New Pastor in Puerto Rico

On Sunday, November 18, 2007, Puerto Rican LATTE seminary student Eligio Rodríguez was installed as student-pastor of Cordero de Dios (Lamb of God) Lutheran Church of Humacao, PR. Pastor Manuel Monroig performed the installation. As mentioned here, Pastor Eligio is a police sergeant in Humacao. He has been doing pastoral studies with our LATTE professors for over two years and helping the pastor of his congregation in the regular preaching and teaching rotation. He and his wife, Noemí, also run a small care facility for the elderly where the residents can enjoy the warmth and comfort of living with a caring family. They also have two children, Noemí and Natanael, at home. We ask for your prayers for Eligio as he begins this new phase of his service to our forgiving Lord Jesus.

(Posted by Professor Larry)

Thanking God for Music through Music

[The following was written for our sister blog "WELS in the DR". I share it here for two reasons: (1) Since Thanksgiving is this week, we thank God for his gift of music, and (2) it is a good example of how the missionary wives are blessings through their service also. - -Natán ]

Presently, there are several people receiving training to play hymns with the chord method of piano playing. Each of the students is a member of one of our congregations and our goal is that in the future we will have people able to read music and lead the members in singing and praise with musical instruments.

We would like to give our deepest thanks to Roxanne (wife of LATTE Missionary Ralph) who wrote the music course that the students are using. She wrote the program herself and gave us permission to reproduce it to train more people. So far it is working well and the students are making good progress.

We thank the Lord for gifted people like Roxanne who are willing to share their talents with the church, and we thank God who bestows musical talents on His believers and fills their hearts with the desire to praise Him by learning to play hymns to His glory.

[The above was written by Kathy (wife of LATTE Missionary Phil living here in the Dominican Republic). We thank the Lord for her service as well. --NW]

Where would you have me serve, O Lord?

Rona Abraham is our first seminary graduate in the Dominican Republic. (Read more about him at our sister blog "WELS in the DR" by clicking here.) He graduated in July and was so excited about returning to his home country of Haiti to share the life-saving Gospel with so many who are still lost in sin and unbelief. But...

Rona may not be able to carry out his plans. He intended to return to Haiti and start a "tent ministry" -- sharing the Gospel while supporting himself with a secular job. With his seminary diploma giving him the title of "licenciado" (equivalent to a bachelor's degree), he planned to get a job as a teacher. But...

He recently found out that since our seminary is not yet registered as an "institution of higher education" with the Dominican government, his degree is not recognized. Without a degree, he cannot get a job. Without a job, he cannot support himself in Haiti. So...

In the DR, we are looking into the requirements to register our seminary so that we can confer degrees that will be recognized and accepted. In the meantime, we ask for your prayers:

• that the Lord would bless our efforts to register the seminary
• that the Lord would guide Rona to know where and how He wants him to serve
• that the Lord would direct us as we consider other alternatives

James reminds us to say, "If it is the Lord's will" when we make our plans for the future (James 4:15). We know that all things are in His hands -- His good and gracious hands! We, therefore, trust Him to bless Rona's ministry wherever that may be.

LATTE & Videos

Professor Philip has a hobby of making audio-visual presentations. Presentations in this format are easy to use and are helpful to nationals who might not have a full grasp of the subject matter in question. The following is a web-link to a video done by Professor Philip in which a Law and Gospel presentation which he developed is given in Spanish. It is found on our WELS streaming video site: http://streams.wels.net/video/felipe1?sortby=date. This presentation is also available free of charge in DVD format at Multilanguage Publications. We would like to thank Gonzalo Delgadillo, the Spanish editor there, for his efforts in getting the video placed on WELS streaming and for getting copies made. The DVD is especially useful when a member of the church only has a brief contact with a person he would like to share the Gospel with, and therefore does not have time to make a full presentation. It is also helpful for students or members who have not yet learned to make a complete Law and Gospel presentation. Professor Philip uses this presentation as part of his Evangelism training course. He is also working at making other audio-visual presentations to accompany other courses.

(posted by Professor Philip)

The prayer of a righteous man ( James 5:16)

The following is a copy of a letter I just got from my compadre, Missionary Mike from Torreon, Mexico. I ask for you all to pray to our Lord Jesus, trusting in his many promises to answer our prayers, for Rachel's prompt healing and full recovery from Dengue fever. Missionary Mike is not strictly a part of LATTE, but he teaches seminary classes with us at the seminary in Torreon, Mexico. He is our field coordinator for the WELS mission effort in that country. He and Rachel are very dear friends and their little Trinity is a real sweety.



Hi everyone. I just thought I should send out a quick email to let you know that Rachel was hospitalized Thursday night with what appears to be a severe case of Dengue Fever. Fortunately, the doctors seem to have everything under control. As many of you already know, Dengue Fever is not usually life threatening. Her fever actually started on Monday.
At first we just thought it was a bad cold or flu. But, on Thursday morning she woke up with a rash. So, we took her in to see her doctor and he almost immediately diagnosed her with Dengue Fever. (Apparently there is a lot of Dengue going around Torreón this year.) Dengue is not contagious. Rather you get it from mosquito bites. Also, there's not much you can do other than let it run its course. So, the doctor sent Rachel home to rest. (It lasts between 5-14 days.) But he told us to call him if she got worse. Thursday evening she delirious and started
to bleed from her nose. I called the doctor and he wanted her brought in to the emergency room right away. (Hemorrhaging Dengue Fever is much more serious.) Thankfully, it doesn't appear that Rachel has had any more bleeding since that incident. She may be able to return home today, depending on how her blood tests return. The doctors aren't sure why she appears to have bled just that one time. But her platelet (Is that the English word for plaqueta?) count has been very low and the doctors want to make sure it is back at a safe level before she goes home. Both Trinity and I are doing ok. I am in the process of fumigating our house in order to try and prevent any mosquitos from biting Rachel and then infecting others. Anyway... I just wanted to let you know what's going on with us. Please pray for a complete and speedy recovery.


(Posted by Professor Larry)

Hearing the Word

Recently we had the privilege of hearing God’s Word from Pastor Sergio in Guayama, PR. We heard about faithfulness from St. Paul’s second letter to Timothy. He tells us how he wants to see his friend and student “so that I may be filled with joy.” Faithfulness does that. It fills others with joy. There is joy in a laborer for the Lord when he sees faithfulness demonstrated in one of his spiritual children. There is even greater joy when we see the faithfulness demonstrated by our loving Savior in his redemptive work and in his precious promises to us. “I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.” (2 Timothy 1:12)

Pastor Sergio (on the right) was just installed as the president of the IELC (Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Church) of Puerto Rico. We pray that God grand him faithfulness in this new opportunity for service in God’s kingdom.

(Posted by Professor Larry)