Partnership Ministries

The key element of Partnership Ministries is the concept of Accompaniment - walking together with people, some of whom may be of a different culture, race and language. Mission Outreach at Ascension desires to make Accompaniment with its partners a ministry goal.

An element of Accompaniment is working together (joining hands) which is a gesture of help and a gesture of love. Ascension seeks to practice Accompaniment by joining hands with its partners in an on-going fashion.

Partnerships should meet the following criteria:

There should be a strong emphasis on relationships, walking with one another and learning more about each other, where the two parties recognize that they are in a partnership.
A partnership should involve some kind of commitment. This should include a resolution by the Church Council to formally recognize the relationship and a commitment by the Council to include some financial support for the partnership in the annual budget.
A partnership should involve some kind of sharing between the two parties, where each party gives and each party receives.
A partnership should have an expectation for some longevity. It is more than a "mission of the month". However, a partnership can be terminated if other criteria are not maintained.
There should be an opportunity for partnerships to permeate ALL activities at Ascension, from Worship (prayers, music, messages), to Small Groups (Relationships), to Sunday School (Spiritual Growth), to Service (Outreach).

Ascension currently participates in four partnership ministries:

Meru Diocese, Tanzania
Salvadoran Lutheran Church
Cross Lutheran Church
Bethlehem Lutheran Church

The relationship between the Greater Milwaukee Synod ELCA, and the Meru Diocese ELCT began in 1996 as part of the ELCA Companion Synod program. In 1997, the first delegation from Milwaukee visited the Diocese of Meru. At about that time, a Meru Partnership Committee was formed within the Greater Milwaukee Synod with the objective of working with our Lutheran brothers and sisters on a variety of programs. These have included:

Supporting pastors with transportation and loans
Improving health care by funding a medical scholarship and updating medical facilities
Providing facilities and scholarships to enhance education opportunities
Starting the Mt. Meru Coffee Project to help raise the income of small coffee farmers by paying in excess of fair trade prices for their coffee and thereby do "economic justice" in the region.
Funding other agricultural projects to try to bring more food security to the region
Establishing 20 congregation-to-parish partnerships
Exchanging delegations on an alternating year basis.

http://home.earthlink.net/~slindberg/

Ascension's primary involvement with this Partnership has been through the Mt. Meru Coffee Project. Ascension serves only Mt. Meru Coffee at all of its fellowship functions and sells Mt. Meru Coffee to its membership. Ascension has also responded to emergency food needs brought on by severe drought in the Diocese with Mission Offerings and special offerings.

http://www.mtmerucoffee.org

The Greater Milwaukee Synod (GMS) established a companion Synod relationship with the Salvadoran Lutheran Church (SLC) in 1988. The SLC is committed to fighting poverty and injustice in El Salvador by establishing congregations in the poorest communities. It has 12,000 members in 70 congregations with 24 ordained clergy.

Many pastors of the SLC serve without pay, because local church members are so poor. A Pastoral Support Endowment Fund was created to be a source of income for the SLC pastors. In September 2008, as an expression of our companion relationship, Ascension’s Mission Offerings went to the Fund to help pay the salaries of the pastors. It is a goal of growing Ascension’s relationship with the SLC that an annual contribution be made to the Endowment Fund.

Future opportunities for Ascension include forming "sister congregation relationships" with SLC congregations, something that 12 other GMS congregations have done. Relationships can be built via cultural exchanges (learning more about the country and culture) and short term mission trips. What a wonderful way to join hands with our brothers and sisters in El Salvador.

http://www.partnerswithelsalvador.org/whoweare/index.html

This is a partnership in which Ascension and Cross Lutheran Church, Milwaukee, have been involved for over 25 years. It began because of a relationship between a pastor at Ascension and a pastor at Cross. This Partnership has given members at both churches opportunities to participate in ministries of music, diversity relationships, hunger and health through hands-on, gifts-in-kind and financial support.

One of the most long-standing aspects of the partnership is Praisefest, an annual gathering of the choirs of all of the churches with which Cross celebrates a partnership. The variety of music and the diversity of voices indeed echoes the words of Psalm 100:1-2: "Shout praises to the Lord, everyone on this earth. Be joyful and sing as you come in to worship the Lord!"

One of the most visible aspects of this ministry is the support of the Cross Bread of Healing meal program. This ministry has led to forming many friendships with the people at Cross and with the people that we have served. In addition, members of Cross have participated with Ascension in trips to Honduras and the Holy Land. The seeds have been planted for a deepening of the Partnership in the future.

Cross website

This association began in 2006 when Ascension, as a member of the Waukesha Cluster of the Greater Milwaukee Synod, committed to financially supporting Bethlehem's word and sacrament ministries while their members were recovering from the effects of Hurricane Katrina.

It was strengthened in 2007 when Ascension members traveled to New Orleans to do disaster relief. It was on this "mission trip" that personal relationships were formed between Ascension and Bethlehem members. These have continued to strengthen as Pastor Keen of Bethlehem has made several trips to Waukesha and Ascension will send its 4th "mission trip" to New Orleans in early 2010.

http://www.futurewithhope.org/galleries.htm#bethlehem