It began one evening in 2003 a candle-lit room in Monrovia, the
capital city of Liberia.
A young woman named Leymah Gbowee gathered a group of 20 women
and invited them to share their stories. They spoke of husbands and sons
murdered, sisters and daughters raped, and children dying from hunger- the
brutal results of the country’s civil war that began in 1989.
These women had mourned in silence until Leymah urged them to
take action in the name of peace. Soon the group of 20 grew to thousands.
Known as the “women dressed in white,” the “Women of Liberia
Mass Action for Peace” marched, prayed, and picketed in silence and demanded
meetings with government and rebel leaders. With Leymah at the helm, their
non-violent movement helped to successfully end Liberia’s 14-year civil war.
Leymah admits that she never believed her efforts would take her
where she is today, including winning the Nobel Peace Prize in October 2011. She was simply trying to secure a future for
her six children.
“The one way I see us changing this world is by speaking up,
standing up,” Leymah says. “It’s time to say to the evils of this world, ‘Go
back to the shadows, because the good is taking in the light.’”
Since childhood, Leymah has been an active member of the Lutheran Church of Liberia, a companion church of the ELCA. She attended Lutheran schools, and her “first connection with God came from attending the Lutheran church.”
Later Leymah became president of the women’s organization at St.
Peter’s Lutheran Church in Monrovia, and she worked as a case worker for the
Lutheran Church in Liberia’s Trauma Healing and Reconciliation Program,
supported by the ELCA. As a case manager, Leymah was sent to work with child
soldiers, a “transforming” experience for her.
Leymah was the recipient of the ELCA International Leadership
Development scholarship that supported her studies in peace building at Eastern
Mennonite University, Harrisonburg, Virginia, in 2005.
“Providing opportunities for education and training are key ways
in which we accompany our global companions in their efforts to expand their
leadership and institutional capacities,” says Tammy Jackson, director of the
ELCA churchwide program.
Like Leymah, we have all have a story to tell. We cannot keep
quiet about what we have seen and heard!
Our ELCA, sixty-five synods participate in over 120
international companionships. These companionships extend the bilateral
relationships between our churches and Lutheran church bodies in other
countries. “When
companions engage one another in authentic relationships, everyone's lives are
changed,” says Peggy Contos Hahn,
Assistant to the Bishop for Global Mission. Your congregation’s Mission
Support dollars helped make Leymah’s story possible. Thank you!
For more information on the companion synod program, go to www.elca.org/companionsynod or click here.
Christine Donahue
Mission Interpreter Coordinator
cedonahue@gmail.com
Mission Interpreter Coordinator
cedonahue@gmail.com
