The Rev. Miriam Schmidt

Last week, I got lost again. Actually, I wasn’t really lost, I just couldn’t find the place where I was trying to go.

But the experience has made me think a bit about what it means to live outside of your country and culture of origin. Very simply — you get lost more often. You fail to find things, people, agreed upon destinations. You plan thirty minutes to get somewhere, and that is not ever enough.

I think about being lost when I look out over the congregation of Bratislava International Church. Most people worshipping here are not from here. Even the Slovaks come from other parts of Slovakia. Many others have traveled farther — from Iran, Korea, Ghana. They come here to worship because they want to worship in the English language – yet oftentimes English is a second, third or even fourth language. I’m sure many of them get lost in worship.

In April, we made a trip back to the United States, at which time I got to know the four young adults who will come this August to be Young Adults in Global Mission in Hungary for one year. They are amazing young women and men, excited about devoting a year of their life to service in foreign land, in a foreign church, among people who they will not be able to understand for weeks, or months.

I know these four competent and intelligent young adults will get lost.

And when you get lost, you are made to feel vulnerable.

But as a wise and beloved pastor recently reminded me, what it means to be Christian – on a deep level – is to welcome, even embrace vulnerability. After all, this is what God does in Jesus Christ – God enters into our human vulnerability, even to death. But somehow, we trust that in and through God’s vulnerability, we receive healing and salvation.

So perhaps there is something to all this getting lost. Perhaps I need to let it wash off my skin a little more easily.

Breathe deeply. Walk slowly. And prepare for getting lost (as it will happen.) But also trust that by the grace of God, I will be found. Again and again.

Parishioners pose in front of a new church sign. This is a new level of “visibility” for the parish in Linguere, and we are thankful to be in a country where a minority religion can express itself without fear.

The Linguere parish of the Lutheran Church of Senegal had a happy Easter, though we’re still missing the presence of our two Bible translators who are studying in Jerusalem. Maundy Thursday and Good Friday services culminated in an Easter service with an extra car full of people from the neighboring town of Dahra. A dinner followed, to which Muslim neighbors and others connected with the church’s work were invited. Before the meal was served, evangelist Oumar Diallo shared briefly the story of Easter and what it means to us as Christians.

The Lutheran Church of Senegal does literacy work in various languages, including Pulaar. The Linguere parish has requested a Pulaar course, which is just beginning classes. The church sent literacy workers here to determine what would be necessary to begin a course. They interviewed and hired a teacher. Classes started last week, with about 10 people enrolled, mostly women. Class scheduling revolves around a woman’s workday, with the most free time between 4 and 6 p.m.

At the end of March, Dirk and two delegates from Linguere (Soule Ba and Oumar Diallo) traveled to church headquarters in Fatick to attend the annual churchwide meeting, which brings together pastors and delegates from all 13 parishes of the Lutheran Church of Senegal.

We should add that in light of current problems in neighboring countries, we are especially thankful for the recent fair, non-violent, quickly decided, democratic presidential election. We are proud of Senegal and invite your prayers for its new president, Macky Sall. Pulling Senegal out of its current economic problems will not be an easy job. We hope that President Sall will be a fair and just leader for this country.

Tokyo Lutheran Church

Since returning from home assignment in September, we have been working to solidify the new outreach ministries that we helped to start at Tokyo Lutheran about two years ago. As many of you know, Christie and I will be ending our service in Japan and returning to the U.S. at the end of September, and so our goal is to have the workings of our ministry hammered out in such a way that the new pastor can smoothly and easily step into the position that we will vacate when he comes this fall. For the first time in many years, Tokyo Lutheran now provides intentional ministries of social outreach (specifically, outreach to the homeless) and evangelism in both English and Japanese, and for that reason we have seen a “boom” of new baptisms and membership growth in these past two years. Our church has been blessed with the fresh energy and gifts that our newly baptized members have brought into our community, and we are riding the Spirit that they bring to continue making Tokyo Lutheran a place where people of many nations and languages can find a spiritual home for worship, prayer, spiritual growth and social outreach.

Recently, Pastor Sekino (Tokyo Lutheran’s head pastor) had a chance to speak with a couple of women who used to live near the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant, but who were forced to leave their homes as a result of the high levels of radiation that continue to plague the area. They said that they have been coming to Tokyo Lutheran since relocating to Tokyo and have been so thankful that they could find a church in Tokyo that could help them get through the painful experience of their sudden evacuation.  We thank God that we can provide this kind of ministry to people in need, especially after the disasters that Japan has suffered this past year, and we ask you to keep praying for us so that we can continue being living examples of the love that God has for his children, especially those who are in search for relief from sin and pain.

As always, I hope this letter finds all of you doing great work in your own respective mission fields!  By all means, invite your congregations to contact Christie or me anytime with questions or curiosities that you have regarding our work here in Tokyo.  God bless you all and once again, thank you so much for your support!

Eric and Christie Hanson

It contains a beautiful glimpse into the daily cycle of tropical life in Papua New Guinea by Nancy Anderson, who like her husband, the Rev. Rodney Norby, is an

Bulletin inserts make a handy congregational resource.

The summer 2012 newsletter is now available to download.

ELCA missionary in that equatorial country. Pastor Rodney also reflects on what it’s like to be a pastor and, perhaps surprisingly, an accountant. The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Papua New Guinea is adopting Western accounting standards and “I help to translate these Western accounting standards to support the church’s ministry,” he says.

Also in the newsletter Young Adults in Global Mission volunteer Jackie Schuhle, who is serving in Malaysia, gives thanks to the Rev. Peter Harrits, a long-term ELCA missionary who is her coordinator. He also supports and guides seven other young adults volunteering in Malaysia. “I wouldn’t be able to be the best at my site without Peter’s support,” says Jacki.

Another Young Adults in Global Mission volunteer, Molly Cook, describes how connecting with a Malaysian youth group has deepened her faith. “They are some of the most passionate believers I have ever met. I have grown so much with them!” she says.

The individual stories are also available separately as bulletin inserts.

Go to www.elca.org/handinhand for more information, to read the complete stories and to download your copies of the newsletter and bulletin inserts. For printed copies of the newsletter, contact globalmissionsupport@elca.org.

To support any of the ELCA’s 230 missionaries, go to www.elca.org/missionarysponsorship.

At a taxi rank, or terminal, there can be hundreds of minibus taxis waiting for passengers.

There are two things that I really struggle with when riding the mimibus taxis here. The first is that the taxi doesn’t depart until it is full so you never know when you will leave. The other problem I have is that they are always so hot! For some reason no one likes having windows open no matter how hot it gets so I often arrive at my destination feeling sweaty and gross.

Last week, when I was going from Estcourt to Pietermaritzburg, my tolerance for the taxis was maxing out. After 90 minutes of waiting, the taxi was full but for some reason the manager decided we should go in a different taxi so all 15 of us had to get out and move to another taxi. I had been in the back by a window which was great because then I could control how hot it was by me. However, upon moving to the other taxi I ended up being the last one to have to squeeze into the back row. I got to Pietermaritzburg and told Elise, another volunteer, that I don’t know how many more of those I’m going to be able to handle!  Then, right on cue, my return trip to Estcourt was very different.

Because there are so many taxis in one rank (or terminal), it can become confusing and difficult to find the one that is going where you need. On my way back to Estcourt we had just gotten on the interstate when an older woman a few rows ahead of me started asking about where the taxi was going. I couldn’t understand most of the conversation as it was in Zulu but I did hear her saying, “Tugela” several times, which is another hour past Estcourt. She was realizing, too late, that she had gotten on the wrong taxi.

She soon began to cry as she did not have enough money to then make the trip from Estcourt to Tugela. Without pause, a girl sitting next to her began asking everyone to put some money together for her. Through everyone’s donations the woman was given  more than enough to make the next leg of her journey.

I watched the whole thing in awe and humility. God knew that this was just the thing I needed to renew my spirit as frustration and annoyance had begun to take over.  “Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu” is a Zulu expression meaning, “A person is a person through people.” In other words, we do not get where we are solely by ourselves. There are so many people around us that make us who we are and help us along the way. The spirit of Ubuntu filled that taxi as a group of strangers were willing to help another stranger for no benefit of their own. Such a small but awesome experience to be a part of and one I will not soon forget!

The cast of “Little Red Riding Hood.”

April flew by in a whirl of activity, and I hardly know where the time went.  Since we have year-round school in Japan, April marked the start of a new school year.  This year my school has 347 junior high students and 1052 senior high students.  I teach kindergarten, junior high and high school classes each week, and the variety of levels definitely keeps me busy. I am still working on remembering my students’ names and the names of all the new teachers, but I know that will take time.

Once again this year, my school participated in the Missoula Children’s Theatre program, so that gave me a great opportunity to get to know some of my students outside of a classroom setting. This year’s production was a musical version of “Little Red Riding Hood.” I am proud of everyone’s hard work, but more importantly, the students had fun. I loved cheering on my students and celebrating their personal victories.

In the midst of all this busyness, God reminded me of how important it is to stay focused on him. It is so easy to get swept up in to-do-lists and all the details of life.  I admit that when I get really busy, I often fall into the trap of not taking quiet time alone with God. I try to rationalize this decision by telling myself that God will understand and that there is just too much to do during a day. What I fail to realize is that when I take the time to focus on God and soak up his truths from Scripture, suddenly I have more strength and energy to accomplish that mountain of tasks I face. I have more patience with myself and others when things don’t go as planned.  When unexpected crises arise, God’s words are already in my heart and ready to comfort me.

God constantly provides for us and sustains us through the ups and downs in life, but just like the Israelites, we need to receive our manna from heaven each day.  Instead of living off of the encouragement, hope, strength and sustenance that God gave us yesterday, Sunday or last week, we can receive a fresh helping of God’s goodness each and every day. Lamentations 3:22-23 reminds us that “because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is (God’s) faithfulness.”  So, what does God want to teach you today? Will you take the time to listen?

Healing harp music and prayer shawls.

Dear friends,

On March 11, 2011, a historic 9.0 quake jolted Japan, birthing the Big Wave that crashed into the elementary and junior high schools in the picturesque fishing village of Kamaishi, Japan, not to mention homes, stores, hospitals and  work places. You know the event. However, a shock like this does not disappear from lives as quickly as it does from the headlines.

One woman had a friend in this village and wanted to help the survivors, including the 129 kids in those two schools grades one through nine.

She raised money. Of course that was welcomed. But after the first line of necessities had been restored and the money spent, the woman wisely knew that the kids needed something more than money. They needed caring, hope and encouragement.

Someone thought about Pastoral Harp (prayerful presence through harp and voice) as a possibility toward this end. Carol was approached about visiting the village on Santa Lucia Day, Dec. 13. Many Swedish Lutherans know the message of “Lucia,” the “Queen of Lights,” who dons a crown of candles in the blackest moment before dawn, bringing food to the hungry, warmth in the cold, light into the darkness.

As plans were being prepared, we remembered that we had received about 60 beautiful prayer shawls shortly after March 11 from churches and individuals throughout the U.S. for people in northern Japan. But we had only 60, and we knew that we could not give to one child if we could not give to all.

A second plea went out to our sponsoring churches and prayer shawl ministries throughout the States. By Dec. 1, we had received close to 200 shawls!

On the Day of Lucia, students and teachers gathered in the cold make-shift gymnasium-school. The woman told the story of Santa Lucia and invited the kids to let their hearts take them on whatever heart-journey they needed to take. She affirmed that tears can help to wash. The harp was played in darkness illuminated by 50 candles. Not a word was spoken. And in that time, volunteers quietly, imperceptibly, approached each child, silently wrapping a shawl around him, around her, capping the offering with a firm grip on each child’s shoulders — to speak volumes without one word.

But when the lights came on, or perhaps after the kids were back home, they could find on each shawl a note in Japanese: “This shawl was knit with prayers for God’s love and grace for you. When you feel down, when you feel the need to be supported with love, please put on this shawl. And please remember then that I have knitted this shawl with prayers especially for you. I am praying that you will receive courage from this shawl of love and prayer.”

The “touch” of God’s love and grace, literally.

Jim and Carol Sack

P.S. I am so sorry to be sending this message so late. It happened that my Swedish Lutheran pastor-father passed away the very morning I left for this event. This only added to the depth of meaning of the day. Nevertheless, for various reasons it has taken me some time to return to this report.  I pray my long silence will not betray the mountain of gratitude we feel, nor especially that of the students and teachers of the schools. God bless you all! We thank God for your partnership in the Gospel of our Lord!

Medical treatment saved Agrippa from malaria.

The ELCA is already working here in the Central African Republic to combat malaria. Two rural clinics and a village health program provide malaria education and treatment. The story of little Agrippa (named after King Agrippa in the New Testament book of Acts) is typical. At 14  months, Agrippa had already suffered numerous bouts of malaria. After several illnesses, many people develop partial immunity to malaria, but the parasite remains in their blood, where it continues to destroy red blood cells. Without enough red blood cells to transport oxygen throughout the body, the victims often die – especially infants and small children, who are more susceptible than adults.

In Agrippa’s case, the malaria parasite had destroyed over half of his red blood cells and left him vulnerable to possibly fatal anemia. Fortunately, his mother took him to the Emmanuel Health Center, a project of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the CAR, with sponsorship from the ELCA, Global Health Ministries, Lutheran Partners in Global Mission and other donors. There Agrippa received a life-saving blood transfusion and treatment to kill the remaining parasites in his blood.

Many children here in CAR aren’t as lucky. They live in small villages with no medical facilities and no one to take their photos or to hear their stories. I happen to know about Agrippa because his father and mother are my students at the Lutheran seminary here in Baboua. In a country where thousands of babies and children die needlessly every year, it’s nice to know of one baby who will live. Please consider helping with the ELCA Malaria Campaign.

Thanks,
Deborah Troester
Baboua, Central African Republic

Kulachy is a special Easter food in Russia.

The Orthodox Church celebrated Easter a week later than the Western Church this year. Nearly every year (insofar as the church calendars only rarely coincide) I mourn at the lack of a unified witness in the  celebration of Christ’s resurrection. At the same time, I try to make the best out of the situation, knowing that most of the people in our congregations will, in one way or another, celebrate Easter twice — and it’s hard to argue with that.

There are a number of unique characteristics of the Easter season in Russia. Special foods are prepared, like “kulachy.” They are blessed in front of churches or in supermarkets on Easter or in the days immediately before. The main service in the Orthodox church is a beautiful Easter vigil filled with lots of liturgical “special effects” — the clergy make two changes of their vestments, the church goes from dark to light, there is a special procession around the church filled with everyone singing “Christ is risen from the dead / trampling down death by death / and upon those in the tombs restoring life!”  The Easter night service is broadcast on national TV stations. This year, as usual, major politicians took a prominent place at these services, though this year many are criticizing the church for its obvious moves towards strengthening its financial and political position.

Yet for those who call the Orthodox Church their home, the whole week after Easter is special. During “Bright Week” (and only during this week throughout the entire year) the doors of the iconostasis, separating the sanctuary from the altar, are left open. This represents the stone rolled away from the tomb.  More than anything else the week after Easter is a time of joy — there’s no fasting, there is much singing and, as I’ve noticed this year, a whole lot of bell-ringing. During this week the Orthodox church opens up its bell towers for anyone who wants to try to be a bell ringer.

A recent news report said that as many as 35,000 people attended Easter services. That is wonderful! Yet, given that our city has just passed the 1.5 million mark in population, there is clearly still much to do in order to reach people with the good news of the resurrection.

Wayne Nieminen and Christa von Zychlin

Just this week a U.S. pastor from a sponsoring congregation — yes, you too can sponsor us here in Hong Kong and I bet you don’t even have to be Lutheran — asked us the very good question:
What do you guys do there in Hong Kong, anyway?

Happy to oblige I sent him  a longish e-mail, which I then realized I could re-post and share with our thousands … hundreds … tens … well, at least with our one loyal follower (shout-out to my mom in Wisconsin — Hi Mutti!)

Specifically, Wayne and I are a husband and wife Christian pastoral team. Wayne is the guy with a Ph.D., so he teaches pastoral care and counseling to Lutheran Theological Seminary (LTS) students from Hong Kong, mainland China and many other countries, especially those from the Mekong region (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam).

Wayne is part of a Hong Kong and international faculty at LTS, which has theology students in many levels, from barely post-high school (and struggling with English) to those working on advanced-level  doctorate degrees.

Besides teaching classes, Wayne is working closely with three graduate students, each of which has been trained to minister in a special area when they return to their home countries:

1) Conflict resolution – this student has experienced situations in which church conflicts have erupted in violence and even death.
2) A Christian sex education program for adolescents — this student will be ministering in an area with some of the world’s worst sex-trade trafficking and where ignorance abounds and deaths through self- inflicted abortions are said to be disastrously high.
3) Internally displaced persons who now have some hope of returning to their ancestral lands. After enduring years of being on the run, their children stolen to serve in the army, their fields sown with land mines, men killed, women raped — this student will bring discerning questions, listening ears and Christian hope to these civil war refugees.

And meanwhile, yours truly is working as coordinator of international student affairs, which means I get to do boatloads of paperwork, such as dealing with scholarship accounts and applying for student visas. But I also get to do some hands on pastoral stuff, such as visit LTS alumni and their ministries in places like Cambodia and Myanmar. I’m also currently working with a dynamite Indonesian student on a Bible study/English conversation class with Muslim and Christian Indonesian domestic workers here in Hong Kong.