Jacob Dalager is one of several young adults from this synod that have served as missionaries in the Young Adults in Global Mission program. He served in Malaysia in 2009-2010. Mission work is a family affair for the Dalagers. His parents, Rev. Karl and Holly Dalager, served as missionaries in Colombia when Jacob was a child.
In the ELCA Hand in Hand Global Mission blog, missionaries share what they have learnd: the joy a young boy in the United Kingdom can find in an educational card game, the leadership skills a teenage Palestinian girl learned through her church and her soccer team, the strong faith of a single father in Kenya living with AIDS and trying to feed four children on less than $1 a day, and the persistence of a Nigerian woman seeking an alternate way to make a living without the use of her legs.
In generations past, missionaries’ stories might have been about what they were teaching, not what they were learning. North American and European Christians were once considered the “senders” of resources, including personnel, expertise, and money, to distant “mission fields” in other areas of the world.
Today over 240 ELCA missionaries practice an “accompaniment” model of ministry in over 50 countries. Accompaniment is about working together to create an interdependent relationship. It is about mission with, not to.
ELCA missionaries serve in long-term contexts (four years or more), two-year programs, year-long young adult programs, teaching programs, and self-funded volunteer programs. Approximately 70 percent of ELCA missionaries are lay people invited by companion churches to serve as specialized medical personnel, development workers, librarians, accountants, and teachers of English, science, math and computers.
About 30 congregations in the Southeastern Minnesota Synod currently partner with an overseas missionary. Many receive emails and other regular updates from the missionaries they sponsor, and members read about them in the congregation’s newsletter. They also include them in their prayers. When possible, members of the congregations have visited the places the missionaries work and the missionaries have visited congregations to share stories, photos, and updates.
Those whose congregations support missionaries say that it helps their congregations feel more connected to the global church. Joanne Revoir of Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Austin says, “It gives our congregation an opportunity to connect with Christians across the world.”
Kathy Bolin, coordinator for the synod’s Global Mission/Companion Synods committee says this about missionary support, “The Christian church is about relationship with God, with each other and with the world. Missionary sponsorship provides the opportunity to establish a relationship not only between the congregation and the missionary but with the people being served.”
Rev. Jason Bryan-Wegner, Zumbro Lutheran Church, Rochester, encourages congregations to consider missionary sponsorship. He says, “It is a way that our definition of neighbor is stretched and we see Christ’s love embrace the world.”
The Global Mission section of the ELCA website – www.ELCA.org/globalmission – has a wealth of information about missionaries and other global mission carried out through the ELCA. The links below provide even more resources for information and sponsorship opportunities. In the words of Marilyn Lensch, a member at St. Luke’s Lutheran Church, Goodhue, if you have ever considered missionary support, “Go for it!”
Featured Resources
- Quarterly newsletter from ELCA Global Mission – www.ELCA.org/handinhand
- ELCA Global Mission blog – blogs.elca.org/handinhand
- Individuals can financially support a missionary on the ELCA website at http://bit.ly/pKOHmI
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