Dr. Steven L. Witte was formally added to the Asia Lutheran Seminary faculty in an installation service on November 1.  Earlier this year Dr. Witte accepted a call to serve as professor and vice-president at ALS.  Steven and his wife Mary arrived in Hong Kong in early October.  Dr. Witte had served the past eight years as pastor of Beautiful Savior congregation in Green Bay, Wisconsin where he worked with East Asian immigrants to the USA.   Vice-president Witte received his doctorate from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary of Boston/South Hamilton, Massachusetts, in 2007.  

The installation was held in the large classroom on the 16th floor of the Chun Hoi Commercial Building in urban Kowloon where ALS is located.  President John C. Lawrenz preached. Those who laid hands on Dr. Witte expressed confidence that our WELS outreach to East Asia will move souls from darkness to light by the sweet power of the unconditional Gospel.

Dr. Witte and Mary live in an apartment in Mei Foo, one of the major residential complexes of Kowloon.  Dr. Witte has already begun teaching as a contributor to a series that tackles the contemporary controversies that Christians face in dynamic, first-world Hong Kong.  Mission workers and synod representatives visited  wider East Asia during the following week.

I can honestly say that I have never seen so many people walk into any church. On the 31 of October, Sure Foundation hosted its third annual Harvest Festival. With games, candy, and toys, Sure Foundation was the hot spot on the block for the evening. There were times in the evening when the doors were packed with people. There was a traffic jam just to walk into our church. It is estimated that over one thousand people walked into our church in the space of just a few hours.

As people walked into our church, they were met with a smiling faces of our members and also the youth confirmation class. Everyone had a good time.

We pray that the harvest festival can serve as an open door for visitors to return in the future.

Pastor Timothy Bourman
Sure Foundation Lutheran Church
Queens, NY

It is very interesting to get a different perspective on life by living in a different country.  Many things in Cameroon are different, but one of the biggest differences has to be the roads.  During the rainy season, I can only make it to one congregation in the Western Bakossi/Bakundu area of the country.   This month I could not even get to that  congregation for my monthly meeting.  It takes us an extra two hours on the way to the northwest region because another road is impassible and has been for months.  This means I cannot get to another group of churches there.  In September, I barely made it out of the villages I was working in.

I can remember complaining about roads in the United States and Canada when I worked there.  Boy, was I wrong to complain about those roads.   Many roads here are more like muddy trails.  One must remember that the soil is very hard, red clay and that it becomes very slippery when wet.  It is dangerous to walk on when wet and relatively flat.  It is similar to walking on ice.

Last time I travelled to the western region, I had to pay to travel through people’s front yards, detour and trespass through a school compound and again pay to go through someone’s cocoa farm.  Why, you ask?  Because these muddy messes were at least able to be travelled through in four wheel drive with just a little help from pushers.  The road was totally impassible.  On the way back, it was even trickier as we almost had to spend the night in the truck stuck on the road behind a logging truck that blocked the road so a beer truck got stuck and then a smaller truck hauling planks got stuck between them.  Thank the Lord that I was able to snake through the mess and make it back home safely that night.  A night in a hot vehicle with hungry malaria-ridden mosquitoes is not my idea of a good time.

Yet, things are good.  If the only thing a person has to complain about is the roads, then I think he has a lot to be thankful for.  God is good.

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” Colossians 3:23, 24b

Bible student coffee shop workers

What do you want to be when you grow up? We’ve all heard this question since we were young enough to dream about the answer. The question is similar in Thailand. If you ask the young Christians who are currently studying the Bible or who have formerly been students in Chiangmai, many of them will answer sincerely, “I want to be a servant of God.” Talk about a faith motivated answer of a Christian. In the Thai language, what they are expressing is that they want to serve God in full time ministry. Although it may be a matter of semantics, the significance is great. In reality, not all of the Bible students will go on to complete seminary level classes and serve as pastors and evangelists. Some of them live in places where the government would not allow them to serve in this way. Does that mean they can’t ’serve God’? Read more ›

Asia Lutheran Seminary (ALS) – Asia Lutheran Seminary has entered its fifth year and will grant degrees for the first time on November 2.  Student body size that had ebbed slightly during the last two years has stabilized this fall.  The current human resources within our support and auxiliary staff are extraordinary in talent, experience, and cumulative energy.  An additional resident faculty member, Steven Witte, who will also serve ALS as vice-president was welcomed to the field. The challenge before us is to channel the blessings of the moment into a longer term sustainable impact for the mission of WELS in Asia through ALS, the national church and WELS para-church organizations serving East Asia.

Nepal - The church in Nepal is being blessed by God in extraordinary ways.  They are exhibiting the spirit of the early church where “they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer” (Acts 2:38).  In September 2009, 135 people gathered for the seventh worker training workshop to study the Gospel of John.  The people are growing in their knowledge of God’s word and in their ability to teach it to others.  Workers are also zealous to share the gospel in spite of the Hindu opposition.  In 2002 they were working in five districts.  Today they are working in 28 districts – one-third of the country.   More than 60,000 pieces of Christian literature has been distributed and more than 9,500 person are enrolled in the Scripture Learning Program since its inception in January, 2006.  In June they took the gospel to Tibetans who were not able to understand Nepali, using an interpreter to translate.  One woman was baptized.

LATTE – Trained pastors have been called to, or are already serving in thirty-four congregations in seven countries. At least half of the pastors trained by LATTE professors are actively engaged in also training others for service (Bible Institute work) in their own congregations and beyond. These pastors have also been active in working with queries from pastors and congregations who have expressed interest in fellowship with our confessional church bodies throughout Latin America. It is a blessing to have five or six congregations being added to our fellowship through colloquy and the on-going training of pastors through internet evangelism.

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