Thankful Greetings

I write today to express my gratitude for your support. Gifts to ELCA Missionary Sponsorship support over 240 missionaries working hand-in-hand with our global neighbors in 50 countries around the world.

We can only do our work because of the ongoing support we receive from people like you. Together we are making a difference and for this, I give thanks.

Rev. Twila Schock, Director
ELCA Missionary Sponsorship and Global Appeals
8765 W. Higgins Road, Chicago, IL 60631
Email: missionarysponsorship@elca.org

Did You know?

The Church Council’s July meeting took place at SAYFSM (our partners, Sub-Saharan African Youth & Family Services in Minnesota). SAYFSM supports African immigrants and their families, especially refugees and those with HIV. Elizabeth Namarra, co-founder with her husband, Ephraim Olani, reminded us that their clients—including Muslims—refer to Normandale as "our church in Edina!"

Pastora Dana Nelson, her husband, Tom Ososki, and their children, Tana and Anthony, our missionaries in Lima, Peru, were our guests on Sunday 14 August.

The Spring and Winter 2008 MOM magazines reported the work of SAYFSM. Click here to view the issue.

Disaster Relief

A big Thank You to everyone who contrubuted to the Japan earthquake relief and to the storm relief in the South. To date $7,825 has been colleted for Japan and $2,390 for Storm Relief

Global Mission - Bangladesh

Mission Month Recap

This year our Sunday School students have been learning about our ministry in Bangladesh with Lutheran Health Care Bangladesh. To help learn about our partnership, the Mission Bangladesh! Committee put on a Bangladesh Festival for the children. Kids sampled the clothes, food, and music of Bangladesh and visited our Dumki Clinic to explore basic health care. They also made videos as a class to send to our friends at the school in Dumki.

One four year old remarked to her teacher, “Do they have crayons in Bangladesh?” as the children explored the similarities and differences of our cultures and our lives. The children began to see the world as a diverse place and recognize the blessings we have in this country and the need to give back.

The following week the children had an opportunity to give back to our mission— in our Sunday School Mission Auction. When all the fun was over, the children’s offerings for the month of January totaled $1,803 and our total to date is $ $2,820. We are well on our way to our goal of $5,000 to support the Dumki School and LHCB in Bangladesh.

The Bangladesh Festival - Celebrated Sunday, January 23

Global Mission - Peru

Pastor from Peru Here!

Ofelia Davila Limpe, founding pastor of Talitha Kum Lutheran Church in Cusco, will attend Luther Seminary for the next two years, working toward an M.A.

Our first mission team to Peru met Pastora Ofelia in November 2006, and Lorna Wolthoff worked with her last summer. (Unfortunately, our Women’s Ensemble sang in Cusco when Ofelia was visiting family elsewhere.)

Please keep Pastora Ofelia in your prayers as she travels, studies, and makes the many adjustments that lie ahead of her.

—Pastor Dale

Huch ‘uy Runa

David Wunsch, ELCA South American Representative

A recent e-mail from David Wunsch, who accompanied our initial 2006 mission team to Peru and has continued to facilitate our relationship with Huch'uy Runa and the Peruvian Lutheran Church [ILEP], includes this information. (Pastor Fran Schmidt, a Canadian missionary, welcomed our 2008 Women's Ensemble to her congregation, San Juan, and leads ILEP's music-education program that Lorna Wolthoff helped develop last summer. Normandale helps support Pastor Dana Nelson, our first ELCA missionary in Peru. See her recent letter on our narthex bulletin board.)

"I had some great moments working with [Pastor] Fran [Schmidt] during a consultation on HIV/AIDS the ELCA organized in June with terrific support from the ILEP. Fran and [Pastor] Dana [Nelson] were key members of the liturgy team. Fran used the Roland organ Normandale donated. When the ILEP choir sang for opening and closing worship, we saw the Normandale connection with the ILEP at work. We had folks from the Lutheran communion around Latin America and the Caribbean there and made some progress in thinking about ways for churches to address the HIV/AIDS epidemic in this region. Rafael [Padilla Malpica, ELCA Global Mission director] was also there, along with other ELCA colleagues."

ILEP has invited Normandale to send another Women's Ensemble to sing in their churches this coming Christmas--and to provide instructional workshops in vocal and instrumental music to ILEP members. David Clarke and Pastor Dale currently work to assemble an appropriate team. Clearly music has become a primary connection between Normandale and ILEP!

Pastora Dana Nelson and Tom Ososki

Dana Nelson, the first ELCA missionary in Peru, serves as pastor of Cristo Rey congregation in Lima. She also provides pastoral care several hours a week at a small seminary. Tom Ososki, an architect, has helped plan and design several church projects (though he can’t be formally licensed in Peru).

Dana and Tom were instrumental in planning our Women’s Ensemble visit to Peru two years ago.

Global Mission - Japan

Jim and Carol Sack

Jim Sack teaches pastoral theology at the Japan Lutheran Theological Seminary and Japan Lutheran College in Tokyo. Over the years, some 3,000 people have participated in programs of the Personal Growth and Counseling Center, a research and educational center, which he directs. These people, both Christians and non-Christians alike, are bound by their desire to be a listening ear in their workplaces, neighborhoods, and churches.

Carol Sack, a music thanatologist, offers palliative care through harp and voice at the bedside of the dying, going weekly to a hospice for the homeless in Tokyo. She now trains others in the discipline through courses in harp, voice, and theological reflection.

Jim and Carol’s work provides cutting-edge education and service to Japanese society.

You can help us support Jim and Carol Sack’s ministry in Japan by signing the Missionary Support Charts in the narthex. Each space represents a pledge of $30.

Global Mission Matrix

This matrix puts Global Mission outreach in perspective. It is organized by the two-year Sunday School schedule of emphasizing a "Foreign" ministry, but the Global Mission Committee and other groups actively support the other ministries every year.

Appropriate to Sunday School, each foreign ministry emphasizes children's welfare. Huch'uy Runa provides holistic support to street kids in the Andean tourist town of Cusco. In Ntalawanda we've built a school and provided it with electricity. Lutheran Health Care Bangladesh offers primary medical care and economic development to women and children in southern Bangladesh.

Our local partners work with immigrant families (SAYFSM, Sub-Saharan Youth & Family Services in Minnesota, specifically with African immigrants with HIV) and communities. Our missionary support is local only because the missionaries come from the Cities.

For more information on these local missionaries contact Pastor Dale Howard at Normandale 952-929-1697.

Missionary Support

Year-to-date, our congregation has given approximately $2,000 each to the Sack family in Japan and the Nelson family in Peru. Through our sponsorship covenants made with these missionaries, we seek to provide financial assistance of $7,100 and $5,000, respectively, for these families.

Please help in our commitment to spread the gospel of our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ, outside of our immediate community. You may sign up in the narthex or, make checks in any amount payable to Normandale Lutheran Church, with the missionary’s name on the memo line. Your support is greatly appreciated.

Global Mission Committee

Normandale is committed to proclaiming Jesus Christ outside of its immediate community through its support of missionary families in other parts of the world. In 2007 we started supporting missionaries in Central Asia who construct bridges and irrigation projects.

The Global Mission Committee of Normandale selects missionary families that are supported by Global Mission of the ELCA. The missionary's role is to spread the Good News. Our role is to support them financially and through prayer. Do you hear the call? Can you support our missionaries as they spread the Good News of our Savior, Jesus Christ?