The current TAZA Report (vocational training centers in Tanzania and Zambia) of the company Wörwag Pharma starts with the words “Thank you for 25 years of TAZA!”. The partnership between Wörwag and Herrnhuter Missionshilfe celebrates its 25th anniversary this year! In this time, an incredible amount has been achieved and realized. An estimated 4,000 young people from Tanzania and Zambia have been given the chance to receive vocational training. The collaboration began with renovations to existing vocational training centers and equipment for hospitals. In the meantime, significantly larger projects are being implemented, such as the vocational training center in Mwera, Zanzibar. At this point, our Herrnhuter Missionshilfe would like to express its heartfelt thanks, also on behalf of the countless people on the ground, for this long-standing, successful partnership! THANK YOU!

During Kerstin Heim and Markus Kuhn's project trip to Malawi, they had the opportunity to meet with the German ambassador Ute König and another important visitor. General Ignacio Maulana is the most senior official within the Malawian government responsible for refugees. The team from Herrnhuter Missionshilfe was able to meet General Maulana in person. He was already aware of the work of HMH, which is highly valued in government circles. He was also willing to answer a few questions and report on the current situation in the country. The team is very grateful for this opportunity and proud that the work of HMH in Malawi is not going unnoticed.

On October 29, 2024, Svend Løbner from the Moravian Church's mission organization in Denmark, BDM, reported on the Moravian Vocational Training Center in Sikonge, Tanzania (West Province). See here. in Danish. His report begins: “The sounds are unmistakable when we walk through the tradesmen's school. The students measure, saw, hammer and glue under expert guidance. Bedsteads against one wall, chests against the other, and furniture, windows and doors around the workbenches show that the twelve students here are learning what it means to do good work. But the idea of the school for craftsmen goes deeper. Here the students earn a salary for their families and from here craftsmen are sent out to build and repair churches and mission buildings throughout western Tanzania.” The school's regular work for the local hospital of the Moravian Church is also mentioned. Five employees are introduced in a little more detail: Adamu Kissa, Julius Mtunda, Righton Kaombwe, Baraka Mnyema and Job Msogiti.

On November 7, 2024, Svend Løbner of the Moravian Church Mission in Denmark published a portrait of Jackson Mlimuka, a 29-year-old board member of the Moravian Church's Sikonge Hospital in Tanzania (Western Province). See here. Jackson Mlimuka, who has a master's degree in business administration, works in administration and is in the process of optimizing the working environment for employees and patient care. Every day, 30 to 40 new people come to the hospital; some for outpatient treatment, some for inpatient care. “Happy employees make for happy patients,” says Jackson Mlimuka, who still has a few wishes: a break room for employees, more mosquito nets to prevent malaria, a mortuary for deceased patients, well-equipped buildings for medical work and for patients to stay in.

On December 6, 2024, the time has come! The historian Maurice San-A-Jong will present the results of the sub-study 1 on the role of the Moravian Church in the history of slavery in Suriname. The aim of this research project is to make the voices of the enslaved heard; certainly no easy task. The researcher will explain to the audience how he has worked, what he has encountered and what his results are. Author Makida Daniëls will respond to Maurice San-A-Jong's presentation with a lecture on the effects of the slaveholding past. And, of course, those present are invited to comment on what they have heard. The event will take place in the Moravian Church, Amstardam-Zuidoost Wi Eegi Kerki, from 7:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. The exact program – including group work – can be found here. The event can be followed online. The link will be posted here soon.

As reported on their Facebook page, one of the students at the Graf von Zinzendorf School of the Moravian Church in Paramaribo, Suriname, won first prize in the 20th VOJ Students Excellence Award 2024, sponsored by the country's Rotarians, on October 30, 2024. See here and the press release here. The names of the other winners can be found here. Zuriël Morris (16), who won the competition in the MULO schools category (Meer Uitgebreid Lager Onderwijs / Extended Primary Education), is also a successful freestyle and breaststroke swimmer in her spare time. Amanda Sheombar, president of the Rotary Club of Paramaribo, invited the winners to a three-day training weekend on the topic of How to Become Successful. The training aims to provide the tools to work on developing one's own personality.

There has been a generational change in the board of the Stichting Kinderboekenfestival Suriname, which was co-founded by the Moravian Church 21 years ago and has been strongly influenced by it. After the retirement of the initiators Yvonne Meye-Caprino and Agnes Ritfeld, younger women are now in charge: Annelot Themen (chairwoman), Edme Smith-Koorndijk (secretary), Dolores Halfhide de Miranda, (treasurer), Amanda Sheombar (commissioner) and Farida Hermelijn (member). See here. The main task of the new board will initially be to realize the Children's Education Center as part of the Culture Garden project. The forest area, which has been handed over by the Surinamese government to the foundation for educational purposes since 2010, is to be developed in an environmentally friendly way so that groups of children can be welcomed there for tours and educational activities on a permanent basis.

On its website, the renowned Bethlehem Moravian College in Malvern/St. Elizabeth, Jamaica, advises students on scholarship opportunities. See here. The Math Science Technical and Vocational Education and Training Education and Engineering Scholarship, offered by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information, is available to students in mathematics and geography. It covers tuition fees as well as all costs for food, school supplies and accommodation. The Jamaica Values and Attitudes program offers financial aid to students who are willing to complete 200 hours of community service alongside their studies. In this case, 30 percent of the tuition fees are covered. Finally, the in-house Bethlehem Moravian College Alumni Association, New York Chapter provides a scholarship with no special admission requirements.

The Moravian Church in the Cape Town North District recently presented a special project: “The Riverlands Congregation has asked the District Executive Committee to help them complete their new church building. The project began in the early 2000s, but then faltered. It is now to be revitalized through various fundraising efforts. Riverlands is a growing settlement in the town of Swartland, about fifty kilometers from Cape Town. The settlement was hit by flooding when three dams broke and destroyed some houses, roads and the water supply network. More than 120 people were left homeless. Fortunately, the church under construction is still standing. 60,000 rand (about 3,100 euros) have already been raised through fundraising activities. Our goal is to complete the church construction before next winter (= summer 2025). The church construction project should become a beacon of hope.” More herr and here.

In October 2024, the Collegio Moravo in Bluefields (in the far southeast of Nicaragua) reported on three special events. First, a 5th grade student took part in the 21st Central American Games in Chess 21st Central American Games in Chess in San Salvador. See here. A little later, two female students (Brinelly Hammond and Jeyshani Ow) traveled with the Nicaraguan national team in 3 on 3 basketball to the Latin American Olympic Games in Paraguay. The team from Nikagagua won the final 13-10 against the team from Paraguay. See here. And finally, on October 23, 2024, the XIII. Expo-Feria Estudiantil 2024 took place in the school's large gymnasium. Two videos from the gym here ans here, where some student groups from the Collegio Moravo also presented themselves with their homemade food and drinks, as well as their ideas and activities. See here.

The Moravian Church's new children's pastoral care service in Suriname, called Talita Koem (cf. Mark 5:41), now has its own website. See here. The service is headed by youth pastor Lydia Sedney, who has been in office since 2019. She is assisted by social pedagogue Sherida Braumuller and singing teacher Saïda Veldbloem. Among other things, two projects are run by the new service: the project The Church Helps! and the project Let the Fire Burn!. The former project supports parents in educational matters. In small, intimate groups, experiences are exchanged under the guidance of an educator, and parents are given proven tools for raising their children. With the latter project, the Talita Koem ministry travels to the various regions of Suriname – including and especially to the remote regions – to build the capacity of local child and youth workers.

Alaska's churches are currently debating whether at-risk youth can be reached with pre-Christian traditions. A detailed article by Kyle Huckins (Anchorage) on this topic in Christianity Today can be found here. It is undisputed that the return to traditional language and clothing, to almost forgotten dances and local customs and festivals can help uprooted people. Traditional dances and movements have become common in worship services in some indigenous congregations, such as the Anchorage Native Assembly of God. However, August Alexie, a Yup'ik from southwestern Alaska and a minister of the Moravian Church in Anchorage, believes that indigenous dances from the time before the introduction of Christianity in Alaska should not be part of Christian worship. The above-mentioned article does an excellent job of describing the very difficult situation of Alaska's indigenous peoples, who were forced to assimilate into a foreign way of life for 200 years. As a result, young people in Alaska (15-24 years old) are seven times more likely to commit suicide than their peers in the other 49 US states.

The White Elephant Museum in Makkovik, Labrador, which was originally a boarding school for schoolchildren and then a hospital and maternity ward for the Moravian Church, is only open during the summer months. In 1959, the Canadian government forcibly relocated about 150 Inuit from the far-northern town of Hebron to Makkovik. In the mid-20th century, midwife Susan Anderson helped 50 Inuit babies from remote fishing stations into the world here. The somewhat remote building that now houses the museum is the only one that survived a major fire in the town on January 27, 1948, unscathed. It contains over 200 historical objects. Two dozen of them are on display here. The museum's name is a bit of a tongue-twister, and it's because the building was left vacant for so long and still needed to be maintained. It was converted into a museum in 1996, the 100th anniversary of the Moravian Church in Makkovik. Read more about the history of Makkovik here and about the local Moravian Church here.

Latvians celebrate their national day every year on November 18. On November 18, 1918, national independence was proclaimed for the first time. A little later, the First Latvian Republic was formed. To mark the occasion, a literary-musical evening was held in Riga's Rīgas Evaņģēliski luteriskā Misiones baznīca as early as November 11, 2024, during which the book Lidijas z iediņi (Lydia's Flowers) by nurse and anti-Soviet resistance fighter Lidija Lasmane-Doroņina (born 1925, nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018). The artists Lydia Pupure, Valdis Lūriņs, Valdis Zilveris and Inga Ābele performed. In a text by the author, it says: “God has made me a part of the Latvian people and has given me the Latvian language - I will not speak to Him in any other language!”. Some pictures here. The children from the Christian David School near Barkava have already decorated their house for the national holiday (see here) and will again take part in the traditional torchlight procession in Madona (see here). Furthermore, the children in the boarding school will eat well (see here) and attend a ballet performance at the Madona Theatre (see here).

The site of the former Baltači Moravian prayer house in the Bilska congregation, north of Smiltene in central Vidzeme, has been rediscovered. The wooden building, which dates back to the first third of the 19th century, was built by Latvian farmers with voluntary labor and donations of wood. Nothing remains of the building after the persecutions and destruction of the Moravian Church under Stalinism. Two historical photos of the Baltači prayer house can be found here. Zigita Pagoja, whose grandfather still had the word of God proclaimed to him and received pastoral care in this prayer house, describes the route to the prayer house and its former location in the middle of the countryside on Facebook. See here. According to the latest research, there were a total of 151 permanent Moravian meeting circles with around 250 Moravian meeting houses in what is now Latvia and Estonia, in which 31,000 people regularly gathered in the best of times.