The Life of the Local Church Arises from the Love of God
" Everything that is done in the world is done by hope."
-Martin Luther
Working with Zambians to Shape their Future
Every area of trouble gives out a ray of hope; and the one unchangeable certainty is that nothing is certain or unchangeable.
--John Fitzgerald Kennedy
Welcome!
Susan and Arden Strasser are building on ten years' work in southern Africa with African partners in health, development and the church. Susan serves as country director for the Elizabeth Glaser pediatric AIDS Foundation. Arden, a pastor, serves as a missionary to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Zambia, appointed by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. They live with their 9 year old daughter, Alea, in Lusaka, Zambia. Their oldest daughter, Chloe, attends the University of California at Irvine in southern California.
E-mail
Susan Strasser
sstrasser_pedaids.org
Arden Strasser
arden.strasser_elca.org
USA
Zambia
Pastor Arden focuses on developing future leaders for the church in Zambia. This includes training, monitoring and coordinating programs to strengthen the skill sets needed for a healthy national church, namely theology, ministry, pastoral counseling, administration, development, project management, and finance.
Human Capacity building is a key requirement for sustainability of institutions and programs, including the African church. Pastor Arden also facilitates training of clergy and congregational lay leaders in the areas of children's ministry, music, worship leadership and HIV/AIDS outreach. This also includes giving workshops at large women and youth gatherings.
The ELC-Zambia is one of the younger Lutheran Churches in Africa. As they work to build their spiritual, organizational, and administrative capacity, we have also partnered with them in their need for proper buildings. During 2008/09, ELCA congregations funded the design and construction of a strong 7 x 16 metre concrete block church in the rural Northwest, a key area where half of the congregations are located. Henceforth, we have challenged congregations to build their own churches, making their own bricks, after which you can provide the funds for the final roofing, as an incentive.
My core focus continues in growing skills and leaders for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Zambia (ELC-Zambia), now with 3000 members worshipping every Sunday morning across 35 congregations, towards the goal of one day becoming a self-reliant body. There are no short cuts towards becoming self-supporting. This entails identifying and building up those persons with potential. I continue hosting short courses in ministry for our twenty lay parish workers, and find outside courses for strengthening other congregational leaders in various core ministry competencies.
75,000 children are currently living with HIV in Zambia alone. And while more are now receiving lifesaving treatment, many more still need to be reached. Without treatment, half of all HIV-positive children will die before their second birthdays. A number of organizations like mine, the Elisabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF), the US gov't, & the Zambian gov't, are committed to reaching more HIV-positive pregnant women with the medicines needed to prevent their babies from being infected in the first place. We are also committed to reaching children living with HIV across the country, expanding pediatric care and treatment services and providing psychosocial support. The ultimate goal is to help these children live long and healthy lives.
Susan writes "there have been many successes over the past years in the care and treatment of people living with HIV and AIDS. Life extending treatment is now widely available, stigma and discrimination are reducing although still present, and people are moving foward in productive ways. Now, we must look at models to sustain this level of chronic care while continually working to strengthen district health systems and basic primary health care services. It is indeed a big challenge."
Susan writes, "There have been many gains in the care of people living with HIV. Transmission rates are dropping and access to treatment continues to increase. Area which need to improve and which we are focusing on include increasing the number of children who access treatment and getting more and more pregnant women to take advantage of preventative medicines so that they reduce the chances of passing the virus on to their babies.
Getting children onto treatment can be particularly hard as many health workers are less confident to treat kids. Also, sometimes parents and caregivers struggle to tell their children their diagnosis and why they need to take medicine every day. We have developed a counseling training program to help health workers gain skills to talk with children and families about living positively with HIV and AIDS."
Improving Psychosocial Support in Zambia, One Child at a Time
"AIDS 2010" XVIII International AIDS Conference
Talking to Kids About the Hard Stuff: Disclosing HIV Status in Zam bia
Micro-credit Objective: Growing stronger leaders and communities through training, congregational income generation and self-reliance through micro-lending.
In April 2007, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Zambia Church Council welcomed the introduction of the micro-credit program into the church as a means for building economic self-reliance & reducing
poverty for the communities in which the ELC-Zambia is active. I have worked closely with this national church as it has has established, grown and evaluated a micro-credit program involving 700 adults in 100 lending groups across 30 rural & urban congregations.
Start-up loan capital for the trained participants was provided. All groups meet regularly for micro-loan management, micro-business collaboration and advice giving. Groups who successfully manage their
funds, with each participant using and repaying their micro-loan to their group from their small business, can apply to receive an increase to their available loan capital after eighteen months.
Participants used their profits to take better care of their children (school fees, medicines) and provide greater household food security. Some women reported that they felt more pride and greater self-esteem, and saw themselves as more respected by their husbands and communities. Participants "learned by doing," gaining skills to plan, to budget, and to be accountable. The groups in one region pooled their profits to build a house for their pastor!
Funds have been placed into the hands of almost 100 Micro-Lending Clubs, for carrying out the following income generating projects.
Rose Samende used her microcredit loan for extra fertilizer and corn seed, planting an acre more than she usually can. Here is her huge maize harvest, enough staple food for her family for 12 months, with extra to sell to pay back her loan. There is another silo behind her. Farming is the most common use of the micro-credit loans.
Shida Kipesile used her loan to start a business selling dried fish and beans at the market, both important portable sources of protein.
I (Arden) work with the Lutheran Church in Zambia in growing leaders. This indigenous church began their first outreach effort in 2009, a preschool for vulnerable children in Lusaka, called Hope for the Heart.
The social and economic problems resulting from death and extended illnesses of working-age persons attributed to HIV/AIDS are well known. There are millions of children orphaned and more made vulnerable to extreme poverty because their parents are weakened by illness or because they have passed away. Grandparents and other relatives are stressed in caring for larger numbers of children in the household.
In order to give such caregivers a daily rest, provide their children with nutrition and stimulation in a safe environment, the Lutheran Church here opened its new Hope for the Heart Outreach Centre in April 2009 in Lusaka, after many months of planning with Pastor Arden. Fifteen children are enrolled, with a trained preschool teacher and teacher's aide.
Chibelo Basic School and Bauleni Street Kids Centre
Two large play parks were opened in 2008 and 2009 after months of planning and coordination of Zambian builders by Chloe Strasser. The schools together educate over 2500 pupils. The playgrounds consist of towers, rope bridge, climbing tires, stairs, slides, see saws, swings, and numerous monkey bars. In urban areas children have few safe places to play here. Play is essential for healthy child development and these playgrounds respond to this need.
Since 2004, Our Savior's of Lafayette, CA, has advanced prevention, physical care and social support of persons affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic through partner NGOs, churches and the Strasser family. This has included cross-cultural exchanges, medical & church worker training, children & youth events, orphan care, playground and church construction, and micro-finance initiatives, in Zimbabwe and Zambia. They are also a covenant mission partner of Pastor Arden through the ELCA Global Mission Unit.
The following congregations have committed to support Pastor Arden's ministry and/or the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Zambia through the ELCA Global Mission Unit.
St Mark's Lutheran Church
San Francisco, CA
St Paul Lutheran Church
Statesville, NC
The Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd
Sacramento, CA
Trinity Old Lutheran Church
Eggertsville, NY
Hope Lutheran of the Sierra
South Lake Tahoe, CA
Our Saviour Lutheran Church
Rochester, NY
St John Lutheran Church
Victor, NY
Stroudsburg, PA
Ascension Lutheran Church Women of the ELCA
Shelby, NC
Holy Cross Lutheran Church
Mocksville, NC
St. John's Lutheran Church
Bloomington, IL
Immanuel Lutheran Church
Webster, NY
All Saints Lutheran Church
Albuquerque, NM
Hope Lutheran Church
San Mateo, CA
Los Altos Lutheran Church
Los Altos, CA
Fairfield, CT
Peace Lutheran Church
Grass Valley, CA
Saint Matthew Lutheran Church
Walnut Creek, CA
St Luke Lutheran Church
Sunnyvale, CA
St Luke's Lutheran Church
St Andrew Lutheran Church
New Bern, NC
Upstate NY Synod of the ELCA
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You can learn more about Dr Susan's work with the Elisabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, and how to support it, by clicking
You can also donate directly to one of the initiatives on this site. Simply send a check to the ELCA/Global Mission Unit, 8765 West Higgins Rd. Chicago, IL 60631. Make your check payable to: ELCA-GM. On the memo line write: Global Gifts: ELC-Zambia: Church Roofing, OR Leadership Development, OR Micro-Lending.
