Jesus commanded his disciples to “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.” At Christ Our Savior Lutheran Church, we seek to encourage missions and mercy work projects, locally and globally, through prayer, financial and physical support. Our involvement ranges from providing essentials to local needy families, to providing financial and prayer support to missionaries to carry out the work to which the Lord has called them.

Lutheran Bible Translators (LBT)

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Lutheran Bible Translators (LBT), is an independent Lutheran mission organization that is dedicated to helping bring people to faith in Jesus Christ by making the Word of God available to those who do not yet have it in the language of their hearts.

Since 1989, Larry and Mae Johnson have worked on several scripture translation projects in Liberia and Sierra Leone. In his work as a translation consultant, Larry’s primary responsibility is to provide training to national translators and to assist the translation teams in preparing Scriptural materials for printing.

Please pray for the Johnsons as they respond to God’s call by helping to provide Scripture to people in their own language so that, with the help of the Holy Spirit, they can read, hear and understand His Word.

Also serving LBT is Becky Grossman, of Gobles, Michigan. Becky is working with a project to bring God’s Word to the Gola and Dan peoples in Liberia who long to have the Scriptures in their own native tongue. The translation work will be done by teams of local Gola and Dan translators with support from local Liberian churches. Becky is serving as a translation adviser and will be assisting the indigenous translations teams via the Internet and Skype with occasional in-person visits to Liberia.

Please pray for Becky and the translation teams that through their work the Gola and Dan peoples of Liberia will soon have God’s Word in their native language. For more information, please click here.

South America Missionaries

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James and Christel Neuendorf serve the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod as missionaries in the Dominican Republic. James is the communication specialist for Latin America and Christel is the business manager for the same region. On a regional level, James develops resources for training and educating laity, and generates and promotes the creative expression of the Lutheran Confessional faith using local resources. Christel works with other missionaries and the LCMS partner churches in Latin America to assist with outreach and discipleship efforts by providing administrative and managerial support.

Please pray for James and Christel as they serve the Lord in the Dominican Republic and throughout Latin America.

here to see a recent video of their efforts in the Dominican Republic.
 
POBLO International
Poblo picPOBLO was founded in 1993 in Dearborn, Michigan—a Detroit suburb with the largest concentration of Muslims in the United States and one of the largest Arab communities outside the Middle East. POBLO was begun as a mission society of the LCMS to bring the Gospel to Muslims, a partnership between the Michigan District, the Dearborn circuit, and the LCMS Board for Mission Services . By 1995, the ministry expanded into additional U.S. states and also into a number of additional countries, including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Canada, India, and Pakistan. From 2011 onwards, POBLO’s focus has been to train U.S. churches on how to conduct cross-cultural missions in their own communities. POBLO has developed various resources for churches and individuals, as well as replicable ministry models for those interested in Muslim outreach. For additional information, please click here.
 
Papua New Guinea (PNG)
LTMatroPNG bible-distributionThe LCMS began mission work in Papua New Guinea (PNG) in 1948 when Rev. Otto Hintze and Rev. Willard Burce, recent seminary graduates, joined two men from Australia and venture into the recently opened interior of PNG. Over the years since the Lord blessed the work of the LCMS so that today there are over 450 congregations and 100,000 Lutheran Christians here. There is also a Lutheran High School, 2 seminaries and a hospital. Work has also spread to the surrounding regions of the Hewa, Penale, Nete and Kopiago people.

Today our work in PNG is in cooperation with our partner church, The Gutnius (Good News) Lutheran Church. The primary role of the LCMS in PNG is not “evangelism and church planting” as that is conducted by the local pastors and evangelists. Rather, we are in PNG to strengthen and build the capacity of our partner church to carry out the mission and ministry that the Lord has for them to do. We do not have any formal partnerships with other Lutherans in the Oceania area at this time. However, we are open to looking for ways to work together with them. This may include mercy work, seminary exchanges and theological dialogue. For additional information on the work of LCMS-PNG please click here.
 
As Area Director, Pastor Matro will facilitate conversations with Lutheran churches in the region, assist in the recruiting and placing of missionaries in the region and oversee the work that LCMS missionaries are currently involved in here.
 
UPDATE: Rev. Larry and Tina Matro are in the U.S. for the next few months. Click to read their most recent newsletters