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Who has time in September?
International Capanion Program
Churchwide Assembly Actions
Proclaiming the Gospel
Grant Programs for Pastoral Leaders
Upcoming Events
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Issue: # 187 August/2009
Who has time in September?
Health Risk AssessmentThe Mayo Clinic Health Assessment closes Sept. 30. If you have ELCA-primary health coverage and haven't completed your assessment this year, do it now. With school and church activities starting up, who has time in September?
 
Take 15 minutes to take stock of your health and earn your $100.  Access the assessment on the EmbodyHealth web portal at http://www.elcaforwellness.org.
 
Learn more about the assessment.
International Capanion Program
by Louis TillmanBishop Gordy & Sammie
 
As a young African American male in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America I could nothave fathomed the amount of diversity that includes Lutherans. I was fortunate and blessed enough to be a part of the 2009 International Companion Program. This benevolent program was held for the course of three weeks. It started off at Judson University for one week, where all 37 international students and 10 American students meet with one another and formed a very close bond. Then, the second week of the program involved all of the 37 international students to go to a hosting synod and learn the different American customs within that state. The third week brought it home, as the 37 international youth all participated in the 2009 Multicultural Youth Leadership Event and the 2009 ELCA Youth Gathering, which both were held in New Orleans,Louisiana.
 
Throughout the first week of this program, I learned a plethora of cultural facts as I talked with the international students. All of our students came from all over the world! I met youth from various areas such as Tanzania, Ethiopia, Chile, Rwanda, Palestine, Mexico, South Africa, Estonia, Poland, Costa Rica, Malawi, Egypt, Papa New Guinea, and many more! I felt so dense due to the fact that each and every culture had so much to bring to the table about their customs and religious life. Each day during the orientation, we all sat around and learned about the different cultures that were with us that week. We learned stuff that ranged from amazing Indian dancing to songs in people's native language. In addition, we all did activities that made each of our bonds stronger. One of the activities was a clever remix form of the game of charades, where we were all broken into random groups and had to perform a skit on stereotypes. I learned that there are many stereotypes in the world, and I also learned that Americans have an atrocious stereotype too! That game put everyone in check about how to not judge people based on their appearance, but on their characteristic traits. 
 
Subsequently, I met the international student that I was going to be hosting for a week. His name was Samson, but he preferred to be called Sammie. Sammie was from the country of Ethiopia, which is located in Africa. An interesting fact that he shared with me is that there are 88 forms of dialect in Ethiopia, and he can speak 3 of them fluently. He, no parentheses here (just like the rest of the international students), were so impressed and astonished about every aspect that the United States had to offer. I was glad that the program started in an area like north side Chicago, because not too many people there have ever seen a suburb in their whole entire lives! Samson was particularly strung out on the fact that we people in America do not have fences all over to protect our property. He told me that in Ethiopia; everyone has a fence all around thehouses to indicate their properties, and if there werenot a fence around the properties, that showed how that person was poor. The testimonies and facts from the students allowed everyone to know that we are so different due to our lifestyles and cultures, but tied together because we are all saved by grace in faith.
 
Click here for entire article.  Pictured above is Samson & Bishop Gordy.  Samson visited with synod office and had lunch with the synod staff.
Churchwide Assembly Actions
Gods Work Our HandsThe "Brief Summary of Actions" report from the 2009 Churchwide Assembly is now available online in two formats: a downloadable tri-fold piece in PDF format, and as a Word document.  You can find these on the Web at http://www.elca.org/assembly/summary
Proclaiming the Gospel
The faculty at Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary has released "Proclaiming the Proclaming the GospelGospel: Preaching for the Life of the Church", an inter-disciplinary book focused on the tradition of the preaching.  Fifteen current and emeriti members of the seminary faculty are contributors to the collection.  Visit the seminary website for more information.  (http://www.ltss.edu/news/latest-news/75/)
 
The book is published by Fortress Press and is available for order online at Augsburg Fortress.  http://www.augsburgfortress.org/store/item.jsp?clsid=196387&productgroupid=0&isbn=0800663314
Grant Programs for Pastoral Leaders
A call to pastoral leaders...
 
Fall in love with your vocation and ministry again with time apart from your pastoral duties...for real "r and r" or for the precious time and space to finish a project that's important to you.  Either way, you'll want to look at the special grant programs designed especially for you.
 
Click here for more details.
Upcoming Events
August
28-30    Alassippi

September
4-7       Happenings
7          Synod Office Closed
11-12    Synod Council
14-15    Ethiopia Trip
18-20    WELCA Convention
19         Conference 8 Meeting
22         Conference 3 Meeting
22         Conference 5 Meeting
22-23     Region 9 Racial Justice Training
26         Conference 7 Meeting

For more information on these and other events visit our synod calendar.