20th Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Central African Republic (EELRCA)

This past week (April 8-11) we spent an exciting few days at Bossabina 2, a small village in the north-western Central African Republic near the border with Cameroon and Chad.  Together with our friends and colleagues we celebrated the 20^th biennial Synod (national conference) of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Central African Republic (EELRCA).   Over two hundred delegates met to worship, study the Bible, and elect their new church leaders for the coming four years.  Twelve new pastors were ordained, all of them having completed two years of pastoral internship after graduating from the Theological School in Baboua in 2008.

 

The synod re-elected Rev. André Goliké to a second four-year term as president of the church (a position equivalent to bishop in many churches).  Rev. Jean Gbami of Bohong was elected as Vice-President.  Mr. Jean Marc Abbo was selected as treasurer.  Mr. Abbo is director of PASE, the church's development program for providing potable water and hygiene education, the organization with which Joe works as technical advisor.  A new administrative committee was also elected, with one representative from each of the church's seven regions. 

 

Representatives from two of EELRCA's partners, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the Evangelical Lutheran Mission of Germany (ELM) were present at the synod.  As two of the ELCA representatives, we were privileged to be guests of the EELRCA church in Bossabina.  We enjoyed great hospitality, including hot water for our "bucket shower," (heated over an open fire), and lots of manioc, rice, meat with peanut or okra sauce, and, for breakfast, omelets made with fresh local eggs. 

 

Photo is of a traditional Gbaya dancer celebrating the end of the Synod.

 

Joe and Deborah Troester are ELCA missionaries in Baboua, the Central African Republic. Joe serves as technical advisor for PASE, which provides clean drinking water and promotes good hygiene and sanitation to villagers. Pastor Deborah teaches at the Theological School in Baboua.  Their daughter Christa is attending seventh grade in Yaoundé, Cameroon.

Hostel Parents Needed For Missionary Children

As you know, Christa lives in a student hostel in Yaoundé, Cameroon, while she attends 7^th grade at Rain Forest International School.  Her hostel (known as UBAC) is run by an association of missions, and is home to kids from several families working in CAR and beyond.  The current 'hostel parents' will leave at the end of this school year.  The hostel committee chair wrote to us recently:

 

"We are still hopeful that the Lord has someone chosen for this ministry, but only He knows all those details.  Please continue to pray and to present the need...  In the meantime, we all need to realize that, if there are no hostel parents, there will be no UBAC hostel next year.  We as parents need to begin to think of what the alternative might be for our kids."

 

In other words, there is no one in sight to take on the job of hostel parents when the new school year starts in August THIS YEAR. 

 

So who's going to be affected if there's no hostel next year?  Not just our daughter!  Look at the range of ministries in their different locations that may be limited or have to stop next year if there's no one to make a home for these kids…

 

Ben, Desirée and Lyle are 18, 15 and 13 years old and their dad has been a Mission Aviation Fellowship pilot since 1985.  They are now working in Lubumbashi, D R Congo. 

 

Jessica is 17. Her parents are church planting among unreached people in Cameroon.

 

Peter and Rachael are 15 and 13. Their father supervises nine Bible translation programs in the CAR and is a translation consultant.  Their mother works for SIL's Central Africa Group and home schools their little brother.

 

Christi is 13 and her mother and father work with the Mpiemo people of southwestern CAR. They are now in Bible translation as well as literacy projects. 

 

Benjamin is 13. His family is with Presbyterian Evangelistic Fellowship in southwestern CAR. His father is involved in hospital maintenance and repair, printing, and evangelism. His mother is director of a nursing school, helps with hospital administration, and teaches in Sunday school and women's Bible studies. 

 

Our daughter, Christa, is 13. We work with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in western CAR.

 

Being a hostel parent is a demanding job, but brings a lot of rewards. Here's what Janelle Johnson wrote about her time as hostel assistant in Yaoundé (for Cameroon, you could read the Central African region!).

 

"As I was getting ready to spend the evening with 12 teenagers whose collective life experience spans 3 continents, 6 languages, and more years spent in foreign cultures than in their own passport countries, I knew that God was at work in that place…

 

My time in Cameroon was an opportunity to be a part of God's work in that country. I was able to come alongside career missionaries and encourage them in their work as well as to support the work of Bible translation, church planting, medical services, and agricultural development work of missionaries from numerous mission organizations. 

 

So, what in the world is God doing in Cameroon? He is working through teachers and preachers, pilots and musicians. He is reaching the lost and helping the poor. He is helping people learn to run small businesses that support their families. He is going into prisons and transforming lives. He does this through his people. People like you and me. So why not join him?"

 

What kind of people are needed? A husband and wife team, who are mature believers, are in a healthy marriage, have serving hearts, and love teenagers.

 

Please pray and think about this need.  Pray that God will call and equip the people he's chosen for this role. Contact us to know more about what the job involves, and feel free to mention it to anyone who could be looking for just this opportunity to serve.

 

Photo is of some RFIS students watching a football (soccer) match in the rain.

 

Joe and Deborah Troester are ELCA missionaries in Baboua, the Central African Republic. Joe serves as technical advisor for PASE, which provides clean drinking water and promotes good hygiene and sanitation to villagers. Pastor Deborah teaches at the Theological School in Baboua. 

 

PASE helps bring potable water to the dry, dusty Sahel, Part II

Bossabina II and De Gaulle are two adjacent villages in the northwestern Central African Republic (CAR), near the border with Chad and Cameroon.  From 2003 until 2008, this area was plagued by armed bandits and rebels, who carried off anything they could find, including crops, livestock, and what few personal belongings people may have had.  Children were kidnapped and held for ransom, and some villages were burnt and villagers killed.  The people of this region are poor, and the area, part of the Sahel, is hot and dry, with little surface water. 

 

From February 1 to 12, PASE (the French acronym for the Water Management Project of EELRCA - the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Central African Republic) built five spring boxes.   Original plans included only one, or possibly two spring boxes, but the community response was so overwhelming that PASE decided to build five spring boxes total.  Between 100 and 200 villagers volunteered every day to carry rocks and buckets of sand on their heads to the work sites, and to assist in digging out the springs so that pipes could be installed. 

 

 In the photo above, a Fulani girl gets water from one of the five springs, Girgiri 2, to fill up the basin, which she will carry home on her head.  Many Fulanis, a primarily Muslim ethnic group, live in this area.  Although the work was sponsored by Lutherans, local Muslims were among the volunteers and will benefit from this project as well.  While we were working at one of the springs, an elderly Muslim man arrived.  He prayed for our work and asked God to bless us.  The villagers sang and danced at the completion of the spring boxes, which will provide an additional 50,000 gallons (200 cubic meters) of clean water per day to the two villages. 

 

Joe

 

Joe and Deborah Troester are ELCA missionaries in Baboua, the Central African Republic. Joe serves as technical advisor for PASE, which provides clean drinking water and promotes good hygiene and sanitation to villagers. Pastor Deborah teaches at the Theological School in Baboua. 

PASE helps bring potable water to the dry, dusty Sahel

In April the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Central African Republic (EELRCA) will hold its biannual synod in Bossabina II, a village in northwestern Central African Republic (CAR).  Bossabina II is located in the Sahel region of CAR, where it is hot and dry, with little annual rainfall.  Water is scarce and trees grow only head-high.  On a reconnaissance trip in January, PASE (the French acronym for the Water Management Project of the EELRCA) found that the people of this impoverished area have no source of potable water.  Instead, they are forced to drink water contaminated with bacteria and parasites. 

 

This week PASE is traveling to Bossabina II (about 4 hours north of Bouar) to build three spring boxes to help supply the local villagers with potable water. The photo is of the truck ready to leave our office in Baboua with 12 sacks of cement, boards for formwork, wheelbarrow, rebar, pipes, tools, etc. Pictured from left to right are:  the driver, Ninga Luc; PASE director, Abbo Jean Marc; and PASE employee Moussa Salomon (dressed for the long, dusty motorbike ride).  The work crew of seven Central Africans, including one engineer, two masons, and four animators (community development workers), are expected to be in the field for two weeks.

 

Joe

 

Joe and Deborah Troester are ELCA missionaries in Baboua, the Central African Republic. Joe serves as technical advisor for PASE, which provides clean drinking water and promotes good hygiene and sanitation to villagers. Pastor Deborah teaches at the Theological School in Baboua. 

 

The Young Women's Scholarship Program in the Central African Republic

In the Central African Republic (CAR), barely half the population can read or write and only 22% of women are literate.   The Young Women's Scholarship Program of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) aims to improve the level of women's education.  Girls who have successfully completed elementary school are eligible to compete for scholarships which will fund their education through the high school level. 

 

Pastor Rachel Doumbai of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in CAR (EELRCA) and I recently visited thirteen of these girls, aged 11-18.  They are studying at the Catholic Technical High School, a boarding school in Maigaro, in western CAR near the city of Bouar.  Reine and Delphine (photo above) are two of the four girls who will graduate in May and hope to continue their studies this fall.

 

Reine wishes to study law, and perhaps become a lawyer or a judge.  Delphine plans to study biology at the university, then go on to medical school to become a doctor.  In a country where infant mortality is near 20% and the average life expectancy is around 40 years, Delphine will certainly be able to make a difference if she achieves her goals. 

 

All thirteen of these girls are extraordinary; in the CAR it is unusual for a girl to finish elementary school, much less graduate from high school or university.  ELCA and its partner church, the EELRCA, are doing their part to encourage girls to stay in school and to become community leaders.  If you wish to make a gift that will bear fruit for many years to come in one of the most impoverished nations of the world, please send it to ELCA Global Mission at the following address.

 

Rev. Twila Schock

Director for Global Mission Support

8765 West Higgins Road

Chicago, IL  60631

Telephone:  773.380.2641

Twila.Schock@elca.org

www.elca.org

 

Checks should be made out to ELCA Global Mission and labeled "Young Women's Scholarship CAR."

 

Thank you very much!

 

Deborah

 

Joe and Deborah Troester are ELCA missionaries in Baboua, the Central African Republic.   Pastor Deborah teaches at the Theological School in Baboua.  She also works with the FCC (Women for Christ) and the Village School Project to improve communication between the CAR and the United States. Joe serves as technical advisor for PASE, which provides clean drinking water and promotes good hygiene and sanitation to villagers.

 

Emmanuel Health Clinic in Gallo, Central African Republic

Tuesday (January 19) was the inauguration of the Emmanuel Health Clinic in Gallo in the western Central African Republic. Deborah and I attended the event along with some 2000 others, including representatives of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), The Evangelical Lutheran Mission of Germany, Hermannsburg (OELM), Global Health Ministries (GHM), and Lutheran Partners in Global Ministry (LPGM).   Until now the health needs in Gallo and the surrounding villages have only been served by a small Lutheran dispensary, with the nearest hospital an hour away over a dirt road full of potholes.  The Emmanuel Health Clinic boasts a modern operating theater, laboratory, maternity ward and 18 beds.  The opening of this clinic will greatly boost health care in this underserved, poverty-stricken region. 

For humanity as a whole, the health improvements achieved since 1960 have been unprecedented. In the past 50 years, mortality among children under five years old has dropped by two-thirds world-wide. There are a few countries, such as the CAR, where these improvements have not occurred. According to the United Nations, the CAR is in the midst of a severe humanitarian crisis, with the population shrinking due to lack of medical care, insecurity, and economic collapse. The CAR is currently third from the bottom (out of 182 countries) in the Human Development Index. Despite this, little humanitarian service—in terms of money, personnel, or supplies—has flowed into this country. 

In CAR, roughly 300 to 400 excess deaths occur each day due to the lack of a functioning health system. The country's security problems and poor infrastructure are not the greatest barriers to relief and development, rather the biggest limit is lack of global interest. If we want to improve the lives of the poorest citizens on our planet, perhaps CAR, where the barriers to doing good are small and the potential to do good is large, would be a great place to start.   Small efforts, such as the Emmanuel Health Clinic, will make a huge difference in a corner of the world that has been neglected for too long. 

The photo above shows Deborah translating for Pastor Tim Iverson, Executive Director of Global Health Ministries, during the inauguration ceremony.

Joe and Deborah Troester are ELCA missionaries in Baboua, the Central African Republic.   Pastor Deborah teaches at the Lutheran Theological School in Baboua.  Joe serves as technical advisor for PASE, which provides clean drinking water and promotes good hygiene and sanitation to villagers.

New Clothes for the New Year

One of the beautiful things in Africa is the locally made fabric and all of the clothing made from it. Cotton has been grown in this part of Africa since before independence. The local cotton was made into cloth and is dyed the old-fashioned way in small batches. Consequently, churches and other organizations can have fabric specially made for an event. They then sell the fabric and often everyone has clothing made from the same material.

 

The Women for Christ in Central Africa (FCC) have just released their 2010 fabric (see photo above). Women from all Lutheran Churches in the Central African Republic will be buying the material and then trying to outdo each other in the style of their clothing. The goal is for the women who attend the 2010 Women for Christ Conference in February to demonstrate their solidarity by all wearing the FCC fabric.

 

Joe

 

Joe and Deborah Troester are ELCA missionaries in Baboua, the Central African Republic.   Pastor Deborah teaches at the Theological School in Baboua.  She also works with the FCC and the Village School Project to improve communication between Central Africa and the United States. Joe serves as technical advisor for PASE, which provides clean drinking water and promotes good hygiene and sanitation to villagers.