From the night of the disciples’ last meal with Jesus, until now, the simple things of bread and wine, combined with Christ’s word of promise, bring the gifts of forgiveness, reconciled community, and the promise of life eternal.  More than the sum of its parts, the Holy Eucharist sustains believers and the Church. 

The four communion vessels chosen for the 2009 Churchwide Assembly are a rich sign of inclusivity among the faithful. The chalice, pitcher, basket and linens were crafted by artisans from four places where the ELCA accompanies companions in faithful and transformative mission: Palestine, Bangladesh, Uganda and Guatemala. 

In the spring of 2009, we had the opportunity and joy to work with the Natsheh family living in Hebron, Palestine, to produce the glass chalices.  The family has been in the glass-blowing business for more than 450 years; and were honored and humbled when asked to reclaim broken, discarded and recycled glass for the creation of the 30 chalices.  Imad Natsheh expressed his gratitude and his family’s honor in making such a significant contribution “for our Christian friends who recognize the need for God’s forgiveness.”  Imad went on to say, “We are grateful for our Lutheran brothers and sisters who work for peace with justice in this holy but troubled land.” 

 In the Holy Meal, lovely goblets are transformed into chalices, carrying Christ’s new life, freely offered for all people. Through the Holy Meal, we are transformed, too.  Forgiven and renewed, we carry the good news of Christ’s redeeming love. 

During Holy Week, Christians around the world will break bread offered in a variety of textures, tastes, shapes and sizes; and, they will lift a cup and hear the words: “given and shed for you and all people.”  Thanks be to God for the reconciling Spirit who brings together such earthly things to bear Christ’s promise of life eternal! 

In April 2010, the Rev. Mark and Marcia Holman will return to the U.S. after serving as ELCA missionaries in Jerusalem.

Between the water imagery and the “Easter egg bugs,” I think this post by Mary Beth Oyebade, ELCA missionary serving in Nigeria, would be a great Easter Vigil (April 3) illustration.  Mary Beth writes that her son Tobi “gets goosebumps” when he sees the bugs.  I can see why!  Isn’t God’s creation amazing?!  Isn’t it awesome to be part of God’s redeeming work in the world?! –Sue Edison-Swift

Early Rains
Posted: 17 Mar 2010 02:23 PM PDT by Mary Beth Oyebade, ELCA missionary serving in Nigeria.

“…and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. And rain fell on the earth…” (Genesis 7).

We have had three big rains in the last three days. It’s a little bit early for the rainy season to begin, but we’re tired of dust and heat, so bring it on! It’s been about five months since it last rained. The last few weeks have been very hot and muggy, so the rain definitely brought relief. I’m guessing that the temperature dropped from 90 degrees to 70 degrees.

For some reason, the change in weather made me want to exercise. The past two mornings I got up early and did some walking within our compound. It felt great. The first morning after the rain, Tobi and I spent some time

"Easter egg bugs," photo by Mary Beth Oyebade

observing changes that had taken place in nature. As we walked through the compound, we noticed that the Easter egg bugs were out. Now, I have no idea what these things are actually called, and I don’t know anyone besides us who calls them that, but they come out every year around Easter time.

Tobi says he gets goosebumps just looking at them. They are curious little creatures.

 The city church of Lijiang in Yunnan Province, China, started with only a few people three years ago. Now, it worships 160 on a Sunday.

Evangelist Liu Ai-hwa

Lijiang city church had died out long ago. Not only was Lijiang a backwater town in one of the poorest parts of China, the Cultural Revolution in China brought about the closure of many churches everywhere, Lijiang among them. A devastating earthquake in 1996 brought the world’s attention to Lijiang. The historic old town was restored and it has since been designated a World Heritage Sites. The city is now thriving, especially with tourism. And with this came new life for the Christian community.

What is amazing is that Lijiang city church (actually, not officially a church yet, but a meeting point) has no pastor. Three young evangelists, the oldest of whom is 30, share in leading the faithful out of rented space on the second floor of a commercial building.

Liu Ai-hwa is one of the evangelists. He speaks proudly that one-third of church members are young people. Many of these grew up in Christian families (especially from among the ethnic minorities in the region) and have found their way to church when they moved to the city for school or jobs. There is a midweek Bible study for young people, and a fellowship on Saturdays that brings enjoyment through hiking or other activities.

Lu Xiu-ying

There are a number of volunteer lay workers who help in other aspects of ministry in Lijiang. He Xue-hui is able to offer help to parents about their children since she speaks Lisu, one of the ethnic minority languages. And Lu Xiu-ying brings faithful witness in the wisdom of age. She not only is from the Derung ethnic group (from near the border with Myanmar; one of the smallest nationalities in China), she also has raised four daughters and can speak from many experiences in her life.

Currently, the greatest challenge for the congregation is to find a permanent home. The good news is that the city government is considering returning the old church building in the center of town. It had been converted into a hospital, but now sits unused. It also borders the historic old section of town, and therefore could become a focal point for tourists as well. With this comes the challenge of leadership, where even the three young evangelists find it difficult to do ministry with no lead pastor. “But just to be able to serve God is a joy,” says Ai-hwa. And that is the joy shared by all the leaders of Lijiang church.

Y. Franklin Ishida
Director for Asia and the Pacific, ELCA Global Mission

Keep On Keeping On
Posted: 19 Feb 2010 10:34 AM PST by Mary Beth Oyebade, ELCA missionary serving in Nigeria.

My apologies for being AWOL on this site for the past few weeks.

The dynamics of daily life have changed in the last month, dealing with riots and various security threats.

It always takes me awhile to get back to normal–or I should say: “the new normal.”  After the riots in 2008, I was driving downtown a few weeks later and almost stopped the car in the middle of the road when I caught sight of construction workers on a three-story building.  I was so shocked that construction was continuing while I was wondering when the next wave of violence would occur.  They were building for the future, and I was just trying to get through the day.

I bought a whole bunch of tomatoes, peppers and onions last weekend just because this is the season to buy those things. I planned to can pizza sauce, spaghetti sauce, and red stew (typical Nigerian fare).  But as I looked at the 200+ empty jars on my shelves, I felt the same way I did when I saw those construction workers: filling those jars meant planning for the future–and my mind has been stuck in a daily survival mode for the past month.

We did get the canning done with lots of extra help in the kitchen. Here’s the tally:

30 pints of pizza sauce (this will last more than one year based on current pizza eating patterns in our home)
26 pints of Grandma’s spaghetti sauce
18 quarts of Nigerian red stew

Anyway, this past week was the most normal I’ve had for awhile so I feel like things are starting to pick up once again. And I’ll try to post a little more often on this site.

From Kate Lawler, ELCA Global Mission regional representative for South America, is based in Argentina.  Names have been changed to protect privacy.

Why can’t I remember their ages?

Sunday school in our congregation in Buenos Aires started up yesterday. This meant the joy of reuniting with children and others we didn’t see during the nearly three months that we were in the United States on home assignment.  I woke up at 3 am last night, asking myself: Why can’t I remember their ages?

Leonel is 3 and a half feet tall, weighs less than 50 lbs. and has never gone to school. He is 7.

Graciela  is expecting her first baby and sells second-hand clothes 12 hours a day in the market. She is 13.

Alfredo went fishing with a man his family doesn’t know. They drank beer and smoked paco. He is 9.

Ana gets up every day at 5 am, does the housework, cooks and gets her brothers ready for school. She is 15.

Carla lives a block away from girls who threaten her with a knife when she walks by. She is 11.

Elisa struggles as she prepares for First Communion because she does not read or write. She is 35.

Marcos looked up from his pizza during lunch yesterday and said, “at night I can’t sleep.” He is 4.

I can’t remember their ages because something deep inside me refuses to accept these realities that betray the images I have of what it means to be 4 or 13 or 35.

As I struggle to get back to sleep, the only prayer that comes to mind are the words of Carlos Mujica, an Argentine priest and tireless human rights defender who worked with people living in the shantytowns of Buenos Aires. He was assassinated in 1974, a couple years before the military dictatorship here started.

Lord, forgive me for having grown accustomed to seeing children who look 8 but are 13.
Lord, forgive me for having grown accustomed to splashing through the mud; I can leave, they cannot.
Lord, forgive me for having learned to put up with the smell of sewerage water, from which I can leave, but they cannot.
Lord, forgive me for turning on a light, and forgetting that they cannot.
Lord, I can go on a hunger strike but they cannot because no one makes a strike out of their own hunger.
Lord, forgive me for saying “man does not live by bread alone,” and not fighting with all my might so that they get their bread.
Help me.
Lord, I dream about dying for them: help me to live for them.
Lord, I want to be with them at the hour of light.
Help me.
–”Meditation from a Shantytown” by Father Carlos Mujica (1930-1974)

Kate Lawler

If you feel like you are actually treking up mountains, engaged in meetings on church issues, and dancing with new confirmands as you read the book, Mission in Motion, then you are right on. Ronald and Else Schardt wrote this book about their missionary experiences in Papua New Guinea in the present tense so that the reader can indeed be “walking together with God’s people in Papua New Guinea,” as the subtitle suggests.

The stories are not a chronological account of the Schardts 26 years in PNG. Rather, they portray daily life in a church and country that is dynamic and always in motion. You will walk with those in need of medical care. You will walk with the challenges of getting around where there are no roads (actually, often flying). You will walk into church conflicts. You will march to newly built churches. You will dance in joyous ceremonies. You will tiptoe in the middle of blackouts. And you will walk confidently through the milestones of faith.

Each chapter concludes with discussion questions about accompaniment — the main theme of the book. How do you see accompaniment in the chapter’s story? How do you see accompaniment in similar daily situations of your own? And how is the missionary story our own story? How can we walk together in our lives of faith?

Some of the stories in the book date back to the early days of the Schardts tenure in PNG and some things may have changed since then. But the theme of walking — walking with those around you, joining in mutual encouragement and support, and sharing in life’s journey — remains a strong reminder that mission yesterday, today, and tomorrow is about accompaniment.

You can order copies of Mission in Motion by writing schardtsville@q.com.

And of course, consider walking with a missionary by sponsoring one, as they walk day by day among the people with whom they serve..

(Review by Y. Franklin Ishida, Director for Asia and the Pacific, ELCA Global Mission)

Not even the ostrich …
A reflection by the Rev. Sam Wolff
ELCA missionary serving in Kenya

When I decided to leave mission work in Africa after more than 20 years, many people asked me, “why?” Initially I had no answer, and so I would reply, “it’s just time.”

A few years later, while serving an international congregation in the heart of Europe, the “why” dawned upon me.  I had left my mission work in Africa, because I was tired of seeing.  I was tired of walking out of my home every day and seeing people dying of AIDS; mired in hopeless poverty; fighting to survive just one more day in urban Africa. I was tired of seeing corruption, tribalism, nepotism, drought and hunger. I was tired of seeing.

Then one day I thought of the ostrich.  Having lived many years in Africa, I’ve seen thousands of ostrich.  Never once, though, did I see one with its head buried in the sand.

That realization brought me up short.   “Who am I,” I wondered, ”to try and bury my head and not see”?

I am back doing mission work in Africa.  I see the same problems.  It seems, though,  that I see with different eyes.

I see women sing as they do back-breaking work.  I see children playing soccer on dung heaps with a ball made of banana leaves; they play with all the joys of childhood.  I see my neighbor who has AIDS in its last stages, carry himself with great dignity. I see Africans worship who care more about adoration than they do about time.  I see some of the most beautiful people in God’s world.

What a privilege, what a blessing, it is to see.

From the Rev. Raquel Rodriguez…

At 8:49 Central time, a new earthquake hit Chile very close to where it hit several days ago. A Tsunami alert has been issued and people have been asked to begin to evacuate for higher areas. Today the new president is being installed.

The Latin America/Caribbean team asks for your prayers for the people of Chile at this time. One earthquake of the magnitude of the first is enough to cause a lot of damage and death. A second, almost at the same magnitude as the one that hit Haiti, in such a short time, is devastating.

Lord in your mercy…
Rev. Raquel Rodriguez, Director
Latin America/Caribbean Continental Desk
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Global Mission

Li Zhi-hwa during a break from classes

Zhi-hwa is eighteen. Though she has her whole life before her, she already has a number of things going against her: She lives in the Lijiang area of Yunnan Province, one of the poorest parts of China; her family could not afford to have her continue her education; and she comes from an ethnic minority,  which often brings discrimination in the wider society.

Though she didn’t even finish high school, her faith and dedication, plus the support of her church, has led her to get further training as a lay worker in the church.

The grassroots training center in Lijiang is a ministry that reaches out to the numerous ethnic minorities in this northwestern part of Yunnan Province, including the Lisu, Pumi, Dai, Naxi, and Yi peoples. Some, like Zhi-hwa, travel as far as three hours from their home villages to receive training. Most of the time, the training classes run at least several days, and a dorm is provided for those who travel far. Classes range from literacy to music to Bible. The “cream” of training programs is one that develops evangelists, running 5 months each year for three years. Some 20 students are enrolled in this.

Meanwhile, for Zhi-hwa, getting church training is a way she can deepen her faith and learn how to better serve her community and church. She can now live with hope in her future and for this she gives thanks to the church. And perhaps, this all may be the best education she has ever received.

Y. Franklin Ishida
Director for Asia and the Pacific, ELCA Global Mission