One Africa Team and the Pastoral
Studies Institute are partnering to serve the spiritual needs of refugees from
the Nuer tribe of South Sudan currently living in camps located in Ethiopia and
Kenya. This week read how WELS members in Mankato, Minnesota are reaching out
to Nuer immigrants in their community.

Christmas
blessings to you from Risen Savior Lutheran School in Mankato, Minnesota!  We rejoice with you this holiday season as we
celebrate Christ’s birth and His coming for all mankind.

Risen Savior
Lutheran School (RSLS), a WELS Christian day school in south central Minnesota,
continues to grow in God’s grace. 
Operated by St. Mark in Mankato and St. Paul’s in North Mankato, Risen
Savior exists to teach children God’s message of salvation found in His Holy
Word.  Nine of our 92 students enrolled
are the children of South Sudanese refugees. 
Our student body is blessed to call these students from four families
our brothers and sisters and friends in Christ.

These
Sudanese parents have moved to America to experience a better life for
themselves and their children.  Although
they have escaped the ravaging of political war and the poverty and
displacement of refugee camps, life is still anything but easy.  Five of the children come from single parent
homes.  The jobs parents get often
require long, overnight hours.  These
families are in poverty in America and live with government assistance for food
and housing. 

With the
conditions of their new life in America, these families must often rely on other
friends to help them raise their children. 
Parents at Risen Savior also become a pillar of support, so these
Sudanese children can take part in the same activities that their new friends are
doing at school.  You can see the faith
of these Sudanese parents as they allow their children to be transported with
American parents they often do not know, so their children can participate in
extracurricular events with friends.

In October RSLS
held an All-School Read event.  All
families were given a copy of “A Long Walk to Water” by Linda Sue Park.  We then gathered to have a book discussion
about this Sudanese refugee’s true story and the need for simple things like
clean water in Sudan.  Children and
parents attended to learn more about this situation and to even enjoy a feast
of traditional food prepared by two of the Sudanese moms.  One of the Sudanese moms, Mary, worked all
day, prepared a dish of meat and rice to share and then attended to help
educate our school body about her experiences in her home country.

At the end
of October our school held its annual forensics night.  All students prepared a poem to present to families
of the school.  One of our Sudanese
students, Nyeriang, received the highest score in her classroom’s
competition.  Her family was working and
unable to attend but another family picked her up so she could do the honor of
showcasing her poetry to those in attendance. 
She showed much courage in public speaking and such growth from when she
first attended Risen Savior four years ago.

The Sudanese
students are like their American friends and want to participate in the sports
our school offers.  Friday, a fifth
grader, received rides to practices and games when she played soccer this September.  And now Kon gets rides home from cheerleading
practices and Friday, Nyeriang, Nyanak and Hannah get rides so they can play
for the Risen Savior girls’ basketball team.

We are now
preparing to celebrate Jesus’ birth with our Advent concert.  Practicing for this beautiful event, filled
with recitations and songs by the students, takes special practices at an area
church.  These special practices mean
extra rides that Sudanese families cannot give. 
Pastor Keith Siverly of St. Mark will often transport some students
there, as will other school families.  With
this extra effort and commitment, our school will all glorify God together this
season.

We work
together; we learn from each other; we share the same faith.  Please pray for the South Sudanese at Risen
Savior and their adaptation to life here. 
Please also pray for the American families at Risen Savior that they
will not grow weary of doing good.  We
are blessed to share this life in America with our Sudanese friends and we
await sharing life in heaven with them as well!

Jenni Heins serves as a Teacher at
Risen Savior Lutheran Church in Mankato, MN.

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

WELS’ third visit to Liberia brought together two originators of the Confessional Lutheran Church of Liberia (CLCL) and two members of WELS’ One Africa Team (OAT).  Besides CLCL’s regular attendees (they have gathered several times in recent years), we started to incorporate a few men from another group that has recently been started by a WELS Liberian in Minnesota AND another group that had expressed some interest in joining us.

Each side had much to offer: CLCL already has a constitution and organizational structure. They have about 240 hours worth of study behind them.  OAT has experience with our staunch WELS understanding of Scripture in an African context (the two missionaries representing OAT carried about 45 years experience with them).  Knowing the right way to shake hands is cool, but gaining a spiritual connection through Christ is incredible—done only by the power of the Holy Spirit.

I say our mission work there is “a work in progress” because we are only now getting this program organized and bringing it into line with our other programs in Africa.  Our Liberian efforts are actually not much more than a foundation (solid – Scripture) and a bunch of building material stacked around it. Those materials are the 80 or so men and women with enough knowledge of Scripture to go beyond being simply part of a group or getting some sort of degree.  These are men and women who are beginning to understand about their Savior “…who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good” (Titus 2:14).  There were some great questions as people discussed amongst themselves.  My favorite was the day before Reformation Day when one of the men challenged his brother: “Can you prove that from Scripture?” We still have a lot to do to establish a group in fellowship with WELS, but I think we are on the right track with our solid foundation—I can hardly wait to get back (Feb 2019) to put a few more blocks in the walls!

Missionary Dan Kroll serves West Africa and currently resides in Malawi

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

This past October I had the opportunity to attend the LWMS Freedom Circuit Rally at Sure Foundation Lutheran Church in Queens, New York. Two years earlier I attended a women’s Mission Festival in Malawi at Fisi Lutheran Church. These two rallies on two different continents couldn’t be more different.

The rally in New York was in a store front church next to the elevated subway tracks that rumbled by. The rally in Malawi was outside in an open field under the hot African sun. Women drove all the way from Canada to attend the one-day rally in Queens. Women in Malawi walked for miles to attend the three-day rally and camped in the church.

I sampled local cuisine at both rallies.  At Sure Foundation the ladies prepared delicious Latin American dishes. In Malawi, the women lovingly prepared local food on campfires. In Malawi, six women’s choirs joyfully danced and sang in Chichewa during the worship service. In Queens we sang hymns in both English and in Spanish, as Sure Foundation is reaching out to both English and Spanish speakers in the community.

These were two very different rallies, but both of them had the same purpose. At both rallies God’s people raised their voices in worship and praise, pastors preached sermons and shared Bible studies, with the goal of strengthening our faith and reminding everyone that now is the time to share the love of our Savior with a dying world! That is the purpose of the Lutheran Women’s Mission Society in churches everywhere, both in Africa and in the United States.  It is also the mission of every Christian to share the Gospel with their families, neighbors, and the world.  Every day is a mission rally as we wait on this side of heaven. Look for the people God is placing in your path and tell them of the sure hope you have in your Savior!

 

Teacher Hank Hoenecke lives in Ft. Myers, FL and serves on the Administrative Committee for Africa

 

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