“Come over and help us!”

This first century request came from a man in Macedonia (Acts 16:9).  Convinced that this plea was an outreach opportunity from God, a four-man team (Luke, Paul, Silas and Timothy) set out on a mission journey to answer the Call and share the gospel of Jesus.

They traveled to various locations, spoke to the local people, visited the places of prayer, “reasoned with the people from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead…” (Acts 17:2, 3)

The gospel did amazing things.  It gave the people…

New Hope.

“Come over and help us!”

This twenty-first century request came from a man in Bugiri,
Uganda.  Convinced that this was an
outreach opportunity from God, a three-man team was formed and set out on a
mission journey to answer the Call and share the gospel message of Jesus.

What Paul and his team did in Macedonia and beyond, the three-man team did in Uganda: traveled to various places, spoke to the local people, visited the places of prayer and expounded the Scriptures.  By God’s grace, the results were the same: the gospel worked wonders and it gave people in Uganda…

New Hope.

The first century mission opportunity came by way of a vision (Acts 16:9). Last month’s opportunity came via an email.  The request for help came from a man named Makisimu Musa, a pastor leading a fledgling church body in Uganda.  Back in 2008 he caught wind of a Lutheran Church body in America called the WELS as well as a synod in Zambia and Malawi called the LCCA.  (Pastor Musa was attending a school in Kenya and was told about the Lutheran Church, specifically about WELS and the LCCA in Zambia & Malawi.) He heard about their sound doctrine and practice and wanted to know more.  He consulted with his fellow Pastors and Evangelists and together they decided it was time for them to reach out for help. 

Frustrated with church politics, confused with false
teachings, discouraged with a lack of Biblically sound materials, and uncertain
of a God-pleasing way forward, they sent the message:

“Come over and help us!”

Those weren’t the exact words nor the only words but it was the bottom line message. It went first to Pastor David Bivens (Divine Savior Lutheran Church, Sienna Plantation, Texas), the Chairman of the Administrative Committee for Africa.  Pastor Bivens then passed it along and eventually it landed on the desk of Missionary John Hartmann in Zambia who is the One Africa Team (OAT) Outreach Coordinator for Africa.  He assembled a team, set the dates and planned the trip.  On 1 December 2018 Missionary Hartmann, Pastor Pembeleka, and Missionary Holtz touched down in Entebbe, Uganda. 

The mission journey began. (The outreach mission trip dates were set for 30 November 2018 – 13 December 2018.)

We stayed with Pastor Musa and his family in his rural based
home.  He had put together an aggressive
schedule for us:  travel to 8
congregations, meet 6 pastors and 5 evangelists, teach three days of lessons,
and attend two days of meetings.

In it all, we witnessed the Body of Christ in action:

• Church leaders attended 18 hours of  lessons and presentations (Justification, the Church, and Stewardship);
• Pastors preached the Word & administered baptism;
• The Pastor’s dear wife and others cooked our meals, washed our clothes and tidied our rooms;
• A Lutheran member drove us safely to all our destinations;
• Congregations prepared meals and traditional entertainment of plays, dramas, dances, and songs;
• Several people served as translators, turning our English words into Luganda and Lusoga.

Spending a dozen nights and covering over a thousand kilometers gave us a glimpse of the Ugandan people and their beautiful land.  Uganda truly lives up to her name: the Pearl of Africa.  So many natural wonders!  Among the many, Uganda boasts the second largest lake in the world (Victoria) and the source of the longest river on earth (Nile). We were blessed to see them both. 

But for us, the real Pearl of Africa is the Pearl of Great Price (Matthew 13:45,46):  the gospel of Jesus Christ!

• It’s what prompted the first email from Pastor Musa;
• It’s what motivated our mission outreach trip;
• It was the foundation of our lessons¹ and the focus of our meetings.

And it will guide any future plans and discussions with these new found brothers and sisters in Uganda.

Dear Mission Partners, may I humbly send you a request, too?  Our plea comes from Uganda:

“Come over and help us!”

You don’t need to go there to answer the call. We simply, yet
resolutely, ask for your prayers.  Will
you put Uganda on your prayer list?  Pray
for this mission outreach effort.  The Lord
has given us this wonderful opportunity and the gospel is already doing amazing
things.  The Pearl of Great Price is the only
True Pearl of Africa…and the world! 

Oh, by the way, as these Christians in Uganda find their footing and forge ahead, it’s this “Pearl” that reminds them why they chose the name they did for their new church body:

New Hope.

Your Malawi Mission Partner,
John Holtz

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