A new seminary in the Dominican Republic is preparing men to spread the Gospel, plant Lutheran churches and show mercy throughout the region.

“I was living the [good] life, living in the moment,” Marcelo Rivas recalled. “But at the end of every day, I felt the same thing: I’m empty. I wanted to believe, but in what?”

That’s when Vania caught his eye in a university class in Talca, Chile. She invited him to go to church with her.

He was intrigued to learn that Vania attended a Lutheran church. As a history buff, Rivas knew the story of Martin Luther, but he thought that the Reformation ended with Luther’s death.

He went to church with her the next Sunday and kept returning to hear God’s Word, discovering that the Lutheran church exists, even in Chile.

Read more about this story in “Lutherans Engage the World” magazine.