Do you remember that day last December when the country learned that 20 grade school children had been murdered in Sandy Hook, Connecticut? Do you remember the overwhelming, sinking feeling horror and grief?
Multiply that by seven or more in Pakistan.
At last count 132 children were murdered in Northwestern Pakistan. A hundred more were injured. In this case, it was not the work of one madman but a concentrated planned attack by sane men desperate to make a point. When reason fails, depravity rules.
2×2 has been in regular contact with Christians in Pakistan for nearly two years. Our contact writes that they are all in deep mourning. We remember!
The children were attending a school operated by the military. They were the children of some privilege. They wore nice clothes and slept at night in warm beds.
Last year, 2×2 readers gathered winter clothing for the less-privileged children of Pakistan. It was a wonderful experience that created bonds in a part of the world that often escapes America’s attention. Pictures shared of the children in Pakistan gladly accepting their gifts hit home. They made a difference.
The effort was an exercise in what one congregation can do in the modern connected world. We found no relief services to partner with in our desire to help Pakistani Christians. We forged our way, one person partnering and connecting with another. We sent three LARGE boxes of clothing. We had been discouraged at one point that commercial shipping asked for more than $1000 to send our donations, but by just putting out the word, growing our network, we found a company that was willing to send the clothes with products they were shipping all over the world. Total cost: about $350, which 2×2 paid.
Yesterday’s news reminded young people of last year’s clothing drive. We learned a few months ago that the Pakistani church was working to build an orphanage. “We want to make a difference,” one teenager said. “A real difference.”
And so 2×2 is assisting their initiative again. A group of young people in Michigan are collecting warm clothing for children, blankets, and toys that don’t rely on batteries.
We’ll get the word out and 2×2 readers will do the rest.
Send us an email if you wish to contribute. We’ll tell you how.
The story of Redeemer, 2×2 and the Church in Pakistan is remarkable.
Church leaders told us we were too small to fulfill a mission purpose. They were wrong. Small churches can contribute in big ways!
Even after church leaders took our building and our endowment funds, Redeemer kept on with our mission. We took it online.
The 2×2 website launched February 2, 2011. It wasn’t long before we were making mission friends all over the world. There are many amazing stories of mission collaboration that resulted. For now, we’ll focus on our friendship with the church in Pakistan.
2×2 was corresponding with church leaders in Pakistan for more than a year when terrorists bombs exploded killing hundreds of worshipers.
They asked us to send a study Bible. We did. It was a small investment to test the water. They never got it. We weren’t sure we would ever be able to help outside of our online friendship. Too expensive. Too risky.
But then we saw the news of a church bombing in Pakistan featured ever so briefly on national media. We emailed asking if they were alright. The response came quickly. They were in hiding. There was no way of knowing if the violence had stopped. Many were killed (more than 200) and the injuries of those that survived were serious. They feared that Muslim hospitals would not provide adequate care to Christian patients. They were trying to care for serious injuries themselves. Many children were orphaned. They felt abandoned by the world.
Loyal Lutherans, we started to look for ways to help. We never voted to leave the ELCA, but the ELCA no longer recognized us. There was no one to call. SEPA Synod hadn’t returned our calls for years!
The ELCA divides the world and assigns each synod a region to support in mission. It is called the Companion Synod System. We checked the roster of companion synods with whom we might network. We learned the Middle East is largely overlooked. We looked up Lutheran World Relief. Their website showed no connection with Pakistan.
We asked Pakistani leaders what was needed. They were desperate for warm clothing for the children. They were preparing for a brutal winter.
This would have been easy for Redeemer. Our church had lots of children. We would have had no problem collecting clothing. But our eviction, which forced the closing of a decades-old daycare center, had cost us access to families and hand-me-downs. We feared we could not help.
But we didn’t give up. We posted the need on our website. We got a few monetary donations and sent them to Pakistan. It took five trips to the bank to get the money transferred. It is difficult to wire money to Pakistan, the bank told us. But they did get what we sent this time!
We wanted to do more. There was practically no interest among western Christians about this horrific attack on people of our faith!
A subscriber to 2×2 called one day. I mentioned the need for clothing. She took the ball and ran.
Keep in in mind that the fabricated reason for closing Redeemer was that our congregation was scattered and diminished. This was not true, but what happened next is proof that even if it were true, that phrase, so easily bandied about by professional church leaders, is no longer a valid way to measure ministry.
The 2×2 readers who went to work collecting clothing were in Michigan. Here in Philadelphia, we collected money.
Michigan 2×2 soon reported that they had filled an SUV with clothing.
They sorted, laundered and packed three large boxes of clothing and blankets. The next hurdle—shipping.
Commercial shippers wanted $1500 to ship 62 pounds of clothing. We didn’t have $1500. We feared that all our work was for nothing. We shared our problems with the Pakistanis. “If we had $1500, we could buy the clothes we need,” they said.
But Michigan 2x2ers didn’t give up. They are close to Detroit. One of their business connections ships auto parts all over the world. They agreed to send our boxes. They wanted just $300. The money collected in Philadelphia would cover it!
The boxes shipped shortly after Thanksgiving. They arrived in Pakistan the day before Christmas.
Pakistani leaders documented the distribution with many pictures. Here are a few photos of the children receiving their warm winter clothing and blankets.
There are a few lessons to be learned from our experience.
Even the smallest churches can fulfill mission purposes.
There is no need for small churches to depend solely on regional or churchwide entities to do mission for them.
The strength of the church as we move into the connected age will be in the networks each congregation builds. This can be done on a shoestring budget. Amazing things can be done without hierarchical oversight.
The networks built need not be constrained by geography.
The gratification and sense of accomplishment of doing mission directly is greater and has more potential for involving lay people in hands-on ways than the current system.
By the way, the region of the world that is assigned to SEPA under the ELCA Companion Synod System is Tanzania. Irony! While SEPA supports the church in Tanzania, SEPA evicted a congregation of mostly Tanzanian immigrants and cut them off from participation in their church here in the United States. One SEPA argument was that to reach out to East Africa immigrants, Redeemer had to first accept mission status. We knew that meant giving up property rights. It is a greedy strategy devised to make all properties owned for decades or even centuries by neighborhood congregations the property of the synod. The new populations of urban neighborhoods are seen as incapable of administering their own Christian community. If this sounds like it might be racist, make no mistake—it is. It is subtly returning to a dependency system that America worked hard to break away from.
We’ll share other amazing stories of international ministry resulting from our website in our annual report. It’s that time year!
Every little church knows the litany. It’s the Church’s own version of the The Little Engine That Could. It’s called The Little Church That Can’t.
“You can’t afford a pastor.”
“You are too small to fulfill your mission.”
Sometimes the two statements mean the same thing. At some point, affording a pastor becomes the mission.
The list grows.
“The demographics don’t support ministry.”
“Every church has a time to die.”
Etcetera. Etcetera. Etcetera.
Small churches don’t get much help in overcoming objections, especially when their property and endowments are up for grabs. We forget that the biblical model of “church” always worked at overcoming objections far worse. Remember, it was actually illegal to be a Christian way back when and still the Church grew.
It’s not just the little churches that get trapped by this frame of mind. The whole church embraces it. The erroneous belief is that small churches need bigger entities to fulfill mission.
There may have been a day when this was true or at least more true than today. But the world is changing. It is time we all sit up and take notice.
This is good news for small churches. Small churches can play a huge role in the life of the church.
Here is 2×2’s most recent experience.
2x2virtualchurch.com was started two and one half years ago by Redeemer Lutheran Church in East Falls when our denomination locked us out of our property. About 18 months ago we began an online friendship with the Christian Church in Pakistan.
We were amazed that our friendship resulted in facilitating a meeting of Christians from Pakistan and Kenya earlier this year.
We were already in strong conversation when a Pakistani Church was bombed by terrorists in September 2013. We checked on our friends. They were not directly affected but they were close to those who were. They were in hiding behind locked doors.
As weeks passed, we heard firsthand accounts of the devastation and terror. We were sent photos of the prayer vigils. For the first time, the Pakistan Church asked for help.
How could a little shunned church like Redeemer respond?
We looked to see if the ELCA had a mechanism for help. (We never voted to leave the ELCA. They kicked us out.)
We found none in the companion synod system or on the Lutheran World Relief website. We heard no mention of the tragedy in Lutheran churches or in The Lutheran magazine.
The Pakistani Church told us their biggest need was winter clothing for the many orphans that resulted from the terrorist attack.
Redeemer had many children, but the persecution of our church has hurt our network among families with children that could donate clothing.
We mentioned the need on our virtual church website.
Readers in Michigan picked up the ball and ran. They said “Just call us 2×2 Michigan.”
They gathered three large boxes of clothing.
Then came the next hurdle. Shipping costs were $1500. We were all discouraged. But a 2×2 reader mentioned the need to a business associate that ships products all over the world. They offered to help.
So this week, only a month after the need was made known, 2×2 shipped boxes of children’s clothing to Christians in Pakistan.
That’s a place where it is even harder to be a Christian than East Falls!
The modern church will be built on the reliance of member networks more than denominational networks. This is a power waiting to be unleashed.
We think we can. We think we can. And we can! 2×2.
The ELCA’s new presiding bishop wasn’t speaking to us in her editorial published in November’s The Lutheran.
After all, the Lutherans of East Falls were shut down more than four years ago. We don’t exist.
The Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, courtesy of courts who didn’t take the time to hear the issues, now owns Lutheran land in East Falls. They’ve kept the doors locked and the security system (which they installed) turned on for four years, while they worked very hard to destroy any semblance of the faith in our part of Philadelphia. Meanwhile, they have done nothing with the land they coveted for more than a decade.
But now, we have a new presiding bishop. I mean they have a new presiding bishop.
Her name is Elizabeth Eaton. She’s been part of the Council of Bishops for some time, so she has surely heard all about us—at least one side of the story. That was enough for her predecessor. Will she follow the same course? Hands off any dispute between congregations and regional leaders? Let local Lutherans twist in the wind?
Will she have a grasp of what is going on in the several synods that are living beyond their means and violating Lutheran polity while they prey on small congregations?
Time will tell. The Lutherans of East Falls are prayerful if not hopeful.
We are busy being Lutherans whether or not Lutherans accept us.
Bishop Eaton wrote in one of her first addresses to greater American Lutherandom:
We are church together. There is no way that the churchwide organization or synod offices can be with the saints and be present in the communities where our churches are planted. The local congregation does that.
But there is no way that the local congregation by itself can run camps, train leaders, engage in disaster response or accompany global companions. That is the work we do together as synods, agencies, colleges, seminaries and the churchwide organization.
We are church for the sake of the world. We have experienced God’s extravagant love in Jesus. We want others to know that love too. That is what motivates our evangelism and our work to make the abundant life promised by Jesus a reality for the most vulnerable.
This view reflects an “old order” view—the one taught in confirmation classes across the country for decades.
But the world is changing.
2×2 has discovered that the statement we printed in bold is no longer true in the emerging world. In fact, the strength of the emerging church will be that the local congregation can do a great deal without “federal” oversight.
Congregations can run camps (Redeemer had one). They can train leaders (read 2×2). They can respond to disasters that more organized efforts are inclined to overlook!
2×2, the remnant of Redeemer, was appalled and deeply moved by the church bombing in Pakistan. One reason this touched us so deeply is that we had already been in conversation with Pakistan’s church leaders through our website for more than a year!
An entire congregation of 250 worshipers (larger than most congregations in our affluent part of the world) was targeted by suicide bombers. More than eighty were killed. Twice that number were seriously injured. That creates a congregation of shell-shocked and mourning families. That leaves an unusual number of orphans and an unusual number of adults recovering from war-caliber wounds. The world of over-organized religion has barely taken notice.
We looked to the national church to see if we might latch on to global relief efforts—the Old Order Lutheran way.
We found none.
In fact, we’ve heard no mention of the Pakistani problems in the churches we visited since the attack—not even a passing reference in the Prayer of the Church.
Lutherans are carefully selective in their world view. This is nothing new. I was on the staff of The Lutheran Magazine back in the 1970s when Cambodia was a killing field. I remember arguing that we ought to be addressing this.
Cambodia was not on the Lutheran map then. Pakistan is not on the Lutheran map now.
2×2, Lutherans unfettered by Lutheranism, has befriended the church in Pakistan. We are a modern congregation that knows that individual churches have enormous individual power if they use the tools of the modern age.
We sent some relief money. A drop in the bucket for their needs, but they wrote numerous thank you notes.
The Pakistani Church is asking for warm clothing for winter especially for the orphaned children. They need jackets, sweaters, hoodies, fleeces, shoes and socks.
We are just a little congregation without much access to families with small children who might have hand-me-downs to share.
But we can put the word out. There is no harder place, or perhaps more important place for Christians to maintain voice in today’s world. Our very faith is being put to the test in a world that is pitting Muslims against Christianity by forces that don’t really practice either religion.
The victims are the children.
The future of Christianity in these hard places for Christians is also with the children.
If your church can help gather clothing, call us for the address. For the safety of the Pakistani church leaders we will not publish this information.
We already have an effort in Michigan taking up the cross! We’re doing what we can!
This is an opportunity for Christian love to shine.
Here is a photo of the Bible class recently started for the children of the besieged church.
The Pain Doesn’t Go Away Just Because Christians Have “Moved On”
2×2 was appalled by the church bombings in Pakistan last month and were disappointed that western Christians barely took note of the attack.
This is indicative of the isolation of most Christians. We worry first about ourselves, then about our own congregation, then about our denomination. Our denomination handles the rest of the world by dividing the relatively safe mission areas of the world between its synods. This is effective in that isolated parishes feel like they are making a difference and are connected. And they are. But all the world, we discovered, is not covered by this system which fits so neatly into our “organized” religion.
Christians in the most dangerous places for Christianity are left very much alone as we build relationships with missions that we can control and visit occasionally and see the results of our efforts—perhaps even having a building named after a congregation.
Christians in the more dangerous parts of the world suffer. And yet their efforts help all in the foundational mission of all churches—to preach the gospel to every nation—not just those in our approved fold.
2×2 befriended the church in Pakistan two years ago. We were easily in touch with the people who were so deeply hurt by this horrific and senseless terrorist attack. 2×2 raised some money for Pakistan. It wasn’t easy. We are, ourselves, excluded from our denomination (some nonsense about inability to achieve missional purpose).
We looked for a channel to send our support within our denomination and found none. We worked it out with our bank. Took some doing. We found that Pakistan is one of the most difficult places to work with in banking. But our mission dollars—every one of them—were finally received. 2×2 paid all costs, so every contribution benefited Pakistan.
Our efforts will continue. One of our members is hosting his own fundraising event next month to add to effort.
Here’s a thank you note we received today from Pakistan.
Shalom
I received your blessings /offerings /donation $250 USD (as I already told you). I distributed to the families and to the little kids. I will send you their distribution photograph soon.
God be with you and all your peoples. I send personal thanks for this great and merciful behavior from you and your peoples. We are still in suffering from the accident and from this big and huge bombing attack. Over 50 peoples still injured. Some of these cuts their legs, lost their eyes and arms and hands. Please pray for us.
Please try to do some more help for their foods, clothing and medicines. This is the time to help your Christian brothers and sisters from Pakistan.
God be with you.
Thanks again for your kindness, labor and practical ministries for us. We did not forget your help, and the reward will be multiplied to you from the father God. Your brother in Christ Jesus, (name withheld for protection.)
The ELCA has always been proud of its disaster witness. As for evangelism—the ELCA has divided the world in 65 pieces with each synod adopting a mission region. I looked online at the list of “Companion Synods.” Tanzania has multiple ELCA companions. Pakistan didn’t make the cut. That whole part of the world is missing from our mission efforts.
Here is a country where ministry is very difficult—life threatening. Every day. And we are absent from helping—even from the security of sanctuaries of freedom half a world away.
The Church tends to live in a bubble of bureaucracy. Someone somewhere else will deliver on our prayers and cares. We’ve done our job by repeating “Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.”
Of course, there is always the fear that our help will be misused. We want the help to get to the right people. Often, that means we don’t help at all.
We at 2×2, the remnant of Redeemer Lutheran Church in East Falls, know all too well ineffective church assistance. We can’t count the number of pastors who tell us they pray for us. After six years of persecution, we know very well the power of prayer with no action. We’ve had a lot of attacks, many very personal. But at least no one has blown up our whole congregation.
The bombers were angry at the United States. They still equate America with Christianity.
The Pakistani Church is desperate for help in recovering from this attack. One pastor wrote to us this morning in frustration. “Now is the time for practical help. Now is the time to show that ministry is more than words.”
Pakistani Christians are an unwelcome minority in a Muslim culture. They know their lives are dangerous. They are not sure they will get good medical attention because of who they are.
Many are not affiliated with western mainline denominations, although the bombed church was Anglican. They have asked for food, medicine and clothing. They have not asked for money, although money is the most practical way to help them. We don’t know what medicine to send, we don’t wear the same clothes they wear and food is difficult to send. So money is the practical answer.
The ELCA took all Redeemer’s money. But still we will try to help.
If you can help Christians who are actively dedicated to Christian ministry in the hardest part of the world for Christians to serve, please consider sending a gift to the addresses below.
2×2 Foundation
c/0 Judith Gotwald
591 Hermit Street
Philadelphia, PA 19128
Join Bishop Ruby Kinisa as she visits small churches "under cover" to learn what people would never share if they knew they were talking to their bishop.
Undercover Bishop will always be available in PDF form on 2x2virtualchurch.com for FREE.
Print or Kindle copies are available on Amazon.com.
For bulk copies, please contact 2x2: creation@dca.net.
Contact Info
You can reach
Judy Gotwald,
the moderator of 2x2,
at
creation@dca.net
or 215 605 8774
Redeemer’s Prayer
We were all once strangers, the weakest, the outcasts, until someone came to our defense, included us, empowered us, reconciled us (1 Cor. 2; Eph. 2).
2×2 Sections
Where in the World is 2×2?
On Isaiah 30:15b
Be calm. Wait. Wait. Commit your cause to God. He will make it succeed. Look for Him a little at a time. Wait. Wait. But since this waiting seems long to the flesh and appears like death, the flesh always wavers. But keep faith. Patience will overcome wickedness.
—Martin Luther
Do you remember that day last December when the country learned that 20 grade school children had been murdered in Sandy Hook, Connecticut? Do you remember the overwhelming, sinking feeling horror and grief?
