Collection › LCMS Convention Workbook (St. Louis, Missouri) › 2019 · 67th Convention, Tampa › Page 28

LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2019, Page 28

Scan: The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

OFFICER, BOARD, AND COMMISSION REPORTS

scriptions, saw James hovering over Francis with his own body
to protect Francis from the sun. This was not done for show.
This was the fruit of a humble servant of God. James, by the
way, is the son of one of the first Leonean church leaders ever
baptized and trained. He and the other Leonean church leaders
are super eager to leapfrog off this signal event to begin a new
effort to evangelize the Muslims in the area. Within weeks of
the MMT, the church opened a new training center in the area!
Please pray for the new generation of LCMS missionaries
bringing the love and mercy of Christ to this poor, struggling
part of the world, where the church is sorely persecuted! Rev.
Jacob Gaugert, Rev. Micah Wildauer, and Rev. Ryan McDermott are teaching at the international seminary in northern
Togo. Rev. Steve Schumacher is training men for the ministry
at the seminary in Accra, Ghana. Rev. David Erber is working with the current pastors to get them ready for true leadership as they enter upon a new generation in the church, where
last year they elected only their second church president in 65
years of existence. Rev. Doug Thompson is helping James Yasseh and others in Sierra Leone to bring that church to the next
level of pastoral formation as they are working to establish a
new seminary there. Rev. Charles Wokoma is serving in our
oldest partner church of West Africa, the Lutheran Church of
Nigeria (LCN). The LCN’s rich history of bold national leadership from Rev. Jonathan Udo Ekong, and many generations of
missionary work, beginning with the pioneers Rev. Henry Nau
and Deaconess Helen Kluck, has been well documented. Rev.
Wokoma, with the help of periodic volunteer teachers, serves
tirelessly in a faithful—and in our largest—partner seminary in
Africa. Please pray for these missionaries of your church and
their families! And support their work! It’s what we do! It’s what
we’ve been doing for blessed generation after generation! To
God be the glory!

Africa Region, Eastern and Southern Area—
Rev. Shauen Trump, Area Director
The OIM collaboratively supports and encourages
God’s people in Lutheran churches or Lutheran
mission areas across Eastern and Southern Africa to enact the Holy Spirit’s work of building
the church such that the clear proclamation of the
Gospel may go forth.
The OIM works closely with the following church bodies in
mutually agreed activities that spread the Word, plant churches,
and show mercy. These relationships are our highest priority in
this area due to the opportunities they represent for the Gospel
and the OIM’s capacity and resources that can be brought to
bear for those particular opportunities:
••

Evangelical Lutheran Church of Kenya (Fellowship
Partner, 2004)

••

Lutheran Church of Uganda (Fellowship Requested)

••

Lutheran Church of East Africa (Fellowship Requested)

••

Ethiopian Evangelical Church of Mekane Yesus

••

Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania–Select
Dioceses

••

Confessional Lutheran Church–Malawi Synod

2019 Convention Workbook

••

Lutheran Mission in Africa–Synod of Thousand
Hills (Fellowship Requested)

••

Ethiopian Evangelical Lutheran Church (Fellowship
Requested)

The OIM also has relationships with other church bodies
but has limited ability to engage due to a lack of resources to
dedicate to the opportunities or due to the church body’s existing capacity to do the work God has put before it. The OIM
currently has some level of engagement beyond correspondence
with the following church bodies:
••

Lutheran Church of Southern Africa (Fellowship
Partner, 1989)

••

Evangelical Lutheran Church of South Sudan /
Sudan (Fellowship Requested)

••

South Sudan Evangelical Lutheran Church (Fellowship Requested)

••

Igreja Crista da Concórdia em Moçambique

••

Lutheran Church of Sudan

••

Fiangonana Loterana Malagasy

Categorized by the Synod’s mission priorities, the following examples demonstrate the kind of work the OIM is doing in
this area and what she anticipates doing in the next triennium.

1. Plant, sustain, and revitalize Lutheran churches
Through the OIM, the church currently strives to provide
funding, missionaries, or other material support for
••

A local missionary pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Kenya to plant churches in the remote
northwest Turkana region

••

The Mission Training Center program in the South
East of Lake Victoria Diocese of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in Tanzania, which includes the
expectation that program participants plant a new
congregation before graduation from the program

••

Motorcycle grants to provide local pastors the means
to visit congregations and mission areas

••

A local pastor or seminary student to provide catechesis and Word and Sacrament Ministry to rapidly
growing numbers of refugees in the refugee camps of
Kenya and Uganda

••

The Mission Training Center program in the Lutheran Church of Uganda, Evangelical Lutheran Church
in Kenya, and Confessional Lutheran Church—Malawi Synod, which provides training for lay leaders of
congregations and often functions as a pre-seminary
program

••

Guest preaching, administration of Holy Communion, confirmation, and Baptism in the course of
visits

••

Roofing of church buildings for congregations transitioning into larger or more permanent worship spaces
(also Priority 3—Human Care)