Thanksgiving in Canada – Thanksgiving in Africa. During these days, I have to reflect on how uncertain and difficult we have experienced Thanksgiving, when we were in Tanzania from 1993 to 1999. The photo can give you some impression. It shows Lea, the wife of my co-worker Matayo, as she and her child lead the donkeys back from fetching water. Everything was bone-dry, their Boma (settlement) happened to be situated in a very barren area; when I drove through it with the land cruiser, huge dust clouds enveloped the front of the car. But everywhere, people and animals, suffered under the dry season. There were years when it did not rain for eight or nine months! And how relieved were we, when the rain finally came, and how wonderful it was to see, how quickly the Massai Steppe awoke to life again; how quickly the dusty land was covered with green grass and while lilies.

Life is poor in the African steppe. It already takes one to two hours every day, just to fetch the necessary water for drinking and cooking. And the donkeys carry not only the water basins daily on their backs. When the family moves to an other area, the donkeys carry all their belongings, cooking utensils, animal hides for their beds, clothing. I must wonder with how little the people manage there– our moving container from Germany was as big as a small house, with its 40 feet high cube!

Not all are poor in Africa. A Massai, who owns 500 cattle, is actually rich, and in the meantime, quite a few of them traverse the Massai Steppe faster and more comfortable in a rented truck. Yet everyday life means continuous hardship for many people. For us, receiving a good salary, the food on the daily market was still affordable, even during the dry season. But many Tanzanians had to go hungry, and for the aged, sick and small children, the dry season was a threatening time.

How well we are off! How rich our harvest is, every year and every day! The concerns of our family, that we now would have to eat only soft American white bread for years, have proven quite unfounded.  We can savour Bavarian rolls here, Hungarian salami and Italian cheese. But, in every day life, harvest does not only mean the food that comes from the field. A minority of people works as farmers today. Harvest – this is also the monthly salary or pension, these are also interest income of investments, the many good social securities, which a strong country like Canada makes available to its citizens. It is a harvest of a special nature this October, as the Canadian Dollar is at par with the American Dollar.

Thanksgiving is cause for joy and gratitude towards God, who grants us daily many good things. Thanksgiving is also cause to perceive again our responsibility for other people, who are far worse off.

In Proverbs 22, 9, it says: “He who has a bountiful eye will be blessed, for he shares his bread with the poor.” And Paul writes in 2. Corinthians 8, 14: “Your abundance should supply their want.” When God puts many things at our disposal, he thereby also places responsibility upon us. He entrusts us with good things, so that we can do good to others.

In our kitchen, there hangs an oval, light brown tray from Africa above the kitchen table. On it, it says: “Mungu ni mpaji”, which means in Kisuahili, the East African language: “God is the Giver.” This is what Thanksgiving wants us to realize. Everything we have, we have received from God, and God is the giver of all good gifts. In Tanzania, there is a famous saying: “Mtu ni watu.”, meaning roughly: “A person cannot live without people.” Every one of us lives as a person with and of other people. From whatever we pass on, many people can receive life, here, in front of our door, just as the people who suffer hardship in many parts of the world. Let us celebrate Thanksgiving in this double manner: by giving thanks and by sharing!

With kind regards and blessings,
Your Pastor Alexander Mielke

     

 

  

Excerpt from the Commission of EKD, signed by Bishop Martin Schindehuette

We remind you of your ordination vows committing you to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ according to the testimony of the Holy Scriptures and without reduction as well as to administer the Holy Sacraments according to the institution of our Lord. In your service it will be your duty to guard the confessional status of the ELCIC and to abide by its rules. It will be your task to address the German-speaking and the English-speaking people in your community by way of preaching, teaching, and pastoral care leading them to a deeper understanding of the Holy Scriptures and to responsible participation in the mission entrusted by Jesus Christ to reach all nations. We expect you in your work to deepen the fellowship with the ELCIC, a church in partnership with the EKD, and with other Christian congregations and churches in Canada with the goal of intensifying their relations with the Protestant Christians in Germany.

Excerpt from a letter of greetings from the Deacon of Oettingen, Christoph Seyler

Our bond across borders and continents allows me to greet you on your day of celebration. It is part of our great experiences of our faith, to find, in all places of this world, people who celebrate church services in the same or similar manner, and gain strength from it to lead their lives by trusting in God. The pastors of the Deaconry of Oettingen and their families want to congratulate the Martin Luther Congregation – only with reluctance we saw the Mielkes leave, but later on we saw their joy to serve you. We are convinced that the bond which has grown over the years will not end now, but will widen also our horizons. I wish all of you much joy, strength, God’s accompaniment and blessing on your joint way. I can convey special greetings and blessings in the name of our Regional Bishop, Dr. Ernst Üffner from Augsburg.      

Address of Pastor Alexander Mielke

What we celebrate today, why we are together, is the call of Jesus Christ into a new mission, into a new community, and I welcome this call, I trust in God’s blessings and his accompaniment on this new path.

I wish to express my heartfelt thanks to all of you, also in the name of my wife and my entire family; to the Martin Luther Congregation, who has shown me trust and chose me as their new Pastor. Also to Pastor Dahle, the acting Bishop of the Eastern Synod, who has, with powerful Biblical words, put the new mission before me and has given me encouragement to trust in God’s word. To Pastor Knaack, Pastor Moeller and other pastoral colleagues from the German Contact Circle, who have accepted me heartily into their community of the Ministry. To colleagues of neighbouring congregations, whose openness and friendliness I have been able to feel already at the first meeting of the Etobicoke Lakeshore Clergy Fellowship. To the Evangelical Church in Germany, which, by sending a Pastor, has again shown itself as a reliable partner of the MLK and the ELCIC.

I look forward to the work here at Martin Luther Church and in Toronto. I am willing to serve in preaching, in pastoral care in homes and families, in supporting all the various groups of our congregation, starting with the children and young people up to the age of the seniors. I am glad about the musical accompaniment of our church service by the organist and the church choir. I am glad about the many faces of children and all our team members of the Day Care, and I am convinced that the Martin Luther Church will continue to make important and essential contributions in serving the Etobicoke Community, totally in accordance with the proclamation of the wholistic gospel.

We wish to express a heartfelt thank-you for the very friendly and warm welcome, which we experienced during the first days and weeks. As representative for everyone, I whish to mention here the President of the Church Council, Edmund Scholz, together with his wife Ursula., In so many small and large matters of the new beginning, we have received help. In a very positive way, I have been introduced to various fields of my work. Many have also taken care of our children and have helped them through joyful activities in play and swimming pools and many other things, to acquaint themselves with the foreign land. I am very happy that the parents and sister of my wife, who lives near Buffalo with her two small sons, can celebrate with us today. It is a special gift that the Greiner family can take part in the church service today and in this way can bring the greetings of our former Bavarian congregations Wechingen and Holzkirchen.

Again, our congregation is situated near water. It was the Main River during our vicariate, the Pangani River in the Massai steppe, the Woernitz in the deanery of Oettingen, and now the huge Lake Ontario, only meters away from our church. It was therefore fitting, when, at our fare-well to the congregation in Holzkirchen, a quote by Gorch Fock, a famous writer and representative of  the German Navigation, was given to accompany us on our way: “I do not know where God leads me. But I know that he leads me.” We do not know at the beginning, what is awaiting us, there are new people, new tasks. But we can be certain, it is the same God who also leads us along new paths.

This certainty is also expressed in two Bible verses, which are very precious to my wife and me.

Isaiah 55, 12: “For you shall go out with joy and be led forth with peace.” This verse was important to us when we became engaged and set out on a new path together. To our surprise and joy, it was this word that was given us as encouragement during church service when we were blessed and sent to serve in Tanzania. Therefore, we hope that God will this time, too, in spite of many outward changes, let us experience his inner piece time and time again. Our wedding verse was John 15, 5: Jesus Christ says:” I am the vine, you are the branches; he that abides in me, and I in him, will bring forth much fruit; for without me you can do nothing” This verse reminds us that we are dependent on God’s grace in all things. Nowhere else do we feel this deeper than during Communion. Therefore, it is good that we celebrate Holy Communion together today. Herein we experience the deep community with Christ, which is the origin of our community as the body of Christ. In the small catechism, Martin Luther says: “ These words ; ‘Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins’ show us that in the Sacrament forgiveness of sins, life and salvation are given us through these words. For where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation.” We want to celebrate this new joy, this new life, when we receive the Holy Communion of our Lord Jesus Christ together.

  

Dear Congregation,

We feel very comfortable in our new home, in Canada and in the Martin Luther Congregation, and we express heartfelt thanks for the friendly reception and for all help, which we received in the beginning. Two points concerning the congregational work: Like Pastor Wolf, I will normally have my day-off on Saturday, when we can best undertake bigger family activities. And that my wife Mrs. Heike Block Mielke is also an ordained Pastor, you can experience on October 21^st. She will conduct the two Church Services then, while I will attend the conference of the DELKINA (German Evangelical Lutheran Churches in North America) in San Francisco. With kind regards, Pastor Alexander Mielke

is contained in a poem by Otto Karthaus about the many gifts Pastor Wolf has, his well-known kindness, his knowledge about Martin Luther. That he wished to live in the New World and explore Ontario, and thus found a new field of service; new projects took shape, the work with groups and circles, confirmation classes are mentioned, as well as Sunday School and Day Care, camp and retreats. Not everything can be listed listed, however, thanks are expressed to all helpers, but particularly to Pastor Wolf.

 

 

 

We enjoyed a wonderful concert with a guest choir from Rotenburg an der Wuemme which is located near to Bremen. Thanks to Manfred Petz, the Music Director of the Edelweiss Choir, and Helmut Gschoesser, the President of the same choir, who arranged this. Under the direction of René Clair, we had the opportunity of listening to a vivid and colourful choice of church hymns, traditional songs and international folk. The Edelweiss Choir and the Schola Cantorum contributed some beautiful songs, mainly from Austria. Many came and thanked the choirs with long enthusiastic applause. There was still a busy schedule ahead for the guest choir, even an invitation to sing within the parliament building of Ottawa. For all their journey around Canada, for all their future musical commitment, we wish them God’s guidance and blessings!

 

We are expecting special guests for our service on October 7th. The Finance Committee of the Parliament of Baden-Wuerttemberg (south-western part of Germany) would like to attend our Thanksgiving worship service. There are some 18 persons; their chairman is Ingo Rust. So come and celebrate Thanksgiving with our guests! We will have a Joint Service, and it will start at 10:00 a.m. Welcome!

Starting on the right: Nadine Jongsma, Nicholas Benseler, Katrina Kumpa, Nicholas Rosati, Jocelyn Sommerfeld, Franz Zultner, Benedikt Mielke.

Member of the group also is Lukas Frantzke