Touched by our young missionaries

To send and receive. Those are the two mandates of the ELCA Division for Global Mission. "It is a two-way street--an expansion in understanding from 100 to 150 years ago when missionary work was primarily thought to be a one-way street," says Rafael Malpica-Padilla, the unit's executive director.

One clear example is the unit's Young Adults in Global Mission program, which includes 41 people, aged 19 to 30. That's nearly a third of the 141 new ELCA missionaries deployed in spring and summer 2004. They serve in eight countries: Argentina, Egypt, Germany, India, Kenya, Thailand, United Kingdom and the Ukraine. If you were to visit, you might find a young adult working with church youth, teaching English, volunteering in a shelter, helping refugees or caring for elderly people.