|
“I
am looking for a place for a prayer service for my people.”
Daniel
Deng Mapur came to St. Joseph, Mo. in the fall of 2006 in search
of a better job. He had come to the U.S. as a refugee in 2001
and had lived in Salt Lake City, Utah Sioux Falls, South Dakota
and Fargo, North Dakota before coming to St. Joseph. Now in
the fading light of a fall afternoon we sat with each other
at First Lutheran Church and began a conversation that was to
unite Christians in this Midwestern city with Christian refugees
from war-torn Sudan.
What Daniel
did not know was the people in the congregation I serve have
spent considerable time the past few years discerning what is
our response to the mission we have been given as followers
of Christ. We have spent time as leaders and as a congregation
clarifying what is our mission and vision for ministry. At First
Lutheran our focus is to help people discover their spiritual
gifts, live genuinely in Christian community, and assist them
to find places to use their gifts. That commitment has opened
doors for ministry in the church and community for many people
in this place. It also enabled me to immediately tell Daniel
“yes” to his request.
We added
an additional worship service on Sunday afternoon led by Sudanese
worship leaders. The first service was held on Palm Sunday on
April 1, 2007. They are able to worship in their own language
of Dinka. I have presided over communion and preached when asked.
This past spring Daniel was authorized by Bishop Gerald Mansholt
to preside over communion. This has been met with enthusiasm
from the Sudanese community as it affirms the commitment of
the congregation and synod leaders in this new mission.
This has
also opened doors in ecumenical relationships in the community
as Daniel and other Sudanese leaders are welcomed to the worship
of other churches to share their faith stories of hope and struggle.
Leaders from the school district, adult education, employment
and housing, business and local government have linked together
in helping our new citizens settle into a new life in the community.
We are
learning of the journey of Sudanese refugees from fleeing as
children for their lives, experiencing the horrors of war, to
growing up in refugee camps. We marvel at the depth of faith
delivered to them from elders and faith leaders in those camps.
We are swept up in their spirit of joy even as they struggle
in rebuilding their lives in a new land and reuniting and raising
their own children.
Daniel
is among the leaders of this worshiping community who has joined
with Sudanese leaders in congregations throughout the ELCA to
plant the seeds for an Evangelical Lutheran Church in Sudan.
Their vision brings hope to Sudanese refugees and their families
for a new future filled with peace in their homeland. It also
brings demands upon the global mission leaders in the ELCA as
these young refugees present their growing list of needs to
equip Sudanese leaders and develop sustaining resources in southern
Sudan.
Recently
Daniel was standing in my office talking to another Sudanese
on the phone and he said repeatedly, “To no.” I
asked him what that meant. He said, “It means ‘where
are you’.” When Daniel asks us as his congregation
“to no” today we can say to our brothers and sisters
from Sudan “we are beside you in prayer and praise with
hands and hearts freed to love one another as Christ has loved
us.”
Rev. Roger
Lenander
First Lutheran Church
St. Joseph, Mo.
7/15/08
“Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve
one another with whatever gift each of you has received.”
1 Peter 4:10 (NRSV)
|
