View a slideshow that gives an overview of the work of the Humanitarian Aid Committee. See the ways in which humanitarian aid is used to build a bridge to the gospel in countries were WELS is doing mission work.
Can you imagine this—$9.50 for a gallon of gasoline when your average income is under $2.00 per day? Actually, this is very real!
Real life that is, if you are living in Zambia, Africa. As a result, a good percentage of the population must walk everywhere they go! This was just one of the eye-opening things our WELS Humanitarian Aid Committee learned on our recent trip to Zambia and Malawi, Africa.
Our committee’s chairman, Rev. David Valleskey, stated that the purpose of the trip was threefold: 1) to evaluate how the WELS humanitarian efforts are working, 2) to determine what needs to change, and 3) to find new opportunities for utilizing humanitarian aid to build bridges for the gospel. He said “The committee is funded entirely by special gifts from WELS members, so we want these gifts to be used in the best possible way; we want people’s gifts to have an impact.”
The night sky over Malawi is jaw-dropping, eye popping brilliant. Beautifully brilliant. Brilliantly beautiful. Since last month, even more so! The black canopy sparkles brighter with a newly assembled cluster of stars.
However, these stars are not suspended in the heavens. They are not hanging over the earth. For the time being they are found on a school campus: the Lutheran Bible Institute (LBI) in Lilongwe, Malawi.
Twenty men from three countries: seven from Zambia, one from Zimbabwe and twelve from Malawi. Different tribes. Different clans. Different customs. Different languages. These men are amazingly gifted at languages. For some of them, their first language is Chinynanja, Chitumbuka, Chishona, Chinsenga or Chichewa – but they know some of the other ones extremely well and on top of it they are learing in Chizungu (English!).
Their differences uniquely distinguish them. Their desire distinctly unifies them. Their desire? To become an “overseer” in the church. Paul would be thrilled. (1 Timothy 3:1) We most certainly are! Lutheran Pastors in the making! Travelers on a six-year academic journey. Students learning from the Master Teacher (John 13:14)
Shining stars. Stars shining. Starshine. Starshine? You’ve heard of sunshine and moonshine. Shoeshine and even spit-shine. But starshine? It’s not in my dictionary either. But it is all around me. I can’t help but see it. It’s on our campus, in our community and in our congregation. Wherever the twenty go, they shine. Powerful dots of light puncturing the ink-dark backdrop of a “crooked” and “depraved” generation. (Philippians 2:15) Against such darkness, how the stars shine! Read more ›
Join us in giving thanks for another missionary to Mexico!
Missionary Ralph Martens accepted a call to serve as the second missionary to the Mexico mission field. He and his wife will arrive in Torreón in just a couple of months. This fills a vacancy that we have had here for the past year and a half. God is good!
We are very excited about having them here. Their efforts will increase the amount of evangelism that we can do in the Torreón area. It’s a blessing to have more on the mission team here for fellowship, too.
The Martens have many, many years of experience in Latin America. During his ministry, Missionary Martens has served in Puerto Rico, Chile, and the Mission to the Children in Sonora, Mexico, among others. He has also traveled to various countries in Latin America to train seminary students.
Again, we are very thankful for the news that they’re coming! We greatly anticipate their arrival. May God use them, as he has in the past, to bring the news of salvation through Jesus Christ to more ears and hearts.
You didn’t expect to see it there. But, there it was and it was thriving amid very harsh 
conditions. It was not big but it sure looked robust. I did a double take when I saw it. I also watched as several people passed by but took no notice. Maybe they had seen it a hundred times or more as they walked to work or school and now it had become commonplace.
One does not expect to see a plant growing out of a wall. Somehow, someway a seed must have fallen into the wall during construction. Where the water to make the seed sprout and grow came from was not visible. How the growth is sustained is anybody’s guess. A closer inspection of the wall shows that is has been cracked from top to bottom by the little plant. The plant growing through the wall reminded me in some ways of the church in India.
The church grows and flourishes in places you do not expect. On a busy Friday night in a large city, a small group of Christians gathers in a church that is little more than a tent cover jutting out into the road. Yet, without fail, this handful of Christians worship their Lord amid the din, dust, soot, and exhaust of the passing buses, auto rickshaws, bicycles, trucks, cars, motorcycles, scooters and pedestrians.
Other congregations struggle to establish themselves among temple towns or in villages where no one calls Jesus Lord. Still others meet on verandahs, under trees, on rooftops, in ten by ten rented rooms or, more recently, quietly in hidden places under the cover of darkness out of fear of reprisal. Like the plant growing through the wall, the church in India struggles to make an appreciable dent in the population of over one billion.
We know that the Lord planted the seed of his Church in India. The Lord continues to nourish and grow his Church, a small portion of which is Christ Evangelical Lutheran Ministries. The church sprouts among the orphanages supported by WELS members where 300 children from various religious backgrounds are taught the Word of God daily and learn portions of the Catechism. The seed of the future generation of believers is planted in the hearts of the four hundred children who are enrolled in two Christian
elementary schools. Seeds of Christ’s love, through the generosity of WELS members, have been dropped in hundreds of villages which have been the recipients of wells, water projects and sanitation facilities.
The church that the Lord has raised up, though small, is, like the plant, hardy. There is an intense commitment to the church among the Christian in India. Unlike the plant, we know what nourishes the church in India. God sustains her through His Word and Sacraments. As the little plant cracked the wall through which it is growing, so the Holy Spirit continues to crack the stony heart of unbelief and implants the small seed of faith. That faith was
nourished by the water of Baptism, solid instruction in the Word and the body and blood of the Lord through Holy Communion. Read more ›
