23 Years

23 years ago God blessed the Lutheran Church of Cameroon (LCC) with the gift of newly graduated pastors. WELS missionaries trained these men but have not participated in the training of any new pastors since 2018. May 27, 2022, was an amazing day for our brothers and sisters in Cameroon.  Amidst celebrations that reached across Africa and even spilled into the US, the Lutheran Church of Cameroon graduated seven men into the full-time work of the holy ministry.

A Rough Start

In 2016 the LCC identified fourteen men to begin ministerial training. They were men with a reasonable level of education, a Spirit-led love for the Lord, and some years of service as laymen in their congregations.

There were, of course, losses along the way. A few students left the program for valid reasons. A political crisis made it unsafe for the men to be together and caused the loss of an entire year of classroom studies.  The same crisis made it impossible for WELS missionary Dan Kroll to do any face-to-face teaching in the final three years of the five-year program.  Although the devil uses such things to try to discourage us, we endure with the knowledge that the Lord is refining us as he promised through Jeremiah (9:7): “I will refine and test them.” The Holy Spirit was refining well for the gain of the Lord’s church, so that seven men were able to complete the course to prepare them for full-time ministry.  The LCC’s teachers have grounded these men in God’s Word and prepared them to shepherd the Lord’s flocks in Cameroon. The Lord has strengthened each of them to face the challenges of his unique ministry.

Anim, Solomon

Dooh, Jean-Jacques

Epie, Nicole

Fomenyam, Ferdinand

Ngalame, Thomas

Ngalame, Vincent

Tembuc, David

Prayers Answered

Why has this taken 23 years?  Did we forget our brothers in the “Hinge of Africa?”  Not at all.    WELS has not maintained manpower stability for nearly 15 of those 23 years.  About the time we were ready to restart the Cameroon worker training program in 2008, the Lord called Missionary Dan Myers to glory. Missionary Dan Kroll arrived in the summer of 2014 and started classes in the fall of 2016.  By May of 2018, he left because of the political crisis.  WELS fully supports financial and curricular components of the Lutheran Church of Cameroon worker training program, but “feet on the ground” belong to our Cameroonian brothers and they have stepped up in a huge way!  Obviously, the Lord answered your prayers to send workers into the harvest field (Matthew 9:38)!

One of the LCC’s congregational pastors, Gervase Ngalame, is moving to the Seminary campus to assist in training the next group of men for the ministry. Currently, Pastors Mathias Abumbi, Joseph Njume, Daniel Muankume, Julius Njume, Barnabbas Ngalame, and Fon George are serving as full-time congregational shepherds. We give thanks to God for the addition of these seven men, more than doubling the LCC’s ministerium.  The Lord has reminded us that he is watching over his church in Cameroon!

Missionary Daniel Kroll lives in Malawi and coordinates OAT’s work in West Africa

Please pray for those working in fields that are ripe for harvest. Share their story, engage with future news and receive updates. Learn more about our mission fields in Africa and how the Holy Spirit is working faith in people’s hearts at https://wels.net/serving-others/missions/africa