Lutherans Gather for 2001 Global Mission Events

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Guests came from around the world to meet, talk,
worship, pray and learn with missionaries and other members of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) under the theme "Live
God's Peace Together." More than 2,200 people gathered for Global
Mission Events (GMEs) July 12-15 at the Marriott Denver Tech Center,
Denver, and July 19-22 at Susquehanna University, Selinsgrove, Pa.
Susquehanna is one of 28 colleges and universities of the ELCA.
"Jesus is our peace," said the Rev. David L. Miller, editor, The
Lutheran, the magazine of the ELCA, in keynote remarks. "He tears down
the walls that divide."
Miller said he had gone to southern Sudan, in northeast Africa, to
write a story about the millions of Sudanese who had been driven from
their homes by decades of war. In a camp of about 10,000 refugees, he
said he entered a bunker and found a dozen people "waiting there to die"
of starvation and disease.
In the darkness of the bunker, Miller sat next to a young woman
cradling her dying child. When he realized the mother was clutching a
handmade cross, he let her know that he, too, was a Christian. The
woman asked Miller to say a prayer. "She wanted me to bless her child
as if for dying," he said.
The living Jesus evaporated the walls that separated the American
journalist and the mother and child, said Miller. "Every tear was a
prayer for God's future. Even our tears united us," he said.
"We live in a world of walls," Miller said, walls that keep little
ones apart from God -- poverty, injustice, need, despair, greed, hatred,
discrimination, language, apathy and carelessness. "Walls divide heaven
and earth." He added, "Jesus tears down walls. This I know."
"The war in Sudan has left over 4 million people displaced or as
refugees and has taken over 2 million lives," said Kathryn Wolford,
president, Lutheran World Relief (LWR), in her presentation to the GME.
"It is a very complex conflict complicated by religion, culture, race
and control over resources," she said. She introduced Telar Deng,
architect of the People to People program, New Sudan Council of Churches
(NSCC), and Dr. Pauline Riak, executive director and founder of the
Sudanese Women's Association in Nairobi (SWAN).
"These two people offer voices of courage, vision and of hope.
They are on the front line of the struggle and building peace," said
Wolford. Wolford spoke in Denver, and Adrienne Shannon, LWR public
policy associate, spoke in Selinsgrove.
Deng explained the complexity of the war in Sudan and the role the
NSCC is playing in the struggle. "This is an 18-year war. A violent,
bloody and complex war, but this is the second part in this bloody war,"
he said. "It's a struggle for life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness." Deng explained how the war includes three major conflicts;
the North versus the South, North versus North and South versus South.
"There was tribal conflict. Major tribes fought for seven-and-a-half =
years,"=20
he said. "Then the NSCC was asked to start a grassroots
peace process." From this process, the Grassroots Peace Summit took
place in the village of Lilir. Former enemies from six ethnic groups,
originally divided by civil war, made peace. There were 129 leaders who
signed the peace accord under the NSCC, Deng said.
"The war in South Sudan is the longest war. The Sudanese are
asking all of us to pray and help them with the difficulties they have,"
Deng said. "In order for us to overcome AIDS and hunger, what we need
is peace. Peace is fundamental, so fundamental. The people of South
Sudan will ask if they can be wiped out because there is no point of
living if not in peace," he said.
Deng reminded people that the war in Sudan is not "only a war in
Sudan. It's a war of all of us. We need all of you to help us through
this war."
Riak spoke about God's grace and human courage for the women of
Sudan. She works with women who fled the war through SWAN. SWAN is a
group of about 500 women from different warring groups and diverse
cultural, ethnic, religious, political and linguistic groups who have
made it their duty to work for peace in Sudan, said Riak.
"We figured that since we are Christians, we have something in
common," she said. "We work together to make sure we are a family.
It's kind of hilarious because we are enemies. But we love ourselves,
we love Sudan, and we love life. We vowed as women of Sudan, living in
Kenya, that we would not fight each other," said Riak.
Riak said the women of SWAN are no less guilty for the war. "We
are the ones who sing the war songs to push the men on," she said.
"Although many of us are pacifists, we believe in war because we have no
country to go to. Where do we go? The United States? We are not
Americans, we are not Kenyans, we are Sudanese. We want to go home."
Riak says the women of SWAN are "traumatized because we get the
news about relatives killed, raped, shot down, and our oil and wealth is
being used to wipe us off the face of this earth."
"When a child dies, it's our baby. When a solider dies, it's our
flesh and our blood, no matter who they are. When a women dies, it's
our sister," she said.
LWR heard what the organization was doing and offered a grant,
which SWAN used for civic education workshops, Riak said. "In a matter
of days a total vocabulary had changed," she said.
Another LWR grant enabled a program to train businesswomen and
provided them with loans to start their own business enterprises. The
women repay the loans so others can continue in the program.
"In the last four years, 95 percent of those women have paid back
their loans. This shows a sense of commitment in the community; a
commitment to want the community to grow," said Riak.
Riak concluded by leaving a positive message for the audience.
"The message I want to bring to you is that all is not hopeless on the
African continent. Women and men are fighting daily to bring about
peace," she said. "Your presence as human beings, as Christians is most
important. Your prayer is most important."
The art of music and dance was part of the GMEs. It was used to
"present a dramatization of the worldwide struggle to overcome violence
and build a culture of peace," said the Rev. Lusmarina Campos Garcia,
Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession in Brazil and executive
producer of "Peace to the City." Peace to the City is a contemporary
chamber ballet from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, that involves two Brazilian
groups: choreographer Marcia Milhazes' contemporary dance company and
the Aquarius music trio.
"This program is a contribution especially from the World Council
of Churches (WCC) in their journey to end violence and work toward
peace," said Garcia. "This ballet speaks about peace and is beautiful."
The ELCA is a member church of the WCC.
In a general session called "The World is Coming to America," Denise Laugtug, director, Ambassadors Circle, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS), introduced Dubravka Mujagic, a former Bosnian refugee, and Mekabou Fofana, a Liberian asylum seeker. "Two different stories -- both sad -- hard to tell -- hard to listen to," said Laugtug.

Mujagic was living what she considered to be a normal life in
Sarajevo -- a university graduate, wife and mother, whose biggest
problem was trying to decide where to spend vacation. Then, for reasons
she didn't understand, war broke out, and bombs and snipers became part
of her "normal life."
A Catholic Christian, Mujagic is married to a Muslim. So the
family became suspect by both sides of the fighting. "Was my
seven-year-old son dangerous? Was I dangerous to anyone? No," she
said. The Red Cross helped her and her son to leave Bosnia.
"I was separated from my husband for two years. That was not our
decision. My son was separated from his father for two y