Thousands Of Lutherans Celebrated Global Mission In Fargo

FARGO, N.D. (ELCA) -- To learn more about what's happening
in the world and how Lutherans are active in it, members of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) gathered at the
ELCA Global Mission Event (GME) July 14-17 here at North Dakota
State University and the FargoDome.
More than 1,200 Lutherans reflected on the 2005 GME theme,
"Gathered by God's Grace for the Sake of the World."
Participants learned about the ELCA's domestic and international
mission through workshops -- known as "Global University"
sessions -- music, worship and conversations with international
guests and ELCA mission personnel and mission partners.
The ELCA Division for Global Mission organized the GME with
support from other ELCA churchwide units and Thrivent Financial
for Lutherans, a not-for-profit financial services organization
based in Minneapolis. Volunteers from the Fargo area played key
roles in organizing the event.

GME Opening Celebration
The Rev. Rafael Malpica-Padilla, executive director, ELCA
Division for Global Mission, Chicago, told participants, "We
learn from our companions as we listen to their stories and
listen to the ministries and action of God through their lives."
At the opening celebration, women from Cuba, Liberia, the
Middle East and the United States shared stories of "living on
the edges of society," transformation and being "shaped into
community."
"In 1989 the foundation of the nation shook," said Leymah
Gbowee, as the civil war in Liberia "impacted us in a way that no
documentary could ever portray." Gbowee, a member of the
Lutheran Church in Liberia and coordinator of the women's peace-
building network, West Africa Network for Peace Building in
Liberia, told participants, "Never again shall we (venture) on a
road to destruction."
"With God as our commander," women of Liberia "have made an
impact on the peace process in Liberia," said Gbowee. "In May
2005 women were called into communities" and assisted people in
registering to vote and participate in political affairs, she
said.
"The women of Liberia have been called. Where have you been
called to gather the broken pieces?" Gbowee asked the audience.
The Rev. Dora Arce Valentin, a Presbyterian pastor from
Cuba, said, "The U.S. policy towards Cuba is separating families"
and "isolating you and me as brothers and sisters in the body of
Christ." She told participants, "We love you, but we want you to
respect our capacity to do well on our own."
Valentin discussed the importance of sharing, and stated
that "in the power of sharing it doesn't matter how much you
have. ... Do as much as you can to love your neighbor as
yourself."
Nahla Azar, a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of
the Redeemer, Jerusalem, school principal and teacher, said,
"Israelis and Palestinians have been fighting, but no one has the
right to put an end to life." Azar shared a personal story about
a bomb planted on school grounds and the successful escape of
children due to the heroic efforts of the school's headmaster.
Despite her experience, Azar shares what her parents told her as
a child: "We should not have enemies because they are people
loved by God."

General Sessions Gathered in God's Grace
The Rev. Mark Allan Powell, professor of New Testament,
Trinity Lutheran Seminary, Columbus, Ohio, discussed the reading
from the Gospel of John in which a child offers his five loaves
of bread and two fish for others and Jesus performs a miracle,
providing enough bread and fish for a large crowd. "Jesus gives
us all that he has to offer, even if it may not be what we
requested. Yet, Jesus says they all were satisfied," Powell
said.
"We are God's bread, gathered by grace, consumed by the
world. We are sent into the world to give ourselves for others,"
Powell said. "The American church and American people need to go
into the world as servants seeking to meet the needs of all those
God loves."
The Rev. Elieshi Mungure, Evangelical Lutheran Church in
Tanzania, said, "In Africa sharing is part of daily life. ...
We share the blessings of our gifts. ... In sharing we give it
back to Jesus. We are broken daily. ... It is only in the
gathering that we empower each other in the unity of the church."
"What is my role as an individual person in the Church of
Christ?" Mungure told the audience to ask themselves. "Search
for the solution; you can do something."

GME Focus on the Middle East
Prior to the start of an evening general session, high-
school age Lutherans -- dressed in black shirts and black pants -
- were stationed at the front doors of the FargoDome. They
served as "checkpoint guards," denying and/or admitting entrance
to GME participants. The exercise was designed to simulate
Israeli soldiers at checkpoints in the Middle East.
"This exercise took place to show participants of the GME
how the daily lives of Palestinians are affected. Checkpoints
are everywhere in Palestinian territories, from one city to
another. People are not allowed (to move freely) to attend
worship, school and jobs nor visit family or access hospitals and
health care institutions," said Dina Tannous, a member of the
Middle East Inter-unit Committee, ELCA Churchwide Office,
Chicago, in an interview with ELCA News Service. She and the
committee organized the activity.
"Participants of the GME experienced first-hand the
frustration of carrying out a daily-life routine (given the)
disruption that checkpoints cause. Only those participants who
had the right citizenship status (marked by a blue sticker on
their GME nametag) were allowed to enter the FargoDome. Others
had to find another route, which is what Palestinians have to do,
adding hours to their commute. The youth were used for this
activity because most soldiers at the checkpoints are about 18 to
19 years old," Tannous said.
The Rev. Said Ailabouni, director, Europe and the Middle
East, ELCA Division for Global Mission, Chicago, told
participants this is "what Palestinians face daily." It is "often
arbitrary and humiliating."
The Rev. Gary M. Burge, a Presbyterian pastor and professor
of theology at Wheaton College, Wheaton, Ill., said, "The church
fails to be light and life in the world." He said there are some
Christians who use the Bible "as a playbook for what needs to
happen in the Middle East."
Burge explored the theology of Christian Zionism and how it
affects American foreign policy in the Middle East. "We need to
rediscover our voices and we need to speak, and, when we speak,
we will say there are countless Christians in the Middle East
unnoticed by the Western Church," Burge said. "When we release
our voice, we will recognize Arabic-speaking churches for the
first time as our brothers and sisters."
"We must gain courage and say to the world, 'The Arab is my
neighbor,'" Burge said.

ELCA International Disaster Response
Vidhya Rani, director of the women's desk, United
Evangelical Lutheran Church in India, Chennai, delivered a
heartfelt "thank you" to participants in the GME and the larger
membership of the ELCA for the church's commitment and service
extended to India following the Dec. 26 tsunami that claimed more
than 200,000 lives in several coastal countries of the Indian
Ocean. She called members of the ELCA "good Samaritans."
Rani shared stories of how the tsunami has impacted several
coastal areas of India, as well as stories of rebuilding efforts
taking place there. Pieces of fishing net from India were given
to participants to remind them of the brokenness on the southeast
coast of India.

Global University
More than 100 Global University sessions were offered on
topics ranging from Christianity in Japan to migrant worker
issues in Fargo and Moorhead, Minn.
David Muelle