| OCTOBER 2020 |
| The Blessing of Clean Drinking Water |
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| Cholita (third from the left) reads prayers of dedication at the start of well-boring operations. |
The Brahmaputra River, one of the great waterways of India, flows through the state of Assam and into Bangladesh. But this doesn’t mean the people living along the river are blessed with water. The people of Konsaigaon, in particular, have always had to walk far from their homes to get water. They often have to drink unsafe water, which causes gastrointestinal diseases that can be fatal.
Gaining access to the best water source meant building a road into the hills for equipment to be brought in, and pipes had to be laid to reach the village. Work commenced in mid-May, with a young volunteer, Cholita, managing the project. Within days, workers struck water almost 800 feet below ground. The water is pure, reported Bishop Ichahak Muchahary of the Bodo Evangelical Lutheran Church. “It’s been a great day of blessing to those living in that place. Hallelujah,” he said.
This new water source will directly affect 300 villagers. But the effects will reach much further, with some 10,000 indirect beneficiaries, including those attending church trainings, meetings and seminars at the church mission point there. Read more stories in Global Mission Updates here.
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| News Around the World |
| On the night of April 13, the staff of Augusta Victoria Hospital (AVH) in Jerusalem discovered their first case of COVID-19. Moatassem Sayes, a doctor at AVH, documented the hospital’s experience of containing the virus in the days that followed. Read more in “A doctor’s logbook” in Living Lutheran. |
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| Mission Personnel Reflection |
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ELCA missionary Linda Jacobson (third from left) helps run a shop in Arusha, Tanzania.
ELCA missionaries Mark and Linda Jacobson have been working in the health field in Tanzania for 38 years, and their story will be shared soon in an upcoming documentary feature from the ELCA.
Mark Jacobson first felt the call to become a missionary upon visiting Arusha, Tanzania, after his first year of medical school. “I had the most profound sense ever in my life of having arrived at the place I had been created to be, a place where the disparate gifts that I sensed I had neatly fit together with the needs I was seeing in the community around me,” he said.
Linda Jacobson had worked in medical missions in Cambodia and Somalia, and as a teacher in Brazil. The couple met during the orientation at Johns Hopkins University where they both studied in the international health department. In Arusha, they worked to develop the full-service Selian Lutheran Hospital and to build the Plaster House rehabilitation center for children.
You can hear more of the Jacobsons’ story in the documentary. Tune in to the Facebook Watch Party at 7 p.m. Central time on Nov. 18 at Facebook.com/Lutherans.
YAGM Country Program Fun Facts:
Follow Young Adults in Global Mission (YAGM) on Instagram to learn interesting facts about each country program. This month, YAGM is highlighting the Argentina/Uruguay and Senegal country programs. Test your knowledge below.
- In Uruguay, what is the word “ta” used for?
- What does the name Senegal mean in the Wolof language?
See the answers in YAGM’s Instagram story highlights here. |
| Get Involved |
On Aug. 4, two explosions from a warehouse storing large quantities of ammonium nitrate rocked the central district and port of Beirut, Lebanon, equivalent to a 3.3 magnitude earthquake. They damaged buildings as far as 12 miles away, including several major hospitals, and led to at least 190 deaths and an additional 5,000 injuries. Over 300,000 people were left homeless. In addition to the devastation caused by the explosion, Lebanon is facing the COVID-19 pandemic and a financial crisis.
Lutheran Disaster Response is contributing to an appeal from ACT Alliance to offer relief to the people of Beirut. This support will allow the Middle East Council of Churches and Department of Service for Palestinian Refugees’s Joint Christian Committee for Social Justice in Lebanon to provide assistance to those affected by the explosion and financial crisis. Activities will include rehabilitating homes, distributing food and hygiene kits, supporting the recovery of small businesses, and providing electronic devices and school kits for students. You can give through Lutheran Disaster Response on the Middle East Crisis page here. |
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