The Star Mountain Rehabilitation Center SMRC of the worldwide Moravian Church near Ramallah (Palestine/West Bank) never tires of networking with other social work providers in order to help children and young people with disabilities develop as well as possible. Since the beginning of 2024, the centre has been holding talks with local authorities in the area and making site visits. On Saturday, 20 April 2024, the cooperation reached a new, concrete phase. The management of Star Mountain had invited the staff responsible for rehabilitation from six small municipalities in the neighbourhood to put down on paper the action plans needed to implement the UN Disability Charter. See here. This was preceded by the recent codification of a corresponding action plan with the administration of the city of Ramallah.

The Star Mountain Rehabilitation Center SMRC of the worldwide Moravian Church near Ramallah (Palestine, West Bank) recently continued its series of networking meetings with social work providers in the region. On 22 April 2024, the management team invited a number of representatives from communities and organisations that work with children in particular. This was done as part of the current programme Promoting inclusive communities through neighbourly civic cooperation. They got to know each other personally, engaged in intensive professional dialogue and made concrete plans with teachers and trainers from six local authorities and children's clubs: Beit Unia, Ni'lin, Qibya, Deïr Abu Mishal, Kharbatha Al-Misbah and Beit Liqya. See here. Star Mountain is now also looking for two experts to further develop its work.

On April 2024, Julie Tomberlin, Winston-Salem/NC, the head of the Unity Women's Desk (UWD), published a new issue of Unity Women’s Voices. See in english here.The theme of this newsletter is Serving together with our sisters in other denominations. After the first quarter of 2024, the UWD looks back on past events. Ten snapshots in the newsletter allow you to relive how the World Day of Prayer 2024 and International Women's Day 2024 were celebrated in the various Unity provinces. Special attention is paid to the people at Star Mountain Rehabilitation Center SMRC in times of crisis. The UWD is providing a scholarship to some young women with disabilities there. Finally, the newsletter provides an outlook on the Fifth Unity Women’s Consultation (Website here) from 1 to 8 June 2025 at Laurel Ridge Camp (North Carolina).

Augustine Joemath, South Africa, interprets the Bible passage 2 Peter 3:15+16a for his church members in English: "Always be ready to give an account for the hope that is in you to anyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, with gentleness and reverence." See here. After a few introductory sentences, the bishop writes: "My first question when reflecting on this text was: Are you also a person full of hope? Are you someone who inspires others with the spirit of hope that dwells within you? What is the hope that you have? I am so grateful for people who inspire others to bravely keep going despite reasons to the contrary. If fear or insecurity is driving you, then people will clearly feel it. In line with the text, we should find ways to gently radiate our hope. Our Lord Jesus Christ was not a man of physical violence or verbal attacks. We should adopt the gentle, patient, mild approach of Jesus in our dealings with the people around us. It's still worth it today!"

The bishops of the Unity Province of Nicaragua living in Nicaragua have spoken out about the divisions that have existed for a decade within the Moravian Church in the country. These divisions, which in some cases have already led to physical and structural violence, are based partly on differing political views and partly on ethnicity. The bishops call on the members of the Moravian Church to give a practical Christian witness to life by working for peace, reconciliation and true unity in the Unity Province of Nicaragua. The leaders of both groups in the Unity Province of Nicaragua join the call of their bishops and ask those responsible in the congregations to pass on the attached text (see here) to the members in the various Moravian Churches through all information channels, including announcements in the weekly church services.

Sherida Franklin, the kindergarten teacher at the Moravian Church's Maria-Hartman-School in Paramaribo, Suriname, recently developed her own teaching materials. She reported this to the Surinamese online magazine De Ware Tijd on 17 April 2024. See here. The teacher said: "My main aim was to help children aged 4 to 10 with learning difficulties. But children in grades 6 and 7 can also use the materials very well. I have had success with the material so far. The parents were speechless and emotionally moved because they hadn't expected their children to make such progress. During the Covid-19 pandemic, I had a lot of time and I often prayed to God. One day I was sitting in the garden with my mum. We were talking and I suddenly had voices in my ears and images in front of my eyes. That's how the material came about." An employee from the Ministry of Education has already been to Sherida Franklin's office to test the material and observe the children learning.

In March 2024, Latina Bromfield-Robinson was on the Principal's Honour Roll of apprentices at Bethlehem Moravian College (BMC) in Malvern/St. Elizabeth, Jamaica, for the third year in a row. The student received an award for this unprecedented achievement from Claudene Blythe-Miles, Deputy Principal, at the Annual Awards Ceremony on 15 April 2024. Congratulations to you! One photo each of the 2024 award here, 2023 here and 2022 here. Latina Bromfield-Robinson is preparing to become a teacher. Back in 2014, the BMC concluded a trilateral agreement with the Teacher’s Colleges of Jamaica and the University of the West Indies, which authorises the BMC to independently award a Bachelor of Education degree. In November 2015, the first cohort of students achieved this degree.

From 18 to 20 April 2024, around 30 employees from the Southern Province of the Moravian Church in Tanzania came together at Lutengano Theological College, founded in 1984, for a seminar aimed at further training and community development. Four pictures of the seminar room here. The seminar was opened by Bishop Kenan Salim Panja. The seminar was supported by Mission 21, the partner organisation of Herrnhuter Missionshilfe in Switzerland. It was led by the Chairman of the Southern Province, Ezekiel Andendekisye Mwasamboma, Rungwe. The Vice-Chairman, Jairy Sengo, and the Secretary General of the Province, Stephen Mwaipopo, were also involved in the leadership. The Tanzanian Southern Province, with its administrative centre in Rungwe, has over 150,000 members in the geographical districts of Kyela, Rungwe and Ileje and also carries out missions in the areas of Ruvuma, Njombe and Songea.

Three years ago, Brødremenighedens Danske Mission, the Danish sister organisation of Herrnhuter Missionshilfe, sent Mia and Michael Korsgård to Sikonge in Tanzania (Western Province). The two emissaries talk about these years in a new podcast. See here. The couple are grateful that their work has helped to raise the level of training at the vocational training centre and the level of care at the district hospital. The Vocational Training Centre in Sikonge, where Michael Korsgård is involved, mainly manufactures wooden products such as furniture, windows and doors. The hospital, which has a huge catchment area and where Mia Korsgård works as a consultant, treats around 30 outpatients every day and performs 20 operations every week. To the new info magazine of the mission organisation of the Moravian Church in Denmark here.

The School Foundation of the Moravian Church in Suriname has published the Newsletter 1-2024 for its 1,200 employees at a total of 64 schools. See here. In it, the director, Sandra A. Panka-Bijlhout, mentions that 36,150 Suriname dollars (EUR 450) have already been received for the foundation's new building and renovation fund. A trainee, Christelle Cancoult, for whom the work at the two W.-S.-R.-Ritfeld schools was very rewarding and who sees the Foundation on the right track, is given the opportunity to speak. Reference is made to the need for a conscientious inventory of the furniture and all other teaching materials in the schools. Of course, financial matters are also discussed. Finally, Adrea Jubithana-Fernand and Daniella Wondel are introduced as new board members of the foundation, who were inaugurated by the Vice-President of the Moravian Church in Suriname, Mr Michael Persaud, and eight guests from the Netherlands, who spent a week at the school in Langatabiki, are mentioned.

• The Stichting Onderweijs of the EBGS, the school foundation of the Moravian Church in Suriname, is responsible for 65 primary, secondary and vocational schools. Many of these schools are getting on in years and need investment in the building fabric. The Moravian Church is therefore asking for donations for a special building and renovation fund. See here.
• Following a successful pilot project in autumn 2023, doctors from the Dutch armed forces will once again be in Suriname in April 2024 to work with the Medical Mission in Suriname during an internship. After two introductory days in Paramaribo, this will again take place at the polyclinic in Brownsweg in the tropical rainforest of Suriname. See here.
• To mark the 70th anniversary of the Moravian Church's youth centre in Paramarobo, 20 young people went on an evangelistic outreach in the city. They sang and prayed, blessed the sick and brought Jesus' message of hope. See here.

18 April 2024 was the annual day of prayer in the two North American Moravian Church provinces for the Moravian Church in Cuba, a missionary province of the Moravian Church. Among other things, they wanted Intercession for the congregation in Havana ("that we find a place where we can carry out all the activities of our congregation; that we have means of transport for our church; that there are new projects to finance our work"), for the congregation in Matanzas ("that we get drinking water filters for our households; that we are able to provide pastoral care in hospitals and prisons; that our students can complete their studies despite inflation"), for the Villa Clara congregation ("that God gives us leaders with integrity and a pastoral vocation; that we can fulfil our diaconal tasks") and for the Camagüey congregation ("that our community farm flourishes; that we live in ecumenical harmony"). Information on the Moravian Church in Cuba and many other prayer requests in english here.

• The Calvary Moravian Women's Fellowship istaged Jesus' parable of the great supper (Luke 14:15-24) in their church in an impressive way. The depicted feast of the infirm, who accepted the host's invitation instead of those originally invited, culminated in a communal meal in the church. Many pictures here.
• The Sharon Moravian Church had invited to a public testimony march through parts of Bridgetown on 3 March 2024, the commemoration day of the founding of Unity in the spring of 1457 in what is now the Czech Republic. See hier.
• On 14 April 2024, a worship service for young and old took place at Mount Tabor Moravian Church. A photo here.
  The Calvary Young People's Society (young congregation) of Calvary Moravian Church invites you to a steel band concert as part of a local music festival for 27 April 2024 at 2pm. See here.
• The Moravian Church on Tortola is holding its eighth Sisters' Conference in Baugher's Bay from 3 to 5 May 2024. Invitation here.

Geological explorations that have been ongoing since 2020 have revealed that there are mineable gold, copper and nickel deposits in the ground in the hinterland of the former Moravian mission station Hopedale (Labrador). This has now been announced by Labrador Gold Corp. At the end of 2023, the company exercised the option to acquire 100 per cent of the four mining licences granted, which cover a total of almost 700 claims. The large Hopedale mining area extends over 43 kilometres along the Florence Lake Greenstone Belt. Roger Moss, President of Labrador Gold Corp, sees considerable potential for further major discoveries in the now contractually secured mining area. He thanked the Department of Natural Resources of the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador for their financial support in the exploration of the concession area under the 2023 Junior Exploration Assistance Programme. More here. It remains to be seen what the start of mining will mean for the highly sensitive Arctic environment and for the people in the Moravian Church of Hopedale.

The Herrnhut mission station Genadendal (first Baviaanskloof, then Gnadenthal), founded by the Moravian mason Georg Schmidt (1709-1785) 287 years ago, experienced its heyday in the 19th century. However, the place still retains some of its special charm and heritage today. It was the first place on the African continent where indigenous people of colour or blacks and white Europeans lived together in harmony and free from exploitation. The Mission Museum of the Moravian Church in Genadendal recently commemorated this by publishing the entry of Thomas Pringle (1789-1834), a Scottish poet and campaigner for the emancipation of slaves, in the station's guest book from 1824. The poet stayed at Genadendal for many weeks as a result of a broken leg he had suffered while riding. He recorded the impressions he gained there for the rest of his life in an eight-line poem. See here. Thomas Pringle was one of the first, most important and most vocal people to campaign for the abolition of slavery after his return to Britain from South Africa (fulfilled by his experience in Genadendal). He was the secretary of the anti-slavery movement in Britain. What a difference a riding accident can make.
In London, he met Mary Prince, a slave from the Caribbean who had been sold several times and suffered a difficult fate. He encouraged this slave to dictate her life story. The dictation became a book that went through many editions and shocked many British men and women. Like the work of Thomas Pringle, the book played a key role in promoting the abolition of slavery. Incidentally, the slave Mary Price also became acquainted with the Moravian Church in Antigua.
This is how a free Scotsman who had got to know the Moravian Church in Genadendal and an enslaved woman of African descent who had got to know the Moravian Church in Antigua met in London. And they co-operated and encouraged each other for the good of the wretched.

The South African online magazine news24 reported some time ago that the white wines produced near the Moravian Church Elim are becoming increasingly popular and have already won a number of awards. See here. Although the Elim Ward wine-growing region is considered the coldest wine-growing region in South Africa, the deep chalky soil with various slate and pebble deposits produces the fine Ghost Corner Weine. These wines are known as "maritime wines", which are characterised by cooling south-easterly breezes. The Elim Mission station was founded by Moravian missionaries in 1824 very close to Cape Agulhas (Needle Cape), the southern tip of Africa, where the Altantic Ocean meets the Indian Ocean. The first service, held on 1 August 1824, was attended by 34 people, most of whom lived around the Vogelstruyskraal farm, including two slaves.