Ottawa, ON

Re: Global Mission in the ELCIC, Oct/Nov 2017, p.10.

The feature was useful for helping people understand today’s realities. Although the awareness of the changing approach to mission may have come in the past 20 years, these changes have been ongoing for much longer.

Regarding the situation in Cameroon with which I am most familiar, the ministries of the Lutheran Church there have been under the direction of committees of Cameroonians since the late 70s. For example, the medical committee decided on the placement of doctors and nurses, both expatriate and native, as well as other matters concerning the hospitals and dispensaries of the church.

My late husband Paul was happy to spend several of our last years working there in the mid-80s alongside the first two Cameroonian graduate doctors supported by the church. One of those doctors, Dr. Jonas Njikam, went on to train in ophthalmology, supported in part by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada. He continues to work among the people there. Now his son has also completed training in ophthalmology.