After a long time, the time has come again. The Herrnhuter Missionshilfe is offering an encounter trip to Starmountain, the rehabilitation centre of the worldwide Moravian Church, in Palestine. It will take place from 15 to 22 March 2024 under the expert leadership of Niels Gärtner. The programme includes 3 days in Jerusalem and 3 days in Starmountain with excursions. The itinerary is here to find. More information is available here and on our web page. The staff of Sternberg is very happy when interested visitors come to appreciate their work. Everyone interested can take part in this trip. For more information contact Niels Gärtner (n.gaertner@herrnhuter-missionshilfe.de)

The management of the Star Mountain Rehabilitation Centre SMRC of the worldwide Moravian Church near Ramallah, the capital of the Palestinian Territories, thanks regional companies for providing jobs for two young people with disabilities. Previously, the youths had received several years of vocational support at the SMRC. The youth Hassan Qindah is now allowed to work in the kitchen area of the Al Reef Restaurants in Al-Tira near Ramallah show what he learned on Starmountain. The teenager Issam Abdelaziz now works as a customer support employee in a shopping centre: in the Arab Palestinian Shopping Center in Al-Bireh near Ramallah. The two examples show impressively that people with intellectual disabilities are willing and able to contribute to the common good and at the same time support their families of origin financially.

The Palestinian Ansar Mazen Quran has been working for three years as a psychologist at the Rehabilitation Center of the worldwide Moravian Church Starmountain near Ramallah and recently also as an inclusion counsellor for 30 schools around the city of Ramallah. She was reported on by the mission organisation of the Moravian Church in Denmark. See here. The psychologist says: "The experiences from the Starmountain Rehabilitaion Center must definitely be used so that children with intellectual impairments are integrated into regular school classes ... I enjoy working with people with intellectual impairments. I like children with autism! They are so sweet, I just want to hug them." After Ansar Mazen Quran earned a bachelor's degree in psychology, she first worked in a government counselling centre for people with behavioural disorders and for victims of bullying. Then she specialised in treating children with autism (Master's in Special Education). More about her work in a Danish newspaper here. The Moravian Church in Denmark supports the autism programme of the Sternberg Support Centre through the Danish development aid organisation DANIDA.

The 2021/22 Annual Report of the Elim Home Rehabilitation Center of the South Africa Province near the Cape of Needles has been published. See in English here. Despite its cost-saving production, it informs with many pictures. In the report, the director, Lesinda Cunningham, writes at the beginning: "We as the team of Elim Home are witnesses that God's word is true. His promise that we would not perish has been fulfilled over the past 59 years of our institution's existence. We honour God for His guidance and wisdom in good times and in challenging times. Our home recovered very well after the Covid 19 pandemic." However, she also writes, "The difficult global economic situation is negatively impacting our organisation's cash flow. The severity of our clients' mental illnesses is of great concern as the standard of care has a positive impact on client longevity."

The Moravian Church clinic in Ahuas, La Mosquitia, Honduras, temporarily has a new doctor: Victor Iglesia Echeverría. His career is reported in the Ahuas Spotlight, Summer 2023 Edition. See here. Victor Iglesia Echeverría is a 33-year-old doctor who comes from a well-known Honduran family and is doing his state-mandated social year at the Clínica Evangélica Morava. He studied in Venezuela and initially worked there as well, until he decided to return to his home country via Colombia, together with his wife Enyiner Mora and his two daughters Victoria and Andrea, due to the deterioration of the political climate in the country. Here his third daughter Nairoby was born. It was difficult for him to get an exemption from the state to do his social service in a private church clinic instead of a state hospital. The clinic requires all doctors to be on call 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, and does not pay pension contributions. In early 2024, Victor Iglesia Echeverría and his family will move to Puerto Lempíra.

After the school foundation of the Moravian Church in Suriname, Stichting Onderweijs, which is responsible for 65 schools of different types, had not organised a school day (community and in-service training day for teachers) in the past four years due to circumstances, it is now inviting people to such an event again. It is to take place on 18 August 2023 in the Alkebuland Ressort about 20 kilometres south of Paramaribo. The responsibility for holding the School Days of the Moravian Church in Suriname rotates through the different regions of the country. This time it is the turn of the South-West Region. According to its own information, the School Foundation of the Moravian Church in Suriname, founded in 1977, has about 1,400 teachers working together for about 13,000 children and young people. See here. The first Herrnhut schools for enslaved people on the plantations already existed in the second half of the 18th century.

Ana María Huamán Dávila has been a lay pastor in the Moravian Church since 2012 and coordinator of the Unity Womens Desk UWD in Peru since 2016. On 6 August 2023, she was ordained as a diákona/pastor by Bishop Samuel Gray (USA) on the closing day of the Third National Conference, the first woman to be ordained in the Moravian Church of Peru. She asks, "Include me and the new Provincial Board and the entire Moravian Church community in Peru in your prayers." Also present at the ordination was Julie Tomberlin, UWD director in Winston-Salem/NC. Pictures from the long ordination service here and here. On the National Conference it says: "It was an eventful week full of blessings, surprises and challenges. The theme of the conference was: Unity without Borders. The delegates, friends and guests experienced a lot of unity as we worshipped, sang and also ate together - a lot! Wonderful: meeting old friends and making new ones. There were so many highlights!"

Cornelius was born as a slave on the island of St Thomas in the Danish West Indies and acted for a long time as an important helper for the Moravian Missionaries. The article says: "Cornelius was a product of the Moravian education system. His mother was among the first members of the Congreations on St Thomas. In 1740 she was baptised and given the name 'Benigna' after the eldest daughter of Count N. L. von Zinzendorf. Cornelius was baptised in 1749 by Johannes von Watteville, Zinzendorf's son-in-law. He soon became the national helper of the Moravian Mission. The Missionaries described him as a universally popular and always reliable person. He laid the (spiritual) foundation stone for six congregations on two West Indian islands: Friedensthal, Neu Herrnhut and Niesky on St. Thomas; Bethany, Friedensberg and Emmaus on St. John. All the congregations exist to this day as a testimony to the will of a slave to become a free man." To the article here.

The Free Spirit Outreach INC is a non-profit organisation that helps talented and successful children and youths in Jamaica to achieve optimal career advancement. The organisation has now decided that apprentice Darveon Ricketts will benefit from a special scholarship, the Janice Neita Scholarship for Academic Excellence. Darveon Ricketts attends the Bethlehem Moravian College in Malvern/St. Elizabeth in Jamaica and wants to become a teacher/educator. The scholarship also honoured his extracurricular activities; among others, he was a member of a student council (2018-2019) and the youth parliament of his home region of Westmoreland (2021- 2022). He has also completed a first aid course. The scholarship is named after Janice Elizabeth Neita, an educator from Jamaica, who died in early 2021, but who emigrated with her parents as a child and achieved her educational fame in the USA.

On the occasion of several brutal violent crimes that occurred in Suriname in the past two weeks and were widely reported in the media, Emilie Cornelis Ritfeld, Suriname, Bishop of the worldwide Moravian Church, also addressed the people of Suriname on behalf of a wider public on 23 July 2023. The bishop's word in German and in Dutch here.The bishop's word is titled: "Is Suriname on the way to becoming an uninhabitable country?" The Bishop appealed: "It is high time that we Surinamese stand up together against violence, each from our own position! We must change our thinking, take a positive path and reflect on a healthy, peaceful, hopeful future for all in this beautiful country of Suriname! Surinamese! Let us take responsibility for the youth as responsible citizens, continue to teach the youth God's commandments and be a good example to them!"

At the youth center of the Moravian Church in Suriname (EBGS) in Paramaribo, one special event is currently chasing the other. First, a worship night with lots of music took place on 30 July 2023. The theme was: Going beyond the veil (loosely translated: Facing God directly; literally: Going behind the curtain [in the Holy of Holies of the temple]). Pictures here and here. The next event had a decidedly convivial character. On 5 August 2023, an invitation was extended to a Zaterdag Braderie, a kind of fair with all kinds of home-made, delicious food. Pictures and info here. And then there will already be an invitation to the big children's festival of the Moravian Church in Suriname on 13 August 2023 in Paramaribo. The biblical theme of the children's festival is based on John 15:4: "Jesus says: Abide in me". Invitation poster here. The children's festival is already part of the annual spiritual Augustusmaand (festival month of August) in Suriname.

On 2 August 2023, Justin Rabbach, the head of the Board of World Mission BWM of the Moravian Church in North America, sent out a Mission Message Summer 2023. See here. In it, he emphasises that the BWM Board's task is to build relationships and provide support especially where seeds are planted. As for the summer of 2023, he mentions highlights where BWM has been actively involved: the Synod of the American Northern Province, the Reconstruction Camp at Mt. Morris Camp & Retreat Center, the Young Americans' Recreation Convo in Europe, the Third National Conference of the Moravian Church in Peru, camps for missionary seniors in three states, the Youth Missionary Retreat at Laurel Ridge Camp, Conference & Retreat Center, the Moravian Church Youth Summer Camp in Cuba, the Young Adult Gathering in the Czech Republic, the visit to Kenya (Ray of Hope orphanage and new churches), distribution of water filtration systems to communities in Honduras.

Three senior members of the Board of World Mission BWM of the Moravian Church in North America - Justin Rabbach, Sylvie Hauser and Molly Williams - recently stayed for a few days in the Mt. Morris Camp and Retreat Center in Wautoma/WI, where one of three children's and youth camps of the Moravian Church took place from 16 to 23 July 2023. The theme of the camp was The Amazing Grace. The staff wrote: "We thank the great campers for helping us to send 500 postcards for a fundraiser ('Dept Jubilee Project') and then assembling 250 simple water filtration systems. The latter are to be distributed in various places in the Mosquitia in Honduras. The campers had the opportunity to learn something from other areas of the worldwide Moravian Church through projects like these, as well as through conversations with mission staff." A few of photos here. To the camp's web site here.

In the last week of July 2023, the popular Moravian Church summer camp took place again in Cuba. Some pictures here. Several youth and young adults from the US Southern Province participated. Something special this year: Youth and staff from the small Moravian Province Costa Rica were also able to join us in Cuba. Together the 55 young people studied the Letter to the Philippians, took part in a Bible Olympics, prayed with and for each other, ate and played together, got to know the Moravian Church in general and specifically in Cuba, and they were amazed at the cultural diversity they encountered there. But already in the camping group alone there were teenagers and young adults with Peruvian, Mexican, Costa Rican, US-American and Cuban roots. The summer camp was supported by the Cuba Foundation of the Moravian Church, the Armando Rusindo Mission Foundation.

The Moravian Church in Peru, which has been working for ten years in the status of a mission area of the worldwide Moravian Church and is supported in its development above all by the two North American Provinces, has elected a new, five-member church leadership at its just concluded Third National Conference: The new chairperson is the Rev. Ana María Huamán Dávila, who was ordained a few days ago. Her deputy is Andrew Chicchón Gutarra. The Conference elected the Rev. Joaquín Santa Cruz Muro as Executive Director and Lucero Carrasco Camacho as Treasurer. Another member of the church leadership is Rev. Walter Calle Peralta. At the National Conference, a new covenant was also signed between the Moravian Church in Peru, the Board of World Mission and the Northern Province of the Moravian Church in North America. Some pictures from the conference here.

The Board of World Mission BWM of the Moravian Church in North America posted on 28 July 2023: "Isn't it wonderful to see where our organisation's grants are going? The Moravian Church in Ukunda, Kenya, applied for funding for chairs, a laptop and a projector. You see, the chairs they bought are occupied! The 77 people who attend the meetings on average have also initiated successful projects including a women's gardening project, a men's chicken rearing programme and a Sunday school ministry. They hope to use the new chairs and technical equipment ... to hold conferences and seminars on spiritual topics, leadership training and buisiness projects. They are also building a larger church that can seat up to 400 people. The Moravian Church in Kenya is being mentored in its construction phase by the 'Moravian Church in Western Tanzania'." A photo here.

Between 11 and 19 July 2023, each class of the International Kindergarten & Shristi Academy of the Moravian Church in Kathmandu, Nepal, went on an educational field trip.The 6th to 8th classes visited an art exhibition, the Framing Perspective Rich Gallery Sunakothi. Here, pictures as well as products from the fields of design, handicrafts and photography are presented. The 4th and 5th classes visited a memorial for the Nepalese poet Adhi Kavi Bhanu Bhakta, a pioneer of progress. The 1st to 3rd graders ventured on an Education Farm Adventure as part of The Classroom in Nature. Finally, the pre-school children participated in an Asia Regional Child Labour Programme in a child-friendly NGO building. The organisation aims to actively combat child labour by warning children in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Myanmar and Pakistan about the dangers of exploitation.

Drones equipped with cameras make it possible: For a few weeks now, a video of the campus of the Moravian Institute, founded in 1963, in Rajpur near Dehradun in northern India has been available from a bird's eye view. See here. The uncommented three-minute video shows the access road to the school, the large football and athletics field, the gymnasium, the main buildings and also briefly the road to the famous Mussoorie Hill Station (Queen of the Hills), which runs directly past the school and reaches a height of 2,024 metres. It is visible that almost all buildings have recently received new roofs. On the secondary sports field for basketball, badminton and volleyball, which comes into view at the end, the daily morning services for the 600 to 650 children and young people from many nations also take place. The new church of the Rajpur Moravian Church is a short distance from the school and is unfortunately not in the picture.

In the last twelve years, several CDs have been released featuring brass music the Inuit in Labrador, which was created under the influence of the Moravian Mission and the Moravian Church. In the 19th century, missionaries from Europe had not only brought their brass instruments to Labrador and played music there themselves, but they had also taught the Inuit to play these instruments. This resulted in a unique music: a mixture of European sacred and secular music and indigenous musical sensibilities. For decades, this music was thought to be lost forever; now, little by little, the ancient music is being brought back to life, for there are Inuit brass choirs again in Labrador. A new book by Tom Gordon tracing this long journey, Called Upstairs - Moravian Inuit Music in Labrador is now out, available from the Moravian History Store in Bethlehem/PA and elsewhere. See here.