The Dubes at Niagara Falls (Photo courtesy of Upstate New York Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America).
Lutheran Bishop Stephen Dube flew nearly 27 hours to be there. While on the ground, about a dozen local Lutherans gathered at the Rochester International Airport (in the US state on New York) to show Bishop Dube and his wife Effina the same hospitality many of them received when they visited Zimbabwe nearly two years ago.
Bishop Dube and his wife at the home of Ed and Carole, one of a number of American families that hosted Zimbabwean Lutherans during their recent visit to upstate New York (Photo courtesy of Upstate New York Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America).
According to local press, Bishop Dube was to visit more than a dozen of the 180 Lutheran Churches in the Upstate New York Area. Yesterday, his visit was to be completed.
Bishop Dube was looking forward to sharing the word in churches in the Rochester, Ithaca, Utica, Syracuse and Buffalo areas during his stay in the US. “My message is to build partnership with almost all the Bishops we have a partnership where we discuss our own issues, but we want also, the women, the men, the youth, so we discuss with them and see how we can build each other and walk together, in this Christian faith.”
Bishop Dube links up with kids (Photo courtesy of Upstate New York Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America).
The Bishop’s visit was to culminate with the Upstate NY Synod Assembly on June 8th and 9th.
Beth Walker, the chairperson of the Upstate NY Synod Global Mission Committee wrote that it was his privilege to be traveling for two weeks across New York State with Bishop Dube and Mrs. Efinna Dube. The General Secretary of the Zimbabwean Lutheran church Mr. MM Dube was part of the delegation. “While we explored ministries in the Buffalo area the last couple of days, I realized how little I knew about the missions of our synod’s churches, and the ELCA as a whole,” Walker shared his impressions on the Upstate NY Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America web site.
Beth Walker also filmed Mrs. Efinna Dube’s speech about the Women of the Lutheran Church in Zimbabwe at the Genesee Finger Lakes Women of the ELCA Spring Assembly. You can watch the video here.
