LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2013, Page 23

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SYNOD REPORTS
Partners

Some of the partners in the region include the Lutheran Women’s
Missionary League, Lutheran Hour Ministries, Lutheran Heritage
Foundation, LCMS seminaries, Orphan Grain Train, Grace Place
Retreats, Bethesda Lutheran Communities, members of the Concordia
University System, as well as districts, congregations, and individuals.
Eurasia has 11 partner Lutheran churches. Altar and pulpit fellowship was established with the Siberian Evangelical Lutheran Church
in Russia, and new limited working agreements were signed with the
Silesian Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession and with
the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in the Czech
Republic.
Conclusion

Eurasia has plenty of Christian heritage. It is the place of the
missionary journeys of Paul, has over 1,000 years of Orthodox
Christianity, and is the birthplace of the Reformation. Yet, mission
opportunities abound! Only in this triennium were the first translations of the Bible and of Luther’s Small Catechism in the Kazakh
language completed. The Gospel needs to be proclaimed to this generation. It’s time to join the outreach to all nations in Eurasia.
Latin America Region

The region of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) exists to
make known the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ through His Word
and Sacraments in the planting of churches which are merciful communities and in the promoting of strong theological education for the
formation of pastors, deaconesses, and deacons, who in turn faithfully give witness to the next generation.
In August 2010, at the ILC Regional in Chile, Bible institute directors met to discuss theological education in their respective church
bodies. It was reported by Rev. Carlos Schuman of Chile that five
Bible Institutes had closed down. This left only two seminaries in
South America that belong to sister churches and no route to ordination for some 15 sister churches.
As a response to this crisis, LCMS International Mission of LAC
partnered with Concordia Seminary of Buenos Aires, Argentina, to
offer 10 scholarships to men of any of these countries to pursue pastoral formation. In March 2013, 11 men from surrounding countries are
in residence studying in their six-year program. Additionally, LCMS
International LAC has partnered with Concordia Seminary to be able
to offer courses online. As of this date, some 23 men from 12 countries in Latin America are now enrolled in a four-year online program.
Total enrollment in the seminary has grown from 21 students to 55
students, and it is projected that this will grow to 70 over the next three
years. An initiative to build an extra dorm for 30 married and single
students for $1 million is underway.
LCMS International Mission LAC has also partnered with
Concordia Seminary and the Luther Academy to offer 10 pastoral
education courses to 5 countries that have had no access to Lutheran
courses for several years. Courses began in 2012, and by God´s grace
will continue through 2017 to strengthen the ministerium in these
sister churches. A secondary component of theological education is
to continue to hold theological conferences in the southern cone of
South America and Central America so as to teach excellent orthodox
Lutheran theology and foster the mutual consolation of the brethren.
By our Lord´s grace, a five-year goal is to have a total of 50 church
plants by 2018. Now that access to pastoral formation is in place,
holistic church planting efforts are being expanded, knowing that new
men will have access to Lutheran theological formation in becoming
pastors. Currently LCMS International LAC is directly supporting
a total of 22 church plants in Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Grand
Caymans, Uruguay, Chile, Peru, and Spain. Some of these church

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plants are directly pastored by LCMS and others indirectly in partnership with sister churches. Pastors are being sought to strengthen
efforts in all countries, but adding Belize, Puerto Rico and Spain for
2013. The Lord willing, Honduras will be opened in 2014 working in
partnership and following the lead of the Nicaraguan Lutheran church
and Lutheran Church—Canada.
In each church plant, deaconesses are being sought to found
mercy work in each community alongside our Word and Sacrament
communities. In order to prepare the next generation of mercy workers for Latin America, the Dominican Republic Lutheran Mission
dedicated its seminary on March 10, 2013, to foster and spread the
preparation of deaconesses throughout Latin America. A faculty of
three deaconesses is being sought to teach two courses each year in
five countries for five years for a total of 10 courses. In addition to
these courses, human care courses, which will vary from country to
country, will complement the theological component of each program. For example, human care courses in the Dominican Republic
will prepare women to work with people with disabilities to accompany the theology.
These plans call for some 70 new church workers in Latin America
over the next five years to work together with sister church workers
in international teams. Twenty-five LCMS pastors are being sought
for church planting. An additional 10 Brazilian pastors are also
being sought to work alongside our missionary pastors. In addition,
some 10 deaconesses are needed. An additional 15 vicars, deaconess interns, DCEs, and Lutheran school teachers are needed as well.
The remaining 10 workers are a mix of medical and volunteer coordinator personnel, short-term team visits from partner congregations
whose visits are committed to long-term support of church planting
efforts in each place.
Forums have been created which form circles of support in bringing human and financial resources to these church plants. Challenges
exist to continue to have more forums which bring others to the same
table to work together. The forums are like a power bar of sorts,
which invite sister churches, districts, RSOs, and congregations to
plug into a unified effort of aiding our international mission teams of
confessional Lutherans to plant Lutheran churches with mercy centers alongside them—this so that our dear Lord Jesus Christ might
be present with His gifts to bring people to repentance, receive faith,
and be called His own through the waters of Baptism.
Would to God that He would grant this Epiphany light of His Son
to be revealed through His Word to those who do not yet know Him
in Latin America and the Caribbean!
Southern Asia and Oceania (SAO)

SAO is the newest OIM region. It was carved out of the mammoth
“Asia” region for several reasons: (1) to facilitate an expansion of
the Synod’s foreign mission work; (2) to divide what was previously
an unmanageably large region; (3) to capitalize on some emerging
opportunities for church planting and partnership in some strategic
“new” countries; and (4) to facilitate greater attention to some crises
and opportunities in some “old” countries.
As a region, SAO itself represents some 1.5 billion souls and
includes the world’s second and fourth largest countries, the world’s
two largest Muslim countries, the world’s largest Hindu country, and
some of the world’s poorest and most disaster-prone countries.
To date, work has centered on the administrative preparations
necessary to open and staff a new region while working to capitalize
on emerging opportunities and to improve theological and financial
integrity across the region. A business manager was recruited in 2012,
deploying to Singapore with his family in January 2013. Missionaries
to Singapore and Sri Lanka recruited in 2012 are currently working to meet their Network Supported Missionary (NSM) obligations.
2013 Convention Workbook