15.06.2023

Diaconia Beyond the Ordinary

The students get to know the Mission House. Photo by: Susanne Seiler, UEM

This May, five students visited the UEM Mission House. They are studying at the Protestant University of Applied Sciences Rhineland-Westphalia-Lippe (EvH) in Bochum, Germany. Originally, they come from Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Tanzania and South Africa. Rhoda Lynn Gregorio and Matthias Börner from the UEM Team Diaconia discussed with them the UEM's understanding of mission and its work in the area of International Diaconia.

For some years now, the UEM has been offering its own course of study, the International Master of Arts in Diaconic Management (abbreviated IMADM). It serves in particular to qualify diaconal leaders in the member churches of the UEM in Asia, Africa and Germany and is offered in cooperation with universities in all three regions. In this way, students not only get to know about the diaconal theory and practice of one country, but also learn from different perspectives and contexts.

Gregorio sums it up this way, "These visits are a tremendous professional benefit for the students themselves but also a skill-building experience for the cooperating universities involved and the students' home churches."

The visit was part of the International Study Program (ISP) of the EvH, which is sponsored by the UEM and the EKvW* in the summer semester 2023, as well as by the Association of Friends and Donors of the EvH.

*EKvW = Evangelische Kirche von Westfalen (Evangelical Church in Westphalia)