ELCA and Bolivian Lutherans Walk Together

     SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia (ELCA) -- The Bolivian Lutheran Church has an ambitious plan to work with migrant people in Santa Cruz, one of Latin America's fastest growing areas.  Surrounded by farmland and wide open spaces, this small city southeast of La Paz has experienced an influx of 60,000 peasant farmers in the past 15 years.  The migrants, mostly from indiginous groups, have come looking for a better way of life but find no schools, no electricity, no water.
     Jobs are few in Santa Cruz.  Most migrants rely on an "informal economy," cleaning windshields, shining shoes, selling gum or candy on the sidewalks.  The church sees education as a vital link to development so, in addition to worship services and Bible studies, it has plans to provide education for children and adults.
     Once the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) might have sent missionaries to evangelize among Santa Cruz' one million families. Now, in a new approach to mission work called "accompaniment," the ELCA is providing financial support to help the Bolivian Lutheran Church send its own missionary there.
     The accompaniment mission philosophy puts a new face on the church's still vital commitment to spread the gospel to the ends of the earth.  It works through interdependence between the ELCA and other Lutheran churches around the world -- many of which have their origin in traditional missionary efforts.
     "Previously it was a one-way relationship -- what we were doing for them," said the Rev. Rafael Malpica Padilla, director for Latin America in the ELCA's Division for Global Mission. "[Now] it is not our strategy, our mission, our work, but theirs. The Bolivian Lutheran Church sets the priorities, the goals -- they are the ones in charge."
     For the Bolivian church, the poor are a priority.  "We need [the ELCA's] solidarity and support to address the needs of these migrant people," said the Rev. Eulogio Soto, a pastor of the Bolivian Lutheran Church.  Soto will serve as the church's missionary to Santa Cruz.  The ELCA will provide $10,000 per year toward his efforts in education, Bible study and worship.
     This way of doing mission may feel new to church members, but its roots are in the gospel itself, said Malpica. "The philosophy of accompaniment is modeled after what we understand about God's relationship with us -- God has decided to walk with us in Jesus Christ."
     Leadership development is another priority of the Bolivian church. In support of this aim, the ELCA provides scholarships to help train pastors and other leaders on their home turf.  The ELCA has begun a new program of study Wartburg Theological Seminary, Dubuque, Iowa, focusing on theology, development and evangelism.  The two-year program will train leaders from Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, El Salvador and Nicaragua who will return to their churches to train others.  The ELCA has commited $90,000 to this leadership development in work in 1997.
     The Bolivian Lutheran Church seeks to expand its medical ministry to people in the highlands who live beyond the reach of medical facilities.  The ELCA will help pay for an effort that will involve medical specialists from neighboring Chile. Another grant from the ELCA funds a loan program in Bolivia that makes small loans available to highland families who want to start small businesses such as pig-raising.
     The philosophy of accompaniment depends upon a relationship rooted in a shared faith, according to Malpica.  So, while financial support play a part in the ELCA's partnership with the Bolivian Lutheran Church, the relationship is not built upon money.
     Malpica said, "Two points are important in accompaniment -- mutuality and interdependence. Not only what we can give, but what we can receive."  The vigorous witness of Lutherans in Bolivia will bring the gospel into the lives of Lutherans in the United States in new ways.

[Marcia Erickson Bates, a member of Advent Lutheran Church,
Everett, Wash., is a freelance writer who visited Bolivia through
the ELCA.]

For information contact:
Ann Hafften, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://www.elca.org/co/news/current.html