Now thank we all our God with hearts and hands and voices,
Who wondrous things has done, in whom this world rejoices;
Who, from our mothers’ arms, has blest us on our way
With countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.
 
Oh, may this bounteous God through all our life be near us,
With ever joyful hearts, and blessed peace to cheer us,
And keep us all in grace, and guide us when perplexed,
And free us from all harm in this world and the next.
 
All praise and thanks to God the Father now be given,
The Son, and Spirit blest, who reign in highest heaven,
The one eternal God, whom earth and heaven adore;
For thus it was, is now, and shall be evermore.
 
                By Martin Rinkhart, 1586-1649 (ELW 840)
 
Jessica Crist, Bishop

Does your congregation have a tradition of a Giving Tree? Many congregations find it to be a nice way to share generously with others. Some congregations focus on world hunger, some on local needs. Some do both.
 
This year the Montana Synod Council invites your congregation to include some of our partner ministries on your giving tree. Add to the tree you’ve already got, or add a whole new tree!
 
We are focusing on 6 ministries supported by the Montana Synod. Below you can find printable ornaments representing those 6 ministries, and a bulletin/newsletter insert to use. We ask that you collect the money and then send it in a check to the Montana Synod, so that we can forward it to the appropriate ministry.

Two of the ministries we focus on are our companion synods. The Bolivian Evangelical Lutheran Church, represented by the ornament with children in blue and white, has an emphasis on children. The church runs several schools and several after-school programs for children in need. $40 will provide one month of tuition at a Lutheran school in Bolivia. The new semester starts in February, and there are plenty of children in need of scholarships.

The ornament with the two seated people represents the Cape Orange Diocese of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Southern Africa. Choosing this ornament will help bring Bishop Motsumai Manong to the Montana Synod Assembly next summer. This will be his first visit here as Bishop, and we are eager to give him the opportunity to meet our new Bishop-elect.
 
You might recognize the ornament with the snowy church—it is Our Saviour’s Rocky Boy, one of the oldest Native American ministries in the ELCA. In 2020, it will be 100. If you choose this ornament, your $30 will help with a new roof.
 
The eight-pointed star with the Luther Rose in the center represents Spirit of Life on the Fort Peck Reservation. This ministry is looking for funds to provide beads and beading needles to women on the Fort Peck reservation, as part of the ministry of outreach.

The ornament with the cross and the bird on the top, and the figure standing on an outcropping of rock in front of a rising/setting sun represents Freedom in Christ Prison Ministry. This ministry is seeking Bibles and daily devotions for inmates at the Montana State Prison. Your donation of $15 will help with this goal.

And the ornament with the large cross represents the Northern Rockies Institute of Theology, our continuing education and lifelong learning ministry in the Montana Synod. Your donation of $50 will help bring in speakers for education events.
 
Thank you for the many ways that you generously give to help your neighbors. Please consider adding these giving tree ornaments as a way not only to provide opportunities for generosity, but also to highlight some of the ministries that our synod supports
 
Jessica Crist, Bishop
 
Printable ornaments and bulletin inserts to explain them are available here.

Every November, the Montana Synod gathers pastors in their first three years of ordained ministry into an event we call First Call Theological Education. It is always a joy to spend three days with our newest colleagues, hearing their stories and telling them about some of the ins and outs of the Montana Synod. Every ministry site is unique, but there are some common features of the congregations of the Montana Synod, whether large or small, urban or rural.
 
So who are these newest pastors? In the first year class we have Todd Wright, originally from Illinois, now serving at First Lutheran in Glasgow. Also in that class is Jake Schumacher, serving Immanuel in Absarokee, originally from Washington. The most recent arrival is Sean Janssen, from Washington and Arizona, serving Christ in Big Sandy and Messiah in Havre. We welcome them to the Montana Synod from three different seminaries, three different parts of the country.
 
The second year class includes Havre native Jessie Obrecht, serving the Fairfield Parish, and Belgrade native Marlow Carrels, serving the Westby Parish. Jayson Nicholson, who serves Our Savior’s in Laurel, comes to us from California, having done his internship in Montana. Jean Hay serves Bethlehem in Billings, and proudly claims her heritage as a Navy brat. Her most recent home was Minnesota. Doris Tollefson, from Hinsdale, was also ordained in 2017, and continues to serve faithfully.
 
Finishing out her third year is Carol Seilhymer, who serves our congregations in Plains and Thompson Falls. She comes to us from Minnesota. It is a delight to meet with these colleagues, who are faithfully serving congregations in the Montana Synod. 
 
You have probably heard that we have more vacancies than we do candidates. And you may have heard that for every 2 pastors who retire, one is ordained. So we have to think in new ways about how we do ministry in the Montana Synod, how we fill pulpits, how we make best use of gifts.
 
In October, the Montana Synod was assigned 2 more seminary graduates. One has already received a call in the Synod, and the other is interviewing. We hope to have both in place before long.
 
This past weekend the Candidacy Committee met and granted entrance to 2 more candidates. LPA Tim Tharp, who is serving Savage and Skaar, is officially enrolled in TEEM at PLTS, and LPA Kristin La Ve is set to enroll in a Distributed Learning MDiv in the fall. They join Wendy McAlpine, LPA in Suburst who officially began TEEM this fall, and Melanie Forrey, who began Distributed Learning MDiv at Luther this fall. They join other Montana Synod students at various places on the journey to rostered ministry. 
There are many ways to engage in theological education, both at seminary and elsewhere. I encourage you to look around you for who might be a pastor or a deacon in the future, and to tell them you see potential. That’s how many of us get here.
 
And of course, while we are encouraging people to think about seminary education and becoming pastors, we continue with our robust LPA training programs. We currently have 3 going on—a new class based in Great Falls, a continuing class based in Glendive, and an advanced class (LPA 2.0) for LPAs who are functioning as Synodically Authorized Ministers.

I am grateful for all who serve, in a variety of capacities. 
 
Bishop Jessica Crist

​On Saturday, a gunman interrupted worship at Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. Eleven people were killed, and six were injured. But the destruction goes beyond that house of worship, beyond Pittsburgh. The world is in mourning, and Jewish communities are questioning whether they can ever feel safe. The response to the massacre was worldwide-- mourning the dead, and lamenting the increasing instances both of anti-Semitic atrocities and of mass shootings in houses of worship.
 
                In the United States in the last few years there have been too many shootings in houses of worship. Think Charleston—Mother Emanuel AME. Think Knoxville—Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist. Think Oak Creek—a Sikh temple. Think Sutherland Springs—First Baptist. And now Pittsburgh—Tree of Life Synagogue. Violation of the sacred space of worship is particularly heinous. It transgresses all decency. All public and private spaces should be immune from violence. Historically, places of worship have been, by definition, sanctuaries, safe places. 
 
                The anti-Semitism espoused by the alleged killer in Pittsburgh is completely unacceptable under any circumstances. Jews have been the victims of anti-Semitism for too long. For centuries, Jews were oppressed in Europe, under Christian rulers, faring much better under Muslim rulers who were far more tolerant. “Christian” anti-Semitism came to a peak under Nazi Germany, when Hitler and his followers attempted to exterminate all the Jews in Europe.
 
                Post World War II, as the facts about the Holocaust came out, both secular and religious leaders made attempts to address the anti-Semitism that was at the root of the unthinkable attempt to exterminate a whole people. Nations passed laws, and religious groups, having discovered that some of their teachings were used to justify anti-Semitism, made declarations of support for the Jewish community worldwide, and repudiated any past declarations that were derogatory towards Jews.
 
                Montana has not been immune to anti-Semitism. In the 1990’s, acts of anti-Semitism led to the overwhelming community response, led by the churches, “Not in Our Town.” More recently in the Flathead, there was an organized campaign of harassment of Jews, which was, again, opposed by an interfaith coalition, including Lutherans.
 
                The ELCA apologized for past bigotry and harm in a 1994 Declaration, saying: “We recognize in anti-Semitism a contradiction and affront to the Gospel, a violation of our hope and calling, and we pledge this church to oppose the deadly working of such bigotry, both within our own circles and in the society around us.” Along with the Lutheran World Federation, our church has repudiated the many unfortunate anti-Semitic statements made by Martin Luther. Clearly, those statements have been part of the problem. 
 
                In 1995, the Montana Synod entered into an historic agreement with the Montana Association of Jewish Communities (MAJCO), pledging common support, prayer and solidarity. We re-affirmed the agreement in 2015. You can find it on our web site. As I wrote to the various Jewish communities across the state this week, expressing condolences and support, I made reference to our agreement from 1995. And I also promised that you, the people of the Montana Synod, were in this with me, that you would pray for and stand with your Jewish neighbors in this difficult time for them. We are in this for the long haul.
 
                Regardless of your religious orientation, anti-Semitism is never acceptable, and violence is never acceptable. Because of increasing acts of anti-Semitism both in our country and abroad, many Jewish communities are feeling vulnerable. It is not enough to wring our hands and wish it would go away. Resisting anti-Semitism and other kinds of bigotry is needed, now more than ever. Please show your solidarity with your Jewish neighbors, by letting them know that you stand with them, and will not tolerate their rights and their safety being threatened by anyone. 
 
                For those of us who are religious, it is a religious imperative. And for all of us, religious or not, it is a civic imperative, enshrined in the Bill of Rights.  
 
Bishop Jessica Crist

Do you remember last year at this time? (We were not tied up in mid-term elections.) We were up to our ears in Reformation 500 observances. From local congregational observances to world-wide celebrations, Lutherans and our partners found ways to use the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the 95 Theses to accomplish all sorts of things.

One of those things was simply to demonstrate that we have come a long way in 500 years. No longer are Lutherans and Catholics at war. No longer are Lutherans and Reformed at each others’ throats. We are in full-communion agreement with 3 Reformed Churches (United Church of Christ, Reformed Church in America, Presbyterian church in the USA), and with other churches as well (including The Episcopal Church, the United Methodist Church and the Moravians)—all different strands of the Reformation. And we are in cordial conversation with other Protestants, and deep ongoing dialogue with the Catholic Church. We still have our differences, but we have more peaceful ways to address them. We have come a long way in 500 years.

In previous Reformation anniversaries there was sometimes a whiff of triumphalism. That was absent in 2017. Not only did we celebrate, we also repented the excesses of our ancestors in faith, who condemned each other privately and publicly. 

In our Synod last year, we had a joint Convocation with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Great Falls-Billings and discussed the Five Ecumenical Imperatives for Lutherans and Catholics. We also had a joint vespers service at the Helena Cathedral, with a joint choir, and preaching from 2 Catholic Bishops and 2 Lutheran Bishop—to an overflow crowd.

The Reformation commemoration also gave us a good chance to learn more about the theological and biblical and ecclesial issues of the Reformation. Many congregations had special adult studies on the Reformation and on the essentials of Lutheranism. In the several years leading up to the anniversary, a task force from the Montana Synod produced resources on the Reformation for both adults and kids There is no reason not to use them. They stand the test of time. Check out our web site.

The Reformation anniversary gave us a chance to broaden our horizons about the ongoing impact of the Lutheran faith. In Tanzania, a crowd of 40,000 stood in the rain to hear a Reformation sermon. The Lutheran World Federation, who began the year of observance with a service with the Pope in Sweden, concluded the year in Namibia. We experienced deep interest in the Reformation in both our companion synods—the Cape Orange Diocese of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Southern Africa and the Bolivian Evangelical Lutheran Church.

So many things were happening in 2017 around the 500th anniversary that some people joked about “Reformation fatigue.” But the Reformation was not a fleeting thing, a fad that fades. The Reformation was a fundamental rethinking of church and salvation, a re-imagining of Christian life, a focus on education, and a reclaiming of the power and authority of the Bible. As Lutherans in 2018, we are Reformation Christians. Thanks be to God!

Jessica Crist, Bishop

One hundred years ago “the war to end all wars” ended. It was November 11, 1918. Soon thereafter the President declared November 11 to be Armistice Day, in honor of the peace that was to follow. In the 1950’s, the name changed to Veterans Day, but the emphasis stayed on honoring veterans and promoting peace.
 
We have not managed to do away with war in the last hundred years. Currently our country is embroiled in our longest war ever, with no apparent end in sight. And yet we still hope and pray for peace, and we honor those who serve. 
 
Our church, the ELCA, has a social statement on peace, “For Peace in God’s World.” adopted in 1995. The statement was written after the Cold War and before 9/11. “At the end of a tumultuous and violent century, we share with people everywhere hope for a more peaceful and just world….As our world discards the mind-set of the Cold War and faces the new threats and opportunities of a changing time, we join with others in searching for what makes for peace.” 
 
The statement reminds us that earthly peace is not the same as the promised peace of God’s present and future eternal reign. As Christians we work and we pray for both.   “Trust in God’s promise of final peace freely given in Jesus Christ alone drives us to engage fully in the quest to build earthly peace.” “Through the cross of Christ, God calls us to serve the needs of our neighbor, especially those groups and individuals who suffer and are vulnerable.” “Sharing a common humanity with all people, we are called to work for peace throughout the globe.”
 
The last half of the social statement is about the Christian responsibility to be engaged in the world, advocating and working for peace and justice. We are not a pacifist church. We do not refuse participation in the political order or in military service, and we do not automatically condemn all involvement in military engagement. The statement outlines “Just War” criteria, including: right intention, justifiable cause, legitimate authority, last resort, declaration of war aims, proportionality, and reasonable chance of success. 
 
Twenty years later, there is much conversation among theologians as to whether there can be a “Just War” in an age of non-state terrorism, nuclear weapons and drones. The statement encourages Christians to stay engaged in conversation, prayer and advocacy. 
 
And the statement urges Christians to work for a culture of peace, to strive for an economy with justice, and to move towards a politics of cooperation. Included in these are: respect for human rights; discouraging the glorification of violence; foreign aid; controlling the arms trade; NGOs working for peace; care for refugees and migrants.
 
The ELCA seeks to support the men and women who serve in the armed services, through chaplaincy. Currently our Synod has 2 active pastors who are also chaplains or candidates—Marlow Carrels in Westby and Jayson Nicholson in Laurel. Ken DuVall, retired, continues work on behalf of the VA. Montana and Wyoming have a high percentage of veterans. Our people volunteer at higher rates than most of the rest of the country.
 
This year Veterans Day falls on a Sunday. Elsewhere in the e-news you can find resources for worship on Veterans Day, from the ELCA. Also, this year, the Montana Veterans Memorial is inviting all congregations who have bells to ring their bell 21 times at 11 am on November 11, as part of the “Bells of Peace.”
 
We pray, gracious God, that swords will be turned into plowshares and that peace will reign. We give thanks for all who have served. Shield from danger those who bravely protect us. With them, may we glory not in war, but in your love and righteousness. Strengthen us to be peacemakers in the world. Amen.
 
Jessica Crist, Bishop
 
Veterans day worship resources ​

​You may know that I have just returned from Australia, where I was attending the decision-making gathering of the Lutheran Church of Australia (which also includes New Zealand.) At the meeting, they re-elected Presiding Bishop John Henderson, failed to get enough votes to authorize the ordination of women, and accepted a reconciliation initiative with Aboriginal people. In addition to attending the Australian equivalent of our Churchwide Assembly, I was able to spend a few days in the back country, where the LCA works with Aboriginal people.
 
Europeans came to Australia later than to North and South America. Germans came to a place they named Hermannsburg, in the center of the country, deep in the country of the Aboriginals, in 1877. Unlike some other Europeans, these German Lutherans considered the people they encountered to be fully human, and they even learned one of the local languages. They set up a church and a school and a tannery, as a job training facility. Hermannsburg today continues to be a center for outreach to Aboriginals, with several dozen Aboriginal pastors serving dozens of remote Aboriginal communities on behalf of the Lutheran Church of Australia. Recently an Aboriginal choir went on a world tour, and when they got to Hermannsburg, Germany, they called it the "Boomerang Tour." They wanted to thank the Germans of Hermannsburg, Germany, for coming to Hermannsburg, Australia to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
 
On Monday of this week it was Columbus Day for some people, and Indigenous People's Day for others. In this last month I have spent time with indigenous people in Bolivia (our whole church there is indigenous), and again in Australia. And, of course, the Montana Synod has 2 ministries on reservations, focusing on indigenous people. In each of these continents-North America, South America and Australia--there were people there before the European colonizers came. In each of these continents--and Africa as well--the original inhabitants were treated brutally by the invaders, and we all live with the consequences. History moves on, but we all live with the consequences.
 
At the same time that Europeans were exploring the unknown world, the Pope sent forth a papal bull that is the basis for the doctrine of discovery. In that doctrine, the Pope authorized, even obligated, explorers to take possession on any land not populated by Christians. The explorers from Catholic countries followed his orders, making the natives convert or die. So, did the non-Catholic explorers. They at least followed the "take possession of any land" part of the edict, even if they did not perform such violent conversions. We are still living with the aftermath of the doctrine of discovery, and in 2016 the ELCA voted to repudiate it, following the lead of a number of other denominations.
 
So what does it mean for Christians in 2018 to repudiate the doctrine of discovery? Clearly we cannot undo history. And nobody is asking us to. But what we can do, as a first step, is to learn history, to hear the voices who have not been heard, and to understand the impact of colonization upon indigenous people all over the globe. It is not enough to say, "I didn't do anything wrong." It is not about individuals, but rather the whole culture. Those of us in the majority culture benefit from the many ways that the indigenous culture was shortchanged by the European-Americans. The least we can do is learn the history.
 
As Christians we believe that we are one in Christ. All of us. That doesn't erase history. But it reminds us that as family, we are equal in God's eyes. And we should strive to do likewise--to see the value in every person, beloved children of God, who made us all in the divine image, who created all that there is and all that there will be.
 
Jessica Crist, Bishop

​I am writing this from Sydney, Australia, where I am representing the Presiding Bishop of the ELCA at the Lutheran Church of Australia. This will be a busy convention, with some pretty contentious issues. One of the most hotly debated issues is “the Ordination of women and men,” as the issue is now framed. Three times since 2000, the church has voted on women’s ordination. Three times it has failed, the latest being in 2015, when it fell just a few votes short of the needed 2/3. 
 
As the chair of the ELCA’s 50th Anniversary of Women’s Ordination, I am not neutral on the subject. Our church decided the issue in 1970, and although we have had some bumps in the road, we haven’t looked back. So, when Presiding Bishop Eaton asked me to attend this meeting in a church in which women’s ordination was not a settled issue, I was of two minds. On the one hand, I was eager to be a witness to the benefits of women’s ordination, of celebrating the leadership gifts of both women and men. And on the other hand, I was loathe to go backwards, to relive the arguments that our church settled almost 5 decades earlier, and, if I am being brutally honest, I was wary of the kind of vulnerability it would take to be a living representative of what this church is debating.
 
So, I am in Sydney, with the Lutheran Church of Australia, the only ordained woman in a crowd of about 600. As people notice me, they either welcome me warmly, or they avert their eyes. I am kind of used to that. On official visits to Rome I have been cursed, spit at, and blessed. Once, my very presence as a clergywoman at a papal gathering, caused 4000 people to gasp when I turned around. The official representative from the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod has not made an effort to speak with me. 
 
At opening worship, I saw one other woman in a clergy shirt. She was a visiting Anglican. We looked at each other. I said, “You are a pastor!” And she responded, “You are a Bishop!”
 
There are other international guests—from Cambodia, Hong Kong, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia. All, with the exception of the LCMS, represent churches that ordain women, and have done so for some time. The majority of the laity favor women’s ordination. So, it will come down to the clergy, who have had a privileged status in the church. The Australian Church, like ours, is anticipating a clergy shortage.
 
As I prepared for this trip, and as I have been here in Australia, I have received encouraging messages from people, telling me to “go for it!”, to “make a difference!”, to “make it happen!” All that comes naturally to me. That’s how I like to operate. But that is not my job here. Here, I am called to accompany. (I have recently returned from a Companion Synod visit in which we talked about accompaniment constantly. And here I am in Sydney, learning all over again that I am here for not for advocacy, but for accompaniment.)
 
I ask for your prayers as I accompany the Australian Church through this vote. And I ask for your prayers as I learn from this church, hear of their work with refugees, with aboriginal people, with disaster relief, with theological education. 
 
In the end, we are one in Christ, regardless of how the vote turns out. And that is an important thing for us to remember for our church as well. We may not always agree on issues, even issues that are critically important, but we are, by our Baptism, one in Christ.
 
And I thank God for that. And for you!
 
Jessica Crist, Bishop

Lutherans do a pretty good job of responding to hunger. Lutherans in the Montana Synod are food producers—wheat, barley, cattle, and more. We understand where food comes from, and are grateful for the opportunity to be part of feeding the world. 
 
Our congregations respond to hunger, as well. We have food pantries, soup kitchens, community gardens, homeless ministries, backpack programs, snacks for schools, sandwich ministries. We support local food distribution programs, and we support churchwide hunger appeals.
When the ELCA began in 1988, we made a decision to have an annual world hunger appeal. And we have done so every year since then. In this last year we raised over twenty million dollars across the ELCA. Some congregations have a monthly extra offering for world hunger. Some do a special appeal. Some rely on individual gifts. Some make a congregational offering. In my congregation, we went from paying little attention to the issue to being the Synod’s top giving congregation, simply by appointing an advocate who encouraged us once a month to be generous. It worked.
 
Our Synod has a World Hunger Coordinator, Pastor Jessie Obrecht of Fairfield. She is eager to work with congregations and individuals to find ways to increase their impact on world hunger. Our Synod is fortunate to have had a variety of hunger coordinators over the years, many of whom are still in our Synod, and still committed to world hunger. They include: Jan Martin, Mark Goetz, Patty Callaghan, Dorothy Borge. We are grateful to them, and to all who have advocated for hungry people.
 
Food producers know better than anyone else that it is a complicated process to get food from the farm or ranch to hungry people. In today’s complicated economy, it involves governments—trade agreements, agricultural policies. In the United States, the Farm Bill has enormous impact on producers, and enormous impact on hungry people.
 
Specifically, the Farm Bill now under consideration in Congress, is not only of great importance to farmers and ranchers, it affects the most important anti-hunger programs in our country, namely, SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) and TEFAP (The Emergency Food Assistance Program.) SNAP, described as “our nation’s most effective anti-hunger program,” assists individuals and families. TEFAP helps programs that distribute food. Both are critical for addressing hunger in the US. 

As Christians, we are committed to addressing hunger on many fronts—local feeding programs, the World Hunger Appeal, and advocacy. Right now Congress is negotiating the provisions of the Farm Bill, looking at both House and Senate versions. They need to hear from advocates of the poor, to support SNAP and TEFAP. I am going to make my voice heard. I hope you will, too.
 
Jessica Crist, Bishop

​When Henri Nouwen was seeking meaning in his life by service, he decided to go to Latin American to live among the poorest of the poor. He wanted to serve. He wanted to help. What he found, instead of needy people, was grateful people—people who always shared what little they had, people who looked out for the most vulnerable among them. He went to Latin America thinking that he had so much to share. And he learned that he received so much more than he was able to give. So he wrote a little book, Gracias!, about his experience.
 
The eight people from the Montana Synod who spent nearly two weeks in Bolivia visiting our companion synod could echo Nouwen’s experience: we received so much more than we gave. We shouldn’t be surprised. That’s what accompaniment is all about. It is not transactional. It is not about how much money one party has, nor how much need another has. It is about relationship, walking together.
 
We were invited to Bolivia to walk with them through their celebration of 80 years as a Lutheran Church, and to meet Lutherans from across the country. As we walked together, we found common interests, common challenges, common goals. We spent a morning talking about lay ministry. In our conversations over the years, we (Pastor Presidente Emilio and I) have discussed our joint interest in lay ministry. Last summer when he visited from Bolivia, we spent an afternoon meeting with LPAs and learning about their ministry. Last week, we spent a morning going into more detail about our program, including presentations from 3 LPAs—Cynthia Thomas, Dave Scholten and Alex Tooley. We also heard about their lay ministry program, and brainstormed about how we might cooperate. We are richer for the conversation. Gracias!
 
We spent time in Cobija, on the border with Brazil, and returned to the Galilea Centro, where lay pastor Luis works with children. Because he has done such a good job with children with special needs, the public school has asked him to take on more and more high needs children into the after-school program. And because he has incorporated these children, volunteers have come along. And the church is growing. Luis’s top concern has always been the children. At one point the entire leadership of the church consisted of children. Now there are adults, too. Because Cobija is a border town, it is full of drugs, and children are routinely recruited to be drug runners. Luis used to be outspoken against drugs. Because of threats to his life, he is less vocal. Instead he provides alternatives—computers, music, woodworking, sports, traditional culture. We were blessed to be in the presence of Luis and the children. Gracias!
 
The ministry in Cobija is supported by a cattle farm that was given to the church. Five years ago, at the request of the church, our delegation included a cattle expert, who was asked to diagnose the problems with the cattle and design a solution. A year or so later, the Montana Synod used our Assembly offering to help out with the problem, which turned out to be lack of water. Our offering helped repair water damage in the Centro, and set in place a system that will allow pumping of water from the stream to the cattle. Gracias!
 
We spent time in the opposite end of the country, in Tarija, not far from Argentina. Tarija is a lovely, temperate city, that is so expensive that thousands of people have to live in the unincorporated barrios on the outskirts of town. The IELB has a new ministry in 3 of the barrios—in one they are helping women grow food in greenhouses. In another there is a ministry among children, with cooperation from the barrio. A lay pastor (formerly a philosophy professor) oversees the ministries, teaches the children, helps with the greenhouses. The plan is for these ministries to attract local leadership, generating more lay pastors, serving more of the community. As we left the gathering of adults in the barrio, they said to us: “Don’t forget us.” We won’t. Gracias!
 
The church in Bolivia is very grateful for the partnership with the Montana Synod over the years. Pastor Bob Nilsen was the anchor in the relationship for many years, covering changes in leadership in both churches. He was instrumental in raising scholarships for schools, and for raising money for the Jessica Crist Retreat Center. The MTSWO started a scholarship in honor of Diana Hedegaard. Many congregations and individuals have made contributions, large and small, over the years, to projects of the church in Bolivia. Gracias!
 
And the church in Montana is very grateful for the partnership with the Bolivian church. We have been able to walk alongside a Lutheran Church that is entirely indigenous and completely natural about it. Gracias! We have learned about different models of lay ministry. Gracias! We have worshiped in a multilingual church in a plurinational country. Gracias! We have seen a church working with partners—churches, NGOs, government entities—to improve the welfare of the most marginalized people. Gracias! We have prayed and broken bread with people who are proud of their Lutheran identity, surrounded by Catholics, Pentecostals and traditionalists. Gracias!
 
Accompaniment is relationship. Gracias!

Jessica Crist, Obispa