The rapidly growing Dominican Republic Lutheran Mission (DRLM) is the hub for mission work in the Latin America & Caribbean region (LAC). Church plants in the country’s two largest cities are moving toward self-sufficiency as they identify leaders, reach out to local and immigrant communities, and sow daughter preaching stations.
Twenty-five ladies from five countries gathered for Latin America & the Caribbean’s pilot deaconess intensive in 2016. Afterward, they were excited to promote Concordia the Reformer Seminary’s three-year diaconal formation program. As a result, nearly a hundred deaconesses recently graduated, and 70 more are enrolled in the current cohort. The program has expanded to nine countries.
LCMS involvement in Chile began in the 1960s in the port city of Valparaiso. Since the late 1990s, LCMS Disaster Response efforts have helped extend the reach of the Gospel. The Confessional Lutheran Church of Chile has ten congregations in Santiago, Valparaíso, Viña del Mar, Talca and Constitución.
The Cayman Islands brings up images of gleaming yachts and offshore bank accounts. The affluent British territory is known for its financial and tourism sectors. However, with the extraordinary wealth, vacationing Lutherans in the early 2000s saw a spiritual void. The need to sow an LCMS congregation on Grand Cayman was evident.
Castillo Fuerte, located in an industrial area of Lima, provides a safe haven for some of the most vulnerable little ones. Working poor spend long hours in factories to make ends meet, leaving school-age children to fend for themselves.
The Lord has blessed the work of missionaries in the Lutheran Church of Belize. Five ministry points are in place, and the growing mission team is looking to establish a Lutheran Church in each of the six districts of Belize. With current work happening in Orange Walk, Cayo, and Stann Creek, they plan to reach out to Belize, Toledo, and Corozal districts, bringing the total number of mission sites to eleven.
Venezuelan Pastor Sergio Maita is a church planter and seminary professor in the Dominican Republic. He serves a mission in Santo Domingo that began in 2018 with just himself and his family. His gift of teaching and love for the people has resulted in the rapid growth of the congregation, a blended group of Venezuelan and Dominican members. In addition, he serves a new mission in Los Mina, an adjoining community Santo Domingo.
In the fall of 2005, two missionaries arrived in Santiago, Dominican Republic, with one contact name in hand. They aimed to plant Lutheran churches inclusive of those with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). This grassroots endeavor resulted in the incorporation of an NGO, Good Shepherd Lutheran Homes (HLBP), in 2009.
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