People from the crowd said, as Peter and the Apostles spoke, and people from every land understood them, “How is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language?” What does this mean?
Let me take a guess: Maybe God wanted others to hear about His Son, Jesus and the love God has for all of us. There are so many dividing lines between peoples and nations. Even today, there are so many barriers to just sitting down and enjoying each other’s diversity—or maybe enjoying what we have in common---our faith in Jesus Christ. Maybe we all have something to learn from each other’s witness to God. The ELCA has given each synod three sister synods from around the world so that we can do just that. We partner with Estonia, a breakout of the Russian block; Namibia, the survivor of a segregated Africa; and El Salvador, one of the deadliest countries in the world. When we witness to each other, we all are made stronger in faith, and our world gets smaller. The fire of the Holy Spirit spreads.