# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_1973_S4 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) 4 MISSIONS Secretary for Campus Ministry is presently heading up a LCUSA-initiated task force study on the church’s ministry to the community college. c. Tri-Lutheran Administration. In the past biennium, two Missouri Synod Districts— Texas, and California and Nevada— resolved in their District conventions to plan and administer their campus ministry program jointly with other Lutherans in a tri-Lutheran agency. 4. Take My Hands: Medical Work A Filipino doctor making an incision at Immanuel Lutheran Hospital in Eket, Nigeria: a medical assistant binding up an ax wound in the Highlands of New Guinea; an Indian radiologist holding up an X-ray and teaching a new group of para-profes- sional medical workers in Ambur how to read it; a nurse gently examining a new-born baby in the Mountain Province of the Philippines or in inner-city Denver—these are but a few of the people who, ‘moved by the impulse of Christ’s love,” have asked the Lord to “take” their medically trained ‘thands” and use them to proclaim His gracious, healing care. a. Medical Mission Anniversaries. 1973 marks two signifi- cant anniversaries—the 60th anniversary of the beginning of our church's ministry of health and healing and the 50th anniver- sary of Bethesda Hospital in Ambur, India, the first hospital established by our Synod overseas. President J. A. O. Preus attended special anniversary celebrations in India in February. b. Enabling Friends. October 1972 marked the 25th anniver- sary of an important auxiliary organization, the Lutheran Medi- cal Mission Association. The LMMA has done much to make the members of the Synod aware of their personal, congregational and synodical resposibilities for service and witness to the sick and lonely. LMMA members and chapters continue to offer specific help with the recruitment of medical mission personnel, the provision of medical supplies and equipment, and scholar- ship funds for 27 North American and national students pre- paring themselves (in medical school or through postgraduate work) for medical mission service with Synod and its sister churches abroad. Some local chapters have helped to initiate inner-city medical clinics, supplying them with medicine, financial assistance and volunteer staffing, while the Chicago LMMA Chapter is presently helping finance a medical mis- sionary in Hong Kong. The Wheat Ridge Foundation is another key supporter of Lutheran medical work. After having helped establish or modernize tuberculosis treatment programs in India, Hong Kong, Japan, and Nigeria, the Foundation has made possible several broad ventures into community health, preventative medicine and health education. These efforts have given new direction to existing mission hospitals and have permitted the development of comprehensive health-care programs in New Guinea, Guatemala, Nigeria, and Ghana. The assistance given by Wheat Ridge to Synod’s healing mission (since 1954) totals nearly $3,000,000. The Synod was first enabled to begin medical mission work in 1913 when a group of dedicated women responded to a plea for financial help from India missionaries. Since its founding in 1942, the Lutheran Women's Missionary League has made numerous medical missions endeavors possible through its generous grants—most recently, in February, a $40,000 grant for a new leprosy wing at Bethesda Hospital, Ambur, India. c. Response to Change. Like all other ministries of the church, Synod’s healing mission endeavors to remain faithful and at- tentive to the changeless commands of a faithful Lord in the changing environment of the 20th century. A changing environment: Without exception, less affluent nations (and national Lutheran churches working in them) now feel the need to direct and manage their own medical services. We welcome this trend, even though it demands flexibility, much mutual trust and confidence in the Holy Spirit as we are forced to find new avenues to serve people in need. In New Guinea, for instance, we have been participating in the develop- ment of a national health scheme in which government hospitals, church-related medical programs and private practitioners will be expected to work in concert. Similar developments can be expected in more affluent countries also. Another example of change: Health services in the West and Christian medical work in developing countries have alike become highly institutionalized captives of mushrooming tech- nology. As a result, treating a disease — rather than a person with a disease—tends to attract dominant focus. Christian medical service in developing countries recognizes this danger, and remedial steps are being taken to deal with it. d. Missionary Medical Emergency Reserve Fund. The Board for Missions has the responsibility to respond to missionary health emergencies (e.g., serious and prolonged illness, ac- cident, emergency travel of patient and family —sometimes with necessary escort, unexpected death while enroute, etc.). But faced with limited funds, the Board has had to seek special financial assistance from the Synod’s Board of Directors this past biennium to cover large medical bills incurred by several missionaries with serious or terminal illnesses. The Board for Missions, therefore, endorses the resolution being brought to the New Orleans convention by the Synod’s Council for Chris- - tian Medical Work — asking that the Synod authorize the estab- lishment of a $75,000 Emergency Reserve Fund to be used for the unexpected major health expenses of overseas missionary personnel. 5. Take My Hands: Ministries of Mercy “Moved by the impulse of God’s love,” many Christlike “hands” at home and abroad are witnessing to Christ by serving their neighbors in need. a. “As you have opportunity.”” Missouri Synod congrega- tions in North America and mission-related sister churches overseas are involved in a wide range of social ministry or ser- vice projects. Vocational schools in new housing areas of San Paulo, Brazil, where there are no other schools; English in- struction for youth in Japan and for Spanish-speaking people in the U.S.; day care centers in urban America and kinder- garten or nursery schools in large East Asian cities; adult literacy efforts in Ghana, Nigeria, and the United States; recreational programs for seamen in port at Houston and for the “‘back-stretch” people who walk and groom the horses at Arling- ton Park race track in Chicago; sewing classes and community improvement projects in Korea, India, and inner-city Kansas City—these are but a few examples of how concerned wor- shiping communities see needs and give a hand in meeting them, proclaiming the Gospel in deed as well as word. b. Hands to Help in Poverty and Disaster. In Nigeria, Guate- mala, the Philippines, and New Guinea, the church is involved in agricultural ministries and other economic development proj- ects helping people to help themselves. In Nigeria, for example, funds from Synod’s Board of Social Ministry and World Relief and other above-budget gifts have enabled 40 families to each receive 20 acres on which to farm and be taught modern meth- ods of irrigation, fertilization, etc., as they farm. Planners anti- cipate benefits to multiply as other Nigerians visit this Lutheran Church of Nigeria demonstration project, try new ways and become self-sufficient. The Missouri Synod, through its Board of Social Ministry and World Relief and through the generous gifts of individuals and congregations, also helped provide emergency relief this past biennium in war-ravaged Bangladesh, in flood-stricken South Dakota and Pennsylvania, and in the famine-hit Highlands of New Guinea. In each of these instances, local congregations and pastors (or missionaries and national church personnel closest to these disasters) put their hands and hearts to work in Christian concern. Their efforts invariably included the verbali- zation of the comforting message of God’s hope in Christ —a hope attested to as Christians, led by the Spirit, gave concrete ex- pression to Christ’s love for all people. “Take My Feet...” “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach good news!” (Rom. 10:15, Is. 52:7) There are some “beautiful feet’’ overseas and in North America. They are the feet of men and women of every nation- ality who are following in the footsteps of Him who in His very person was God’s Good News. The “beautiful feet’? of His ambassadors travel by plane (in remote areas of New Guinea and the Philippines), boat (along the coast of Guatemala), bus, train, Land-Rover, Jeep, car, motorcycle, bicycle, and on foot. Missouri Synod missionaries and national Christians overseas, and pastors, teachers, and laymen from Alaska to the Gulf of Mexico in North America carry the Good News of Jesus Christ and of His beautiful nail-scarred feet, and seek to win a growing number of believers all over the world.