SOUTHERN & CENTRAL AFRICA: A short film introducing the work of Amahoro Africa to gather pioneering and emerging leaders together from across the continent to talk about mission and theology.

CHILE: A short film of Musician and Pastor Leonardo Alvarez sharing his reflections on integral mission and why music is so important to him.

ARGENTINA: A short film introducing Graciela & Luis from Villa Maria, Cordoba province, and the story of how they are trying to live out integral mission in their home town.

In this short film, Phil & Rach Bowyer share the story of Soul Action South Africa, the network of NGOs and church ministries they facilitate in Durban, and how they’re trying to celebrate all that God is doing in South Africa.

A short film of Francis Wahome from Tearfund introducing Church & Community Mobilisation, featuring two stories of how it’s helping communities take their futures into their own hands.

El edificio de la iglesia estaba programado para la demolición, y no había otras congregaciones luteranas en la zona, para ayudar a resolver necesidades espirituales y sociales de la comunidad.

Samuel tomó rápidamente el asunto en sus propias manos.

Comenzó la reparación del edificio de la iglesia. Los vecinos se acercaron  para ayudarlo. Pronto el santuario, un auditorio, dos cocinas y cuatro baños se renovaron, limpios  y restaurados en condiciones de funcionamiento.

“Me sentí como que había una situación de emergencia”, dice Samuel. “Teníamos que empezar la adoración de inmediato. La gente venía buscando a la iglesia ayuda espiritual y social. Era obvio que la gente de la comunidad  necesitaba  una iglesia a su servicio. “

Hoy Pueblo de Dios está prosperando, mantener un horario semanal muy completo. Ellos tienen un servicio de adoración muy vibrante donde combinan la liturgia luterana con ritmos latinos contemporáneos, estudios bíblicos, clases de comunión y  confirmación, un club infantil, alimentos y servicios de distribución de ropa, trabajan con una clínica local de salud y profesionales voluntarios que brindan sus servicios a la comunidad alrededor de la iglesia, clases de costura para proporcionar oportunidades de generación de ingresos para las familias y mucho más.

Este año la misión Pueblo de Dios, espera comenzar  lo que Samuel llama a un “restaurante  casero”, donde los fieles preparan las comidas tradicionales para brindar a la comunidad celebrando así, su herencia cultural.

“Estoy sorprendido por la gracia de Dios en el crecimiento de nuestra misión”, dice Samuel. Se espera que Pueblo de Dios, se convierta en la primavera de 2011 en una congregación  oficial de la IELA.

También espera  el comienzo de una misión en otro punto de la ciudad de Compton para servir y ayudar a muchos inmigrantes, que cruzan la frontera México-Estados Unidos. Compton Es una ciudad pobre, con alto desempleo que sirve como un destino de llegada a muchas personas latinas.

“Tenemos que seguir compartiendo el pan espiritual y material”, dice Samuel.

El trabajo misionero está impregnado en la sangre de Samuel, él y los miembros del Pueblo de Dios se están preparando para iniciar una nueva congregación en la ciudad.

“Congregaciones abriendo nuevas  congregaciones” es un modelo principal para las nuevas iglesias en la IELA de acuerdo con Mary Frances. Un pastor luterano debe asistir en la formación de nuevas congregaciones de la IELA.

Ella cree que este modelo ofrece una tasa de mayor éxito y oportunidades.

“Tenemos muchos grandes congregaciones de la IELA a punto de hacer este trabajo, y eso es lo que queremos que suceda,” dice Mary.

“Se trata de compartir el reino de Dios, especialmente entre los pobres y entre las comunidades desesperadas por la atención espiritual”, dice Samuel.

Su visión para la nueva congregación en Compton es mostrar que “la gracia de Dios es un don (regalo) para la humanidad.”

“Toda mi vida me sentí llamado a compartir la buena noticia de Jesucristo”, dice Samuel, y añadió que ser un desarrollador de misión (misionero urbano) es un ajuste perfecto para él.

Antes de su vocación en la iglesia, Samuel era un reportero gráfico que trabajan en América Latina en nombre de la revista Latin America Evangelist, Christianity Today, Servicio Mundial de Iglesias, organizaciones y medios seculares.

Originario de Perú, Samuel se trasladó a Estados Unidos en la década de 1990. Él y su familia se unieron a la Iglesia Luterana Angélica en Los Ángeles, fue su primera membrecía familiar en una iglesia luterana. Allí Samuel tomó la decisión de asistir a Seminario Teológico Luterano del Pacífico en Berkeley, California, y entrar en el ministerio ordenado.

“Servir a la gente en el nombre de Dios ha sido lo más gratificante de mi vida”, dice.

Artículo traducido: LivingLutheran.com / Evangelical Lutheran Lutheran Church.

During our August, 2010 visit with partners in Ethiopia, we had the very great privilege of not only hearing about something that actually is life changing, but hearing directly from some of those whose lives had been changed.

I had been skeptical going into that visit. I had read a great deal about small groups formed to foster savings and credit among the poorest of the poor, and read some of the positive field reports that purported significant positive results for these groups. But I resisted the urge to buy into the story for a number of reasons, not the least being that I knew that the natural tendency of missionaries and NGO’s is to put a perhaps generously positive spin on their results. If they didn’t, sadly, they wouldn’t be in business very long.

This is not to criticize the outstanding work that these people and organizations do, nor diminish their sincerity, commitment or heart for the people they serve. It is simply a recognition that in maintaining their support, a positive story is more useful than a story of more modest gain, let alone failure. Not many donors these days care to continue supporting efforts that do not produce positive, measureable results in a reasonable time frame.

What we experienced in Awassa can only be described as life changing. In the southern part of the country, the Kale Hiwot Church has been active for over two years in facilitating the formation of small groups they call “Self Help Groups”. The original concept for SHGs, as implemented in Ethiopia, was developed by Tearfund. The formation of groups such as these is sweeping across the majority world under a variety of names, but they all share certain characteristics and goals/objectives in common.

First, and perhaps most shockingly to the western “let us help you” mindset, they reject outside money or supervision. It is true that the formation of a SHG in a new region requires some outside support in the way of training and coaching. But once established, they operate exclusively using their own resources.

Second, a significant function of a SHG is to provide a safe environment for its members to save their own money. To the westerner, this may sound odd. But remember that the members of such a group lack any experience in managing even tiny amounts of money, and can be easy targets from the less scrupulous in their communities offering to “help” them do that.

Third, once a group’s savings pool grows a bit, the group can make small loans to its members. These loans can be for periodic personal needs (such as annual school expenses), but are more commonly used to expand a member’s “business”. A member of one of the groups we visited reported that she had borrowed (and successfully repaid) several times from her group to expand her petty resale business. Having started with selling a box of products on the street, she was now set to create a second store. And she was not an isolated or “feature” case, but one of many who had experienced the liberation and optimism of being able to build up their own enterprises. Each member of the groups we visited testified that they were materially better off for having experienced their group’s supportive, disciplined approach to saving.

“How about repaying those loans?” you may ask. One of the profound strengths of a SHG is the bond its members share. It may not be as strong as the bond of family, but it is very close. And the resultant shared commitment to each other creates what has been termed “social capital” – a kind of intimately personal collateral that makes failing to repay a loan unthinkable except in the most extreme of situations. As a consequence, repayment rates of 100% (with interest) are common. However, it is possible that some, especially new members may not be completely committed to the group. One of the groups described to us a situation with one such member. Their solution was to take turns standing in front of the women’s home, encouraging here and challenging her each time she passed, until she finally agreed to pay back what she owed the group – and with interest! Today she is a fully committed member.

This idea of “social capital” goes beyond loans. One group member described to us how she was hit by a car, hospitalized, and during her recovery unable to work for quite some time. During her extended recovery, the other members of her group each chipped in to cover her weekly savings contribution so that her savings continued to grow during her convalescence. Imagine, for a moment, if this little vignette described the commonplace in the world we live in.

But the material benefits of these groups pale in comparison to their social and spiritual benefits. In Islamic settings in particular, it is of course common that women (the primary participants in such groups) live a culturally subservient and often times isolated existence. We heard member after member testify of their new sense of self-worth and confidence that had developed as a byproduct of their experience in their group. One woman, when asked how her involvement in the group had affected her relationship with her husband, said “Before I was only a wife. Before he kept me and supported me and my children. Now, I am a partner with my husband. Now he genuinely loves and respects me.”

Life changing, indeed.

I’m no longer a skeptic. As a result of this and earlier visits, our ministry has rededicated itself to supporting the formation of these groups in unserved areas.

Many of us spend our lives yearning to see God’s Kingdom established in His creation. Well, maybe a small part of it already has been – in southern Ethiopia.

http://africawaterandlife.blogspot.com

Posted by Douglas J Martin

Pastor Jeony Ordoñez and his wife Jessi have been working with the community for nine years, after feeling God call them to this part of the city.

“I grew up in the church,” says Jeony, “in the same denomination where I’m now a pastor. And my whole life I was taught to win souls for Christ. But when I arrived at the rubbish dump, God said to me, ‘You are not going to pray for people.’ I said to Him, ‘What? How can I not pray for people? I’m a pastor, I have to pray!’ But He was clear. He said, ‘If someone from the community comes to you, and they are hungry, you are not going to pray against a spirit of hunger, you are going to take them to somewhere where they can eat.’ And so I did what he said.”

Jeony desperately wanted the community to know Jesus, but he underwent a change in his thinking as he got to know the community and was humbled by the level of need they experienced. “Now I don’t win souls for Christ,” he says, “because I am not a soul, that just happens to have a body. I seek to win lives for Christ. Whole, integrated lives.”

Jeony and Jessi pastor in the local community, but they also run a project with the rubbish dump community called Amor, Fe y Esperanza (AFE) – Love, Faith and Hope. Their deepest desire is that the families of the Tegucigalpa garbage dump will experience the abundant life described by Jesus – the life of the kingdom.

The focus of project is education, and they’ll tell you that the greatest thing about the programme is that it expands the children’s worldview. Before coming to AFE, a child’s world revolves around the dump. They probably want to become a dump truck driver, because that is as far as they can see. At AFE, they meet people from other walks of life and see more of the country through field trips, and their ambitions change. Now they dream of becoming doctors, pastors, and engineers.

Jeony says, “It’s an honour that God trusts people like me to serve people like these. It’s an inexplicable but an enormous privilege.”

Over the last nine years Jeony and Jessi have seen many lives transformed, and their church community has grown. One of their favourite stories is one that has been unfolding over many years – that of Antonio. They first met him in the early years with the community, when they were actually on the rubbish dump themselves, teaching children. Jessi was doing most of the teaching, in classes of 15-20 kids. A young teenage boy arrived during her class, with a mask over his face, a baseball cap, and wielding a machete. He announced that he wanted to learn to read and write.

Jessi welcomed him in but he was disruptive and violent. He was given various ultimatums, as Jeony and Jessi tried to find a way to improve his behaviour so he could stay. Jessi came up with the idea of team competitions in class, and the newcomer, Antonio, was made a team leader. Two months later his team had won the class competition, and were taken to Burger King and the cinema – an outing that the Ordonez family struggled to afford.

The outing was a mixed experience – the kids were bored within the first 15 minutes of the film, but awestruck by how clean and pristine Burger King was. They ended up in the adventure playground, but had to leave after 15 minutes because the smell from their feet when they took off their shoes was so horrific!

The sense of achievement the team attained had a profound effect on Antonio. He became the school’s top student for two years. And when he finished there the school gave him a scholarship to continue his studies at a vocational school three hours away. For two more years he trained there as a welder, and at the end of his studies he returned to Tegucigalpa. Jeony points proudly at the school’s communal dining room. “Antonio built that for us when he came back.”

Today Antonio is one of the leaders in their church. And he works in the city beyond the rubbish dump.

This is the kind of change that Jeony and Jessi long to see happen more. The past nine years have been a steep learning curve for them, and they are quick to share how deeply God has changed them as they have sought to love and serve the community. There is so much more they want to see, because they know there is more God wants to do.

Yes – but only in Argentina. Here the “cama” seats are literally that – beds. They fully recline & are wide enough to really relax in. Complete with pillow and blanket, this is by far the best way to traverse this beautiful country.

And that’s how we made our way out of Buenos Aires last night, to arrive in Villa Maria, Cordoba, at 06:40 this morning to stay with Graciela & Luis.

I don’t quite feel that we’ve given them our best yet – Seb is fighting what we think is a virus from our flight over here & we are both exhausted. However, speaking with Graciela & Luis is nothing short of inspiring.

We asked early on the secret to their 39 happy years of marriage. They answered: patience, respect & mutuality. Wise words for us relatively newly weds.

Graciela & Luis help to run a church 500 strong. They are two of 7 pastors who make up the leadership team. They encourage the whole church to be part of decision making, coming up with new ideas and taking the church forward. It’s very much a family & community church and it has a huge commitment to serving those in need around them.

From anti trafficking work to building a school in an indigenous community 2000km away, Graciela, Luis & the church they are part of do an incredible amount to meet the needs of their community. They even do a radio slot every Sunday on Villa Maria’s main station.

While we sit and eat lunch the doorbell rings – at the door is a homeless person who they know & who needs food. They of course help him & I get the feeling that this is all very natural and no irregular occurence.

Speaking with Graciela about how we might film the work she and the church are doing, she felt very strongly that we reflect the fact that all that they are doing is the result of many people getting involved – not just one or two. This therefore is not simply Graciela & Luis’s story of transformation – it is their church’s story, it is the story of those in need whom they are serving. When we meet someone, both come away changed or touched. No one is superior but all are one in Christ.

Graciela de Celis is President (Chair) of Kairos. She is a warm, generous grandmother, who has lived her whole life in Argentina. Graciela is originally of indigenous descent, but it’s hard to tell from her appearance. This woman has seen a lot in her lifetime. She has raised a family, and has travelled all across the continent and beyond, speaking, campaigning, serving, encouraging and catalysing integral mission. And if you ask her why, this is the story she will tell you.

Some 30 years ago Graciela, her husband Luis and their teenage children were visiting family in Southern Argentina and decided to make a detour to a small indigenous village Graciela’s sister knew in the foothills of the Andes. It was a long drive into the mountains, and Graciela felt a strange heaviness as they approached – as if the injustices that indigenous communities had suffered in Argentina were suddenly sitting on her shoulders – injustices that the Christian community had turned a blind eye to.

Mapuche is remote and rocky. The community had no clean water, no electricity, no school – whereas the city Graciela and her family lived in had all of these, and had done for many years. The local community watched their white visitors from a distance all day, without making eye contact. They had no experience of being treated with dignity and respect or being approached in friendship by white people.

That one day in Mapuche affected Graciela’s whole family deeply. The village was more than 2000 km from their home in Cordoba, but it was all they could think and talk about. A friend of Graciela’s was ill with cancer, and told her, “if God has shown you this it is because you have to do something, God didn’t show you this for you to do nothing.”

And so they decided to plan a trip back.

The big question members of their church had was, “What are you going to do? Are you going to evangelize?”

And yet Graciela and her family felt strongly that they needed to go and listen first. They needed to get to know the community before they could do anything to help. And first they wanted to go and ask for forgiveness from the Mapuche community, for what they had done to them, as Christians and white Argentineans.

Fifteen young people and another couple went back with Graciela’s family and stayed for 6 weeks. They lived with the community, ate with them outdoors, lived in tents, in temperatures of 10 degrees below zero at night. They visited every little house on the mountain, every place, every family.

And they promised to return. Graciela’s group had plenty of ideas of things that they could do to improve their living conditions. But the community were very clear: “The first thing that we want is a school”. It was more ambitious than anyone had imagined.

The problem was that the village children were sent away at age 6 ton school in another town far away – so far they had to live there. They were separated from their families for months at a time, and many of them became sick.  They would be sent home and the effect over time was that hardly anyone in Mapuche could read or write.

So Graciela and her friends started to try to build a school. First the group built a large community hall with the villagers, out of logs. The provincial authorities quickly objected to the building because it was a fire hazard.

Next they designed a school building and presented it to the government in the hope that they would fund it. Over the
course of a year they roped in all kinds of skilled friends and volunteers, signed petitions and wrote letters. They went with a group of young people and conducted a census of the entire population of Mapuche and their levels of education, housing and sickness,  to present it to the government as an annex to the request to show why they were requesting a school.

All this time they were battling against the prejudice of the white communities in the bigger towns in the province. They protested against the proposal, boycotted it and slowed the process down in lengthy bureaucracy.

After a year, however, the Minister of Education finally read the project proposal. Catastrophically, he was then killed in an accident. The project was lost.

Graciela and her family and friends were devastated. They could not see a way through to get the project approved. All they could do was
pray.

And then God placed in Graciela’s path a Christian who held an important position in the government. It seemed like the tide was turning. The man went out of his way to fight for the project. He arranged a private meeting for Graciela and the governor, and the governor approved the project.

The State supported the project, but it turned out they had no money to pay for it.

How could they go back and tell the community that had begun to dream about their school that they couldn’t have it? The group in Cordoba began to think. Impossible as it seemed, maybe they
could do it themselves.

They tried to get money from the State but every official wanted a bribe. Even the evangelical Christian missions wouldn’t help, unless the school was made evangelical. Graciela’s group pleaded, “You don’t know the community, you don’t know what the people are like.” They had suffered so much discrimination that they did not want a religious school.

At the same time they were working with the church community in Mapuche, who gathered in homes. Together they studied the Bible and discovered their call to be salt and light, involved in the life of the school and the community.

The fundraising took all kinds of forms. A boxer, who had a world title, heard about the project, called them and offered to do an exhibition fight to raise money for the school.

Each summer the group travelled the 2000km to Mapuche and worked there for a couple of months alongside the local community, building the school. In the winters they had to stop because of the cold – with temperatures of minus 20 or 25, the building materials would simply crack.

A pastor from a Methodist church came to see what these crazy people from Cordoba were doing with the community. And he wrote an article in the newspaper describing the building work: “It was like the anteroom of heaven: there were professionals, Mapuche locals, young people, children, all working in different roles but all as one.”

It took around 7 years to build the school. During this time there were winters where the walls that they had built were broken and knocked down by the cold and they had to rebuild them. They hired construction workers to help them build during the periods that they could not travel and they stole materials from them.

But the Mapuche community began to look after the place because they felt ownership of it, because they had built it, because they had been a part of chiselling the rocks, of stacking the bricks.

Just as the school was finished and ready for inauguration, the authorities announced that it had to have drinking water. And so another long process began – of analysing the local water supply, sampling spring water, trying to find a healthy source. The local water was not drinkable, so they had to build a small dam and a water tank. Once that was solved, there was another problem: electricity. There was no electricity supply to any part of the village.

The Mapuche community had always said to Graciela: ‘Bring the school and everything else will come with it.’ And they were starting to understand the truth of this.

Finally the school had electricity, and the community had electricity. It was inaugurated. And today the school is running. The community has grown enormously; there has been real change in their lives. Those who were children during the first years are teenagers now and they are the ones who run the community centre in the village. The school has the Internet, the school has an elementary and secondary school; it’s huge – the government enlarged it because of the results it produces. And it is a state school – the community themselves chose to donate it to the state.

For a long time into this journey, the question Graciela and her family were asked most often by their home church was “How many people in Mapuche have converted?” If you ask Graciela that question she smiles and answers “Many.” It’s true that the

church in Mapuche has grown, but that’s not what she’s talking about. In her mind, the converts were the members of her family and her church who came with them on the journey.

It was the white Argentineans who had most to learn about the injustices suffered by indigenous communities, and the battles they faced in seeking something better. The only way forward was a path of humility, friendship, and reconciliation. – which for her us a picture of life in the kingdom of God.

“I don’t know how much transformation we brought,” she says. “But I think that we were the first to be transformed. They were the ones who taught us.”