Come join the Northwest Intermountain and the Northern Great Lakes Synods in this extraordinary opportunity to focus the efforts of your congregation and clarify your mission. The entire series by congregational experts with Living the Resurrection will begin in January and has a $2000 value, but thanks to a generous gift from each synod, the series will only cost each congregation $50. Join this exploration workshop Nov. 13 to see what's possible.
Our July 2025 Mission Support Memo enlightens us about our ELCA chaplains in specialized ministry and federal chaplaincy across our church who minister to all in all kinds of places. Our ELCA chaplains in specialized ministry and federal chaplaincy serve to support those defending our country, in places outside church walls, tending to people of all needs and backgrounds and showing the gratitude and love of God to all.
LuMin is the Lutheran Campus Ministry Network. As part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), LuMin celebrates our partnerships with other traditions and welcomes people from a variety of faith backgrounds. There are currently more than 240 faith communities connected with LuMin.
Peer ministry is about the practical life skill that empowers us to become Good Samaritan leaders who care for every neighbor, every day, everywhere in every relationship. Peer Ministry is about loving, because God first loved us! 1 John 4:19 This retreat is for adults and youth (Jr high and up) Bring a group from your congregation, scout troop, or come on your own!
UKD Tumaini Lutheran School
After our Companion Synod partnership was formed, Bishop Keller and his wife Betty went to visit Ulanga Kilombero. While there, Betty developed a passion for the girls to be able to go to secondary school that at the time cost $150 for a year. She found that it was sometimes more than a family made in a year and if they did make enough to send a child, a son would have priority. She brought her concern to the Synod Women’s Organization at our next convention after they came back. From that our women’s board developed a plan to raise that $150 each for 10 girls to continue their education.
We sent out Sunbonnet Sue quilting kits that the board put together and asked the women’s units to raise $150 and put the quilt square together as they raised the money and to send both to the SWO. We built quilts out of the blocks and raffled them off at gatherings and added that money to the fund. We started a Mission Investment Fund account for the funds and with ongoing donations from churches and individuals we have been sponsoring 10 girls every year for almost 30 years. The cost has gone up over the years and now takes $800 for each girl.
The last two years has been a struggle but generous donations from fewer sources has helped us accomplish it. Now we have to build the account back up again. My church puts a donation basket out on the refreshment table after church every week and has been able to raise our $800. This year we dedicated it to the memory of Marj Nishek and Elaine Peterson who were strong Global Mission people and supporters of this scholarship program as will as members of our church.
Checks can be sent to the Synod office and payable to: NWIM Synod. Please note that the contribution is for the girls’ scholarship fund. Please mail to 245 E 13th Ave., Suite A, Spokane, WA 99202.
Thank you for your support!
Carole Dinning
Getting ready to leave the house—for work or errands—takes a couple extra steps during a pandemic. Do I know how crowded my destination will be? Did I remember to take a mask? Of all the annoying things about this pandemic, I find remembering to take and to wear a mask is one of the most irksome. Masks aren’t comfortable, they make it more difficult to understand conversations, and they are a daily reminder that we are not out of the woods yet.
Let me be clear—masks are an effective way to stop the spread of this terrible virus, and I will wear one for as long as it takes. I urge all of us to do the same. This isn’t about personal choice, but it is a physical manifestation that in baptism “we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another” (Romans 12:5). Wearing a mask is as much for our protection as it is for protecting others. I will continue to mask up.
I always thought it was silly that bandits and robbers are depicted wearing only a mask from just below the eyes down. How could that possibly be a disguise? One’s eyes, hair and ears are all visible. You can hear the voice. You can figure out a person’s stature. What’s the point?
“I mask people even when they aren’t wearing an actual mask.”
This is our second pandemic Christmas. We thought this would be over so long ago. And still, we wear masks; we're physically distant; we can't be with friends and family as we used to do. And also, there's so much that's broken in this world, so much that tells us, "Why have hope? Just give up."
But we have a hope that's stronger than any of this, stronger even than death. The hope of God comes in the form of a tiny baby, a helpless child; nevertheless, who grew to a man and in his fragile strength was willing to die on the cross and was raised again.
I don't know what next Christmas will bring. I don't know what New Year's will bring. But I do know we have hope.
St. Paul put it this way:"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."Merry Christmas, dear church.
The Rev. Elizabeth A. Eaton
Presiding Bishop, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Congregations may have received information from the Boy Scouts of America (the “BSA”) including a “Plan Solicitation” package concerning voting on its proposed chapter 11 plan of reorganization (the “Plan”) and/or whether that congregation wishes to opt out of the treatment provided in the Plan for “Chartered Organizations.”
ELCA Churchwide Attorneys have prepared this information overview to help member congregations. It is not legal advice and should not be considered as such. Please retain and consult with an attorney if your congregation needs or wants legal advice concerning the BSA and its Plan. Under the polity and structure of the ELCA, each Chartered Organization (such as each individual congregation) must make its own independent decision, and the ELCA cannot give legal advice or dictate what a congregation should do.
Lutheran Disaster Response is collaborating with the Indiana-Kentucky Synod and other partners in the area to assess the damage and develop an immediate and a long-term response plan. Your gifts to support these response efforts will empower our partners to meet survivors’ immediate and long-term needs. Given the extent of the damage, recovery will take years as thousands of homes will need to be rebuilt or repaired. With your support, Lutheran Disaster Response can accompany survivors on the long road to recovery.
With everything that is happening in the world it's important to remember and lift up the good things that are occurring in so many places worldwide. Our synod has a direct relationship with the Ulanga Kilombero Diocese in Tanzania. You may know of the work that our gifts have enabled, along with other church and support organizations in Europe, to make the Gospel known in their region.
Through the Tumaini School and Seminary projects, many young students have been supported and sustained through education. The school director, Pastor Moses Nwaka, has been a guest here in our synod and shared his enthusiasm and effort for the school and their community. Many of his posts on Facebook are about the hard work that he and others are doing, including the farming of maize and rice to feed the students! It is blessed work but also hard and laborious, but without that work there would be no harvest.
Our synod's territory is deeply immersed in agriculture. To harvest, someone had to trust their instincts, training, and God's abundance to make sure that the soil was prepared, the seed planted, the crop tended so that a future bounty could be harvested and enjoyed.
Right now, there is a significant need to meet the scholarship goals for Tumaini School. The coronavirus has impacted Africa and Tanzania, which changed life for many students. Now, there is increased interest in attending Tumaini but for some young women their families are not able to fund their schooling.
Has God been generous to you? Of course, He has! For many of us with resources, especially investments, the stock markets and financial industry has seen substantial growth even during our past year of uncertainty. I would ask that you consider how you might use those gains for helping others, but especially the scholarship needs of a growing number of students in Tanzania. The investment in a child's education means significant improvements in the lives of the student, their families, and their future.
Donations through charitable distributions are able to be received for these purposes. Speak to your tax specialist and investment advisor to determine how you might make a contribution that would have a powerful impact on young student lives going forward.
Recently, the leaders of the UKD shared the status of the Spiritual and Conference Center being constructed on the grounds of the diocese in Ifakara. Over multiple years, they have done much of the construction of the facilities using their own resources. Recently, a request was made for funding to help finish the construction and make the Center useable.
Initially, there was no funding available. Once the need was made known to a wider audience, an anonymous donor offered to make a Charitable Distribution to match the request, almost $25K. This would not have been possible if there was no early work, no past investment, to enable the 'harvest' of funds to help reach the goal.
Help us by supporting Tumaini, the school staff and teachers as they 'plant' knowledge and anticipate the 'harvest' of students with bright futures. Thanks be to God for His abundance in our lives, that we might share with others.
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Rev. Wayne Shipman
Pastor - Good Shepherd (Pocatello, ID) and Emanuel (Blackfoot, ID)
Dean, Upper Snake River Cluster, NWIM Synod, ELCA
ELCA Good Gifts are a creative, meaningful way to support the ministries of the ELCA that mean the most to you and your loved ones. These gifts are real examples from projects currently supported through ELCA churchwide ministries:
The ELCA Fund for Leaders,
ELCA Global Church Sponsorship,
ELCA New Congregations,
ELCA Vision for Mission,
ELCA World Hunger, Disability Ministries
Lutheran Disaster Response.
Each of these programs is a long-term, partnership-based ministry that focus on the needs identified by local congregations and global companion churches and their communities.
Download the November 2021 Global Mission Newsletter here.
Don’t forget to subscribe to receive the Global Mission Newsletter in your inbox!
2021 MOHRENWEISER LECTURE SERIES
co-sponsored by PLTS Center for Climate Justice & Faith
Friday, December 10, 2021
9:00am - 12:00pm PST
Free to Join, Registration Required
This lecture will discuss how climate change is threatening human health and well-being, and the ethical and moral imperative for action. The lecture will also delve into preparedness and prevention; mitigation and adaptation; and recovery from the loss and damage already sustained. The discussions will encourage reflections on how we can be accountable and take responsibility- as individuals, as congregations, as communities, and as nations.