A Lutheran In Senegal

Ascension Day

 

Ascension: Detail from the Altar Tableau at the Keur Moussa Monestary

I live in Senegal, a country whose population is nearly 95% Muslim; so naturally, last Thursday, we had the day off for Ascension Day. Like the rest of the Christian holidays (Easter Monday, Pentecost Monday, Assumption, All-Saints, and Christmas Day), Senegal's observance of Ascension Day is a vestige of French colonialism. At the same time, these holidays function to help put flesh on Senegal's stated virtue of mutual respect and understanding among the religions, as well as its official status as a secular state. As it turns out, there are 14 public holidays each year in Senegal--six Christian, five Muslim, and three national or international.

"On est ensemble," the Senegalese are fond of saying, "we are together, and we all celebrate each others' holidays."  That's true enough, but much more so for the major holidays. Christians are often invited to their Muslim neighbors' homes or receive prepared dishes delivered to their doors for Korité (the end of Ramadan) and Tabaski (the feast that celebrates God's faithfulness to Abraham). Christians, particularly from the Roman Catholic and Lutheran communities, prepare a special dish called "Ngalaax" for Good Friday and deliver it to the homes of many of their Muslim neighbors. And everybody seems to celebrate Christmas--either with the sense that it's the celebration of the birth of Jesus (the Messiah to us Christians, and a revered prophet for Muslims), or, sadly, from an increasingly commercialized and decidedly western secular celebration of conspicuous consumption.

So, how does one celebrate Ascension Day in Senegal? We went to the beach. The weather is getting warmer, there's still about six weeks of school left, and it's a rare pleasure to have a day off in the middle of an otherwise busy week. I'm sure that some people went to church--although an Ascension day worship is not big part of the tradition of the Lutheran Church of Senegal or any other Protestant community here. But I imagine that for most people--our family included--Ascension Day was more of a long-awaited break. A calm before the storm of end of year compositions and exams, before so many of our friends and colleagues leave Senegal, some for a summer's home assignment, others moving on to somewhere else.

The day after Ascension day, in a meeting of the ELS evangelism team, my colleague and friend Dirk Stadtlander read the text from Acts 1:4-10 (read it here).

This text is full of many great reminders for Christians in general, and Evangelists in particular. Sometimes we are called to wait. We wait until the Holy Spirit empowers us to act. We are witnesses to God's reign, made known to us in Jesus Christ.

What happens with that? When? To what extent? That's not always ours to know--that's God's own business.

But we will be, and we are Christ's witnesses to the ends of the earth. So we wait--but ours is an active waiting. We don't just stand there, looking up into the sky. No, we are called to gather together, to share the word, to share our meals, to share our lives, to share the good news. We wait--the calm before the storm, perhaps--in order to be gathered and scattered and gathered again.

It's tempting to laugh off the fact that a country like Senegal gives us the day off for Ascension Day. But maybe it's a good time for us to be reminded that we are Christ's witnesses to the ends of the earth. We wait for the spirit-filled and spirit-led opportunities to share the good news that we have received in Jesus, doing so in an atmosphere of deep respect and mutual understanding.

"On est ensemble," and we do celebrate with one another. Even on an otherwise random Thursday in May.

The Full Altar Tableau at the Keur Moussa Monestary

Ba bennen yoon,
Peter

ELCA's TV Ad "HOPE"

As an ELCA missionary serving in Senegal, I have been amazed, delighted, and humbled by the response that the ELCA TV ad “Hope” has generated. A few people responded after it aired on the Travel channel, but many, many more after it aired more broadly and during “sweeps” week. The ad seems to have done its job: raised awareness of many and varied ministries of our church, done through partnerships with local congregations, companion churches, and faith-based organizations like the Senegal Lutheran Development Services (the emerging name of what the ad refers to simply as the “Senegal Lutheran Mission”).

Many people from different corners of the church—as well as from various chapters of my life—have written to me personally, wondering what was the connection to my current ministry and showing a genuine interest in discovering more about the work the ELCA and its companions do in Senegal. In addition to experiencing pride in the accomplishments of my church and affirmation for my own work, these contacts give me the opportunity to share even more about our work in Senegal. It’s both personally and professionally fulfilling to have been involved in the ministry that is being highlighted, and to know that the ELCA has chosen to hold it up as an example of the diverse ministries we’re engaged in across the globe.

I must say that I very much prefer the original print version of the ad and the accompanying story. Not only does it give much more detail than is possible in a 30 second ad, it is, in my view, a much more accurate reading of the various aspects of the ministry itself. The print ad and the article draw the connections more directly to the complexity of the work of the Community Center “Galle Nanondiral” (the House of Mutual Understanding in the Pulaar language) where the literacy and women’s empowerment programs are both based, and where I served as director from May 2002 to December 2006. In the print ad and in its accompanying story one realizes much more completely that the real story is in fact Literacy, and the “business training” highlted in the TV version was simply one of many different post-literacy activities that the literacy groups had the opportunity to engage in.

I think of the TV ad as being more like a docu-drama—a professionally produced, attractively directed and very much compelling rendition that focuses on one central idea of the article and makes it the defining image of the short piece. Here the idea is the mother and daughter both going to school, both learning, both finding hope for their futures. It’s an idea that is so compelling—and that works so well to get the ad’s message across—that its accuracy and the accuracy of other accompanying details seem to matter less. Which means it probably “works” better for those who know less of the realities in the spawling outskirts of Dakar, Senegal. When we saw it for the first time here in Senegal, for example, we wondered right up until the end when it said “Senegal Lutheran Mission” what ELCA ministry this ad was highlighting!

Still, the medium is the message, and in this case the TV ad has certainly raised awareness of the ELCA’s engagement in global mission with and through its companions. That women’s empowerment, microloans and business education are very much a part of our shared global mission may actually come as news to many ELCA members and folks in the larger TV audience, many of whom may have thought that global mission is only baptismal preparation, pastoral training, or bible translation. As more and more people see that we are involved in accompaniment ministries beyond the important church to church relationships we maintain, it makes the interpretation portion of my ministry so much easier—and much more satisfying. I hope that this ad will continue to open more and more doors of discovery and discussion as people come to realize the breadth of our accompaniment ministry in the world.

Grace and Peace,
Peter