| January 2023 |
| New Family Ties in Senegal |
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| YAGM volunteer Sol Namir (right) with a member of her host family. |
At the Young Adults in Global Mission (YAGM) orientation, Sol Namir was introduced to the Senegalese value of Mjaboot: “the responsibility to care for your family.” When Sol first learned about the concept, she figured Senegalese people practiced Mjaboot out of a sense of courtesy and obligation. However, over the first few months of her YAGM year in Senegal, she developed a different understanding. “When I’m not home at my usual arrival time, my host father calls and asks if I’m OK and on my way,” she writes in a recent newsletter. “When I felt sick, my host mother kept on checking that I was doing OK.” This past Thanksgiving, Sol missed being with her family in Puerto Rico, but she was grateful for her new connection with her host family in Senegal: “We are building our relationship.”
Sol has also spent the past few months learning the ropes of her job in a small primary health clinic, where she assists her colleagues in caring for patients and providing health education for the community. “I am more settled into my community,” she says. “I’m happy to wake up each morning where I am and be present!”
Sol belongs to the first YAGM cohort to enter service since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2019. She and her fellow volunteers are now walking alongside communities around the world, and the YAGM team is recruiting its next group of volunteers, to enter service in 2023.
Learn more about YAGM here.
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| News Around the World |
On Dec. 31, 2022, the world learned of the death of Pope Benedict XVI. In a statement, Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton wrote, “We extend our condolences and unceasing accompaniment to all our Catholic neighbors, including the bishops, priests, deacons, scholars and laypeople with whom we are in dialogue and partnership.”
Read Bishop Eaton’s full statement here.
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| Mission Personnel |
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| Central Europe YAGM volunteers help lead worship. |
New YAGM country programs: The YAGM team is excited to announce that the Mexico and Central Europe country programs are reopening in 2023. New volunteers will have the opportunity to serve in these programs as well as the four country programs that reopened in 2022: Argentina/Uruguay, Senegal, Jerusalem/West Bank and the United Kingdom.
Learn more about all the YAGM country programs here.
In case you missed it: The new, interactive Global Mission directory is now available! Read it to learn more about the ELCA missionaries at work around the world, including current YAGM volunteers.
View the new Global Mission Personnel Directory here.
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| Get Involved |
- YAGM applications are now open for the 2023-2024 program year: Young adults aged 21 to 29 can apply for an international service year that will shape their faith, career, identity and understanding of how they fit into God’s work in the world. YAGM volunteers will begin their service in August 2023 and be placed in one of six country programs. The deadline to apply is Feb. 1, 2023, and priority will be given to those who apply before Jan. 15, 2023. Learn more and apply here.
- We’re hiring! Apply to serve with our global companions! Visit the ELCA job board to learn more, and contact globalserve@elca.org with your questions.
- Spread the word: Know someone interested in receiving these “Global Links” updates? Share this subscription link with family and friends or post it on your congregation’s website. Help share the story of our global church!
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