MinistryLink

SEPA Synod lay missionaries Susan and Tom MacPherson have completed six months of their two-year adventure in Tanzania. Click through for an update from the MacPhersons on their work at Irente Children's Home and information about how you or your congregation can support their ministry. Download an insert to use in your Sunday service bulletin for a Sunday in June or July. Please remember the MacPhersons in the public prayers in your church.

"The Easter Sunday service was filled with great joy. We sang some favorite Easter hymns and we were asked to assist with the distribution of Communion...The church was packed. With a few dozen people still in the aisle, the bread almost ran out...The pre-poured wine and juice also ran out, and they were served common cup. It was a joyous occasion." Since early November, Tom and Susan MacPherson have lived in Tanzania, representing our synod as they work at the Irente Children’s Home, a mission of the North Eastern Diocese of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania. In addition to their work caring for the children, Susan teaches English, bookkeeping, and computer skills to many of the workers at the orphanage and Tom works as a handyman. More importantly, they both share God’s love with all the people they meet and find God’s love in those same people. Join in their journey by reading their "Partners in Mission" blog at http://macphersonmission.blogspot.com. Read more to learn how to send encouragement to the MacPhersons and how to support their work.

"We would like to send our warmest wishes for a Joyous Christmas and Happy New Year to all of the congregations of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod and to the Bishop and staff," missionaries Tom and Susan MacPherson write in their Christmas message from Tanzania. "Our Christmas tree (pictured) is made of pine cones, tissue paper and construction paper."

ELCA Global Mission staff report that a letter received in several synods from a pastor in Dar Es Salaam is a scam. The appeal from Pastor William Maheka Pamui, Senior Pastor of St. John Evangelical Lutheran Church in Dar es Salaam, asks for financial contributions to be made to a bank account in New York to help provide 10 wells for clean drinking water. ELCA staff report that a regional representative in Tanzania confirms that the request is not genuine.

“I’m sure if someone had told you even 5 years ago that you would be gladly giving away and selling your worldly possessions to serve Christ, by giving yourselves to care for infants and preschoolers and to mentor teenagers learning to be childcare workers at the Irente Children’s Home… you would have laughed -- or cried,” Bishop Burkat told Tanzania missionaries Tom and Susan MacPherson at a sending service Oct. 23. “But Our Lord, who is rich in mercy and imagination…has chosen you for this very special safari,”

Missionary Tom MacPherson, about to serve as volunteers at Irente Children’s Home in Tanzania, writes about the experience on our MinistryLink.org website: “Almost 3 years ago, a group from St. John Lutheran Church, Philadelphia, traveled to Tanzania. Susan and I were blessed to be part of that group. As we prepared to go, our church family financially supported us through fundraising, encouraged us, and most of all prayed for us. We never thought it would have such a major impact on our lives.”

It is with great joy that we announce that Tom and Susan MacPherson, members of St. John's, Philadelphia, have been confirmed for placement as volunteeer mission personnel with our companion, the North Eastern Diocese of Tanzania. The MacPhersons will serve at the Irente Childrens Home, located in the village adjacent to Lushoto where the diocesan office is located. Please pray for Tom and Susan as they prepare for their assignment and for those who are preparing to receive them.

Through teaching, learning, praying and worshipping, the people of our synod have been blessed to journey together as companions with the North Eastern Diocese in Tanzania and with the Silesian Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in the Czech Republic. Joanne Carlson, Assistant to the Bishop for Global Vision and Events, writes in an update on SEPA's global companionships. The Tanzania partnership continues to grow and deepen. Unfortunately, the Silesian church, the only one of the ELCA's 135 companionships to do so, terminated the relationship in response to the 2009 Churchwide Assembly actions on sexuality.

Our newest congregational companion, Mikanjuni Lutheran Parish, is now connected to St Luke, Devon. From the bishop's travel diary: A band greeted us as we first were asked to sign the guest book and then were escorted into the very large sanctuary. Mikanjuni had for about 11 years been a sub-parish of Kana Lutheran Parish, companion to St. John Lutheran Church, Philadelphia (Mayfair). (Read more)