On Tuesday, 14 May 2024 at 7 p.m., Ranya Karam, the director of Star Mountain Rehabilitation Center SMCR for children and young people with disabilities near Ramallah/Palestine will report online about the institution and its current situation. The conversation is part of a series of online conversations on the topic of Israel/Palestine organised by the Evangelical Church of Westphalia. People who live in Israel and Palestine will have their say and reflect on their living situation since 7 October 2023. The dialogue series is open to everyone. Registration via the pdf here.

On the occasion of International Women's Day 2024, Brødremenighedens Danske Mission (BDM), the Danish sister organisation of Herrnhuter Missionshilfe, wrote in a Facebook post: "In Albania's patriarchal society, women often suffer from discrimination, marginalisation and violence. The six Moravian Church centres in the country offer support, education and development to the women affected." The organisation also refers to an article by Svend Løbner about the work of the Moravian Church in Albania in the Danish online magazine Sameksistens (Coexistence) from 7 March 2024. The longer article is entitled: "Here the church is the women's sanctuary [in the sense of a refuge] and an additional family". It means a lot to women when they can share their pain with each other, when they experience that they are blessed by God. The entire article in German here.

On the occasion of International Women's Day on Friday, 8 March 2024, the Unity Women's Desk (UWD) in Winston Salem/NC hosted a One World Market (Global Market) on 8 and 9 March 2024 (11.30 am to 7 pm and 11 am to 1 pm respectively). Products from the worldwide Moravian Church were offered, as well as products from local artists and craftswomen who faithfully support the UWD. See here and here and here and here. Two recent posts from UWD say: "Come to the spring shopping event and find out more about us. You're sure to meet some friends! While you're with us, you can fortify yourself with a delicious sandwich or a cup of soup. We have added some new cards to our card collection. You can buy them individually or in an inexpensive 5-pack. All cards are from artists who are either Moravian or supporters of the UWD. The sale of 200 packs of cards will enable us to fund a year of university study for one of our scholarship holders."

On 11 March 2024 Brødremenighedens Danske Mission BDM in Christiansfeld, Denmark, published an interview on Facebook with Pastor Erord Simae, the long-time chairman of the church leadership of the Moravian Church's Rukwa Province in Tanzania. Translation of the interview in German here. In it, the local church leader praised the work of the Moravian mission, which had largely brought good things to the people in his part of Tanzania. The oppression first by the German and then by the British colonial government had hardly been noticed in the countryside and in the forests. In this respect, people in the remote Rukwa Province were even surprised when calls were made in the big cities and by intellectuals to fight against the British colonial government and for the independence of Tanganyika. Now co-operation with Europe is on an equal footing and is going very well.

After almost 3 years, gynaecologist Luzia Illiger completed her assignment at the Moravian Church hospital in Isoko, Tanzania, in January 2024. She travelled on behalf of Brot für die Welt, Mission21 and Herrnhuter Missionshilfe and experienced countless impressions, experiences and emotions during her time on site. In her last newsletter, she looks back on the entire time and reports on her experiences. Herrnhuter Missionshilfe would like to thank Luzia Illiger on behalf of everyone involved for her lasting and important commitment! To the complete newsletter here.

The Czech pedagogue Jan Amos Komenský, Latinised Comenius (1592-1670), is one of the world-famous personalities that the Moravian Church has produced. His new approaches in the pedagogical and philosophical-theological fields still have a wide-ranging impact today. To make the person and work of Comenius better known in Jamaica, Bethlehem Moravian College in Malvern/St. Elizabeth is organising a John Amos Comenius Research Day on 21 March 2024 - online. This activity has to do with the fact that although the college offers numerous branches of education today, it emerged in the 19th century from the first teacher training college in Jamaica - which was also run by the Moravian Church at the time. On John Amos Comenius Research Day there will be exhibitions, information boards and various stands for discussion and research from 9 am. The keynote speaker on the day will be Ricardo Allen, founder and director of Kingston-based organisation One on One Educational Services Ltd., an online learning ambassador. A poster here.

The Board of World Mission of the Moravian Church in North America reported on 15 March 2024 – see here: "Come along to Yamnika Laya for a meeting on the implementation of our drinking water project. A group of six local leaders are in the process of realising the Blessings Flow project in the congregations in the Honduran region of La Misquitia! The Iglesia Morava in this region has unfortunately been split in two for over 25 years, but the leaders of both provinces are working together to provide clean water to their congregations. We are grateful for the knowledge and skills that our brothers and sisters are investing in this important project. Without their cooperation, the project could not be realised. Pictured - in the centre - are Hiloy Ramírez (Vice President of the Unity Province) and Dolly Díaz (Vice President of the Mission Province), among others. See Psalm 133:1!"

On Sunday, 14 April 2024, at 3.30 pm, the 4th sponsored run organised by Brødremenighedens Danske Mission's youth organisation, BDM Unge, will start in Århus (Sommervej 23B, 8210 Aarhus V). The sponsored race lasts exactly 45 minutes. During this time, participants of all ages and both sexes should run, cycle, skateboard or roller skate as many laps of 1,200 metres as possible. Afterwards there is socialising over coffee and cake, cold drinks and snacks. This time, the money raised will be used to build a new carpentry workshop for the Moravian Church in the large town of Sumbawanga, Tanzania (Rukwa Province). This workshop will give boys from socially disadvantaged backgrounds in particular the chance to receive a good education. The Danish young people use this form to ask for donations in their neighbourhood. See here.

Bethlehem Moravian College in Malvern/St. Elizabeth, Jamaica (BMC) wrote on Facebook on 18 March 2024: "Congratulations to our track and field team on their outstanding performance at the Jamaican Inter-Collegiate Championships on 14/15 March 2024 in Spanish Town! We are proud of our trainees who brought home three medals. A big thank you to the team, to the coach and to all those who supported our team so brilliantly during the competitions. Well done!". A video from the unfortunately rainy athletics venue here. The video at minute 05:28:10 shows a young man in blue from the BMC crossing the finish line in the 5,000 metre race, winning the bronze medal in 18.45 minutes. The individual training programmes currently offered by the BMC are listed here.

Jamaican radio station The Release has announced the organisation of its fifth Release School Tour. This tour take place in March 2024. The motto of this year's tour is: Build Jamaica - Buy Jamaican - Supporting Jamaican MSMEs (Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises). The purpose of the media tour is to publicise, support and network small local and student businesses across the island, thereby promoting the local economy. The broadcast television station will make a stop at Bethlehem Moravian Colleges in Malvern/St. Elizabeth on 15 March 2024. The innovative media format combines an exciting trade fair or shopping experience with a stylish concert for the trainees. The popular vocational training centre of the Moravian Church, which used to be a teacher training college and now offers a wide range of different, often IT-related training courses, advertises on Facebook: "Come and visit us on Friday, 15 March 2024, from 10 am to 3 pm." An advertising poster for this event here.

Pastor Tania Sanchez, the leader of the Moravian Church in Cuba, posted on Facebook on 18 March 2024: "The Iglesia Morava en Cuba a blessed day yesterday, Sunday, with Pastor Wilfredo L. Dreger from Costa Rica at a workshop with young people. The theme of the event was ›How to continue to be a young Christian and a beacon of the light of God's love in a changing world‹. There were presentations with a lot of insight and a lively exchange. The wishes and visions of the young people came to light as to how they can be salt of the earth and light of the world and spread the Good News of Jesus with their testimony. There were also four baptisms and a ›music-gala‹ with Wilfredo L. Dreger. "Thank you, Lord Jesus! Thank you, Pastor Wilfredo! Many thanks also to the Board of World Mission of the Moravian Church for their solidarity with us." More than 60 images here and here. A short video here. For the Spanish-speaking Moravian Church, especially in Central America and the Caribbean, the charismatic Wilfredo L. Dreger is an important person for integration and communication.

It is rare to read about the Northern Province of the Moravian Church in Tanzania in Germany. Now this province, which has had a special partnership with the Moravian Church in North America for exactly one year, is being presented in more detail by the Board of World Mission in Bethlehem/PA. See here. The still relatively young province is led by the pastor Isaac Siáme (recently re-elected by a synod). It has 6,000 members authorised to receive Holy Communion. The province is currently in the process of implementing a structural reform. For cost reasons, there will only be two administrative districts in future instead of five. The province has not yet elected a Moravian bishop from this province; it has shied away from the high cost of a bishop's salary. Although the congregations are quite poor, they are growing rapidly. Many congregations are trying to build a beautiful new church building after several years of using a makeshift church.

On 2 March 2024, the Moravian Mission Museum in Genadendal, South Africa, had the pleasure of welcoming a large group from WIP International. See here. Women from France, Germany, South Africa and Switzerland sought to discuss historical and cultural issues with the museum staff. WIP International (Women in Pursuit) is a global sisterhood of women who want to follow God in every area of their lives: Relationships, career, finances, spiritual and physical. At the same time, the museum commemorated the physician Louis Rudolph Schmidt, a highly deserving self-taught healer who did a lot of good in and around Genadendal, which was without any medical care for a long time. His carriage rides with lanterns to distant farmsteads in the dark of night to help the suddenly ill were legendary. The German-born missionary and volunteer medic, who was born in Elim in 1872, never received any remuneration for his healing work. More about his work in English here.

The question "Who was Anna Maria Samuel?" was explored some time ago in a project at a renowned school of the Moravian Church in Winston-Salem/NC, called Salem Academy and College. The Academy developed from 1772 from one of the oldest girls' schools in the British colonies. Anna Maria was born in Bethabara in 1781 as the child of black slaves and was baptised shortly afterwards by Moravian missionaries. On 4 June 1793, she was accepted into the choir of unmarried sisters and from then on lived in the sisters' house in Salem. There she was the first black child to be educated alongside white children and acquired a high level of education (for the time). Her father Johann was the first baptised member of the Moravian Church in Salem; her brothers were church musicians in Salem. In later years, Anna Maria and her parents were granted freedom. Some information about the project here and here.

A detailed and illustrated report on the constituent synod of one of the new missionary provinces of the worldwide Moravian Church, the Mission Province South Asia, which met in mid-January 2024, is available in the Moravian Messenger (issue March 2024) in English. See here (p. 25 + 30/31). Jane Carter, Chair of the Moravian Church's British Mission Board, writes at the beginning: "As this was the delegates' first experience of a synod, numerous explanations of the procedures and rules had to be given repeatedly to ensure that the meetings ran smoothly. It was repeatedly explained and practised how to present reports and motions in plenary, how to conduct a debate and how to vote. It was a great time of fellowship with lots of stories shared. We lost count of how many cups of tea we drank together. We now want to pray for the new Provincial Board in South Asia."

The Moravian Church in Suriname had long been planning to renovate the ageing Soender Singh girs' boarding school in the centre of the country's capital Paramaribo. After donations totalling around 10,000 euros were collected for this renovation at the Moravian Mission Festival in Zeist 2023, the work, which will cost around 16,000 euros, was able to begin. The head of the boarding school, Audrey Millerson-Tjin A Sjoe, said that the sanitary facilities and the leaky windows in particular needed to be replaced. On 6 December 2023, the popular boarding school, which is home to 30 girls and young women who are unable to live at home for various reasons, will have been in existence for exactly 100 years. The girls and young women living at the boarding school generally achieve good and very good learning results at their schools. Their attachment to the boarding school usually lasts a lifetime. A video here.

Een heidens karwei / A pagan labour! - Missionary stories for children, is the title of a travelling exhibition currently on display at the Herrnhuter House Museum in Zeist/NL. The exhibition is dedicated to the many hundreds of mission booklets for children that were published in the Netherlands and used to introduce children to the work of missionaries in distant lands. In this way, children developed an early sympathy for the mission, an understanding of the special challenges in the wide world and of the living conditions of foreign peoples. The exhibition focuses on the development of this special genre of literature over the course of time. It is framed by objects related to the themes and stories in the numerous booklets. An exhibition guide helps visitors to understand the booklets and the ethnological objects. The exhibition can be viewed until 18 April 2024. See also here.

The popular musician and singer Kennia Domini from Paramaribo was also involved in another National Reading Day organised by the Ministry of Education in Suriname in the interests of early childhood education. On the morning of 4 February 2024, she visited the Moravian Maria Hartmann School, named after a German missionary child born in Suriname who later became famous as a missionary in the Himalayas alongside Wilhelm Heyde for 45 years (see the book: Wedding in Tibet). A short video of the musician's visit here. Afterwards, the celebrity guest wrote: "The visit was an honour. The children did a great job. They are fine. Being a teacher, working with children and being patient with them is not easy. But with love you will continue to succeed. I pray that these children will have a good and successful future in Suriname or abroad."

The Moravian Church in Estonia and the Estonian Cultural Foundation have invited all music enthusiasts to the prayer hall in Nabala on Saturday, 23 March 2024, at 6 pm. A musical journey of thought and time will take the audience from the past to the present and into the future over the course of an hour. It is about the historical remembrance of victims of war and violence, but also about retracing the Passion of Christ towards the end of the Passiontide. The selection of musical pieces ranges from the Baroque period to spiritual folk songs and folk improvisations to modern contemporary compositions. Texts from Estonian poetry collections are read between the individual pieces of music. The event poster with the names of the participants here. Nabala is a medium-sized rural municipality about 20 kilometres south of Tallinn.

On Saturday, 16 March 024, this year's Annual General Meeting of the Moravian Church in Estonia took place in the Moravian Church Prayer Hall on Endla Street in Tallinn. As always, the meeting looked back on the past year, planned ahead for the future and prayed together for blessings for the work of the Moravian Church in the country. At this meeting, the head elder of the Moravian Church in Estonia, Pastor Eenok Haamer, also made some appointments: Jaane Lendi was appointed leader of the congregation in Nabala and Andrus Ulpuse was appointed leader of the congregation in Kuusalu. Peeter Krall, the leader of the Moravian Church in Nissi, was appointed a member of the church leadership of the Moravian Church in Estonia. Some pictures here. As the Moravian Church in Estonia works very closely with the Lutheran Church, they talk at 16 March 2024 also about the position on questions of a homosexual lifestyle and the question of whether homosexuality should be accepted in the church. See in Estonian here.

With the start of spring, the Moravian Church's regional community days will begin again in Latvia. The first small community day will take place on 30 March 2024 from 10 a.m. in Blome near Smiltene. The theme will be the history of the Blome parish. The invitation poster here. The second community day this year will take place - with musical accompaniment - on 20 April 2024, again from 10 a.m. in the Krusta Evaņģēliski Luteriskā Baznīca in the port city of Liepāja. The invitation poster here. A national day of remembrance is now approaching in Latvia. On 20 March 1919, the founding of the Aizsargi (literally: Homeland Guard), the Latvian National Guard, marked the beginning of the organised resistance of the Latvian people against the troops of Tsarist Russia and against troops of the country's Baltic German minority, which ultimately led to the founding of the first independent Republic of Latvia in 1920 - after much turbulence.