Patience: Localization in Process!

EELS set to become Senegal Lutheran Development Services (SLDS)

In most countries where the ELCA is active in global mission, its work is done primarily through the accompaniment of a local organization, most often a local Lutheran Church. For years Senegal has been an exception, thanks in part to the way in which the ELCA chose to engage in holistic Christian witness and service, particularly among the Fulani. That “exceptionality” began to change in 2008, when the ELCA-directed programs in Fulani evangelism, Bible translation, and congregational ministries were turned over to the Église Luthérienne du Sénégal (Lutheran Church of Senegal, or ELS). At the same time, the ELCA’s West Africa Desk, along with Senegal-based mission personnel and their Senegalese colleagues, began exploring options for localizing long-standing community development programs in education, health care, and agriculture currently functioning within an organization called the Église Évangélique Luthérienne du Sénégal (EELS).

The process is underway for these programs to be brought under the umbrella of the Senegal Lutheran Development Services (SLDS), either through a restructuring of the EELS itself, or else through the creation of a brand new entity. In addition to changing a confusing name (though not a church, per se, EELS stands for “Evangelical Lutheran Church in Senegal” in French) the SLDS would no longer be an ELCA-directed ministry, but rather a Senegalese organization which the ELCA would accompany as it does other churches and organizations around the world. While the programs will not noticeably change, the organizational leadership of the SLDS will shift to committed and competent Senegalese.

Among them are two of the EELS’ longest-serving employees who have proven to be good and faithful servant-leaders. Aly Ndione, currently the Director of Community Centre Galle Nanondiral, will serve as Co-Director for Programs, while Philipe Badji, currently the EELS Administrator, will serve as Co-Director for Administration and Finance. Together, Aly and Philipe bring over a half-century of service to the programs that will make up the SLDS. As a Muslim and a Christian respectively, Aly and Philipe themselves embody one of the foundational values of the SLDS—interfaith dialog and cooperation for the well-being of a shared community.

Some hurdles still need to be jumped, particularly as concerns the systems of governance and oversight allowed by Senegalese law. As one person recently noted, we won’t be able to toast the newly "localized" SLDS on January 1, 2011 or any time soon after. We are confident, however, that the witness and service provided both by ELCA missionaries and their Senegalese counterparts for over 30 years will be continued and expanded by the arrival of the SLDS as a truly Senegalese organization accompanied by ELCA Global Mission.

We ask for your prayers for both patience and perseverance, as this already long transition process enters what we hope is the home stretch.

Ndank, Ndank...

Peter

 

Comments

[Kari Henkelmann Keyl]

Exciting news! Thanks be to God for your passion for making this happen. Praying...