Borneo Briefings September 2018

Transcription

1 Borneo Briefings September 2018 Newsletter from the Trozzo family, Serving the Church in Sabah, Malaysia For the past two months, we have been on Home Assignment. We have been in the United States, travelling coast to coast visiting some of our partnering congregations. We get to share in the life of the congregations and ministries, while also sharing a bit about the churches of Malaysia. For this issue of Borneo Briefings, we will share some images of the ministries we have visited in our travels. We will be in the U.S. until September 13, and then be returning to Sabah. This issue of Borneo Briefings is a more-or-less chronological trip through our Home Assignment. Travel note: several congregations have asked about arranging a trip to Sabah let us know if you/your congregation would be interested! Travel to USA: Incheon Airport in South Korea gives plenty of activities during our layover to make the long flight to the U.S. more manageable! This was the new terminal built for the Olympics, and we are using the Digital Gym to get our bodies active. It was a six hour flight from Kota Kinabalu to Incheon, then 14 hours to California. In fun news, 24 hours before our flight, we found out a glitch meant our tickets were erased, so the ELCA travel agent worked a miracle booking us new flights at almost the same cost (instead of $2000+ more per ticket!) Trinity Lutheran Church in Riverside, CA

2 Malaysia lacks pies, and the Trinity hospitality crew made sure Caedmon had more apple pie than he could eat! Dante found where the churchmice live do you see it in the picture? Pastor Kent and the congregation welcomed us. A treasured memory was the guitar jam session during the offering and the gift of knitted prayer squares to share when we get back to Malaysia. Our theme verse this summer is Colossians 2:6-7a: As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, (and we have all received his love through the saints!) continue to live your lives in him, (what a joy to live the Christian life together) rooted and built up in him and established in the faith. (we thank all those who give us roots through your love & wings through your support). Lemon Grove Lutheran Church, Lemon Grove CA Flags from the US and Malaysia greeted us as we discovered one of many congregation s bulletin boards that share news of our ministry (thank you!) Sadly, an older member of the congregation passed away on the Sunday that we were there; thankfully Eric and Wendolyn were able to be pastoral caregivers as well as missionary guests that Sunday. The License Plate Game We played games to pass the time on the road. We got all 50 states plus the District of Columbia, some Canadia, Mexican, and US government vehicles. We drove through or landed in: AL, CA, CT, DE, FL, IL, MD, MA, NJ, NY, PA, RI, VA, WV, and DC. This means we received a great deal of HOS-PI-TA-LI-TY! Everywhere we went seemed to have pink lemonade, which relates to a rule in our family any day that has pink lemonade is a GOOD day!

3 St. Paul s Utica (Thurmont) MD What a morning! During the early service, we learned the song Dream Small, which is what all Christians do one after another small acts of love and hope that lead to a life well lived. The Sunday School class hosted a delicious breakfast and Caedmon was even allowed to ring the church bells. We always take a photo with the choir since they stay after worship to practice, and that s usually when we remember to get a camera out! The ELCA s Summer Missionary Conference, Woodstock IL Every summer, the Home Assignment missionaries gather with Chicago-based Global Mission and Global Church Sponsorship staff for a time of fellowship, worship, reflection, learning, business, and hopefully relaxation. The we-fie shown here is the Gray family, serving in Jerusalem, Elisabeth Johnson, serving in Cameroon, and Derek Harman, finishing service in Europe. Also pictured is Eric at the annual reception with churchwide staff who work with Global Mission. Shown at right is a map from one of our sessions, helping us think of how world powers (for instance, USA, UK, Russia, and China) place ourselves at the top of the map, though the map as shown is also accurate. Mar-Lu-Ridge Conference and Retreat Center, Jefferson MD Wendolyn was able to serve as Pastor of the Week at Camp MLR, ministering to staff, leading Bible studies and devotions for the whole camp, and getting some studying in for her Master s degree course. Caedmon and Dante also attended camp Caedmon has a US friend that he has always attended camp with, and his mom generously arranged for Matthew to attend the same week as Caedmon again this year. The boys are still singing both beautiful worship songs they learned as well as absurd camp songs ( looking for WHALES and Bar-bar-barnacles are favorites).

4 A week of vacation in Canaan Valley WV Time off is important given that in a 10-weekstretch, we moved about every 4 days. Shown here is a hang-gliding take-off point. We called a local family that had been part of Wendolyn s internship congregation, who we hadn t spoken with in 4 years, and within moments they had shouted with joy and invited us over. They took us hiking to pick fresh huckleberries. Again, hospitality! St. Paul s Lutheran Church, Frostburg MD and Calvary Lutheran Church, Cranford NJ Visits included tours of choir lofts and pipe organs. The boys got lots of hands-on learning about how USA churches love God and serve neighbors. St. Marguerite Retreat House at the Community of St. John the Baptist, Mendham NJ We did not plan ahead as much as we would have liked to this summer, because of fitting in surprise medical appointments and Eric distance working for his office in Malaysia. When we realized we didn t have housing for 4 days, Pastor Carol from Calvary, Cranford arranged for us to stay in Mendham, which is a cloister of Episcopalian Sisters. They welcomed us with joy and also let our boys tire themselves out by walking their dogs. While we were near NYC, we went in to be tourists for a day. As we walked down a street in Manhattan, a voice from traffic shouted: Hey! Mar-Lu-Ridge shirt! We re Lutheran too! It turned out to be an ELCA intern returning from Connecticut to seminary in Pennsylvania. Now we are Facebook friends and laugh at great serendipity.

5 St. Benjamin, St. Mary, and Grace Lutheran Churches in Westminster MD, combined event Once again, we were well-fed, asked intriguing questions, and were able to show off jewelry made by women at the Seminary in Sabah. St. John Lutheran, Rockville MD Wendolyn s home congregation, where she was a member from , welcomed us with open arms (and a Date Night: While Eric and I went to a Washington Nationals game, I posted our location on Facebook. Within minutes a seminary classmate of ours posted, You re here? I am too! We met up, shared hugs and brief updates, and generally enjoyed seeing people in 3-D (instead of via computer screens). huuuuuuuuuuuuge cake!). A morning breakfast study also hosted Wendolyn for a study of this summer s theme passage (Colossions 1:24-2:7). This summer both Wendolyn and Eric share in preaching, reminding us of the love we receive in Christ and how we are all missionaries, rooted and built up in Christ, thinking of how trees roots empower the tree to bear fruit, shade, oxygen, and habitat for a surprising number of God s creatures.

6 This design is called tiningaulun, and it illustrates a human image (in four characters) who is picking up the basket (buyong) illustrated by a hook (pinansit) symbol on the shoulder. To see this, imagine one quarter of the design, with the head close to the center ad the shouders coming out from the head. You can also imagine this as a rice paddy, flowing out from the center. To Christians, this can represent Christ as our center, outpouring love to nourish nature and people. Feel free to share this design for coloring in worship bulletins, creative Bible studies (with paintbrushes?), or anywhere you are educating about the Global Church. (Tribal designs are often painted with a black outline or background, and gold or other colorful patterns. This design is from the Murut tribe, explained by Eric s student and soon-to-be colleague, Rev. Joefrerick Ating.) A song that has held deep meaning for us this summer as we have greeted so many people, congregations, and ministries face-to-face: 1 We all are one in mission, we all are one in call, our varied gifts united by Christ, the Lord of all. A single, great commission compels us from above to plan and work together that all may know Christ's love. 2 We all are called for service, to witness in God's name. Our ministries are different, our purpose is the same: to touch the lives of others with God's surprising grace, so ev'ry folk and nation may feel God's warm embrace. 3 Now let us be united and let our song be heard. Now let us be a vessel for God's redeeming word. We all are one in mission, we all are one in call, our varied gifts united by Christ, the Lord of all.

7 St. Mark Lutheran Church, Huntsville AL Huntsville was our nextto-last big trip, and we had a blast visiting NASA sites (Wendolyn s father built a component for Apollo 7), interviewing scientists and aeronauts in the congregation, swimming with the pastor s dogs, teaching the wounded eagle dance from Sabah to the Wednesday evening gathering, and, in the following picture, using a ball of yarn to demonstrate to the youth the web of nations involved in the history of the Church we serve in Sabah. Imagine: there are about 200 sites where ELCA missionaries serve, and each site likely has a history of connections like the one the youth got to build. Overlay about 200 different colors of yarn and you have an image of ELCA Global Mission and its companions and partners. We are grateful for your support! Two easy ways to give: 1.) online at Community.ELCA.org/Malaysia (takes you directly to our page, or 2.) By cheque, made payable to ELCA Global Church Sponsorship, with Trozzo MSG0715 in the memo line. Mailing address is: ELCA Gift Processing Center, P.O. Box 1809, Merrifield, VA If you have any questions, please call , ext. 2657, or contact globalchurch@elca.org. You can contact us by: eric.trozzo@elca.org and wendofish@yahoo.com Mail: Sabah Theological Seminary, P.O. Box , Kota Kinabalu Sabah, Malaysia WhatsApp: And on our Facebook page: Facebook.com/FlungForthAnew The peace of the Lord be with you!