ELCA Leaders Travel to Mexico City, Learn about People in Poverty

MEXICO CITY (ELCA) -- Thirteen leaders of the churchwide organization
of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) traveled to and met
here Jan. 7-11, learning first-hand about the experiences of people
living in poverty. The group's experiences were centered in the work of
the Lutheran Center here, an ELCA-sponsored resource for renewal and
transformation which offers a variety of cross-cultural immersion and
encounter experiences.
The group included 11 leaders from churchwide offices in Chicago and
Minneapolis, a member of the ELCA Church Council and an officer with Aid
Association for Lutherans (AAL). The council is the church's interim
legislative authority between churchwide assemblies, held every two
years; AAL is a fraternal benefits organization based in Appleton, Wis.
The ELCA has a continuing emphasis on ministry among people living
in poverty. In 1999 the ELCA Church Council designated $3 million in
reserve funds for international and domestic ministries involving people
in poverty. In March 2000 the ELCA Conference of Bishops issued a
"Pastoral Letter on Wealth and Poverty." Each ELCA leader contributed
personal funds or used continuing education funds to pay for the trip.
During the week-long experience the group met with Mexican experts
in religion, government, social service, economics and culture, and
experienced the work of AMEXTRA (the Asociacion Mexicana de
Transformacion Rural y Urbano), a Christian community-based development
association. AMEXTRA in sponsored in part by the ELCA.
Basing their work on Isaiah 54: 1-8, AMEXTRA has worked in forestry,
agriculture, nutrition education, women's banks, loans, micro-business
support and border ministries since 1984. Lutherans have supported
their work through the ELCA World Hunger Appeal since 1985, when they
joined with other denominations already part of AMEXTRA for relief work
following the Mexico City earthquake.
Reviewing their history and programs with the ELCA group, Dr. Omar Villagran, a veterinarian, one of the association's founders and now its executive director, said, "God has helped us plant knowledge" among people in poverty in Mexico. AMEXTRA "brings Good News to people," Villagran said. "We work for Jesus." In 1999, AMEXTRA's programs served 5,769 families in 82 communities, he added. The ELCA group visited AMEXTRA's center in Chalco where the staff has worked for nearly 17 years among the people. Chalco is a Mexico City neighborhood with the nation's highest child mortality rate. AMEXTRA'S work in Chalco began with a baby-weighing clinic and efforts to get trees planted in this community. Efforts expanded to include classes in nutrition and a variety of work-at-home skills to help women supplement family incomes while caring for their children. The center opened in 1989 and now includes a day care center for 57 children of single mothers, a medical and dental clinic, a group savings project for small business and home construction loans, and a recycled paper stationary project, as well as a center for its many community education classes. From Chalco, the group visited an AMEXTRA outreach project in Carto Landia, which means "cardboard land," another new community that has sprung up almost overnight as families move to Mexico City, hoping for a better life. Homes in Carto Landia are made of pressed cardboard. There AMEXTRA's outreach worker, Dona Rosa, and her husband, Aaron, have set up a medical and dental clinic, and have begun nutrition and folk dancing classes and a credit union. "With God we have a future," Dona Rosa told the ELCA group. A human rights committee and a cooperative to bring electricity to Carto Landia have been started. At the Carto Landia center there are classes offered in arts and crafts, cooking and baking, and hair cutting -- all to help women earn additional income. One of the center's biggest challenges is to help Carto Landia residents obtain title to the land on which they have built their one-room cardboard homes. There is no hospital to serve the more than 1 million people who live in the Carto Landia and Chalco areas. Forty percent of families are headed by single mothers Abuse (men to women, women to children) is a significant problem. Only 40 percent of the people have any kind of employment, through which they may get access to government programs such as health care or social services. Most people have no access to governmental services. Despite the conditions, the people who work for AMEXTRA and those they serve in Chalco and Carto Landia and many other communities remain optimistic.
"Transformation is at the base of all that we do. God is at the base of everything we do," Villagran said. The Rev. Richard A. Magnus, executive director, ELCA Division for Outreach, Chicago, said, "We will pray for you and remember you from a distance." "Then there is no distance," Dona Rosa responded. ELCA leaders from Chicago who participated in the Mexico City experience were the Rev. Robert N. Bacher, executive for administration, ELCA Office of the Presiding Bishop; Catherine I. H. Braasch, executive director, Women of the ELCA; Joanne Chadwick, executive director, ELCA Commission for Women; the Rev. Bonnie L. Jensen, executive director, ELCA Division for Global Mission; the Rev. Richard A. Magnus, executive director, ELCA Division for Outreach; the Rev. Charles S. Miller, executive director, ELCA Division for Church in Society; Leonard G. Schulze, executive director, ELCA Division for Higher Education and Schools; the Rev. Eric C. Shafer, director, ELCA Department for Communication; Myrna J. Sheie, executive assistant to the presiding bishop; and Else Thompson, director, ELCA Department for Human Resources. Also participating were Karl D. Anderson, ELCA Church Council member, Neenah, Wis.; the Rev. Marvin L. Roloff, president and chief executive officer, Augsburg Fortress Publishers, Minneapolis; and Timothy Schwan, vice president, Aid Association for Lutherans, Appleton, Wis.

[* The Rev. Eric C. Shafer is director of the ELCA Department for
Communication.]

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://listserv.elca.org/archives/elcanews.html