Grateful for generous hearts – Mid-year CLMS project highlights

As of the end of June, the following projects have been fully funded – praise the Lord!

• Tarp for the worship gathering of Altos de Vera Cruz, Leon, Nicaragua (#1416)
• Mission and ministry to prisoners in Ukraine (#1424)
• Mission outreach to college/university students in Odessa, Ukraine (#1426)

While other projects are still to be fully funded for 2014 (we hope to announce another few projects as fully funded in the coming months), here are some mission updates that cover many of the items in the Concordia Lutheran Mission Society project list.

In Costa Rica several projects have made significant progress. The Lutheran Church Canada’s (LCC) deaconesses and three women leaders in the Costa Rica mission attended a training seminar for deaconesses in Nicaragua. These Christian women are grateful and excited about the opportunity made possible by LCC and Concordia Lutheran Mission Society (CLMS). A continuation of this training is now being organized in their own country for these special church leaders. One of the deaconesses, Betty, and her assistants continue to focus on Bible studies for women, children and youth outreach.

There are Canadian short-term missions that are planning to be in Costa Rica in January 2015. In the month of July 2015 a young woman from Alberta will be staying in Costa Rica and assisting the mission for the entire month, involved mostly with outreach to children and youth. Although, the short-term mission is not supported by CLMS, the Costa Rican mission itself is supported by CLMS.

The CLMS rental cost support for San Jose, Costa Rica is currently going through a transition since the landlord suddenly requested the building. The church has temporarily been moved to a community centre for the mission’s activities until a new place is available for rent.

Pastor Douglas Aguilar in Honduras continues reaching out to the communities in Olanchito. It is a challenging mission, but the Lord continues to make His church grow. On May 25, 2014 eight children and adolescents were baptized in Olanchito. Included in the baptisms was little Isaac, the infant child of Pastor Douglas and his wife Ariana. The church community is predominantly women and children. God uses these Christians to open doors into their families with the Gospel.

The work of LCC and CLMS in Nicaragua continues to receive many blessings from God. By the middle of July a strategic plan and budget will be ready for the new mission start in the city of Managua. The local Lutheran Hour Ministries office will join with LCC’s mission and the Nicaraguan church to rent space in Managua for joint work. A location has already been found where, God willing, the office and worship space for services will be established.

All Nicaraguan congregations invite children to a Vacation Bible School (VBS) every year. The largest number of VBSs are conducted between the months of January and March. During this period several short-term volunteer mission teams from Canada join the ILSN for this mission outreach.

The deaconesses continue to work tremendously hard and are so grateful for the annual support for their stipends. Nicaraguan Deaconesses are being trained on computers to help teach the children. The special retreats and workshops for Deaconesses support their spiritual growth and improve their work skills. There are 700 children in Nicaragua enrolled in the educational program to learn Bible stories, the Small Catechism, Spanish literacy and mathematics. In 2014, 17 new deaconesses were added to the program. Today there is a total of 37 deaconesses working in the children educational program.

At the Nicaraguan medical and dental clinics special effort is being made by a local pastor and vicar to visit with the patients while they wait to be helped. A missionary service is being held at the mission centre’s chapel on Sundays afternoons and the clinic’s surrounding community is being invited for the services.

The mission in Sebaco, Nicaragua has been blessed with land purchased by a congregation in Alberta. A building project is being prepared. The rental supported by CLMS may soon give way to a church building. Pastor Hector and Cristina are focused in reaching out to children and their families.

The Nicaraguan church is making it a priority for teams of musicians using the instruments provided by CLMS to visit each of the synod’s congregation. The goal is to train and prepare musicians to lead the singing and Liturgy, and provide an opportunity for community mission outreach through music. Nicaraguans love to sing, and this program has proven a perfect fit for leadership training and mission.

To provide the opportunity for Pastors in Nicaragua to browse the internet and download good Lutheran resources for their work, CLMS is helping to provide the financial support for memory sticks and CDs. This way, the Pastors can store legitimate Lutheran material.

The mission in the region of Jinotepe, La Pita and Rivas in Nicaragua are growing, by God’s grace and the leadership of faithful Pastor Rufino. La Pita has a beautiful tarp for their church activities, a well is being built for the community, and expansion of the mission has reached into another small town in that region.

The Lord continues to bless the missionary work of Pastor Suchart Chujit in Thailand. His main work has been to visit families in their homes and lead Bible studies.

In Ukraine, God continues to provide joy in the midst of challenge. Rev. Alexey Navrotskyy: is focused on working in an intense study process so he can come to Canada for the 2014/2015 school year. With CLMS’ contribution, LCC is now close to $ 33,000.00 for Alexey’s first academic year at CLS.

Due to the political unstable situation, the new academic year for the Ukrainian Seminary won’t start this year. God and wise decision-makers will determine next steps.

The youth and other leaders in Ukraine train in June for the summer programs, which take place in July and August of each year.

The several other Ukrainian projects are proceeding well under the leadership of pastors Alexey Navrotskyy and Oleg Schewtschenko . Read about all the great work being accomplished in Ukraine, with the help of God here.