Title: Lutheran Health Ministry is Vital Worldwide ELCA NEWS SERVICE April 4, 1996 LUTHERAN HEALTH MINISTRY IS VITAL WORLDWIDE (65 lines) 96-08-025-AH CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Dr. Mark L. Jacobson called health ministries "among the most vital, vibrant, holistic" ministries of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Division for Global Mission. Jacobson is doctor in charge at Selian Hospital near Arusha, Tanzania. He spoke to the division's board at its meeting here March 21-23. Selian is a hospital of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania. "A holistic approach is part of our history in health ministry," Jacobson said. He called health care "one leg on the three-legged stool with evangelism and education." The approach asks, "What might people do for themselves? What are their problems?" "The people of Africa do not divide the spiritual from the rest of life," Jacobson explained. Health is related to wholeness. Poor health is the result of broken relationships. "They ask `why' they became ill, not `how.'" Jacobson told the board, "The gift of reconciliation is our message, and the gift of health is the ministry of reconcilers." He described a program that has moved "curative and primary health care" out of the institution and into communities "on the periphery," among the nomadic Masai people and in small villages. Among health personnel in Tanzania, he said, "transformation" has emerged as a goal. "Transforming situations" might mean concentrating on clean water to reduce diarrhea, he explained. Jacobson outlined the "alarming" rate of the spread of AIDS in Tanzania. In coming years Tanzania will lose 20 percent of its teachers. The Central African Republic will lose half its high school graduates. There are 10 million AIDS-related orphans in Africa, he told the board. "There is no greater issue before us as healthy people and as Christians," Jacobson said. The church should be "a catalyst for prevention." The Tanzanian church has begun providing AIDS education in confirmation class, Jacobson said, "linking the time of beginning to be sexually active with the age of decision in faith." Jacobson serves as the division's consultant for health ministries around the world. Dr. Peri Rasolondraibe, director of the Lutheran World Federation's Department for Mission and Development, Geneva, addressed the board on the subject of cooperation and interdependence. He stressed the principle of partnership, "Partners are endowed with different gifts and capacity, such as human and material resources, technical abilities, spiritual experience; yet they must share the level of commitment ... to the task and commitment to each other." "This understanding of equality will strengthen the quality of our partnership," he said, especially through "honesty, transparency, trust and respect, rights and responsibilities, and interdependence -- that is, sharing empowerment and vulnerability." The board acknowledged retiring missionaries, some of whom have served overseas for up to 45 years. They include the Rev. Kenneth and Eloise Dale and the Rev. Andrew and Masae Ellis, serving in Japan since 1951; the Rev. John and Elizabeth Nelson, Salina, Kan., serving in Singapore since 1955; the Rev. Earl and Nijiko Bergh, in Japan since 1957; Lois Swanson, Proctor, Minn., serving in Tanzania since 1958; the Rev. Ronald and Ruth Nelson, Hettinger, N.D., in Cameroon since 1959. Patricia Bentsen, Blair, Neb., will return from Madagascar where she has served as a nurse since 1967. For information contact: Ann Hafften, Dir., ELCA News Service, (312) 380-2958; Frank Imhoff, Assoc. Dir., (312) 380-2955; Lia Christiansen, Asst. Dir., (312) 380-2956