July Mission Moment

God’s Warm Embrace 

Ndenaghafumwa Umburi (her name means “let us glorify God”) is a busy woman to say the least. Ndenaghafumwa, who goes by Mankia for short, lives on a shamba (farm) on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro, the tallest freestanding mountain in the world. I met Mankia and her family the day they received two LWR Mission Quilts, delivered by the local Lutheran pastor. (The Quilts arrived just in time as it was rainy season in Tanzania and quite cold and wet in the village.)

On the day I spent with Mankia, she prepared breakfast for her family, cut banana leaves to feed her cows, harvested mchicha (amaranth greens) and cooked them for lunch, walked to a distant field to weed her corn and bean crops, walked back home, cooked supper, tidied her small home and cleaned up all the dishes from the day. She also shared a good laugh with a neighbor who dropped by, hosted her pastor for tea, and caught up on the village news with another neighbor.

At the end of the long and busy day Mankia was able to rest warmly under her new LWR Mission Quilt. The second Quilt covered her son, Goodlove, who has been confined to his bed for 18 years after a fall from an avocado tree left him paralyzed from the waist down. An extra layer of warmth from an LWR Mission Quilt will help prevent what could be a life-threatening illness for Goodlove, who is especially vulnerable to extreme weather conditions.

And just as the Quilts will warm Goodlove and Mankia physically, they will also warm them spiritually and emotionally as they feel supported and cared for by people who are serving Christ through serving him.
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Does your congregation have quilters? Encourage them to make quilts for LWR’s 2013 quilting campaign. Through programs like this, we, as the ELCA, are changing lives! Thank you!

To view a video about Ndenaghafumwa Umburi click here: http://youtu.be/Lzgi553fLHA

To get more information on LWR’s 2013 quilt campaign, visit: ‪http://lwr.org/quiltcampaign

We cannot be quiet about what we have seen and heard! Acts 4:20

Christine Donahue, Mission Interpreter Coordinator