Title: ELCA Board Hears from Companions in Africa, Asia, Middle East
ELCA NEWS SERVICE

March 25, 2003

ELCA BOARD HEARS FROM COMPANIONS IN AFRICA, ASIA, MIDDLE EAST
03-063-MR

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The board of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America (ELCA) Division for Global Mission (DGM) elected officers and
received presentations from companions working in Africa, Asia and the
Middle East.  The board also studied an ELCA strategic planning process
and received a report about the Young Adults in Global Mission program
when it met here March 14-16.
     The board elected S. Christine Mummert, Harrisburg, Pa., to serve
the next two years as chair.  In an interview, Mummert said her vision
for the work of the board includes understanding the ministry of
accompaniment.
     Mummert contends that "global mission has changed."  The "emphasis
is now on accompaniment."  She described accompaniment as "a sharing, a
walking together."
     "Last year I brought to the board's executive committee the germ
of an idea that we seize opportunities" for board members "to get out
and 'walk the walk' with mission personnel in places we haven't been
before, so that we really begin to understand what is accompaniment,"
said Mummert.
     She added that another part of her vision for the board is to
"make sure all the voices around the table are heard.  We're a richly
diverse board."
     Earlier this year Mummert traveled to Kenya and Uganda with board
members James L. Hansen, Hurricane, W.Va., and the Rev. Stephen M.
Youngdahl, Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church, Austin, Texas.  Their
trip was a study tour led by staff of Lutheran World Relief, the
overseas relief and development ministry of the ELCA and the Lutheran
Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS).  Hansen, Mummert and Youngdahl shared
stories and pictures with the board.
     The board elected Youngdahl to serve as vice president, and Judy
Wagner St. Pierre, Newport News, Va., was elected secretary.

DIRECTOR OF LUTHERAN SCHOOLS IN PALESTINE HAS A NEW VISION
     "The vision, put very simply, is that if we can get the child and
the student to enjoy coming to school, we have accomplished the
impossible," Dr. Charles Haddad, director of schools for the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in Jordan (and Palestine) (ELCJ), said in an interview.
     The ELCJ has four schools and educational programs with about
2,000 Christian and Muslim students, both boys and girls. "Sixty percent
of the students are Christians and 40 percent are Muslims in an area
where 2 percent of the population is Christian," he said.  Schools and
education centers are located in Bethlehem, Beit Jala, Beit Sahour,
Jerusalem, Mount of Olives and Ramallah.
     In his presentation to the board, Haddad said the mission for ELCJ
schools is "to provide quality education at relatively low tuition
costs."  Due to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, tuition "has
hardly been collected, but the church is helping with financial
assistance.  We are succeeding to some degree."
     The ELCA is working with the ELCJ "in many ways," Haddad said.
Together, the churches are working to build a "permanent" endowment fund
that will help support schools of the ELCJ.
     "Our teaching philosophy is progressive," Haddad said.  "We want
to educate for knowledge and not offer information for students to
memorize for government-led tests."  He said the implementation of such
new approaches as group learning, in-service training for teachers, and
community and environmental education "has been a struggle, but we're
doing it under prevailing conditions."
     Israeli-imposed curfews in Palestinian areas "interrupt education.
Students and teachers are forced to work on a timetable in light of the
curfews," Haddad told the board.  Since the beginning of the school year
last September, about 30 to 35 percent of school days have been lost
because of the curfews.  A way in which students and the school
administration have compensated for lost school days has been to conduct
classes on holidays.
     "Many Palestinians are forced to remain at home during the
curfews.  It is very frustrating," Haddad said.  "Some defy the curfews;
risks are taken every day."  Those who are caught outside their homes
during curfew are subject to "inhumane treatment."  Some are taken to
the nearest Israeli checkpoint and "humiliated," he said.
     Many people have "lost their homes and have had relatives killed.
It is very difficult to put into words how people are suffering," he
said.
     "The cancer of the Middle East is growing," Haddad said.  "My
vision is to live peacefully in my home, as well as for people around
the world to live peacefully in their homes," he said.

HIV/AIDS IN SUB-SAHARA AFRICA
     "Sub-Sahara Africa is by far the most HIV/AIDS-affected region in
the world," said Dr. Mamy Ranaivoson, DGM's health consultant on
HIV/AIDS, Nairobi, Kenya, in his report to the board.  "Almost 30
million people are now living with HIV/AIDS and 58 percent of them are
women," he said.
     "In 2002, 3.5 million new infections occurred in Sub-Sahara Africa
and an estimated 2.4 million have died during the course of the year.
About half of the 30 million infected are under the age of 24 years, and
3 million children under the age of 15 are living with HIV," said
Ranaivoson.
     The bad news is that AIDS is the worst epidemic of the 21st
century and every country around the globe is affected, Ranaivoson told
the board.  In South Africa, 4.9 million people are HIV-positive.  In
Nigeria, the most populated country in Africa, 5 percent of the people
are affected.  In Kenya and Cameroon, the percentage has reached double-
digit figures, he said.
     The good news is that the HIV prevalence rate among pregnant women
under 20 in South Africa has fallen from 21 percent in 1998 to 15.4
percent in 2001.  In Uganda, the decline of HIV infections is down to 7
percent from 15 percent.  There has been a change of behavior, such as
abstaining from sexual intercourse entirely and the use of condoms,
Ranaivoson reported.
     "Stand With Africa" is "truly a campaign of hope," he said.
Through the campaign, Lutherans can tackle the HIV/AIDS epidemic through
education, produce enough food to eat and sell, and build peace at the
grass roots, Ranaivoson said.
     "For the future, the challenge is not only how to sustain and
expand successful prevention measures but also to provide adequate
treatment, care and support to the millions of people living with
HIV/AIDS and the orphans of the AIDS epidemic," he said.
     "The vast majority of Africans, more than 90 percent, have not yet
acquired HIV.  Therefore, more focus on prevention should be emphasized
so that they remain HIV-free, especially young people," Ranaivoson said.

LUTHERAN CHURCH IN MALAYSIA AND SINGAPORE
     "Our mission is to reach and impact our culture with the gospel of
Jesus Christ," said Lai Yoke Kiew, executive board member, Lutheran
Church in Malaysia and Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
     Kiew said her work with the board is based on "God's love being
shared" through evangelism, outreach and social ministry among the
Chinese communities in Malaysia and Singapore.  "Many are coming to
realize that there is really one God," Kiew said in an interview.
     Kiew's parents "came from an ancestral worship" background, which
is part of the "Chinese culture," and what she followed.  Kiew became a
Christian when "a sister prayed for her."
     "My mom was ill for three months.  In that time, I had gone
through a lot of frustration.  I managed to [become] friends with a
sister in the hospital where my mother stayed.  The sister prayed for me
and told me about the good news of Jesus Christ and about the love of
God," Kiew said, adding that her parents "accepted Christ" 11 years
later.

ELCA STRATEGIC PLAN, YOUNG ADULTS IN GLOBAL MISSION
     The board discussed a strategic planning process the church is
conducting in advance of the 2003 ELCA Churchwide Assembly in Milwaukee
this summer.  The board recommended that the strategy's planning and
evaluation committee of the ELCA Church Council "invite into the process
cross-cultural" resource people.
     The strategy "does not reflect the ELCA's commitment to diversity
as articulated in the ELCA constitution.  Our experience is that
diversity must be intentional, not assumed," the board stated in its
resolution.
     The strategy "does not articulate a clear global vision of the
mission of the ELCA," it said, adding that the strategic planning
proposal should incorporate some specific language from the division's
"Global Mission in the 21st Century, Goals and Directions" and
"Strategic Priorities: 2002-2006" documents.
     The board also received a report from Elaina Gospodarczyk,
recruitment assistant for DGM's young adults in global mission program.
The program is designed to provide global volunteer experience to young
adults in the church.  Currently, 15 high school and college-age
Lutherans serve in church ministries or with social service agencies in
Argentina, Thailand and the United Kingdom.  For 2003-2004, the program
is expanding to Egypt, Germany, Hungary/Ukraine and Kenya.  The division
will support 27 volunteers for the coming year.
     "This program embraces young adults in the present as leaders in
the church," said Gospodarczyk, who served in London for one year.  "God
called me not to cross the sea but to see the cross."
     Since her service, Gospodarczyk has been visiting the ELCA's 28
colleges and universities.  She said more than 1,900 people have heard
about the program.  "I try to take all opportunities to spread the
word," she said.

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