LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2023, Page 19

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OFFICER, BOARD, AND COMMISSION REPORTS
Church planting in 12 countries continues to be a major focus
of OIM in countries where church partners do not exist. Daughter missions of the LCMS include Belize, the Cayman Islands,
Cuba, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Jamaica, Panama, Peru, and
Puerto Rico. LCMS partner churches include Guatemala, Mexico,
and Uruguay. In these countries, 45 LCMS missionaries and/or alliance missionaries are actively planting churches. Plans call for an
additional 25 missionaries to strengthen and expand this effort over
the next five years.
One exception is Cuba, where we currently do not plant churches but provide seminary formation to men to return and serve their
own people. Mission work in Spain was planted by LCMS LAC
with Argentina and, in 2010, transferred to the responsibility of the
LCMS Eurasia region in 2021.
Currently, 45 Lutheran churches are being planted in 11 countries supported by partnerships called FOROS. FOROS exist in Belize, Bolivia, Chile, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Jamaica, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Uruguay, and Venezuela. In each
of these countries, the focus is on bringing salvation to every people
and nation as we Spread the Gospel, Plant Lutheran Churches, and
Show Mercy. Districts, congregations, RSOs, and individuals of the
LCMS visit our FOROS twice a year to receive reports, attend worship, study theology, visit mission sites, and prayerfully support the
efforts of our missionaries through short-term teams, vocational opportunities, and financial support. Over 200 partners attend a dozen
FOROS across LAC.
Exploratory work is being carried out in Colombia and Ecuador.

B.2.a. Pastoral and Diaconal Formation
Where Lutheran churches are planted, the Office of the Keys is
necessary. Raising up Lutheran pastors began in 1900 with LCMS
missionaries founding its first LAC seminary in Bon Jesus, Brazil.
A second seminary, Concordia, was built in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1948. Both seminaries continue to form pastors and deacons
for their respective church bodies. A third seminary was established
in Mexico City together with the ALC and LCA but concluded its
joint work in the 1990s.
Concordia Seminary the Reformer, Palmar Arriba, Dominican
Republic, was established in 2017 by OIM LAC and concluded its
sixth academic year in May 2023. She prioritizes her service as a
regional seminary to the Dominican Republic, OIM LAC mission
fields as mentioned above, and partner churches that don’t have a
route to ordination.
Currently, 15 men are studying in the four-year residential program (Greek and Hebrew included), which includes an emphasis
on forming men as evangelists, shepherds, and teachers. Men are
taught to plant churches by the time they graduate from the seminary. Additionally, 30 men are studying in the four-year online Formación Pastoral Hispano (FPH) program, a joint program with
Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne.
A deaconess training program began three years ago, with 99
graduating in 2022. An additional 75 deaconess students have enrolled in the second cycle of studies, which began in January 2023.
These women represent the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
Thus far, at the conclusion of May 2023, thirty pastoral students have graduated for service to Lutheran churches in Bolivia,
Chile, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru,
and Spain. Two Haitian men joined the residential program this

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year, adding another country to the already diverse student body.
Residential professors come from Argentina, Brazil, Canada, the
United States, and Venezuela. Adjunct professors are from an additional five countries, making for great diversity in the faculty as
well while professing a shared commitment to the teaching of the
Gospel and the Lutheran Confessions.

B.3. Showing Mercy
Mercy initiatives flow from a triune God who loves His people
through the altar and pulpit. Those who have received God’s gifts
then carry this love to their neighbor in need. Again, the Gospel
needs to be taught. This is done through workshops that teach deaconesses and laypeople who give witness and pastors who proclaim
the Gospel.
Our mercy center in the Dominican Republic (an institute of
Concordia Seminary the Reformer) offers several workshops for
the laity, including Everyone His Witness, Ambassadors of Reconciliation, and Disaster Response. These workshops are taught
across 15 countries in a repeated fashion, as requested by congregations and their pastors. The courses are primarily for the laity, to
equip them to be the hands, feet, and mouths of mercy as they fan
into their communities in love for their needy neighbors.
Additionally, our 99 national deaconesses in the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, and Venezuela—who work in
their local congregations, Lutheran Hour offices, Sunday schools,
youth groups, hospitals, food kitchens, etc.—are a force for mercy,
prepared to speak the Gospel and teach the faith as they are called
upon to do so in their vocations.
Mercy houses in Belize, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Peru, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela include
Lutheran schools, group homes, a rehabilitation center for people
with disabilities, after-school programs, food kitchens, disaster
centers, and refuge centers. In each of these areas, we strive to share
the Gospel alongside whatever kind of bodily care is provided.
Due to the dire socio-economic situation in Haiti, OIM LAC has
begun to support our partner church through quarterly donations to
each of its six districts. Starvation is a reality for 50 percent of the
population. The situation is critical. Tens of thousands are fleeing to
the Dominican Republic and across the Americas. Fervent prayers
are solicited.
The Venezuelan exile now exceeds six million people and is
the largest exodus of a people from any Western nation in the past
50 years. OIM LAC has supported the stalwart and faithful efforts
of the ministry and mission of the Iglesia Luterana Venezuela (our
partner church) over the past four years. This work entails bringing
the board of directors of this church body to the Dominican Republic for a FORO on a yearly basis, hearing her reports, supporting
her church plants, providing medicine and food, and supporting
Venezuelan refugees as they connect in foreign countries with OIM
and our Lutheran church partners across the region. Despite the
suffering, they continue to raise up men for the ministry and had
almost 40 women graduate from last year’s deaconess studies.

C. Eurasia Region
The Eurasia region of OIM is the largest of the four OIM regions of the world, comprising all of (1) Europe, (2) the Middle
East, (3) the countries that made up the former USSR, (4) most of
South Asia (India and Pakistan), and (5) Mongolia for its connection with Eurasia work begun in Kazakhstan (cf. no. 3). The Eurasia
region is blessed to have many partner churches with whom LCMS
2023 Convention Workbook