Mission and Ministry work in Latin America & the Caribbean
As part of the celebration of Reggae Month in 2020, Lutheran Ministries in Jamaica decided to celebrate their children. Pastor Obot Ite, an alliance missionary from Nigeria, who has served in Jamaica for well over a decade, had the idea to work with Parade Gardens Lutheran School to provide opportunities for the children to express their faith during worship services at nearby Faith Lutheran Church.
The last month has been a journey of faith and a trial of perseverance. Shepherding the flock across 5 different locations and moves since December has been nerve-wracking and stressful. Seeing our brand-new property split from top to bottom by cracks through which the light of day can be seen has been disheartening. Canceling renovation teams and instead ordering demolition (for the dividing walls which were crumbling) has been demoralizing.
This past October, The Spanish Lutheran Church held their annual Assembly. The Assembly is an opportunity for all the members of the Spanish Lutheran Church to come together. One of the many blessings, is the ever-growing number of children. Shelee Warner and I were tasked with providing study and activities for the children. Thirteen children attended the Assembly and were divided by age.
In January 2020, Concordia Seminary St. Louis sent two deaconess students on a mission education trip to the Dominican Republic to learn about various aspects of the ministry occurring there and throughout Latin America. Participants Janie Schlie and Christina Shaffer, both first year students, had the opportunity to experience what life is like in the Dominican Republic while serving alongside and learning from missionaries, deaconesses and local believers.
The ground started shaking even before Christmas. But when a magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck Indios, Puerto Rico, 19 miles from an LCMS church plant in nearby Ponce, on Epiphany, the local team kicked into relief mode before an initial assessment team of LCMS Disaster Response personnel and regional leaders even touched down in San Juan. Having been trained in theory and in practice after Hurricane María left the island reeling in September 2017, prioritizing needs and drawing on the right resources are second nature.
Disaster Response workshops were hosted by Concordia Lutheran Church and School in Palmar Arriba, and Lamb of God Lutheran Church and School in Licey, through grants from the Mercy Center, an institute of Concordia the Reformer Seminary in the Dominican Republic.
To commemorate 502 years of the Lutheran Reformation, LCMS mission congregations across the Dominican Republic celebrated with a street procession preceding their Divine Services.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Spain (IELE) is seeing growth in the number of men serving as pastors. Two new pastors were installed in Spain Sunday, October 13th. Felipe Lobo from Spain was ordained during the service, joining the newly ordained Missionary Pastor Isaac Machado as the fifth and sixth Lutheran pastors in the country.
Diaconal formation continued in Panama September 28-29, as the ladies continued with their second course in the Deaconess Program, The Divine Service and the Life of the Church. A dozen ladies were in attendance from two congregations.
The very first Lutheran School on the Island of Jamaica was recently dedicated in the impoverished area of downtown Kingston, known as Parade Gardens.
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