Monthly Archives: February 2008

Praying the Lord Prayer in 12 different languages

Posted on February 28, 2008 by | 6 Comments

I am now in a meeting of an exchange programme partners in Norway.

The exchange programme is called Team Nettwork.

It is a part of NMS (The Norwegian Missionary Society) programme.

I have been here, in place called “Hald Internasjole Senter”  since last Sunday.

We are at least 12 people from 12 different countries in the world such as Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, Kenya, Unganda, Cameroon, Rwanda, Madagascar, Thailand, Laos, Nepal and Norway. Morover, we are from different denominations such Lutheran, Catholics, Pentecostal.

Of course, the meeting is conducted in English.

But yesterday evening, it was so special.

We had a “Praise and Worship” night together.

The songs, sharings and so on were in English.

But to close the session, we were asked to pray the “Lord Prayer” in our each own language, national or local.

That was the precious moment for me.

I couldn’t imagine how God understands all of these languages!!!

So amazing!!! I liked it so much.

It gave me the impression that God is Allmighty!!! He can do everything!!! He can understand every language.

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Posted in Ecumenism, Faith, Poverty/Affluence, Youth Ministry, Youth participation

join youth e-consultation for AIDS 2008

Posted on February 27, 2008 by | 1 Comment

Toronto Youth Force As the first International AIDS Conference (IAC) ever held in Latin America, the XVII Mexico International AIDS Conference, “AIDS 2008″ will bring together 25,000 researchers, decision-makers, and advocates from around the world to collaborate and share in an effort to strengthen our global responses to HIV and AIDS, from August 3-8, 2008.

Young people – especially young women – are disproportionately affected by HIV and AIDS. Young people under 25 represent almost half of new HIV infections occurring annually. However, we are often excluded and marginalized in the global response, despite international commitments such as the UNGASS Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS which explicitly state young people’s right to participate.

The IAC is a crucial opportunity for youth to influence decision-makers and to scale up their involvement in international forums. Toward this end, the YouthForce has been a vital component for hundreds of youth during the 2002 IAC, the 2004 Bangkok IAC, and the 2006 Toronto IAC.

The Mexico YouthForce will be holding a 3 week long e-consultation from Monday, March 3 to Friday, March 21, to develop an advocacy message and visibility strategy for AIDS2008. Outcomes of the e-consultation will feed into visibility materials such as t-shirts, posters, stickers, and banners. Young people will be trained on how to advocate for these messages effectively through advocacy and media workshops during the Youth Pre-Conference (July 31, August 1 and 2) and during the Main Conference.

SIGN UP HERE

This EC will include opinions of young people who will and will not be at the conference. Additionally, EC participants will be asked to consult with their peers who are non-ICT connected (without access to internet) to include their opinions on what issues need to be included.

*The e-consultation has the following objectives:*

1) To brainstorm and develop action-oriented advocacy messages
2) To develop an advocacy strategy and materials based on the decided
messages

The e-consultation will be hosted by TakingItGlobal (TIG) and aims to include the voices of as many young people involved in HIV/AIDS
interventions as possible. Young people ages 15 – 30 are urged to participate. Instructions for the consultation will be posted on the TIG
site and emailed to the group. You must have regular internet access throughout the 3 weeks to contribute to the discussions.

*SIGN UP HERE: http://groups.takingitglobal.org/MYF08consult*

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Posted in Africa, Asia/Pacific, HIV/Aids, Latin America/Carribean, Life, UN, Youth, Youth participation

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Great Game. Small Mercies?

Posted on February 27, 2008 by | Leave a comment

Beijing’s gigantic new airport terminal will be open on Friday, well ahead of the Olympics games held in August. The new terminal is described as the biggest building in the world, and is even larger than all the terminals of London Heathrow Airport put together.

The Great Game is a source of great pride to the Chinese. Meanwhile, the impact of the games may also place some constraints on China’s behaviour. The argument often used as a justification to award the games to Beijing is that it may press Beijing to rein in its human rights abuses.

What I particular concern is the impact of the games on the policy regarding the mainland’s underground Christian ‘house churches’.

As reported recently by SCMP, a Hong Kong newspaper , speculation growing in Christian circles that Beijing may want to seek accomodation with the mainland’s large and rapidly growing underground ‘house church’ movement.

Almost for six decades since the China Communist Party has taken control of China, Underground Christian churches has been constantly and severely repressed by the government.

Continue reading →

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Posted in Asia/Pacific, Church

The Younger Generation of Ecumenical Movement

Posted on February 25, 2008 by | 1 Comment

Many hugs, many goodbyes. As I accompanied the last two stewards to the airport in the Sunday evening. Nearly all my friends who were with me in the three-week long World Council of Churches stewards programme have left Geneva. I begin to miss them very much.

Three of us, Roger, Rolita and I took part in the WCC stewards programme starting from 6th February. We also have friends from all around the world: Belarus, Indonesia, Nicaragua, Argentina, USA, Brazil, Switzerland, Uruguay, the Netherlands, Germany, Syria, Sweden, Lebanon, Czech Republic, South Africa, Canada, Finland, Palestine, Madagascar, Samoa. 

From East to West, from North to South. People with so different backgrounds and cultures gathering under the same roof. We learnt more about the ecumenical movement, expressed our views on world issues, shared our interesting experience and contributed our best as a steward in the WCC Central Committee.

Continue reading →

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Posted in Ecumenism, Youth

The Power of Words

Posted on February 24, 2008 by | Leave a comment

Presidential election fever has hit the United States.  Record numbers of people are coming out to vote in the primary election (in the US, we have two elections- a primary, where people of the same party run against each other to see who will represent that party, and a general election, where the winners of the primary election run against the people representing other parties).

One of the candidates running for president in the Democratic primary election, Barak Obama, is an inspiring speaker and is in many ways challenging the establishment’s partisan politics.  He dares Americans to hope and offers a different vision for how we can relate to the world and one another.

Other candidates and political insiders are challenging Obama, saying that his speeches are just nice words, and that his vision of post-partisanship is unrealistic.  Their main argument is that now, in America, democrats cannot trust republicans, and republicans cannot trust democrats.  They are the enemy, we are right- we need to be afraid of the ‘other’.

This, in my opinion, is a result of the George W. Bush presidency.  His vision on how to get things done was to shove legislation down the oppositions throat.  It was to be as partisan and reactionary as possible, mobilizing one side against another, so that there is one winner and one loser.  It was to listen only to one group of people, and completely shut everyone else out.  His foreign policy was built around this same principle. Continue reading →

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Posted in Life, North America

Escaping Female Genital Mutilation

Posted on February 20, 2008 by | 4 Comments

Oumou Toure from Guinea did not want her two year old daughter Fanta to suffer the same treatment she experienced herself at the age of 19: Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), also known as Female Genital Cutting (FGC). For several months she was facing deportation from Canada to her home country Guinea. But finally in July 2007 she and her daughter were granted permanent residence in Canada on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.

Protecting women from FGM is still not seen as self evident in many Western countries including Canada. It took Toure three times to finally get granted permanent residence. Nevertheless, Oumou is one of a growing number of women seeking asylum in Western countries to escape FGM. And while most Western countries, including the US, Canada, Belgium, Spain, Austria, Sweden, Germany and Italy regard FGM as criminal act, there is also an increasing number of states that regard FGM as reason for granting refugee status.

In the United States, FGM is regarded as a reason for granting asylum since 1996 when the Board of Immigration Appeals granted asylum for Fauziya Kassindja, a teenager from Togo. But the case of Oumou Toure in Canada shows, there is a gap between claim and reality. As in Guinea (like in many other countries) FGM is formally outlawed it had to be proven to the Canadian authorities that the law is actually not enforced. 99 % of girls and women between the age of 15 and 49 in Guinea had to undergo the treatment of FGM.

In a recently issued report by the Secretary General of the United Nations it is stated that although in many countries such as Ghana, Uganda, Morocco and Eritrea FGM is officially criminalized “enforcement of these laws remains a major challenge as the practice continues to be seen as an issue at the private or family level that should not be brought into the public domain for discussion and action.” Continue reading →

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Posted in Africa, LWF, UN, Youth

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Big Youth gathering 2009

Posted on February 16, 2008 by | 22 Comments

The officers of the National Youth Department in the Malagasy Lutheran Church had a meeting in Fianarantsoa last February 7-8, 2008. The purpose of the meeting was to prepare for the big youth gathering, which will happen in August 2009 in Fort-Dauphin. This gathering, which we call «Zaikabe», happens every three years. And this one will be the eighteenth gathering since the beginning in the 60s. The last one, the seventeenth, took place in Antananarivo in 8-13 August 2006. This shows that the places where to have the gathering every three years change according to the decision of the National Committee of the Youth Department. On the other hand, the month when it has to take place must be August since it is the middle of the big holidays here in Madagascar. Then young people can come to attend it. And it is also to welcome as many young as possible. For instance, the last gathering we had in 2006, we could gather 7800 young people from all over Madagascar, including some from Norway and Cameroon. You see that it is not only a national meeting for young people in the Malagasy Lutheran Church; it is also an international one. We invite you to come too. The date for the coming one is not yet fixed, we have to wait for the meeting of the Malagasy Lutheran Church Committee members to decide when in August 2009 to have it. This time, we expect to welcome more that 10000 young people to attend the gathering, including you who are reading this. Just come and you will see how Malagasy youth show their act of faith in Jesus Christ. The gathering is for Bible Study, Prayers, worships, devotion life and so on. It is to make experience in advance how life in heaven will be.Next time I will give more details about this. If you are interested to attend and to experience this huge meeting, please contact the general secretary of the youth in Madagascar by this e-mail address: hajafktlm@mel.moov.mg

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Posted in Youth participation

Shockwave – pray for the persecuted

Posted on February 12, 2008 by | 1 Comment
persecution-banner-for-odweb250.jpg
ONE WEEKEND OVER 30 NATIONS UNITE IN PRAYER TO SUPPORT PERSECUTED CHRISTIANS!
Shockwave is a global event which will take place between 29 February – 30 March. The idea is to unite in prayer during one weekend for persecuted Christians all over the world.
“On the first weekend of March there is an event called SHOCKWAVE which is an opportunity for us to come together all over the world and call out to God and intercede for the Persecuted Church. It’s organised by Open Doors and I would love you, we would love you to join with us to knock on the door of heaven for our brothers and sisters.” Mike Pilavachi
If you would like to find more go to www.odshockwave.org. There is download section full of materials that you can use in your church or in your youth group, prayer wall where you can post you prayer for persecuted Christians, you can also see which nations has already signed up.

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Posted in Church, Faith, Life, Youth, Youth Ministry, Youth participation

Getting Started- LWF Internship 2008

Posted on February 6, 2008 by | 7 Comments

The exciting LWF youth internship program has just kicked off!!

Two LWF interns this year - Rolita Machila from Africa and Francis Chan from Asia – would like to take this opportunity to greet all of you who are reading the Youth Blog. 

A picture is worth a thousand word to introduce ourselves. Here is the photo we have taken together just last weekend.

  lwf-interns2008.jpg

Rolita is on the right and Francis is on the left. This is the first time both of us experience how snow feels like. Thanks Roger for the wonderful tour to the mountains.

Continue reading →

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Posted in Youth

ENGAGE: Give us today our daily bread

Posted on February 6, 2008 by | Leave a comment

Lydia Fong is a participant of the Asian Group of Engage: LWF Global Training for Young Leaders. She prepared this prayerful reflection.

The thematic focus of the program is the same as for the LWF General Assembly 2010. It is one line from the Lord’s Prayer: “Give us today our daily bread.”

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Posted in Asia/Pacific, Faith, Justice, Life, Poverty, Poverty/Affluence