Concordia Lutheran Mission Society | Ministry and Projects Report 2008

All 2007 mission projects were completed except those as indicated.

2008 Adopted Mission Projects

0801: Vacation Bible School, Nicaragua
0802: Children's Christian Education, Nicaragua
0803: Children's Outreach, Thailand
0804: Female Evangelists, Thailand
0805: Church Roof, Krasnoperekopsk, Ukraine
0806: Theological Education, Southeast Asia
0807: Outreach to Women and Children, Cambodia
0808: Deaconess Support, Nicaragua
0809: Summer Camp, Ukraine
0810: Purchase of Facilities, Pervomeisk, Ukraine
0811: Congregational Facilities, Yalta, Ukraine
0812: Rental of Facilities, Costa Rica
0813: Property for New Church, Granada
0814: Registration of Church Facilities, Savran, Ukraine
0815: Youth Ministry Training, Nicaragua
0816: Property Expansion, Khok Kloi, Thailand
0817: Intercultural Church Workers' Conference, Canada
0818: Ministry Van, Canada

0801 � Vacation Bible School, Nicaragua � $3,500

During the school holidays in January, children in Nicaragua have little to do to avoid boredom and trouble. The mission has offered a Vacation Bible School experience in many villages out in the countryside. The VBS gives children an opportunity to learn Bible stories and be educated by Christian deaconesses and teachers who share God's love through the message of the gospel. For $1.25, all materials can be provided for one child attending VBS in a remote village. This project offers a simple yet significant opportunity for children or those with limited resources to contribute to the spiritual welfare of children in Nicaragua. The goal is to cover the cost of VBS for 2,800 children in January 2009 at a total cost of $3,500.

0802 � Children's Christian Education, Nicaragua � $6,250

It is a struggle for many families in Nicaragua to buy even the most essential food and clothing to survive. They have no money for uniforms, supplies or tuition for their children to attend public school. The result is that many children up to the age of 13 have no formal education. The mission carries on a program to give children an opportunity to attend school, be tutored to challenge grades and progress to their age level and receive a thorough education in Lutheran doctrine. This project provides funds for a uniform, tuition and tutoring by a Lutheran deaconess or teacher so a child can move through the grades he or she has missed. The goal is to provide these essentials for 50 children at a total cost of $6,250.

0803 � Children's Outreach, Thailand � $8,500

Northeast of Bangkok, Satit Kantatiam, a young man who is enrolled in Luther Institute of Southeast Asia, reaches out with a wholesome daily meal, Bible stories and games to 50 neglected and malnourished children in two villages. In addition to the younger children, the program also reaches out to young girls to enable them to continue their education in Bangkok. Such girls are often forced into early marriage, their children are abandoned and they move to Bangkok and prostitution. Costs have been covered by the proceeds of a family-owned food packaging company but Satit needs help to continue to reach out to other children in the area. This project provides funds to encourage further Gospel outreach to the extent of $8,500.

0804 � Female Evangelists, Thailand � $2,000

To have more people to assist in mission outreach is a tremendous help, especially where they can go into places where a male missionary is not too welcome. In South Thailand, there are two female evangelists who are effective and well received who are able to assist the missionary in contacting families in the market places and especially in calling on single women who may be interested in the Christian faith. This project provides funds for transportation, food while these female evangelists are away from home, and a small compensation for their work to the extent of $2,000.

0805 � Church Roof, Krasnoperekopsk, Ukraine � $10,000

The congregation in Krasnoperekopsk is the mother congregation in the Crimean Peninsula of the Synod of Evangelical Lutheran Churches in Ukraine. This is a very mission-minded congregation which has already begun daughter congregations in Armansk to the north and Pervomeisk to the south. When the congregation outgrew its former rented facilities, it bought and is renovating a facility strategically located just north of the city market. Members have contributed time, energy and financially but the costs of materials and equipment exceed what the congregation can cover. Assistance was given in 2007 for a heating system. This project will assist with providing a proper roof to the extent of $10,000.

0806 � Theological Education, Southeast Asia � $10,000

God has richly blessed Lutheran Church�Canada through the opportunities He has given to provide theological education in the various mission fields. Cambodia is a new mission field where we are again called upon to provide theological education to local workers who will reach out with the gospel to their own people. Lutheranism was only recently introduced to a large group of untrained pastors and deaconesses in Cambodia through Lutheran Hour Ministries and Luther's Small Catechism. Through the volunteer efforts of Dr. Len Harms and in partnership with interested people in the Missouri Synod, a three-year curriculum has been developed under Luther Institute of Southeast Asia (LISA) which calls for one week theological courses to be taught in Thailand and Cambodia every two months. Current enrollment is 15 in Thailand and 47 in Cambodia. This project covers the cost of volunteer Canadian faculty to travel to Southeast Asia to teach to the extent of $10,000.

0807 � Outreach to Women and Children, Cambodia � $13,300

In the rural communities of Cambodia where congregations have grown up whose leaders are being trained by our volunteer Canadian faculty, deaconesses have many opportunities to reach out with the Gospel as they work with children, women and the elderly in their communities. Hom Sopha is one such deaconesses working in Kompong Silar in Koh Kong Province in southwestern Cambodia. She works with children's education, strengthening women's spirituality and helping to improve the lot of widows in the church, while reaching out to elderly women generally in the community. This project will involve 8 women and will target 133 women in the community. It will focus on training women in the Gospel, as well as upgrading their vocational skills in sewing and pig farming at a cost of $13,300.

0808 � Deaconess Support, Nicaragua � $4,500

Iglesia Lutherana Sinodo de Nicaragua is a very poor church. While Lutheran Church�Canada assists the new synod by providing small stipends to the pastors and missionaries, we are not able to offer similar grants to deaconesses. This creates an extremely difficult financial situation especially to those single deaconesses who are asked by the mission to move from their homes to serve in other church or mission locations. This project will provide funds to enable the Nicaragua mission to provide small stipends for deaconesses to cover transportation costs and costs of lodging and food where needed to the extent of $4,500.

0809 � Summer Camp, Ukraine � $8,000

For a number of years, young people from Canada have traveled to Ukraine at their own expense to conduct Vacation Bible Schools and otherwise to work with Ukrainian youth in various outreach activities. An important aspect of the whole experience has been a summer camp which has helped solidify relationships and build faith. Most young people in Ukraine do not have the resources to attend such a summer camp. This project will provide funds to enable this to occur to the extent of $8,000.

0810 � Purchase of Facilities, Pervomeisk, Ukraine � $15,000

One of the daughter missions of the Krasnoperekopsk congregation is located in Pervomeisk about an hour's drive to the south. Zenja Frank, a graduate of our seminary program in Odessa, lives there and is attempting to develop a congregation. To date, the struggling congregation has been worshipping in his home, an arrangement which is not very conducive to outreach since the general public views such a worshipping congregation negatively as a sect. The congregation has now located a house close to the centre of the city which can serve as a church, as well as provide space for carrying out other mission-related activities. This project will provide funds to purchase this facility to the extent of $15,000.

0811 � Congregational Facilities, Yalta, Ukraine � $3,000

Over the past ten years, pastors and congregations of the Synod of Evangelical Lutheran Churches in Ukraine have discovered that the distribution of humanitarian aid from Germany has proven valuable in "making friends" with city officials who lack the funds to provide equipment for hospitals and school. In Yalta, Missionary Rudy Krause has been working for several years to build up a congregation under difficult circumstances. One of his handicaps has been a lack of an affordable facility to house humanitarian aid and conduct other outreach programs. He now has the opportunity to buy such a facility and this project will provide the funds to enable him to do so. $3,000.

0812 � Rental of Facilities, Costa Rica � $4,000

Rev. Pedro Adolfo Quintero was called 3 years ago to share the Gospel in the Heredia area south of the capital city of San Jose. Since that time, his ministry has reached out to the surrounding communities. In the community of San Miguel where there is a growing number of believers the mission has now rented a facility for worship and study. The project began in 2007 and this project will continue to support the rental of this facility to the extent of $4,000.

0813 � Property for New Church, Granada, Nicaragua � $6,000

Rev. Rufino Laines and his deaconess wife Marianna began an outreach ministry in Granada in 2005. God has richly blessed this ministry, both within as well as in some of the villages outside the city. The mission has had a particular impact upon the Granada police department where at least seven families have come to know the Gospel. With the help of Lutheran Church�Canada, land has been purchased in the central part of the city. Until a small facility is built upon the land, the emerging congregation will meet one block away in the city hall which is being provided free of charge, at least for the foreseeable future. This project will assist in the purchase of property for the new church to the extent of $6,000.

0814 � Registration of Church Facilities, Savran, Ukraine � $3,000

One of the needs of congregations of the Synod of Evangelical Lutheran churches in Ukraine which are emerging in new locations is the registration of their church facilities with the government. Without such registration, they are often restricted in the use of their facilities with the result that they are hampered as they attempt to reach out with the message of the Gospel. The congregation in Savran, strategically located half way between Odessa and Kiev, finds itself in this position. Built largely with funds gathered from Canadian donors, it now required such a registration without the means to provide it. This project will provide the funds to register the facilities of this church. $3,000.

0815 � Youth Ministry Training, Nicaragua � $4,000

The church in Nicaragua suffers, as we do in Canada, with a lack of youth in its congregations. Canadian youth leaders who have had contact with Nicaragua want to conduct a youth event for young people in Nicaragua to train youth leaders to do youth work among their own people. They will provide for their own costs but they need help to bring youth in Nicaragua to the event. Other granting agencies are also being asked to assist so this is a joint venture. This project will cover the cost of 100 youth from Nicaragua to come to the youth event at a cost of $4,000.

0816 � Property Expansion, Khok Kloi, Thailand � $9,000

Takuapa Sahatay Lutheran has been able to purchase land on which they have built a beautiful church building. There is, however, a small piece of property between the church property and the newly constructed divided highway. It is desirable that this piece of property be purchased so that an access road leading directly from the highway to the property could be constructed. This project will provide funds to purchase this additional land. $9,000.

0817 � Intercultural Church Workers' Conference, Canada � $3,000

In June 2006, an Intercultural Church Workers' Conference was held in Richmond, B. C. This conference was felt to be useful in view of the outreach challenge which the arrival of recent immigrants to our country is presenting to our church. We can no longer only think of taking the Gospel to the mission field; the mission field is coming to our doorstep. This conference, to be held in the Toronto area, is a fallow-up to the 2006 conference. About 30 church workers from across Canada are expected to attend. This project will cover the cost of six workers who will be first-time participants to this conference at a cost of $3,000.

0818 � Ministry Van, Canada � $3,000

Since 1988, CREW Ministries has been sharing the saving love of God with all people, especially youth across Canada, through music, humour, drama, and interactive relationships. As they share the Good News, they touch the hearts of thousands of children and their families across Canada. In 2007, CREW Ministries moved more consciously into helping congregations with after-school programs, retreats and servant events. In travelling to a ministry event in December 2007, the van in which the current touring team was traveling hit some black ice, rolled and had to be written off. This project will assist CREW Ministries in the purchase of a replacement van so that their touring team can continue to carry out this important work among youth. $3,000.

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