsorship visitors to Africa en route to Zimbabwe are, left to right: the Rev. Steve Herder; Kathleen Rudrud; Pam Galster from Ascension Lutheran Church in Thousand Oaks, Calif., holding a photo of students from the Ascension Lutheran School; Rich Duncan from ELCA Mission Funding in Chicago; and the Rev. Michael Sparby from Edison Park Lutheran Church in Chicago. Not pictured is the Rev. Lanny Westphal, ELCA Global Church Sponsorship in Chicago.  

By Lanny Westphal

The six ELCA visitors to Africa landed safely in Johannesburg, South Africa!  From there they are heading to Zimbabwe to learn more about exciting new outreach ministries in the city of Bulawayo and the rural area near Burure that will be funded through a priority appeal in Always Being Made New: The Campaign for the ELCA.