Christmas Greetings from Haiti

My family and I wish you peace, comfort and 

eternal hope in our Savior. Merry Christmas!

************************************************

Mi familia y yo les deseamos paz, consuelo, y 

siempre esperanza en nuestro Salvador. 

¡Feliz Navidad!

-- Pastor Rona

Photo Credit

Update from the Caribbean

 DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

The one congregation of our fellowship and its pastor continue to reach out to the people of Santiago, Dominican Republic. 

  

HAITI

The humanitarian and gospel outreach work continues amongst the orphanages of Leogane and with a small congregation in Cap Haitian served by a Haitian pastor trained by LATTE in the Dominican Republic.

News from the Caribbean

Although the work is slow, the Lord continues to provide believers and to bless the work being done in various countries of the Spanish-speaking Caribbean through the efforts of national pastors and visiting teachers.

In the Dominican Republic (DR), a key component to the strategy is to involve national Lutherans in the formation and development of a national church body. A congregation in Santiago, DR is leading the efforts in that direction.

 Children of the Congregation

In many ways, the country of Haiti is worse off now than it was two years ago.  Over 350,000 more Haitians live in Port au Prince than before the earthquake.  Vodou permeates the entire culture.  Our missionary works with a Haitian national pastor who graduated from the LATTE program to do outreach to a small congregation in Cap Haitian and with almost 20 orphanages in Leogane not far from Port Au Prince.  A third pastor/trainer position is being considered for work in this country.

Update from the Caribbean

The Lord continues to provide believers and to bless the work being done in the Caribbean. A teaching trip was completed this October to one of the Spanish speaking countries with the objective to teach the Psalms and to do sermon text studies.

Dominican Republic

The Dominican mission field has experienced many great blessings in the first half of this year. The members and workers there are passionate about the gospel and have a great mindset for evangelism. The pastor in Santiago has been considered capable by two LATTE pastors of teaching seminary-level courses to his fellow Dominicans. The Dominican field receives no subsidy at the present.

Haiti

The Haitian outreach has also experienced tremendous blessings this year. The connections with Haitian orphanages have resulted in 62 orphans receiving saving faith through the washing of Holy Baptism. It is the hope that the current partnerships and other orphanage leaders can continue and even expand (with the hope of also reaching out to an additional area) so that more souls may be reached and may hear the gospel in a country where voodoo and other false practices are the norm.

LATTE's work focuses on Spanish-speaking countries plus Haiti. WELS also serves English-speaking countries of the Caribbean -- Antigua, Grenada, and St Lucia.

Work in Haiti

Mission Established: 2010

LATTE Service:

• Professors conduct teaching trips to Port-au-Prince in 2003
• Teaching trips discontinue due to security precautions in 2004
• Professors train Haitian students in the Dominican Republic 
• LATTE-trained Pastor Rona begins mission outreach in Cap-Haitien in 2010

Work in the Caribbean

Dominican Republic

The Lord continues to bless the work being done presently among the members of the congregation in Moca, near Santiago. The Dominican believers and their LATTE Trained Pastors seem very energetic and passionate for the gospel and for sharing it with others. Although numbers are small in comparison to other mission fields, great outreach work is being done in this country. 

Haiti

Despite the many problems that face the country of Haiti presently, the Lord continues to work through pastors, like LATTE Graduate Pastor Rona, who have a strong desire to share the Word in its truth. The possibility of an orphanage could be a way to share the gospel with young souls.  Humanitarian aid efforts by WELS Christian Aid and Relief Committee  have created bridges to an orphanage association in Haiti.  Seven of nine orphanages visited invited our expatriate missionary and national pastor to work with them in providing a religious education to the orphanage directors, staffs, and children.  There are 12 more orphanages in the association yet to be visited.

Puerto Rico

The Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Church of Puerto Rico, a World Mission field for over 40 years will formally ask at the convention to be recognized by WELS as an independent sister church.  Partnership with this independent Lutheran church will be maintained through regular contact with the Commission on Inter-Church Relations (CICR).  A former missionary to Puerto Rico, is the CICR’s current contact man for this ongoing partnership. LATTE continues training Seminary Student Eligio through online education. 

The ministerial training work continues to be done among the leaders and members in the various congregations throughout the Caribbean by LATTE.  As in past years, there are some government and cultural obstacles toward the work of the church. Despite these challenges, the Lord continues to provide believers and to bless the work being done in some countries.

A New Start

It has been a little over a year since the last blog entry. Many changes have taken place in Latin America during that time.

Reduced budgets, increased online training, new mission fields, additional seminary students, seminary graduates, new congregations, diseases, relocation of seminary professors, increased security precautions, earthquakes, hurricanes, new members of the Latin America Administrative Committee-all of these have had an impact on the seminary training in Latin America.

But one thing has, does, and will always remain the same-God's Word and his promise. What a comfort we have and a privilege to share.

Join us as we go, tell, and train souls in Latin America to share God's Word following Jesus' Great Commission.

“ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” - Matthew 28:19-20

LATTE continues training in the Dominican Republic

On Wednesday and Thursday of last week I traveled to the Dominican Republic with Pastor Robert Smith, the new chairman of the Administrative Committee for Latin America. We met with Missionary Professor Phil and the men with whom he is working there, training them for ministry. As you will have seen from previous blogs, the budget crunch in the WELS almost lost us Phil's position and we wanted to speak with him and his students to assure them of our continued support and of their professor's continued presence with them to finish their seminary training. The second picture shows student-pastor Alex speaking with Prof. Philip about the progress on the work on their new church property. Look for more pictures of this trip in the coming days.

(Posted by Larry)

By God's grace and power, LATTE is spared from a cut in manpower

The LATTE team has some very good news to report today. During the last two days our administrative committee for Latin America has been meeting to deal with the effect of the budgetary cuts that are effecting our Synod. I had previously blogged that Prof. Philip was being withdrawn from our team and from his work in the Dominican Republic. While that was the official news from headquarters, it apparently was premature. We have just been informed by our committee that our Latin American mission work will continue to focus on theological education (the preparation of national workers) in our mission churches and sister churches in Latin America. Therefore LATTE will be able to continue with our four remaining professors. We are indeed grateful to a loving and all-powerful God.

To be able to make this work, the committee has had to withdraw our last missionary from Brazil. We know how difficult this will be for the Brazilian national church, and pray God to strengthen them to continue to teach and preach His word there. LATTE will be helping them as we are able with occasional visits to teach and encourage.

We are comforted and strenghtened by the fact that although human plans falter and change, our good Lord's plan for our eternal salvation never changes. He is good indeed.

The Pain and Loss of Budget Cuts

Missionaries are not immune to a difficulty afflicting many kinds of people all over the world today -- the economic crisis. But it has affected us in a drastic way. Ten years ago we were 15 WELS missionaries working in Latin America. At the end of February we were eight. LATTE has gone from five to six, then back to five. Last November our team was cut again when Prof. Ralph Martens (top) was called to serve in Mexico with no replacement on our team.


Now we have just received word that Prof. Philip  (bottom) will be cut and sent back to the United States. And depending on how our Synod votes in its biennial convention in July, Latin America could lose yet another missionary.

The pain comes from saying goodbye to friends and co-workers of many years. The loss to God's kingdom comes from losing two valued, experienced missionary-professors, both of whom have decades of experience serving His church in Latin America. They will both be sorely missed in the training and preparation of future church workers all over Latin America.

We are grateful to God that he has seen fit to call Prof. Ralph to Mexico so that is expertise is not lost to our mission effort in Mexico. And we pray to our Sovereign Lord for Prof. Philip to receive a call at the opportune moment so his service to the church may continue, all according to His will. To Him alone be the glory and honor.

Farewell

This past week the Dominican mission said goodbye to another of it's faithful workers. On April 2, Professor Natán left the field after having lived and worked here for three years.

The members of the church gathered to say farewell, giving him a plaque of recognition and gratitude for his labor of love among them. Many happy memories were shared and smiles of joy and comfort as we mutually assured each other that if not in this life, then in heaven we would once again enjoy each other's company.

The people will all miss Nate's cow jokes, (What do you call a cow when it lies down? Ground beef); his smiles and cheerful nature, his faithful and godly wisdom and counsel.

Thank you Nate for all your work and efforts in this mission field. We wish you God's blessings on your new endeavors. Go with His blessing. May He lift you up on eagle's wings and always hide you beneath the shadow of His wing.

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.