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LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2019, Page 25

Scan: The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

OFFICER, BOARD, AND COMMISSION REPORTS
city. The mission team in Puerto Rico now consists
of three ordained pastors, a commissioned teacher,
a deaconess, a native Puerto Rican lay evangelist
enrolled in seminary by distance, and a new Lutheran
Hour (CPTLN) office with its own director.
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Spain (LCMS mission)—The work in Spain began
in 1998 in partnership with the Argentinian church
and the LCMS. In 2015, LCMS missionaries took
on the work from the Argentinian church and three
churches have been planted in Sevilla, Madrid, and
Cartegena. Due to many members reaching out
through the Internet, the church has members in 20
cities and has doubled from 70 in 2015 to 120 in 2019.
Additionally, they have gone from one Spaniard
pastor to a second being ordained in 2018 and three
more in preparation.
Uruguay (partner church)—Uruguay is a heavily
secularized country of 3 million people in the Southern Cone of South America, between Brazil and
Argentina. LCMS missionaries work together with
the Lutheran Church of Uruguay (Iglesia Luterana
del Uruguay, ILdU) and Lutheran Hour Ministries to
reach out beyond the capital, Montevideo, where St.
Paul Lutheran Church and School were established
in the 1940s. Rev. James Sharp and his wife, teacher
Angela, focus on training and equipping local leaders, including theological education and identification
of potential church workers.
In the northern Uruguayan town of Chapicuy,
construction has begun on the first new Lutheran
Church building in the country for over 70 years. In
the Montevideo City Center Mission, LCMS supported Deaconess Valeria Bustamante’s mercy ministry serves people who commute from the metropolitan area to work, shop, and go to school downtown,
as well as the many immigrants who are coming to
Uruguay from other parts of Latin America. The
staff reaches out with mercy projects and educational
opportunities to connect with unbelieving Uruguayans.
OIM and Lutheran Church Extension Fund (LCEF)
are participating in the educational foundation that
operates the 1,400-student St. Paul School as they
seek to open the first Spanish-speaking Lutheran
university. This university has the potential to support educational and mission projects all over Latin
America.

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Venezuela (partner church)—We continue to pray
for and support the people and the pastors of the
Iglesia Luterana Venezuela (ILV) in this economically
depressed country. The 16 pastors who hold positions in Venezuela provided a comprehensive package
of projects to support future church planting and
mercy projects at the first Venezuela FORO staged in
Dominican Republic. The projects include support
for their Bible institute, Juan de Frias; a circuit visitor
network to encourage and support pastors; mercy
houses for accommodating families close to a hos-

pital; pre-natal and family care for young mothers;
a national youth committee; and a mission pastor in
western Venezuela. Hyperinflation hit over a million
percent in 2018 and 25 percent of the membership
of the church has gone in exodus to other countries.
Many of these are now congregating in LCMS missions such as Peru and Chile, but also in Bolivia and
Panama. OIM has provided all pastors a week of
respite and is sending via its Chilean church partner
life-saving medicines to the Venezuelan congregations
four times a year.

Eurasia Region—Rev. James Krikava, Associate
Executive Director–Regional Operations Eurasia
and Asia
The OIM has a particular stake in this year’s Convention, at
which—among many blessings—our beloved LCMS commemorates the sending of her first international missionary. Likely
many do not know the name of Rev. Theodore Naether, who
was given by his God the bravery of faith that enabled him and
his family to pick up and move to India, where he would bring
the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a people unknown to them, seemingly strange to them, perhaps even frightening to them, and in
a land so very far away. And there was no turning back, only
lots of unknowns (no small world, no planes, no cell phones,
no GPS, and only moral support from the sending church
abroad). He took up his task with a Bible, the Lutheran Confessions, a few other good books, the prayers of the saints abroad,
a Baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, the Word
of Christ crucified preached (1 Corinthians 1:23), the Word of
forgiveness of the risen Savior of mankind who has placed His
Word into our mouths (John 20:21–23), and the body and blood
of the Lord, given and poured out for the forgiveness of sins.
And as Luther put it so well, “For where there is forgiveness of
sins, there is also life and salvation” (Luther’s Small Catechism,
Part VI, Q&A 3).
After 124 years, what pastor Naether took with him is what
we continue to take with us into the many international mission fields established by the LCMS over the past century and a
quarter. With contemporary ease of travel, amazing technological advancements, and truly remarkable support of missionaries through the OIM, the world has truly gotten smaller, faster,
and more efficient, with instant communication at the click of
a mouse and many other advantages and blessings. Yet, with all
of this, it is still the unchanged and unchanging Gospel in Word
and Sacrament through which the Holy Spirit continues to work
that mysterious and miraculous conversion in the hearts of
Christians. We may not have missionary Naether’s name on the
tip of our tongues. But this is really a good thing. For through
the preaching office, it is Christ who is at work under the forms
of forgettable sinful men. And He is never forgotten but seen
under humble forms of human flesh, Word, water, bread, and
wine; called into His service of salvation, won and given us by
grace alone, through faith alone, by the Word alone.
It is an exciting time to be involved in LCMS international
missions today! We are looking at LCMS missions in over 40
countries of the world, with dozens of partner churches and allies in fellowship with the LCMS communicating, collaborating,
and cooperating with us in ever-expanding ways to further the
spread the word of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, plant congre2019 Convention Workbook