Central Lutheran Church receives thank you from Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) worshiping community
A Christian community from Cote d’Ivorie(Ivory Coast) known as the Full Gospel Ministries, after working closely with Agora Ministry for several months, was introduced to Central Lutheran Church, and in May, 2008 the Ivorians were invited by the Congregation Council of Central Lutheran Church to become partners in faith and welcomed to worship on their campus.
Beginning in May, the group has worshipped every Sunday at Central with their overall service(generally conducted in French) lasting from 10:30am until 1:00pm. In addition, they have started a weekly bible study that meets at Central on Thursday’s at 7:00pm.
On September 7, 2008, a free lunch was hosted by the Ivorian community to say thank you to Central members for providing them with a place that they can call their church home. The lunch was a huge success with over 160 members in attendance and about 30 Ivorians cooking, serving, dancing and giving a brief presentation. Prior to the meal, a traditional Ivorian dance of welcome and thanks was provided by those who had prepared the food, it was colorful and lively.
The cuisine was superb and included various Ivorian specialties: baked chicken, turkey, pork, cassava, couscous, plantains, rice and peanut butter soup to list a few menu selections together with a variety of tasty desserts; many went back to try foods that they missed the first time through the line. Information was also provided about Cote d’Ivoire through a power point presentation. The room was adorned with the nation’s flag and the décor featured the colors of their flag: orange, white and green depicting the savannah grasslands, the country’s rivers and the coastal forests.
The emcee for the presentation was Lydie Assa, the group’s worship leader and student of the Agora Discipleship Academy. She handed out special certificates of appreciation to Senior Pastor Rick Nelson, for personally extending his welcome to the group: to Pastor Cherian, for his ongoing work through Agora in connecting the group with Central; to the Agora Ministry Team at Central for their help and advocacy and to Karen Knox and Charles Smith, Central staff members, who have made the group feel especially welcome. The hope is that this event is just the start of growing interaction between the group and members of Central, with several more upcoming events currently being planned. One notable comment during the presentation was when Lydie found herself extending a hand to some visitors recently and saying “welcome to Central.”
Jim Heintz
Agora Ministry Team
AGORA PARTNERSHIP AND RENEWAL AT ATONEMENT
Atonement Lutheran Church in East Bloomington has launched a Renewal Mission to reach out to the growing diversity in the neighborhood. The church leadership is taking a bold and unconventional approach to serve the community with and through the mission and vision of Agora ministry. Atonement leaders, after participating in the Agora Mission Awareness training, invited Agora to house its office and the Discipleship Academy on its campus.
In September, 2008 Atonement members gathered for a Renewal Celebration. The Atonement Mission board has observed and identified the areas of renewal. The reliance on prayer as the key to engaging God’s guidance in decisions is the first step. We have African style prayer every Sunday evening from 6-8 pm and first Fridays in every month 9-12 pm. Our worship services are more inspirational and our music is dedicated to helping people experience God.
Atonement responds to our baptismal call of making disciples of All Nations and to serve all, not just our members alone. Atonement feels a special call to serve the human and spiritual needs of the recent immigrant families around. We see the demographic shift about to happen in our neighborhood, the changing of minority to majority as in any place in our country. We recognize that our time to be gracious hosts to those moving here is now. We visit their homes to pray with them. We build relationships while we discover ways we can be of assistance to them as an expression of God’s love
We are blessed with Pr. Emmanuel Lamptey who is associated with Agora. He assists and leads us to reach out to our new Neighbors. Several African families have found a worshiping home at Atonement through our outreach. We cherish our partnership with Agora and we thank God for all these transformation happening at Atonement Lutheran in Bloomington.