Higher education 40
Then the church stepped in. ELCA pastor Charlie Bunk, a former missionary in Cameroon, began asking friends, former missionaries and his four-point parish in rural Langford, S.D., to help fund her education at Con- cordia College, Moorhead, Minn.
Supporting the young Cameroonian was an act of faith for Evangelical, the largest congregation in the parish, which had an average worship attendance of 70. Members provided upfront money for tuition and board each semes- ter and prayerfully trusted that enough funds would arrive. Another former missionary to Cameroon, Luther Symons, pastor of Lutheran Church of the Incarnation, Poway, Calif., was one of those answers to prayer. Parish- ioners became Fida Lassang’s supporters—inviting her to speak and travel with them on mission trips. “She’s absolutely a delightful person, a person of good
character,” Symons said. “She’s become very close to my congregation and my own family.” Fida Lassang was blown away, not only by the gener- osity of these congregations but by that of 11 others in the South Dakota Synod and many individual donors. “They paid for everything,” she said. “I don’t have any loans, and most of the people [who supported me] I have never met.” And she doesn’t take her blessings lightly. “If there is anybody who doesn’t have an excuse to mess up in life, it’s me,” she said. “There has never been anything that I have needed that I didn’t have.”
By the numbers
25 years of ELCA inter- national scholarships.
46 ELCA international scholarship recipients for the 2012-13 academic year.
800 international schol- arship recipients in 25 years.
Although she initially wanted to practice neurosurgery, Fida Lassang now wishes to specialize in infectious dis- eases or family practice. “My love for people in Cameroon is what has made me change my mind,” she said. “I have considered the ways in which I can serve God’s people and none seem as fulfilling to me as working with people to better their health,” she said. “I find great satisfaction in know- ing I have helped someone, not just to regain his or her health but [to do] something to prevent disease.”
72 companion partners who have received ELCA international scholar- ships. (The ELCA has more than 80 global com-
panion partners.) SOURCE: ELCA GLOBAL MISSION
For her benefactors, sup- porting the aspiring doctor was an easy choice. “The gifts she will bring back [to Cameroon] will have a profound impact,” Symons said. “She sees it as a calling, not simply a job or task.”
42 The Lutheran •
www.thelutheran.org International scholarships “ I
magine the huge impact that Nathalie [Fida Lassang] will have when she returns home as a trained physician to serve within the health-care system of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Cameroon,” said Tammy Jackson, director for international leadership development, ELCA Global Mission. You may have helped further international leaders’ education and skills without even realizing it. That’s because ELCA international scholarships are funded through mission support (the percentage of congrega- tional giving shared with churchwide and synodical ministries).
“Through the generous financial support of ELCA members, the Global Mission unit makes scholarships available to our international companions,” Jackson said. “This educational and training investment in indi- viduals can significantly strengthen their church’s capac- ity, and have a far-reaching impact within their families and communities.” Laypeople and clergy apply for the scholarships through their church bodies, which choose people to serve in roles that best help their mission. Those roles can include pastors, bishops, seminary professors, health-care experts, hospital managers, librarians, devel- opment officers, finance professionals and other special- ists. About 50 percent of ELCA scholarship recipients study in institutions in their home context, and the other half study at ELCA seminaries. Here are a few past recipients whose educations were nurtured by their churches and gifts of ELCA members: • Lutheran World Federation President Munib Younan, bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land. • D. Jensen Seyenkulo, bishop of the Lutheran Church in Liberia. • 2011 Nobel Prize winner Leymah Gbowee, a Liberian peace and human rights activist who helped lead her country out of war.
Ways to connect
To learn more about ELCA international scholar- ships, contact Tammy Jackson, director for interna- tional leadership development, ELCA Global Mis- sion, 8765 W. Higgins Rd., Chicago, IL 60631-4101;
tammy.jackson@elca.org. To learn more about the ELCA’s malaria efforts, which support the health-care work of ELCA com- panion partners, visit
www.elca.org/malaria.
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