Idarum-journal

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Dear Reader,

Emso, the elephant, and Pipit, the little bird, are the stars of the new EMS edu-cational programme YOU+ME: FRIENDS AROUND THE WORLD for children’s ser-vice and primary school children. The two are reading a book together, they are sharing. And this is precisely the topic of this year’s EMS Annual Report. Kerstin Neumann introduces the topic with an article on what sharing means to us, at EMS. Then, different working areas and people will report which experience they have made with sharing. Of course, the 16 pages of this report do not offer enough space for presenting all the aspects of sharing within the EMS Fellowship, but I still hope that they will give you an idea of this important component of our work.

I hope you will find this report an informative read.Yours

Corinna WaltzEditor

Annual Report

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Concept of Sharing

Every other morning, most of the time at 5:30 a.m., sometimes a bit later, some-times a bit earlier, we are witnessing the same scenario: Women carrying the pretty spherical water vessels called “ko-dam” in the Indian language Tamil are rushing to a water line which serves ap-proximately 15 families. Once in a while, more women will show up, namely whe-never one of the few other water lines on the college campus in South India is clogged or broken. The water provided by the municipal administration flows for about an hour, then it stops again for two days. If it does not come at all, which can happen especially during the dry summer months, we have to buy it, which is expensive. The women are ar-guing. Each one claims that she has been the first one in the morning and therefore has the right to not only fill one, but two or three kodams before it will be the next woman’s turn.

International committeeSharing resources is one of the central aspects of the EMS concept. Admittedly, within EMS, sharing has never been as difficult as in the example above. I am thinking for example of financial resour-ces which we can distribute among the projects of our member churches. This year alone, the international commit-tee for EMS projects and programmes awarded an amount of 1.5 million euros to a total of 59 projects in nine different countries. What is especially important to me is to emphasise that, as a fellowship, we do not simply distribute funds, but we also share at an international level the

Sharing as Members of one Body

The six members of the international EMS ProPro Committee thoroughly discuss all the submit-ted project requests and choose the projects for the next two years.

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Kerstin Neumann, Head of the Mission and Partnership Department, explains the crucial importance that sharing has to the international EMS Fellowship.

Sharing know-how

Since 2012, Karina Schumacher has been working as an Ecumenical Co-worker in Korea. She is working at the Ecological Centre of the Presbyterian Church in the Re-public of Korea, where, since early 2015, she has made the preservation of a natural river ecosystem her priority. Dorothee Beck has also been sent out from Germany. She is working as a skilled educator in Lebanon. Reverend Sabine Kluger returned to Germany in spring 2016 after a three-year stay in Japan, where she supported the National Christian Council with its programmes for dealing with the consequences of the threefold catastrophe.In addition to this North-South Exchange, there are two further exchange directions for co-workers in the EMS Fellowship. The EMS Secretariat is in charge of the North-South and the South-South Exchange, while the member churches in Germany em-ploy Ecumenical Co-workers from other countries. The Ecumenical Co-workers use their special skills in their work and function as a bridge between the churches of the Fellowship. New placements in the regions Africa and Indonesia are planned for the North-South Exchange.Further information:www.ems-online.org/en/active-worldwide/ecumenical-co-workers/

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Concept of Sharing

Small group discussions with local Christians were an enriching experience for the Team Visit in Indonesia.

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Sresponsibility to select the projects to be funded.

Moreover, resources do not only mean money. Know-how and experience are also valuable resources that can be used to the benefit of everyone. This is the foundation that a large number of the EMS activities, such as youth work, the women's network and the entire educa-tional field, are built on. Our next step is to offer this enriching experience of sha-ring know-how to our project leaders as well. Next April, they will have the oppor-tunity to have their first exchange about their work during a networking meeting.

Practising how to shareIf we want to experience and practise sha-ring, we need to set aside time and make room for it. We are opening ourselves for this experience by celebrating worship services together and by creating friend-ships through our shared spirituality. At this point, I would like to mention the two Team Visits in Indonesia and Germany in the past year and in Ghana and India in the year before. They have created a deep connection between all the participants with their different cultural backgrounds and their different Christian testimonies. The joint discovering and learning expe-

rience, the solidarity which is formed in the process of the shared experience, but also the warm-hearted welcome in the respective host churches have created friendships which will bear fruit for a long time to come.

The image that Paul presents in the twelfth chapter of the first letter to the Corinthians describes the unity which will only make sense if the large variety of in-dividual members works together. “The body is one,” he writes. But what cha-racterises it is the individual members of the body with all their different functions. All the members, in all their variety, are

The international Team Visit delegation visits the deaconesses Speyer-Mannheim and discusses how social work and mission go hand in hand. The film shot during this visit is available on the EMS YouTube

channel: www.youtube.com/emsfellowship

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Concept of Sharing

Networking across church boundaries

“Project networking”, a programme of the EMS Focus 2015-2019 was identified as an important goal of the internationalisation process of EMS during the 2014 General Meeting. What does this mean in practical terms? Churches in Ghana, South Africa, India and Indonesia, for example, share an interest in the evangelisation work and church development in remote rural areas. Education for peace and programmes for conflict resolution without violence for young people are of equally great importance to the Middle East, India and Ghana. Migration centres run by the churches in Japan, Korea and Lebanon are facing similar challenges. EMS wants to enhance a subject-related exchange between the projects. The first steps have already been taken: In the first half of 2016, EMS used an online blog and a Facebook group to ask the individual project partners about their interests. Now, EMS will be hosting an international forum in April 2017. Representatives of projects supported by EMS and of the departments for Mission and Ecumenism of the member churches will have the opportunity to work together on subjects that concern them all, to learn about already successfully implemented networking and to prepare a roadmap for the future international net-working work of the EMS Fellowship. Possible ideas are for example mutual project visits, platforms for the exchange of materials or the exchange of specialised staff.

Annika Hilton-Ganter

necessary in order to make this one body perfect – as wanted by God. All the mem-bers completely and mutually depend on each other so that ultimately each of them is equally important. But wait a second: Verse 22 says that those members that appear to be the weakest are the most indispensable ones, and so are the least honourable and even the immodest ones. The balance and the equality which we are to achieve require that the weakest members be treated with greater respect. “If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honoured, all rejoice together with it. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.” (1 Cor. 12:26 et seq.)

Respecting the weakWhat would the women at the water line in South India say about this image of the body and its equally valid members? Pro-bably something like: “Fair enough, but this is about providing my family with an essential good, so I have to think of myself first.” It is easy to write that it is our task to watch out for the weak, but it is harder to implement this idea. The rule that each woman is to initially only fill one vessel so that all the other families will have at least a little bit of water is certainly something that has to be practised again and again, every other morning.

We are sharing hope; we are sharing dreams of a united and fair world. The internationalisation process of EMS me-ans new challenges and opportunities. We respect and celebrate the variety of the members, while the work for a well- balanced overall body requires an ex-change, which at times may be difficult. We have to accept that there are different opinions about issues such as HIV/AIDS and different convictions when it comes to the practical implementation of mis-sion and evangelisation, and we have to continue to discuss them. I believe that

even arguments are important. But so is our joint striving for a fair and just world order, for climate justice and against any form of human rights violation, i.e. a fight against anything that might harm the body as a whole.

A few weeks ago, I was deeply moved when the children in my church in Stutt-gart shared the blessings. After a success-ful bible study about friendship, the child-

ren were to first bless themselves and then a child standing next to them during the chorus of the final song. They all were significantly more enthusiastic and happy about blessing another child than about putting their hand on their own head. It is exciting that blessing others was more important to them than their own benefit. Impressive.

Kerstin Neumann

Not only people in India have to share the precious resource water. In South Sudan, it is often the children who are responsible for fetching water.

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Meditation

Sharing is not that EasyNot only the German society seems to have its problems with sharing, the Bible as well addresses these issues.

The Government keeps emphasising that the integration of refugees will not have a negative impact on citizens. The cost caused by refugee integration, which amounts to billions of euros, is paid through additionally generated funds. This means that nobody has to share what they have or are entitled to. However, these additionally generated funds are not spent for the benefit of German citizens. Some of them are cri-ticising this. I have the impression that it would be easier to share material ob-jects with people with the same cultural background, not with people from a for-eign culture.

The Bible also speaks about issues with sharing. Let us, for example, look at the passage in Matthew 15:21-28. It addresses sharing with members of a different culture. Jesus rejects the re-quest of the Canaanite woman that he share the bread of the children of Israel. He responded harshly: “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” But who are the children who are a priority? And who are the dogs that are to receive some crumbs?

Qualified workers, if possible fluent in German and willing to adopt our cul-ture, are welcome in our country. We are willing to share our money and culture with them. We consider opening our country for them. After all, they might be of benefit to us in the future and might contribute to our own wealth and to a secured retirement.

But is this what sharing means? Or is it rather that sharing means to give

away a part of my possession and that I am open towards the foreign culture without expecting anything in return? But sharing does not have to mean that nothing is left for me. This is what the parable of the loaves and fishes is tal-king about, where the act of sharing means that many are fed and there is still bread leftover.

For me, sincere sharing means to be willing to limit myself and to abstain once in a while. Solidarity does not come for free. Our Christian values, faith and mercy help to prepare us for sha-ring. Successful integration will only be possible once we have understood this.

We, as Christians, too, know that this is easier said than done. In our day-to-day lives, sharing is a great challenge that we must face not only as the rich country Germany, in its entirety. Instead, it is up to each and every one of us to give away some of the material things we have and to accept to have less. And we are also challenged to expand our own cultural ideas when encountering other cultures.

The process of sharing creates prob-lems, but problems are there to be sol-ved. In this process, we learn and try out new things and we meet new people. May we find strength in the words of Je-sus, which he also addressed to himself: “Woman, man, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.”

Dieter Bullard-Werner

Dear Reader,

Saint Nicholas has become one of the most influen-tial characters in Christian history. He became popu-lar as the bishop of Myra, in today's Turkey, since he

used his possession to support poor people and to bail out prisoners. By worshiping Nicholas, the simple Christians held up a mirror to the no-bles and bishops.The fair distribution of wealth was actually one of the major responsi-bilities of all those in power. Power will be accepted if it is used to ensure justice. Power will call itself into que-stion if it fails to serve justice. In the 1990s, a special form of banging pots and pans gained popularity in South America. In the late afternoon, many housewives would bang their pots and pans while their windows were open so that the noise was audible throughout the towns. They were pro-testing against the food shortage and rationing.The Bible knows that “righteousness exalts a nation” (Proverbs 14:34). Saint Nicholas, who, as a bishop was also a high-ranking official of the Roman Empire, combined both ideas: He was charitable as an individual, but also believed that it was the responsibi-lity of the church to take care of the common people. This is what mission seeks to implement. “Proclaiming the gospel and striving for justice, peace and the integrity of creation are inse-parable," as EMS has stated as a goal of its projects.

Yours

Jürgen Reichel, General Secretary

EMS Side Note

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Sharing Responsibility

"Within the framework of grown part-nerships between churches, DOAM takes on a special responsibility for people who are suffering under the established structures and who need our consolation and help,” states the German East Asia Mission in its mission statement. The mission society has been working to fulfil this responsibility for more than 130 ye-ars. What this means in practical terms is illustrated by two examples from the past and the present.

In the 1980s, South Korea was suffering under a military dictatorship. Members of the opposition, theologians, students and female workers were arbitrarily arrested. Mission societies of German churches – including EMS and DOAM – were moni-toring the proceedings in Seoul. German representatives participated in vigils and demonstrations and supported the affec-ted families with donations. This solidari-ty helped all the partners and encouraged many of them to literally implement sha-

Being Strong: Together and for Each Other

ring. The friends in Korea are still grate-ful to the churches in Germany and other countries for this solidarity.

Today, solidarity is still in demand. At the end of last year, the Japanese govern-ment published a declaration stating that the “comfort women” issue had been settled in agreement with the South Ko-rean government – in World War II, the Japanese military forced Korean and other Asian women into sexual slavery. However, nobody had talked to the af-fected women who are still alive today. Only one week after the announcement of the agreement, a large demonstration took place in Berlin in front of the South Korean and Japanese embassies. People demonstrated against this agreement and wanted it to be taken back as fast as pos-sible. Koreans and other Asians share this wish with the German demonstrators and are thus part of a worldwide protest. But so far, the agreement has not been res-cinded. All the while, the Japanese lobby

uses its influence wherever they can. For example in Freiburg.

Freiburg and the South Korean city Su-won have a town twinning agreement. Suwon wanted to donate a statute to its twin town, similar to the one in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul. The sta-tue reminds passers-by of the injustice committed against the so-called comfort women and the many other women who are victims of war and violence. However, the Japanese administrations in Germany and Korea put the two cities so much un-der pressure that they eventually gave up on this project. Now, church groups and other groups in Germany and Korea are trying to find one or several locations for such a statue in Germany after all. The German East Asia Mission is one of these groups. Supporting such a project is pre-cisely what the DOAM considers its job.

Hartmut Albruschat

Sharing hardships and suffering and standing up for each other is part of a functioning partnership. This is what the German East Asia Mission (DOAM) considers its task.

Dorothea Schweizer and Lutz Drescher, two Ecumenical Co-workers from Germany are marching side-by-side with the Koreans during a demonstration against the military dictatorship of the time.

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A statue for peace reminds of the “comfort wo-men”. The empty chair is an invitation to sit down in solidarity. But not in Freiburg.

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Eleven participants from nine countries are discussing environmental issues during an EMS se-minar – further events and opportunities for dialogue are in the making.

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Sharing Responsibility

What do EMS churches in Asia do to pro-tect the environment?

A large variety of work is being done. There are some environmental depart-ments, Ecumenical Co-workers, environ-ment Sundays and numerous projects which raise environmental awareness. In order to tackle the big problems, the churches need an international network which they can rely on for support and exchange. In Bangalore, India, for ex-ample, I met a pastor who was very in-terested in environmental issues. He told me that there was no suitable educatio-nal material for his church.

Why is sharing so important to the envi-ronmental movement?

As a global community, we are jointly responsible both for the creation of prob-lems but also for their solution. We must understand that, through our way of live, we, in the industrial states share the re-sponsibility for the destruction of the en-vironment in other countries. Therefore, it is important to create a shared space for working together. Sharing knowledge opens new horizons and leads to new so-lutions, which otherwise might not have been considered.

We must exchange our experiences and make room for dialogue. This is the only way for us to become aware of the problems of others and to become com-passionate. When talking to each other,

Making Room for DialogueThe destruction of the environment is one of the major problems which organisations and people around the globe have to face. The EMS Fellowship advocates the integrity of creation and seeks to reduce its destruction. In this interview, EMS Secretary Ecumeni-cal Learning Key Area Asia, RHEE Kwon Ho, explains why sharing knowledge is an important starting point for the environmental movement and how this relates to his educational work.

churches often realise that they are facing similar challenges and they develop ideas for targeted actions. For example, during a seminar about the environmental move-ment at the EMS Secretariat, an Indonesi-an pastor talked about the environmental problems caused by the palm oil plan-tations in his country. Palm oil is a raw material contained in many of the consu-mer products that we are using on a day-to-day basis. It was only when hearing my Indonesian colleague that I became aware of the issues in connection with palm oil and I am now wondering how I can inte-grate this topic in my educational work.

How can educational work support the environmental movement?

Educational work must make a con-tribution that is tangible for the people affected. Palm oil is a topic that affects both people in Indonesia and people in Germany, however, in different ways. But handling nuclear energy and plastic waste are also global challenges. The EMS Fellowship is already making a great commitment through numerous projects for the integrity of creation and this is my starting point. I consider myself a kind of host who is providing room for exchange and cooperation.

What are the goals of your work?It is my vision to further strengthen and

develop the existing partnerships bet-ween Asian and European churches in order to create a space for dialogue espe-cially among young people, because dia-logue automatically leads to solutions. It is my responsibility to trigger the interest in others in the people I work with.

The interview was conducted by Elisa Heiligers.

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Sharing Resources

Careers with a FutureThe Toraja Church in Sulawesi trains young tradespeople and skilled workers for the growing Indonesian economy.

Arwin Arung Bua has always wanted to go to college. The young man, who is so eager to obtain an education, is the son of farmers, who work as day labourers in the fields of the spacious high valleys of the Toraja region. In the small, widely dispersed villages of Sulawesi, most far-mers are surviving on the bare minimum. The small, agricultural businesses ensure their survival but do not offer a future to the young people.

In Indonesian cities, however, the eco-nomy is booming. Behind China and In-dia, Indonesia has currently the fastest growing national economy in the world. But among the 250 million inhabitants only a very small group of well-trained and educated people is benefiting from this boom. While the country's develop-ment is creating a demand for qualified tradespeople and skilled workers, the state hardly provides any programmes for their education and training. A dual

vocational education and training system such as in Germany has never been heard of. In light of the complex tasks of a car mechanic or an office clerk in the modern companies of Indonesia, the traditional approach of training people on the job is no longer sufficient.

In light of this situation, the Toraja Chur-ch is reorganising its Vocational Training and Production (VTP) Centre Tagari and adapting it to the demand in the market. On its large premises in the regional ca-pital Rantepao, the centre currently offers industrial carpentry, IT, auto mechanic,

Your donations help to ensure that the training centre will be operated in the long run and that even more young people will be given the chance to have a hopeful future.

Keyword:Indonesia, Careers with a future

Donation Account:Evangelische Bank eGIBAN: DE85520604100000 0001 24BIC: GENODEF1EK1

An apprentice is working on the lathe, with which metal objects such as tools, pins and screws are manufactured.

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motorbike mechanic, electrician, business and marketing courses to school gradu-ates from throughout Sulawesi. Girls are encouraged to also take training courses for jobs that are traditionally held by men in order to not have to limit themselves to office work when choosing their career.

In addition to the classrooms, the centre has large workshops and computer rooms in order to ensure that the students have theoretical as well as practical qualifica-tions. The one-year courses are taught by experts, in cooperation with who the educational management of the VTP de-

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Sharing Resources

The apprentices in the training workshop are learning how to disassemble and repair a motor-bike.

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Svelops the curriculums and teaching ma-terial. By now, many of the graduates are being hired by businesses and workshops immediately after they finish their schoo-ling, since word about their high-level qualification has spread to other parts of the country. Students who, for example, choose the machine operator course for operating large excavators, which are used in the numerous raw material mines of the country, will have a secured future, if they are willing to relocate to the large mining areas in Sumatra or West Papua.

Arwin Arung Bua has made a different choice. He has secured an apprenticeship training position for becoming a motor-bike mechanic and is, in his own words, “happy”. Happy to live and learn together with people of his own age in Tagari, hap-py to learn a trade that he will later on also be able to practise in his home re-gion. In the motorbike and car area, the school has developed its own dual sys-tem: One part of the training takes place in Rantepao, the second part in the home towns of the apprentices. Thus, the local working conditions can directly be taken into consideration for the training and the young people from remote areas are en-couraged to return to their home regions after they have completed their training. The reason why they are being encoura-ged to do so is that the rural areas of In-donesia also have an increasing demand for well-trained tradespeople who can contribute to regional development.

Since a high percentage of the popu-lation in the region are members of the Toraja Church, this dual approach is parti-cularly interesting for it. Approximately 75 percent of the population of the highlands are Christians. The Church operates the vocational training centre mostly in order to give a future to its own young mem-bers and the young members of its neigh-bour churches. It is in its interest to keep young Christians in the region so that they

can contribute to regional development. However, the Toraja are also known for their readiness to leave the high valley. The Church has already branched out to all parts of Indonesia. And its member

In 2016, EMS supported and accompanied 125 projects of its member churches in the areas of evangelisation, human rights work, the fight against poverty, social work and education. Central topics and goals of the churches are implemented in those projects. This is where the solidarity of the ecumenical fellowship and mutual lear-ning play a particularly important role.Impact-orientation is a key element. Even when planning a project, the churches consider which specific changes their work is to bring about in the lives of the peo-ple affected, i.e. how the project can sustainably change a bad initial situation for the better. Thanks to this approach, project goals are more effectively reached than before, an aspect which is also very important to our donors.The precise regulations concerning EMS project support are specified in the respec-tive policy. In addition to content-related support criteria, this policy defines quality standards as well as the selection process carried out by an international committee of the EMS Mission Council. It is available on the EMS website.

Christine Grötzinger

Impact-oriented project support

congregations in the other parts of the country are also supplied with ambitious, well-trained and educated young mem-bers through the work of the VTP.

Angelika Jung, Christine Grötzinger

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EMS Finances

“It is said that he gives twice who gives quickly; but he gives tenfold who gives at the right time,” says a quote by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Giving at the right time and seeing what is necessary and re-quired has been the task of EMS since its foundation. Within the international EMS Fellowship, sharing has become a joint task, allowing EMS to have a widespread international network of projects and pro-grammes.

In the past years, EMS provided funds amounting to more than 3.5 million euros per year to a large number of projects and programmes in this international network. Thus, through a large number of projects, we were able to help people to start up their own small businesses or to improve their living standard.

The improvement of living standards was also the focus of the consultation between the treasurers of the member churches and societies of EMS, which took place in April 2016 and addressed the topics of micro-finances and ethical and sustaina-ble financial investment. The participants discussed ground-breaking ideas for the future work of EMS in these areas and made specific suggestions. The partici-pants looked especially at the examples of Indonesia and Ghana – countries in which the microfinance system is highly develo-ped and established, and to a large extent supported and funded by the development organisations of churches – and, based on these examples developed suggestions for further developments. By now, EMS has started an exchange about the microfi-

nance system with its member churches in Indonesia, also to assess whether a natio-nal network could be created with the help of a church bank. Representatives of Ger-man church banks also participated in the consultation and made valuable contribu-tions to the questions of micro-finances and ethical and sustainable investment.

The participants in the consultation es-tablished that they would, in close coope-ration with the Working Group of Church Investors in the Evangelical Church in Germany (AKI-EKD), continue to work on the further development of ethical and sustainable financial investments in the areas of human rights, justice, peace and the integrity of creation in order to further define specific framework conditions for financial investments. In the area of micro-

Annual Financial Statement 2015At EMS, the distribution of funds is the joint task of all its members in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Europe.

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Revenues 2015 - € 8,676,472.29

Revenues from Sale 54,837.94Rental 101,597.05

Sale of Investments 538,112.83Interest, Dividends 136,177.36

Donations held in Trust 88,504.66

Refunds and Subsidies 949,714.78

Surplus pr. Year 140,859.45

Donations, Offerings 2,761,510.84

Contributions Churches 3,905,157.38

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EMS Finances

As an international fellowship, we are working for better living conditions around the globe. Especially for tho-se people who are vulnerable, poor or marginalised - irrespective of their reli-gion or nationality. We fight poverty and support education, health, peace work, congregation development and environ-mental protection.With your help, we will be able to do even more! You can, for example sup-port the EMS Foundation with your do-nations or bequest. Thus, more people will receive the help they urgently need.In addition to a general donation, you

Donate a future

finance programmes, capacity building is the highest priority along with the corres-ponding project funds. The plan is to crea-te an information and exchange point for different microfinance systems in order to optimise the operative business. This will make a contribution to the exchange of in-formation within the system of the church banks in order to internationally support agricultural and co-operative microfinance systems. These plans are to be executed in concert with the existing structures and experiences of Oikocredit, a microfinance organization created by churches.

Joint experience and learning from each otherIn addition to the extensive funding of projects and programmes, in 2015/2016 EMS was also able to provide many young people with one-year internships in Afri-ca and Southeast Asia. At the same time, EMS organised internships in Germany for young people from India, Indonesia, Ma-laysia, Japan, Korea, Ghana and South Af-

may also donate specifically to the Ursula Helene Foundation for funding the education of girls in Africa or to the funds for supporting the Moravian Church in South Africa (MCSA). Further information is available on our website (www.ems-online.org). We are also happy to send you our foundation bro-chure and are available if you have any questions.

Donation account:Evangelische Bank eGIBAN: DE31520604100003333337BIC: GENODEF1EK1

rica, who saw the work and commitment of EMS in the churches and in the society. By doing the preparation work and ac-companying the interns, the employees of the EMS Secretariat make this important

exchange between nations possible and also help to shape the image of our society abroad. The funds given to EMS are also used for this purpose.

Rudolf Bausch

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Expenditures 2015 - € 8,676,472.29

Staff Cost Administration 789,080.24

Allocation to Reserves 870,000.00

Donations held in Trust 88,504.66

Material Cost Programmes 1,103,594.91

Surplus 1,461.25

Staff Cost Ecumenical Co-Workers 131,834.73

Programme and Project Funding 3,152,663.73

Staff Cost Programmes 1,857,004.36

Other Material Cost 682,328.41

XII darum-journal

Frederike and I fall onto our seats on the train and take out our dinner. We bought curd rice (rice with yoghurt) from a ven-dor at the train station. It is half past seven and the train from Hyderabad to Bangalore should depart at any moment now. Next to us, a large Indian family has also just started to eat their dinner. “Would you like to try some of our lemon rice?” asks the father. We decline politely, but they still

hand over a paper plate with a big porti-on of yellow rice. We say “thank you” and smile at each other, since, by now, we are used to this gesture.

I can think of numerous other times, where, when I was travelling, people shared their food, their stories, their tips and advice: The old woman on the bus, who gave me some of her grapes and told me about her children. The Indian student,

who shared his chapatti and cake with me on the train to the airport and countless others.

From what I have experienced, sharing is of much more importance in the Indi-an society than in the German society. But what makes people share? Altruistic rea-sons, such as charity, compassion or sel-flessness. But all in all, each act of sharing is also something that we do for ourselves. Even if it is simply for feeling good about having done a good deed. If I offer help or food to someone, I might also hope to start an interesting conversation with the stranger.

The Many Facets of SharingClara Thier worked with EMS as an ecumenical volunteer in India. She is telling us how she has experienced sharing.

Sharing Across Cultures

Not only as volunteers, but also as students can young people experience other cultures. EMS sends students to Japan and Lebanon. At the NCC Center for the Study of Japanese Religions, the participants from Germany learn about the interreligious and cross-cultural di-alogue in Japan. They also reflect on their own multi-religious background and can later on raise awareness for a dialogue in their home churches. The programme “Study in the Middle East” gives students the opportunity to spend an ecumenical year as a student at the Near East School of Theology in Beirut. There, the students learn about churches in the Middle East within their Islamic context.

Further information is available at www.ems-online.org/en/active-world-wide/study-programmes/ and in the latest video about studying in the Middle East on YouTube: www.youtube.com/EMSfellowship

Studying – a time for experiencing other cultures

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Sharing Across Cultures

Team work: Many hands have to help with the preparation of an Indian Christmas treat.

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Moreover, in my daily life, I need other people: Family members, colleagues, ac-quaintances, friends, neighbours. I share with these people and vice versa because it makes life easier. A typical win-win situation.

At the premises where I lived, there was the home for the girls as well as the houses and rooms of various employees. Some had a better cutting knife, which was constantly borrowed for the kitchen of the home, the next one had a good blen-der and others a better TV. We constantly borrowed stuff from each other and things were passed around. I was very grateful

for this open sharing as well. Sharing time and knowledge indirectly also means pro-viding help. Help that I desperately needed when I wanted to put on a sari for the first time. I felt like a dummy in a shop win-dow while my friend Divya took the time to drape the six meters of cloth around my waist and to affix it with safety pins. During shopping in the bazaar or when I was ea-ting with my hands, I needed people who were willing to share their knowledge and time with me and who gently introduced me to their culture. I am still moved by how many open-minded people I met, who shared their lives with me and their stories so that for a short while I did not feel like a stranger anymore.

However, there were times when sharing was difficult for me. A few times, people told me about major problems they had, for example within their family or financi-al problems. The more I felt at home, the more I also saw the dark sides in the lives of others. Girls who run away from home in order to marry secretly. Young men who, despite their degree, are not able to find a job. People who are sick and do not have enough money to buy medicine. At one point, somebody borrowed an expensive pair of earrings from me and never gave them back. This was not a nice experience, but it is also part of life and, just as from everything else, I have learned something from it.

Now that I am back in Germany, I do not want to stop sharing. Only if we share will we see and experience new things. Only if we share will we learn to understand. Only if we share will we find new friends. This

You have spent a year abroad; it was an eye-opening experience in terms of ecumenism and development policy, and now what? In addition to the Ecu-menical Youth Volunteers Programme with its three exchange directions, EMS offers the opportunity to get involved in the international EMS Youth Network. EMS organises four meetings every year, three of them immediately after the South-North seminars, so that the current volunteers from the South can also participate. During those mee-tings, there is time for joint cooking, singing and conversations. Especially the volunteers love to contribute dishes from their home country. Therefore, it is not surprising if Red-Red and Biry-ani with Pisang Goreng and Melkcake are on the menu. But current topics are being discussed as well. This year, the volunteers focused on the topic “refu-gees” and talked about their own ex-perience with racist offenses.The Youth Network is not only open to former volunteers but to all young people from the EMS member churches around the world who are interested in ecumenism. Regional groups have already been founded in Ghana and Indonesia. We hope that one day, each member church will have its own " EMS YouthNet" group, so that young people have a place within the EMS Fellowship for voicing their ideas and concerns and for supporting each other.

Birgit Grobe-Slopianka

International youth network

does not mean that we must always share for altruistic reasons. That is probably not even possible. But in today’s globalised world it is no longer sufficient to only share with our immediate neighbours.

Clara Thier

XIV darum-journal

The small group of West African women meets regularly in the rooms of a counsel-ling centre in the South of Germany. The women feel safe in this place. Some of them have escaped the horrors of human trafficking. Others hope that their asylum request will at some point be approved. In addition to the professional advice they receive, they are also very grateful for this spiritual offer of reading the Bible together. They are part of the internatio-nal EMS Bible Reading Project, in which 60 groups are participating. Their partner group is in Ghana, North of Accra, and be-longs to the church of Reverend Rebecca Dowuona, who already participated in this project five years ago. She still remembers the procedure from last time: Both groups agree on a Bible text, discuss it in their re-spective mother tongue and subsequently send a report to their partner group.

Here, in Germany, I admire during every meeting how exuberant these African sis-ters are and how much they are sharing. I am amazed by how many balls they are juggling at the same time: There are four to five toddlers, the women’s own and the ones of a sick neighbour. Immediately after their arrival, they grab the provided toys. The youngest ones find a place on somebody's lap and watch. At the same time, the Bible reading starts, on the smartphone in English or French. By now, we have been able to agree on one lan-guage. But then a mobile phone is ringing. The phone call is not convenient and kept short, but the next one is important and must be answered. If it is a longer con-

versation, some women will actually leave the corner where we are sitting. Next, a teacup tips over and two of the women clean up calmly without making a drama out of it. The reading still continues.

By now, I have been able to encourage them to all share their thoughts and opi-nions and to not only listen to the charis-matic preacher. This does not seem to be a problem. One by one, they describe in a few sentences what the respective bible passage means to them. When it comes to their language, I, the only Non-African, have to concentrate a lot, since African English includes some words of the nati-onal language or German terms, such as Interview (interview), Aufenthaltsgeneh-migung (residence permit) or Landratsamt

(district office), will come up unexpected-ly – words from the daily lives of asylum seekers.

Irrespective of what bible text we are reading, to these West African refugee women, the Bible is an essential refuge, a reliable and desperately needed source of strength in order to spiritually survive in cold Germany and during the uncer-tain time of waiting. “Whenever I read the word of God and trust in him, my skin is shining,” says one woman.

The tandem group in Ghana is far from emotions like that. Their living conditions and daily challenges are significantly different. But Sister Grace, the leader of the West African group in Germany, was clearly moved when she received the first group report from Ghana: “They are really reading the same Bible text; they take the time to send us such a long letter. From now on, I will take my preparation work for our meetings even more seriously!”

Gabriele Mayer

Reading the Bible Through the Eyes of AnotherThe international Bible Reading Project connects people all around the globe. By exchanging their thoughts, the participants discover new aspects of biblical texts and learn about the lives of others – so does the coordinator of the project, Gabriele Mayer.

Sharing the Bible

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The Diakonia sisters share their lives with the poor, sick and the people at the margins of society. “We do not just help them, but we live with them,” says Sis-ter KIM Jeong-Ran. “We help each other and are learning together and from each other.” For her, sharing means sharing her life. She believes that people can-not live alone but that they have to live together. As a child, when she was wat-ching her parents share rice with the families in the neighbourhood, she un-derstood for the first time how sharing worked. As a student, she started to tend to sick people and to take care of them. This was her first step on the path to her later profession as a nurse. As a school nurse, she did not only take care of the children during school hours, but she also did house calls. The poverty that she saw during those house calls was a shock for her. However, she says she only really understood how poor Korea was at that time when she was working as a nurse in Hamburg from 1970 to 1976. In these years, she was struggling and prayed a lot in order to decide what to do with her life. After her return to South Korea, she decided to study theology.

At that time, she met the women who are now her co-sisters. Together, the young women founded the Diakonia Sisterhood – an alternative to the role models offered by a society dominated mostly by Confucian ideals. They did not want to dedicate their lives to a husband and a family, but to Jesus Christ and the service as his disciples. When a pulmo-nary specialist invited them to support

Sharing as a Way of Life

her with her work with tuberculosis pa-tients, the Diakonia sisters started their activity in the harbour city Mokpo. Today, they are still serving the people in this region.

Since joining the sisterhood, KIM Je-ong-Ran, who is now 69 years old, has not had any possession of her own. She believes that everything belongs to the community. She does not like the concept of possession in general. She is convinced

A house call with KIM Jeong-Ran in Mokpo. The older lady

sitting next to her does not only take care of her alcoholic

son, but also raises her grand-children.

KIM Jeong-Ran has been a sister in the Diakonia Sisterhood for 36 ye-ars. She is convinced that people cannot live alone, but only together.

Portrait

EMS has been supporting the work of the Diakonia Sisterhood for many ye-ars. By now, the sisters are operating a care home for people suffering from dementia. In addition, they take care of old people and families who need help due to health or financial issues. By providing scholarships, they give children a chance to receive an educa-tion and to have a better future. More information on this project is available on our website: www.ems-online.org/en/projects

says Sister KIM. “Each and every one of us should only use and possess as much as he or she really needs. That way, we all could have a good life together.” The sisters try to reflect this attitude in their sisterhood. Such a life is not full of lu-xuries. “Sometimes I would like to live more comfortable,” admits sister KIM. “But then I would steal resources from others.” Sharing everything that we have received from God is the motto she lives by. And this is why, when serving other people, she does not consider herself somebody who is donating, but somebo-dy who is sharing.

Corinna Waltz

that everything has been given by God and that people should share whatever is available. This way, there is no differen-tiation between donors and recipients. “Everything I own, I have taken from somebody else. Based on this, how can I even give away something generously?” says the Korean. From a global point of view, the scales are tipped. Some peop-le are amassing more and more wealth and thus take away the bare necessities from others. “We urgently need a new definition for what ‘together’ means,”

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XVI darum-journal

EMS News

Impressum

34nd year ISSN 1611-1737Journal of the Evangelical Mission in Solidarity (EMS)Publisher: Jürgen Reichel(Vogelsangstraße 62, 70197 Stuttgart, Germany)The Evangelical Mission in Solidarity (EMS) is a fellowship of 23 churches and five mission societies in ten countries in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Europe working for worldwide mission and ecumenical inter-church coope-ration.

Member of the cooperation of German missionary magazines Editors of this edition: Corinna WaltzLayout: Helge Neuschwander-LutzEditor (responsible according to the press law in Baden-Württemberg): Corinna WaltzEditorial address: darum-journal, EMS, Vogelsangstraße 62, 70197 Stuttgart, Germany, Tel.: +49 711 636 78 -0;Fax: +49 711 636 78 -55, Email: info@ems-online.org,Internet: www.ems-online.orgPrint: MHD Druck und Service GmbH, Harmsstraße 6, 29320 Hermannsburg, GermanySales department: EMS, Vogelsangstraße 62, 70197 Stuttgart, Germany, Tel.: +49 711 636 78 -0, Fax: +49 711 636 78 -45, Email: vertrieb@ems-online.org Donation account: Evangelische BankIBAN: DE85 5206 0410 0000 0001 24 BIC: GENODEF1EK1Subscription: darum-journal is published four times a year. The subscription price is included in membership fees.Insert note: Bank transfer form for 'Exemplary Projects' in 2016Cover photo: Emso, the elephant, and Pipit, the little bird, lead through the new EMS educational programme for children in Children's Service and primary school. Join them on their worldwide journey! More information: www.ems-friends.org (Gert Albrecht/EMS)

Print kompensiertId-Nr. 1221976

www.bvdm-online.de

The painting “The Epiphany of Our Lord” by the Indian artist Vinayak Masoji is the centrepiece of our Epiphany Action 2017. In addition to providing information on the painting and on the artist, explana-tions of the symbols, sermon ideas, songs, prayers and intercessions, we also intro-duce you to a project for supporting girls in India for which your church might want to collect a donation.

For the first time, our brochure also contains a suggestion for the children’s service: Emso, the elephant, and Pipit, the little bird, discover the holiday of Epipha-ny under the motto “YOU AND ME AND EPIPHANY”.

You can order the 16-page brochure from us. We are also happy to send you any number of DinA5 cards of the pain-

Available: Material for the Epiphany 2017

ting, which can be distributed in the chur-ch service.

Celebrate your service on Epiphany or the Sunday after as a celebration of the worldwide community of Christians and share your impressions from the service on social media under #EMSEpipha-ny2017.

Please send your orders to info@ems-online.org or by calling telephone no. +49 711 – 636 78-85. All the material is also available for downloading, printing and co-pying on our website: www.ems-online.org

The General Meeting of the Evangelical Mission in Solidarity takes place every other year. The 23 churches and five mis-sion societies of the EMS Fellowship send 51 delegates to participate in the General Meeting. Together, the delegates decide

EMS General Meeting in South Africawhat topic the Fellowship will focus on and about the Fellowship’s long-term strategy. This year, the General Meeting will be hosted by the Moravian Church in South Africa in Stellenbosch from 05 De-cember to 09 December.

At the end of the year, the blog of the in-ternational educational programme of

EMS FRIENDS are starting an online blogEMS, YOU+ME: FRIENDS AROUND THE WORLD, will go online. The programme coordinators, Anna Kallenberger and Annette Schumm will be presenting the latest materials in this blog and, together with guest authors, will be writing about their experience, ideas and concepts for global learning with children. Emso, the elephant, and Pipit, the bird, will also be presenting their views on topics such as fair trade, celebrations, other religions and diversity. Discover and enjoy the new blog at: www.ems-friends.org

Annette Schumm (left) and Anna Kallenberger (right) coordinate the international educatio-nal programme of EMS, YOU+ME: FRIENDS AROUND THE WORLD.

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