Dispatches from the 2011 global mission, hunger and companion-synod leaders' gathering

KENT — "Welcome Forward" was the theme of a recent regional gathering of ELCA global-mission and hunger leaders, all who found new ways and new energy to take forth the message that malaria, hunger and poverty must be contained.

Some two dozen synodical leaders attended the ELCA Region 1 Leaders Gathering Oct. 21 and 22 at Kent Lutheran Church, including the Rev. Steve Ray, Beth Ann Johnson and Rachel Pritchett from the Southwestern Washington Synod. Following are some short vignettes of what was shared in the gathering led by the Rev. Lanny Westphal, ELCA director for global formation for relationship:

Joining the ranks fighting Malaria
"It is within our lifetime and capability to contain malaria in Africa by the year 2015," said the Rev. Andrea DeGroot-Nesdahl, nationwide coordinator of the ELCA malaria initiative.

That's the goal of the new churchwide initiative, and the former bishop came equipped with resources congregations can use to help.

DeGroot-Nesdahl suggested congregations begin a campaign to contain the dreaded disease. The ELCA has developed many free resources, including instructions on how to start one, a PowerPoint and videos. Other resources include DVDs, bulletin inserts and more. To get ahold of the materials, visit www.elca.org/malaria or contact synod Communicator Rachel Pritchett at (206) 498-0920 or rachelpritchett@msn.com.

DeGroot-Nesdahl reminded her listeners that malaria strikes hand-in-hand with hunger and poverty. Solve them together and the fight's closer to being won, she said. The lethal disease by far hits hardest in Africa. Almost nine of 10 of the 800,000 people who die of malaria each years live there. Most are children. DeGroot-Nesdahl, by the way, is the former bishop of the South Dakota Synod and was the ELCA's second female bishop.

South Sudan's story, so close to home
South King County's concentration of South Sudanese immigrants form the basis of a unique ministry at Kent Lutheran Church that supports some of the needs of about 100 of them. Once a month, a Sunday service is held in South Sudan's Nuer language.

Gach Dedoch and Koang Chop of the congregation's South Sudan Community Restoration Program welcomed participants, and demonstrated a small portable bio-sand water-purification system a group from the congregation will take to South Sudan in March. To learn more about this ambitious project taken on by just one congregation and how to help or participate, visit www.klcsouthsudan.blogspot.com or ww.facebook.com/klcsouthsudan. A shoe-recycling campaign to raise funds in underway.

Longtime student-teacher friends hook up
The Rev. Everett Savage of the Northwest Washington Synod spent many years of his career teaching and preaching in south Taiwan. Among his students from 1984 to 1986 was the Rev. Steve Ray of the Southwestern Washington Synod. Both ran into each other at the Region 1 gathering. In Taiwan, Ray then was the intern pastor at Kaohsiung Community Church and today is the executive director of the nonprofit chinaconnect, which fosters one-on-one relationships between young people in the United States and Nanchung, China. Ray also spent many of the intervening years witnessing in China.

Advice: Support Chinese students here before they return home
The Rev. Zhenchuan Liu told the gathering that the rich continue to become richer and the poor poorer in China, and that it's only a matter of time before a nationwide uprising occurs to erase the disparity.

"I believe, pretty soon," said Zhenchuan. "Too hard to live." He also said that so many in China without religious knowledge today have lives centered on getting ahead in the material world. "They don't believe anything. The only thing, money," he said. People in the United States can help by sending missionaries to China, supporting Christian seminaries in China and ministering to Chinese students studying here.

Zhenchuan is behind the Grace Center for Campus Chinese at the University of Washington, a place where immigrant students can get basic help, like learning how to get an apartment or driver's license. He estimates there are 1,800 Chinese students at the UW and another 3,000 in community colleges around Seattle. "They will be future leaders in China," he said.

Briefs ...
The Northwest Washington Synod's Mission Interpreter program to obtain and share stories from members of congregations is well underway with 20 mission interpreters from congregations now identified, according to Lee Bjorklund, mission-interpreter coordinator. The mission-interpreter contact in the Southwestern Washington Synod is the Rev. Sarah Roemer at (360) 876-5094 or spiritoflifelc@msn.com.

Bishop Jessica Crist of the Montana Synod has undertaken an initiative to visit each of the Native American reservations in her synod to deliver a formal apology for the transgressions committed against Natives Americans by Europeans coming into their lands to settle. Learn more here: http://www.montanasynod.org/Apology/index.html.

The 500th anniversary of the Reformation takes place in 2017, and Lanny Westphal, ELCA director of global formation for relationship, suggests synods and congregations meet their international partners at the Wittenberg Center in Germany. More information is at ww.elca.org/wittenberg.

Soon, Barbara Robertson, the Olympia-based ELCA missionary to Tanzania, will depart from Washington state, where she shared with a number of congregations, back to the African country to continue her AIDS/HIV prevention teaching. Robertson excited and encouraged a number of her listeners here. Lanny Westphal suggested that congregations now wishing to join those supporting her in Tanzania should contact Twila Schock at twila.schock@elca.org or (773) 380-2641.


Pictured top to bottom:

The Rev. Lanny Westphal, ELCA director for global formation for relationship, led the event.

The ELCA logo for the malaria initiative.

Gach Dedoch (in suit) and Koang Chop of the South Sudan Community Restoration Program, a ministry of Kent Lutheran Church, and Council President Debbie Hunt welcomed participants of the Region 1 gathering for synod leaders in global mission, hunger and companion relationships.

The Rev. Everett Savage of Trinity Lutheran Church of Lynnwood and the Rev. Steve Ray of chinaconnect and Elim Lutheran Church of Port Orchard share a moment. Savage was Ray's pastoral mentor in the 1980s in Taiwan.

The Rev. Zhenchuan Liu of the Grace Center for Campus Chinese speaks.