Our congregations in the West Indies have been challenged by the Lord and WELS to produce independent churches.  Unlike a typical independent congregation in the States, we have also taken on the challenge to train our own leaders regionally.  Due to influences such as the difficulty in immigration laws after 9/11 and the financial disparity between the Caribbean and the United States, we have developed the Caribbean Christian Training Institute. Read more ›

2 Timothy 3:15 is a Biblical gem that many Christians treasure. It reassures them that even as they heard the Scriptures in their infancy, the Spirit had the power to work saving faith in their hearts. For many Christians around the world, though, it wasn’t until well after infancy that they first heard the name of Jesus proclaimed. Yet they, too, can rejoice as they are reminded through that same verse that the holy Scriptures are able to make them wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus — no matter what age.

Here at the WELS Thailand Mission, we thank the Lord for bringing Thai people of all ages (from newborn to grandma) to that saving faith through His means of grace. We also thank the Lord that He is preparing people of all ages to be His called workers in the ministry here. In March, a special dual-purpose worship ceremony at the “It is Finished” Lutheran Bible Institute and Seminary in Chiang Mai demonstrated this fact.[slideshow=102]

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“You mean Caribbean time, or St Lucian time?”  That is usually the first question that I ask when someone asks me to meet them.  Time is a liquid commodity in the Caribbean.  It can drive you nuts, or it can be surprisingly refreshing.  The Easter service this year was one of those surprisingly refreshing approaches to time.

A terrible accident took place at 6:30 AM on Easter Sunday on the only main highway connecting the north and south of the island.  Late night (or early morning) revelers were mixed together with early morning Easter worshippers on the road.  A four vehicle wreck ensued killing four people.  The highway was closed for nearly 4 hours while they cleaned up the carnage. It was a sobering way to start an Easter Sunday.

All of the called workers, except for one, were caught on the wrong side of the accident.  Normally the service begins at 9:00 AM.  On this Easter, we didn’t start until 9:50.  For most, you can imagine the pressure and hurriedness that surrounded the called workers as they arrived almost an hour late. Even though I had a good excuse, it is hard to get that concept of time out of your head.  To be honest, I was concerned more with being late than celebrating our Savior’s resurrection.  The look of one worshipper changed my attitude. Read more ›

The workshop and distance learning program posed an urgent need to translate the Bible Teachings Series and Luther’s Catechism into the Nepali language. And this in turn creates a need to raise up translators among the people in the church, who are not only highly literate in their own language and capable of understanding the written English text but who can also understand and articulate the doctrinal message in the source materials. Luther’s Catechism has proven to be an ideal tool for developing such a team. For several reasons:

• Translation does not exist in a vacuum. Because Christians have already
  translated the Bible and other materials into the Nepali language, we need to make sure that the terminology used in the Nepali Scriptures is used in the materials we translate. We would want users of these materials to be able to find similar language or the same language when they turn to their Scriptures. Because the catechism quotes hundreds of passages in order to teach scriptural truths, the translation team must quote each of those passages accurately. They must also find the key words in many of those passages to establish the doctrinal terminology used in the catechism. Therefore, the exercise forces translators to contextualize the doctrinal teaching to the Scriptures they already read in their language. Read more ›

God makes all things possible. Baptists had suggested a feasible approach: tell Bible stories to teach the gospel. Two workshops were devoted to teaching 120 stories from the Old and New Testaments. WELS teachers  demonstrated ways to tell the stories effectively and help the students internalize them. The next three workshops taught Luther’s Catechism featuring a Bible story and a teaching chart from the catechism for each lesson.

There is nothing new about the concept. WELS schools have used Bible history and the catechism for generations to teach children. Indeed, Luther wrote the enchiridion to enable illiterate and semiliterate parents to teach the basic truths of Scripture to their households. We simply adapted tried and true methods to teach adults. The catechism, with its detailed explanation exemplified by the charts, does something much  greater than teach the central truths of Scripture. It emphasizes and clarifies its central message—the gospel. It has also given us a way to demonstrate in a simple way how leaders can teach others, especially when that teaching needs to be done in an oral form. Read more ›