HMH employee Niels Gärtner has recently visited the Star Mountain Rehabilitation Center SMRC near Ramallah, to get an idea of the situation there. He reports: "Everything is actually quite normal. Ramallah is a busy city as usual, the taxis are running, the shops are open and hoping for buyers. The teachers and children of the SMRC who live in this region can also reach the centre as usual. It is more difficult for children and young people who come from remote rural areas, which are often not part of the A-Zone. Here there are repeated checkpoints by the Israeli military and attacks of all kinds. Everything looks normal on the outside, but the souls and hearts are very wounded. The violent images that flood into people's minds every day via television or mobile phone, the helplessness, the fear, the hopelessness, the economic hardship of many families - all of this has eaten deep into people's souls. And yet the SMRC is always a place of laughter and hope for the children and young people. This can be experienced every day thanks to the professional commitment of the staff. The SMRC needs our support in prayer and financially." A brief description of the situation can be found here.

There was a special surprise at the Moravian Church's mission festival in Christiansfeld, Denmark, on 5 May 2024. In the middle of the afternoon programme, two women from the local Ecumenical Women's Committee came forward with a large cheque in their hands. The cheque was large in two aspects: it was large in size and it was for a considerable sum. The two women - Sissel Madsen and Kirsten Gubi - handed over 36,000 Danish kroner (4,830 euros) to the mission organisation of the Moravian Church in Denmark BDM, collected in March at this year's World Day of Prayer. The money was intended for the Star Mountain Rehabilitation Center SMRC near Ramallah/Palestine, an undertaking of the worldwide Unity. The SMRC can use the money to realise a dream. It wants to create an outdoor area where children and young people with disabilities can receive therapy in the fresh air and thus develop successfully. More here.

In his latest newsletter, retired dean Dr Jochen Tolk once again reports on our work in Tanzania. Among other things, he writes about a school graduation ceremony in Tenende, the development of the vocational training centres in Chunya and Ilindi and a scholarship in Rungwe. Thanks to Dr Tolk's orphan projects/scholarships, many needy people have been able to receive support, help and education in recent years. We would like to thank all donors for their active support. You can find the complete newsletter here.

The Women's Rights Centre Suriname published a lengthy article by Henna Guicherit on 6 May 2024. It was entitled: "Basic health care for inland residents is not a priority". See here in Dutch. In it, Maureen van Dijk-Wijngaarde, Deputy Director of the Medical Mission in Suriname (Medische Zending – Primary Health Care), points out serious shortcomings in the state healthcare system, which pose risks, especially for the people in the structurally weak tropical inland region. It complains, for example, about the lack of bindingly promised payments from the state, the extensive suspension of rescue flights, the failure to carry out most maintenance and servicing work, major gaps in the school health programme, the lack of medicines and medical tests (e.g. pregnancy tests), the interruption of cold chains for medicines and the discontinuation of routine medical examinations in remote villages. "We don't want to leave anyone without care," says the deputy director.

The Surinamese newspaper Star Nieuws recently reported that Theresia Gali was named "Nurse of the Year 2024" by the Medical Mission in Suriname (Medische Zending – Primery Health Care) on 12 May 2024. This nomination prompted the editorial team to introduce the honouree in more detail. Theresia Gali comes from a landlocked country and she loves working inland. She has been associated with the Medical Mission since she began her training in 2007, at the age of 29. She received her diploma in 2011. Fate has not always been kind to her. At the age of 13, she lost her mother, and later her father and brother. She found support in her Christian faith. She advises insecure young people: "If you have a goal in mind, then give 100 per cent. Don't compare your life with the lives of others. Life is not a competition. Always stay positive and above all: persevere!" More in German translation here.

Following her visit to the young Moravian Church in Bolivia on the first days of May 2024, Angelica Regalado-Cieza from the Board of World Mission BWM visited the equally young Moravian Church in the state of Bahia in the far north-east of Brazil. She reported on Facebook from Salvador (population 3 million): "I met with Pastor Mauricio Melo and his wife Jucineide and was able to conduct church services and administer communion. I also met many families who are active in the Igreja dos Irmãos Morávios at a Brazilian potluck (everyone brings something), which also included Christian karaoke. Experiencing the energy and joy of the congregation in Salvador was something wonderful. The brothers and sisters have just moved to a larger room because the congregation has grown so much. Our brothers and sisters in Brazil send warm greetings throughout the worldwide Moravian Church." Some pictures here.

In the first week of May 2024, Angelica Regalado-Cieza from the Board of World Mission BWM of the Moravian Church in North America visited the city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, to visit the gradually growing Moravian Church in Bolivia and to spend a lot of time with the new brothers and sisters. Bolivia had been declared a mission area under development by the Unity Synod 2023 in South Africa. In addition to a meeting with Hans Frederiksen, who leads the church, Angelica Regalado-Cieza preached at a service and informed the congregation about the past and present of the worldwide Moravian Church and the work of the Moravian Church's Board of World Mission BWM. The discussions resulted in a vision for the future shape and tasks of the Moravian Church in Bolivia. Angelica Regalado-Cieza was asked again and again what it means to be a member of the Moravian Church. Some pictures of the visit here.

The Jamaican daily newspaper The Gleaner published a lengthy article on 21 April 2024 to report on the 190th anniversary of the founding of the Beaufort Moravian Church in Westmoreland in the west of the island. Reporter Paul H. Williams explains that the Moravian missionary Johann Heinrich Gottlob was the initiator of the church's construction and his colleague Johann Adam Freibele was the congregation's first pastor. The church was built in 1834 in order to have an outpost away from existing mission stations to look after the former slaves working in Westmoreland. The British Crown's Emancipation Act of 1833 had stipulated that slavery was to end on 1 August 1834. The work of the Moravian Church in Jamaica dates back to December 1754, when the missionaries Zacharias Caries, Thomas Shallcross and Gottlieb Haberecht came ashore on the Black River near St Elizabeth.

The youth centre of the Moravian Church in Suriname, in a good location in the capital Paramaribo (Johan Raillardlaan 5-7), is partially surrounded by an unattractive concrete wall. To enhance this wall, it was recently decorated on the inside with lots of funny line drawings, inviting people to stand in front of it and be photographed in certain poses. On the youth centre's Facebook pages on 9 May 2024, the message was: "Come and join us and stand in front of our picture wall!" Some young people have already responded to the invitation. The photographic result can be viewed in a series of pictures here. The youth centre was established in the legal form of a foundation following donations and loan commitments between 1952 and 1954. Its mission statement includes the following sentence: "The centre aims to promote the physical, cultural, social and spiritual well-being of young people between the ages of 5 and 35 in Suriname."

• On 10 May 2024, the Stichting Onderweijs of the EBGS (School Foundation of the Moravian Church in Suriname) published a video on its Facebook page of another event called Anitri Singi Prisiri (The Lord's Praise and Praise) in the Great City Church in the provincial capital Paramaribo, where several groups of schoolchildren sang, some together and some individually. See here.
• In Suriname, the Day of the Nurse was celebrated on Friday 10 May 2024. The Medical Zending - Primery Health Care (Medical Mission in Suriname), supported by the Moravian Church, joined the beautiful custom of paying special tribute to healthcare workers around 12 May, the birthday of Florence Nightingale (1820-1910), the icon of modern nursing, like grateful people in many other countries around the world. A video of the ceremony in Paramaribo with songs, speeches and a snack hier.

• On Mother's Day, 12 May 2024, all congregations in the Unity Province of the West Indies East commemorated the mothers present and the mothers in the world. They received thanks and veneration and were commended to intercession. The Women's Circle of the Nisky Moravian Church on the island of St Thomas also hosted a Pre Mother's Day Praise Breakfast at 8am the day before Mother's Day, featuring live music and a talk by Charlotte Amalie lawyer Everaud Potter. See here.
• The mission work of the Moravian Church in the Caribbean was made famous by the Moravian missionary Christian Georg Andreas Oldendorp (1721-1787), who wrote a book that was read tens of thousands of times and translated several times: "History of the Mission of the Moravian Church on the Caribbean Islands of St Thomas, St Croix and St Jan". The Riksarchiv in Copenhagen has now introduced the missionary and his famous work on its website. See here.

The Cuba Foundation of the Moravian Church in North America (Armando Rusindo Mission Foundation) recently published a new information flyer in English. Siehe here. Also new is a four-minute video on the front page of the foundation's website (see here) and a digital appeal for donations (see here). The video, which is accompanied by music, traces the history and present of the Moravian Church in Cuba in words and pictures. On the occasion of the recent Mother's Day, the two bishops of the Moravian Church in Cuba, Armando Rogélio Rusindo and Obed Martinez, as well as the pastor Alay González, visited the current president of the church leadership, Tania Sanches, in her home. The latter wrote on Facebook: "What a gift to be able to receive such a distinguished visitor. It was a wonderful time in which we shared joy and looked back with gratitude. May the Lord continue to bless us." See here.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, there were around 200 simple, wooden prayer halls of the Moravian Church in what is now Latvia and Estonia, mainly in rural areas. Most of them were deliberately destroyed or repurposed during the communist era, or their location fell into collective oblivion as a result of the expulsion or even murder of the national elites. Only around 10 per cent of the prayer halls have survived or been found again in recent years, and one prayer hall has been placed in the Latvian Ethnographic Open-Air Museum on the outskirts of Riga. To mark the 100th anniversary of this museum, a gathering of today's Moravian Church in Latvia took place on 11 May 2024 with praise and thanksgiving, songs and prayers, as well as stories and warm fellowship in the museum's prayer room. The motto was: "A day at home with us". Some pictures here. Thanks were expressed to the many participants and helpers, especially the choir from Trikāta (east of Valmiera) for their beautiful singing. Video here.

Because there is a large Russian-speaking population in Latvia, especially in the Riga area, Latvian radio (Latvijas Sabiedriskie Mediji) also regularly broadcasts programmes in Russian. On 16 May 2024, one such Russian-language report entitled Gernguter (Herrnhuters - Moravian Church) was dedicated to the history of the Moravian Church in Latvia. Another such contribution, an interview with Gundars Ceipe, pastor of the Moravian Church in Latvia, was focussed on the present. The contribution on 16 May 2024 in the Kulturnij Kod programme stated: "The Moravian Church played a major role in the development of Latvia. When the Moravians appeared in Latvia in the 18th century, ordinary people turned to them full of faith and hope. The Moravians made sure that Latvians truly embraced Christianity and won them over to education; they taught them to read and write." Many of the biographies of prominent Latvians state: " ... came from a Herrnhut family", " ... shared the views of the Herrnhuters". Read the text of the article in a summary in Russian here. Listen to the article in Russian here.