January/February 2025

IWL graduate opens school in home community

Bliss Tungnung, a graduate of the International Women Leaders program, opened Bliss International School in 2023

Bliss Tungnung, a former International Women Leaders scholar and a 2022 graduate of Concordia College in Moorhead, Minn., is using her psychology degree to make a difference in her home community in Manipur, India. Not long after she graduated, civil war broke out among local ethnic groups. Upon arriving home, she saw a need for psychosocial care and education among the children of her community. With support from Lutheran Disaster Response and her denomination, the Manipur Evangelical Lutheran Church, she became a community organizer and counselor for people, especially children, traumatized by the ethnic violence.

As a counselor, Bliss identified education gaps for both local children and children displaced by the violence. In 2023, she established Bliss International School to address these gaps. “The main problem I see with education in my city is the lack of psychological awareness,” she said. “I believe that education should foster the child both academically and mentally to utilize their knowledge to the fullest.” At the school, students not only learn basic skills such as reading and writing but are encouraged to use those skills to express their emotional needs and to create space for themselves to become global citizens.

News Around the World

Lutheran Church of Australia votes to ordain women

At the 21st Regular Convention of the Lutheran Church of Australia (LCA), the General Synod voted to include women in ordination, a subject of debate for years. The resolution was approved by 71% of voting members.

“We commend this resolution to God, trusting his mercy, guiding our feet in the way of peace,” said Bishop Paul Smith. The next step is finalizing a doctrinal statement on ordination that includes the ordination of women.

Mission Personnel

Participants on a walking tour in Wittenberg.

ELCA missionaries celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Wittenberg Center

Last November, 40 people — including ELCA staff, ELCA seminarians and professors, companion-synod representatives and Young Adults in Global Mission (YAGM) from the United Kingdom and Central Europe cohorts — came to Lutherstadt Wittenberg, Germany, for a seminar celebrating the 25th anniversary of the ELCA Wittenberg Center.

Throughout the week, participants learned about the center’s foundation and complex history, heard about the center’s ministry today and imagined many possibilities for the center's future.

Goals for the seminar included:

• Deepening relationships within the ELCA Wittenberg Center network.

• Raising awareness of the ELCA Wittenberg Center.

• Connecting ELCA and German companion synods with the German National Committee of the Lutheran World Federation.

• Reconciling the center’s complicated history and demonstrating a recommitment of the ELCA to the center and its ministry.

Emma, a YAGM volunteer in the United Kingdom cohort, wrote: “It was surreal to walk around the town that was such a large part of the Reformation. We worshiped in the church where Martin Luther preached, and at the church where he nailed the 95 Theses to the door.”

In a blog post about her experience in Wittenberg, Central Europe YAGM volunteer Megan wrote: “A big part of this celebration was learning about the history of the center, and the many positional changes it went through in its 25 years. Another part was planning for the future. [Rev.] Bridget [Gautieri, director of the ELCA Wittenberg Center] has many dreams for this center and after a week with the attendees, I sensed that many left with a desire to help the center in its goals.”

Get Involved

• During Lent, you are invited to study, pray, reflect and give to ELCA World Hunger. Download or order ELCA World Hunger’s Lent study guide and calendar for use in your home or congregation, and learn more about the ministry’s impact in communities around the world.

• Applications are open for Young Adults in Global Mission and other global service positions. The priority deadline for serving as a YAGM volunteer in the 2025-2026 cohort is Jan. 15, and the final deadline is Feb. 1. There are also opportunities to serve with our global companions as a teacher in Slovakia or Japan, an ELCA regional representative in Nigeria, a pastor in Costa Rica or Jerusalem, and more; visit the ELCA job board for global positions.

• Share the fall 2024 issue of “LifeLines” with your congregation and reflect on stories of people and communities that are accompanied by ELCA World Hunger in Guatemala, Indonesia and Zimbabwe.

• Gifts to Global Mission support the International Women Leaders program, YAGM volunteers, ELCA missionaries and other global ministries. You can support these programs by making a gift here.