Stirring Chai

Artist unknown. Retrieved here .   On August 18, I had the honor of preaching at Arusha Community Church, which is a non-denominational international church with English-language services. The text was Luke 12:49-56, where Jesus tells a crowd that he did not come to bring peace, but fire. I really enjoyed diving into this, and I think the Holy Spirit put some things in my life to make this particular scripture not just relevant, but urgent. Part of the text is about division within families that will affect believers. It feels like division is increasing and people are unwilling to look past differences in values. I think Jesus was warning the crowd that things won't be easy for followers of his, but he was not condoning conflict within families. I have a friend who is an elder who came from a polygamous family, and he told me a story. He said that when his father decided to become a Christian, he was made to choose which of his wives would be the 'official' wife.

Longtime friends from the Northern Illinois Synod's Global Mission committee met with Kellen and me over lunch at my mother's house on July 27. It was a time of reconnecting and celebrating our new roles. We're hoping that our work will enable us to be a bigger part of the companionship between Northern Illinois and Tanzania's North-Central Diocese. Photo by Chuck Steinbach Longtime friends from the Northern Illinois Synod's Global Mission committee met with Kellen and me over lunch at my mother's house on July 27. It was a time of reconnecting and celebrating our new roles. We're hoping that our work will enable us to be a bigger part of the companionship between Northern Illinois and Tanzania's North-Central Diocese. Photo by Chuck Steinbach

Stock photo In our roles as ELCA Regional Representatives, we are a face of the ELCA for and with companions in East Africa. We work with dioceses, national churches, faith-based organizations, and other missionaries in the region.  In the ELCA's model of Global Mission, Companionship means a mutually empowering, shoulder-to-shoulder journey with another in Christ.  But this ideal of Companionship can become complicated by colonial histories, power asymmetries, and cultural differences, which get in the way of the kind of togetherness that we hope to one day find in heaven. Our job is to help the ELCA and partners work toward the ideal of what Companionship could be, be a face of the church in our journey of accompaniment, and serve with the many people in this movement which binds together brothers and sisters across oceans.