ELCA NEWS SERVICE
December 12, 2007
Everyday Lutherans Working in Mission and Ministry Overseas
07-204-MRC
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. Brian E. Konkol does not see
himself as "too special or anything like that" as a young pastor
in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) serving
overseas. But he believes that God is capable of doing some
"pretty amazing things through some pretty ordinary people."
"Don't allow the doubts of others to prevent you from
following God's calling to service," said Konkol, who is serving
in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Guyana as a long-term
missionary of the ELCA. His advice to other young adults in the
ELCA considering mission and ministry overseas is "simply 'go for
it.' Young people are capable of great things."
For the past 160 years Lutherans from the United States have
been sending missionaries to serve around the world. Most of
these Lutherans helped to establish and nurture new churches.
Because of these efforts, Lutheran churches in many parts of the
world today are independent and self-governing with their own
seminaries, social programs and more. Along with that, today's
ELCA mission personnel -- 70 percent of whom are lay people --
are now called to assist in a variety of mission and ministry
roles, ranging from librarians to financial administrators.
As a teenager Konkol dreamed of becoming a courtroom lawyer.
After high school he enrolled in the criminal justice program at
Viterbo University, LaCrosse, Wis. During his second year of
study, "my career path started to take a massive change" after
listening to a speech from Sister Helen Prejean, a Roman Catholic
nun opposed to the death penalty and whose character was featured
in the film "Dead Man Walking."
"My home pastor always told me that I would make a good
pastor. Like most children, I simply wasn't interested. I
figured ordained ministry wouldn't be of any fun, and it simply
wasn't 'cool' enough for me. After hearing Sister Prejean, I
realized that I could run from God but not hide. At age 21
I began seriously to consider a life of ordained ministry,"
said Konkol.
Konkol became a student at Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minn.,
and accepted an internship with the Evangelical Lutheran Church
in Guyana through the ELCA's Horizon Internship Program. Luther
is one of eight ELCA seminaries. Through Horizon, students
enrolled at an ELCA seminary can spend their third year in rural,
urban, multicultural, mission development or international
ministries.
"After a variety of written applications, interviews and
formal evaluations in January 2003 I had been accepted to serve
overseas at Ebenezer Lutheran in Guyana," said Konkol. "My first
thoughts were, Guyana? Where in the world is Guyana?" Guyana
borders Venezuela and Suriname in South America.
The internship in Guyana "challenged me in ways like never
before. I learned things about global ministry, the people of
Guyana and, of course, a great deal about myself and how God was
trying to work through my life. I thought about cultural
differences between Guyana and the United States, I examined my
personal beliefs as a curious young-adult Christian, and I
realized that customs and practices that I had long assumed were
'the best' were not universal in practice," he said.
While making "numerous mistakes during that year," Konkol
said, "the Guyanese people were wonderful, and I knew that I had
found a home among them. While just a few years before I
couldn't have found Guyana on a map, I was now seeing it as place
that I could spend a significant amount of my young life."
Following his internship experience in Guyana, Konkol
returned to Luther Seminary and earned a master in divinity
degree in 2005. That year, staff of ELCA Global Mission
contacted Konkol and offered him an assignment to serve as pastor
and leadership developer with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
Guyana as a long-term missionary. He accepted the assignment.
Konkol and his wife Kristen live and serve in Guyana.
Some of Konkol's responsibilities include serving as pastor
of Emmanuel Lutheran Parish, which consists of four
congregations; lecturer for the Lutheran Lay Academy of Guyana, a
lay training center which empowers Lutherans there with skills in
worship leadership, Bible study, church history, preaching and
general theology; and one of three panelists for the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in Guyana's weekly television show, "The Word for
the World," which broadcasts throughout the country every Sunday
evening.
"I truly love the various forms of service taking place
here, and I see it as a wonderful fit," said Konkol. "As a
developing country, Guyana certainly has many challenges and
there are times of frustration. Some days I just yearn for ESPN
or ice cream sandwiches. In the midst of the challenges and
frustrations one grows, develops new perspectives and reaches new
heights," he said.
Non-clergy mission personnel serve as musicians and other roles
Thirty percent of ELCA pastors overseas teach at training
institutions and serve in churches. Lay mission personnel from
the ELCA serve as medical workers, librarians, financial
administrators, teachers and university professors.
"It is now very clear to us that God had been preparing our
family for mission work for many years. We just didn't realize
it," said Randy Stubbs, who heads the department of music at
Makumira University College (MUCo), just outside of Arusha,
Tanzania. MUCo is part of the university system operated by the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania.
Randy and his wife Carol, a music instructor at MUCo,
committed to serve in Tanzania from 2006 to 2007 as ELCA short-
term volunteer missionaries. They have three children ages 13,
12 and 10.
"The vision of the music program is not only to train music
educators" but to develop "enough qualified Tanzanians to run the
music program," said Randy. "We have a small number of talented
and dedicated music students and two part-time Tanzanian
musicians committed to a brand new program that is exciting. My
wife and I are the only two with master's degrees in music, which
is required to teach full-time at the university," he said.
"Some transitions (in moving from the United States to
Tanzania) were easier than expected, while others have been more
challenging, such as a big lack of electricity and more than a
three-month (process) to purchase a car," said Randy.
Prior to moving to Tanzania, the Stubbs worked as musicians
at First Lutheran Church, DeKalb, Ill., for 19 years. A year
before "stepping on a plane to Tanzania," Randy said his family
had come to a turning point in its life during a family devotion
and began to explore options in becoming short-term missionaries
of the ELCA. They sold their house and car and gave away other
family possessions.
"Our children are thriving in this very different
environment," said Randy. "When people ask, 'don't (your
children) miss life in America?' (Our children) respond, 'This
is life. Life doesn't only happen in America.' They speak
Swahili and barter at the market."
In 2007 the Stubbs family will complete their one-year
commitment of service and has considered staying longer.
"We are staying longer because we realize just how much God
had been preparing us for what we are currently doing in
Tanzania. We continue to sense a strong call to stay and help
complete the task that we have begun," said Randy. "Our thinking
about money, security, life and blessings has changed as a result
of this first year of service. Staying longer is much easier to
consider."
ELCA mission personnel live and work in 'accompaniment'
According to ELCA Global Mission, mission personnel live and
work in a model called "accompaniment" -- mutual relationships
between churches in the United States and Lutheran companion
churches.
Kate Lawler, originally from Massachusetts, was director of
a program that enrolled children in state health care insurance
programs. David Wunsch, originally from Indiana, directed an
advocacy coalition for people with disabilities seeking
affordable health insurance. Lawler and Wunsch met in 1995 as
graduate students in New York City and later married.
"Ten years, two children and two mini-careers later," Lawler
and Wunsch are long-term ELCA missionaries serving Lutheran
churches in five countries -- Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Peru
and Uruguay.
"Serving as ELCA missionaries was something we hadn't ever
considered seriously," said Wunsch. Their church experience was
limited to an active membership in an ELCA congregation in upper
Manhattan, New York. Lawler and Wunsch had lived and worked in
Latin America for several years. "We knew that our hearts and
minds belonged in Latin America and that we would eventually end
up there in some sort of calling." They found out about mission
personnel positions on the ELCA Web site.
As mission personnel "the most important aspect of our
ministry is relationship. We sit with the leadership of our
companions and listen to their vision, strengths, weaknesses and
opportunities. We then together strategize on how the ELCA can
best accompany our companion church and institutions, first
through relationships and then through resources if and when
possible. ELCA resources generally seek to strengthen our
companions' capacities in the areas of church growth, leadership
development, peace and reconciliation, and sustainable
development," said Wunsch.
Lawler and Wunsch also coordinate the ELCA Young Adults in
Global Mission program in Argentina and Uruguay. The program
gives young adults between the ages of 19 and 30 the opportunity
to serve in a global context for one year, said Wunsch. "For us
the most exciting aspect of this work is the potential to
transform the ELCA through the development of future leaders who
are globally formed and globally informed," he said.
As of 2007 ELCA Global Mission supports about 275 mission
personnel, including long-term and short-term appointments, self-
supported volunteers, seminary interns and participants in the
Young Adults in Global Mission program. There are 34
participants in the Young Adults program -- young adults ages
19-30 placed in ministry settings that provide service in social
ministry, youth work, congregational outreach, education, social
justice and health care in Argentina, Germany, India, Kenya,
Mexico, the Philippines, Slovakia and the United Kingdom.
"Nearly all our companion churches' ministries are focused
on people living in or near poverty," said Wunsch. "In Argentina
and Chile, churches are helping to rebuild day care centers,
train health workers, support small agricultural producers and
change the government's economic policies that keep millions of
people living in poverty," he said.
The Bolivian Evangelical Lutheran Church is working with
"faith communities and building churches that will house them in
this country's most economically marginalized towns and cities,"
he said.
"We have been awed by the depth of theology, the stirring of
the spirit, the solidarity among people, and the presence of the
liberating Christ that we have experienced as we walk together
with our companion churches as representatives of the ELCA,"
said Wunsch.
- - -
Information about ELCA Global Mission is available at
http://www.ELCA.org/globalmission on the Web.
For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or [log in to unmask]
http://www.elca.org/news
ELCA News Blog: http://www.elca.org/news/blog
