LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2010, Page 31

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SYNOD REPORTS
• In 2009, 64 international educators were serving schools in 5
countries.
• Throughout 2009, 48 short-term individuals served
• More than 470 individuals served on short-term mission teams in
2009
• More than 50 volunteers currently serve with The 72—Partners on
the Road through the National Mission team
• As of January 2010, the number of staff serving in St. Louis or
deployed in stewardship management and services is 60 fulltime equivalents—including four deployed international regional
directors.
• LCMS Ministry to the Armed Forces currently endorses 215 chaplains, including: 71 active duty chaplains, 93 reserve and National
Guard chaplains, 22 in Veterans Affairs ministry, 25 Civil Air Patrol
chaplains, and 4 full-time prison chaplains.
Mission Focus: Linking Lutherans and Lutheran communities
in sharing the Gospel
Scope of Current LCMS World Mission International Work

LCMS World Mission’s international work of linking with and
expanding the global Lutheran missionary community outreach in
sharing the Gospel is organized into four geographic regions—Africa,
Asia, Eurasia, and Latin America. In each region, LCMS World
Mission has identified “priority platforms” through which our work
is to proclaim the Gospel, plant churches, train leaders, facilitate strategic mission development, and lead global mission multiplication.
• Africa—Training national leaders, including pastors, evangelists, and lay leaders
• Asia—Reaching people through education and human care
ministries
• Eurasia—Reconnecting people to their Christian heritage
• Latin America—Training national leaders and missionaries
During the triennium, LCMS World Mission relationships and/
or work expanded into three additional countries, including Burundi,
Senegal, and a restrictive country in Eurasia. This brings the total to
89 countries, including the United States. A number of additional collaborative mission opportunities and relationships are in the process
of being developed.
Some additional ministry developments of note include the
following:
After 14 years of civil war and two years of talks to overcome their
differences, four Liberian church bodies united to form a new church
body, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Liberia. LCMS World
Mission walked along side them during the two year process. Now
made up of some 350 congregations, the church’s Lutheran schools,
pastors, and church leaders are in almost all of the 16 language/cultural groups and major regions of Liberia—putting the new church
body in a tremendous position to share the message of Jesus Christ
to the entire nation.
The mission departments of the LCMS and the Ethiopian
Evangelical Church of Mekane Yesus (the largest Lutheran church
body in Africa with some five million members), signed an agreement that formalizes the relationship for mutual mission as church
bodies. This allows for LCMS missionaries to work within the country and also begins the process of exploring other areas where we can
work together in reaching more for Christ.
Beginning in 2008, Central Europe partner churches and their
congregations in Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, and Poland began
requesting short-term teams from LCMS congregations and

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organizations to help support their local congregation-based outreach
initiatives—summer English camps. Ten teams served in the summer of 2009, and the partners have asked for another 30-plus teams
to serve together with them in summer 2010.
In Kyrgyzstan in October 2009, “Compassion,” the mobile medical
van that has been such a crucial part of the Kyrgyz church’s growth,
ministry, and outreach to surrounding communities, celebrated its
10-year anniversary. The van is a joint ministry between Concordia
Mission Society, Orphan Grain Train, and LCMS World Mission.
Nearly 250,000 children and adults were treated by the mobile medical van over the past 10 years. The van travels to villages around
Kyrgyzstan to provide pediatric, dental, and OB/GYN care to those
who would not otherwise receive it.
During the triennium, Dr. Jim Koerschen, former president of
Concordia University, Ann Arbor, began serving as the head of school
at Concordia International School—Shanghai (CISS). CISS also dedicated and opened their new state-of-the art David F. Rittmann Fine
Arts Center, a four-story elementary school building, and a new high
school building, and celebrated its 10-year anniversary! CISS first
opened in fall 1998 with 22 elementary- and middle school students
and today serves about 1,100 students in preschool through grade 12.
CISS is one of two international schools currently owned and operated by the LCMS. The second is in Hong Kong, with a third school
in the developmental stages for Southeast Asia.
Country-specific Partner Vision Summits of varying sizes and
scope were held during the past triennium to allow for a vast array
of mission-minded organizations to share, network, collaborate, and
coordinate their roles in supporting the mission and ministry in the
Dominican Republic, India, South Africa, Sudan, Thailand, Vietnam,
and others. Partners attending these summits included international
partner church leadership, LCMS agencies LCMS World Mission and
LCMS World Relief and Human Care, mission societies, seminaries,
and many other organizations and groups.
Relief efforts following earthquakes in Peru (2007), China (2008),
Haiti (2010), and Chile (2010); a cyclone in Myanmar (2008); and
flooding in Vietnam (2008) allowed LCMS World Mission the
opportunity to walk alongside our international partners and partners churches in serving those in need. This work also expanded or
started new collaborative outreach projects with a number of stateside and international organizations including LCMS World Relief
and Human Care, Lutheran Hour Ministries, and Concordia Welfare
and Education Foundation in Asia, as well as LCMS districts, congregations, and mission societies. As an outgrowth of work in Peru,
the LCMS placed its first resident missionary there in 2008. A career
missionary is soon to join.
Sponsored work/projects for 2009–10 were as follows:
• 18 countries with work/projects totaling less than $25,000 annually:
Bolivia
Ethiopia
Latvia
Paraguay
Sudan

Burkina Faso
France
Liberia
Poland
Uruguay

Congo (Brazzaville)
Haiti
Lithuania
Portugal

England
Ivory Coast
Mexico
Puerto Rico

• 16 countries with work/projects totaling between $25,000 and
$100,000 annually:
Argentina
Chile
Honduras
South Africa

Belgium
The Gambia
Jamaica
Sri Lanka

Benin
Ghana
Peru
Tanzania

Cayman Islands
Guam
Philippines
Uganda

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