LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2004, Page 49

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SYNODICAL REPORTS 49

least a year’s service, and several have been ordered to a second
period of activation. Ministry to the Armed Forces believes there
are about 12,000-15,000 LCMS members serving on active duty.
Church Planting in Kyrgyzstan—In 2002, MOST (Mission Op-
portunities Short-Term) Ministries, an LCMS Recognized Service
Organization, sent 11 volunteers to Kyrgyzstan to train a local team
of six optical technicians, five translators, and three evangelists to
conduct ongoing eyeglass clinics as an outreach ministry in Kyr-
gyz villages. According to missionary Rev. Timothy Nickel, in ad-
dition to giving free eye exams and fitting patients with glasses do-
nated by several organizations in the United States, the Kyrgyz
team shares the Gospel with each patient. Through these efforts,
Bible studies for new believers have been organized and new
churches planted. The clinics are supported through an LCMS
World Relief project. Since this field opened in 1997, 10 congre-
gations have been planted, with an additional five estimated by July
2004. Several national Christians are working as evangelists and
being trained as church leaders. Work in Kyrgyzstan is done in
partnership with the Concordia Mission Society.

Ten Years in Kazakhstan—In July 2003, LCMS World Mission
celebrated an entire decade of work and God’s awesome deeds in
Kazakhstan! Missionaries recal] the days when they held Bible
studies and worship services in the missionary apartments. And in
those early days, the four missionaries sometimes outnumbered the
local believers. Now the Lord’s work is visible in the church’s
seven congregations and 375 members. Now local pastors and dea-
cons share God’s precious Word to their own people. Now min-
istries are going on in both the Russian and Kazakh languages, for
young and old, men and woman, in city and villages alike. Mem-
bers are active in small-group study, youth group, leadership, and
seminary training. Work in Kazakhstan is done in partnership with
the Concordia Mission Society.

Francophone Seminary in West Africa—The Lutheran Center
for Theological Studies (CLET), located in Dapaong, Togo, gradu-
ated its first class in 2002. It not only serves the growing church in
Togo, which has just begun to organize itself into a Synod, but it
also serves seven emerging churches in French-speaking West
Africa, with students from Ivory Coast, Togo, Benin, Burkina Faso,
Guinea, Congo (Kinshasa), and Congo (Brazzaville). The CLET
program includes two tracks—a novice (pre-seminary) track tai-
lored for leaders who have little formal education and a track lead-
ing to ordination. Church planting is the central emphasis of pro-
gram courses. After the first class of students finished its
coursework, they collectively planted five churches.

Christian Schools in Indonesia—LCMS World Mission is in-
volved in building an educational system from the ground up for
the Indonesian island of Papua. Though Indonesia is the largest
Muslim country in the world, the population and government lead-
ers on the island of Papua are predominantly Christian and desire to
build a Christian school system. Recently, however, through gov-
ernment-sponsored transmigration programs, the Muslim popula-
tion of Papua has been growing significantly. LCMS missionary
Dennis Denow has been assigned the task of helping them design
school curriculum and teacher-training programs.

Concordia International School Shanghai—Concordia Interna-
tional School Shanghai (CISS) first opened its doors in 1998 to 22
students. On Aug. 21, 2003, Head of School Dr. David Rittmann
opened the school year for 390 students in its preschool through
12th-grade program for children of expatriate families living and

working in China. With a faculty of 55 teachers and support staff, ©

2003 marked another year of outstanding growth, at 33 percent.
Through a continuing partnership with the Lutheran Church Ex-
tension Fund, additional new CISS building facilities were com-
pleted and dedicated on Sept. 18, 2003, allowing for a larger en-
rollment yet. In five years, the school has developed into an
influential international school.

The Asia Lutheran Education Association—ALEA was formed
in Oct. 2002 to assist Lutheran schools and agencies within Asia
to train Christian teachers, expand their religious educational pro-
grams, and develop outreach ministries. Praise God for this new
association that is committed to sharing the Good News of Jesus
Christ with students, families, and communities. Of the students at-

tending Lutheran schools in Asia, fewer than 10 percent may be
Christian. Partnership goals among ALEA, the Lutheran Education
Association in the United States, and the Concordia University Sys-
tem include development of a worldwide preschool-through-grad-
uate-school program for outreach.
Pentecost 2000+—The goal of the Pentecost 2000 initiative
adopted by the Synod at the 1998 Synod convention, and reaf-
firmed at the 2001 convention as Pentecost 2000+, was to start
1,000 new cross-cultural ministries by 2000. As of Jan. 2004, more
than 900 cross-cultural ministries in North America were registered
on the Pentecost 2000 Web site. Pentecost 2000 will be winding
down with the 2004 convention celebrations and will serve as the
“launching pad” for Ablaze!
Ethnic Immigrant Institute of Theology—The training of ethnic
candidates for the office of public ministry is growing at a rate that
surpassed expectation. Forty-one candidates applied to enter the
first term of the Ethnic Immigrant Institute of Theology (EDIT) at
Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Mo., in Feb. 2003. Not all of them
started immediately. Forty-three new students entered in October,
bringing the total enrollment in the first year of operation to 66. A
partnership with Jesus Is Lord Mission Society provides support
for ELIT.
Luther’s Works in Chinese—Reformation Day 2003 in Hong
Kong witnessed the appearance of volume 1 of the proposed 12 to
13 volumes of selected writings of Dr. Martin Luther translated into
Chinese. This translation project is undertaken jointly by the Lit-
erature Department of The Lutheran Church—Hong Kong Synod
Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Mo.; and LCMS World Mission.
Professors from mainland China do most of the actual translation
work, while Dr. Peter Li of Lutheran Theological Seminary and
Professor Lei Yutian of Gwangzhou Normal University in China
carry out editorial supervision. It is anticipated that a second vol-
ume will be ready for publication by spring of 2004. Because the
volumes are produced in China with the assistance of Chinese
scholars, the writings of Luther will be readily available to Chinese
readers.
Beautiful Feet and New Directions Conferences—For six years,
LCMS World Mission has sponsored Beautiful Feet, an annual
mission conference for LCMS university students. During the last
triennium, Beautiful Feet expanded to include all 10 CUS colleges
and universities. At the 2003 conference, more than 15 non-CUS
campus groups were represented as well, with a total attendance of
approximately 200. The purposes of the conference are to (1) help
students discover their own one-person-sized role in God’s mission
now and after they graduate, (2) help the campus mission groups to
learn from one another and improve their impact, and (3) help stu-
dents understand and appreciate what their own church is doing in
North America and around the world to reach the lost and help the
hurting. To help develop leadership skills, LCMS World Mission
encourages students to plan and run the conference, which rotates
from campus to campus. An LCMS staff person provides guidance
and consultation, and the organization also provides travel scholar-
ships to help students attend the conference.
New Directions—For more than!0 years, LCMS World Mission
has sponsored New Directions, an annual mission conference
aimed at LCMS congregations, to help mission leaders understand
current mission trends, network with other mission-involved peo-
ple, learn from recognized mission experts, and help their congre-
gations become meaningfully involved in God’s mission in their
own neighborhood, District, and around the world. The 2003 con-
ference focused on the topic “Mission Fingerprints: Involving
Local Congregations in Local and Global Mission.” The 2005 con-
ference will focus on mission response and ways to help LCMS
members, groups, and congregations respond to the Gospel through
the Seven Mission Responses (Go, Pray, Learn, Give, Tell, Send,
and Celebrate).

Kermit Almstedt, Chairman

Robert Roegner, Executive Director

2004 Convention Workbook