Colombia Teaching Trip

Since September, 2009, I have been serving many of our LATTE students with doctrine courses that I teach using the Internet. Two of the students from Colombia, Henry and Tonny, have finished the six online doctrine courses. I have 11 other students right now who are studying doctrine this way and are at various stages of completion: 5 from Colombia, 3 from Bolivia, 1 from Argentina, and 2 from the USA.

I still do some traveling to teach our LATTE students face to face. Right now I am in Medellín, Colombia, for one month, teaching St. Paul´s Letter to the Ephesians to Henry, Tonny, Raul (computer screen), and Jairo. We study at the church in Medellín, but Raul, who lives in Quibdo, Colombia, connects to Skype to study with us (see photo).

 

  Tonny, Henry, & Raul (computer screen)

 

Jairo

We hold the class every afternoon, after Tonny gets done with work in a jeans factory, Monday through Friday, from 3 - 6 PM. We are studying the six chapters in the original Greek, discussing it, and then applying it to our and our members´ lives. I also meet with Henry in the mornings from 9 - 12 AM to teach Christian Education, a class that deals with the way people learn and all the classes a pastor teaches.

My wife, Kay, accompanied me on this trip, to fellowship with the ladies and families of the congregation, La Santísima Trinidad, to encourage them in their work. Of course Kay also makes sure I get home cooked meals and clean laundry.

Keep this work and our students in your prayers.

LATTE Students are Teachers Too

LATTE professors teach seminary students of confessional Lutheran churches in Latin America. Many of these students are already pastors of congregations and their national churches have asked us to give these pastors more training. Others are seminary students who are starting mission congregations in cities where there is no confessional Lutheran congregation. 

Adolfo

 Eduardo

Pictured here are two LATTE students, Adolfo and Eduardo, who live in Santa Marta, Colombia. They are starting a mission congregation in Santa Marta under the name Iglesia Luz de Cristo (Light of Christ Lutheran Church). You can read more about their work by going to http://luteranosconfesionalescolombiawels.blogspot.com/2012/06/iglesia-luz-de-cristo-santa-marta.html

Please add these two LATTE students and their new mission to your prayer list, asking the Lord of the Church to bless their studies and their preaching of the Gospel so that the light of Christ may shine brightly in Santa Marta.

Online Course Completed

A LATTE professor just finished teaching a ten lesson, twenty week online course on doctrine. The course included a biblical study of faith, conversion, justification, sanctification, good works, prayer, the cross, and predestination.

Fifteen students finished the course:

-  Eight from Colombia

-  Three from Bolivia
-  Two from the USA
-  One from Chile
-  One from Guatemala

The students were Lutheran pastors and leaders from Lutheran Churches which have asked us to help them train their leaders. The students wrote a total of 2511 emails, most with homework that needed to be corrected, including 170 sets of comprehensive end-of-the-lesson review questions.

The course used the online Moodle platform which allows the professor to put the whole course online before the students begin to study. Students then receive a calendar for the course lessons, but can study the two text books and do the homework assignments according to their daily and weekly schedules, at anytime of the day.  The professor can do his correcrting and emails to the students according to his schedule too. This allows the professor to travel to other countries, including countries where the Internet is not available to the general populous, for face-to-face classes.

The courses of this type are designed as a package so national pastors can also give the same course, once they have taken it themselves.

Entrusting Reliable Men

You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.

(2 Timothy 2:1-2)

One of the LATTE professors' goals is to make the seminary and other courses that we teach to national pastors as transferable as possible. We try to design courses so that a national pastor, after studying a course, can then teach that course to others.  This way the national pastor grows in his faith in Jesus, his Savior, and he is prepared to teach others.

Professor Lorenzo Teaching Students

This plan has worked well.  

In Bolivia, a number of our students are Lutheran Pastors with congregations. After studying a course in basic doctrine with the LATTE professor in the city of La Paz, these pastors were given a clean copy of the course plus a teacher's guide. The student pastors in turn returned to their congregations where they could make copies of the course and teach it to their members. 

In Quibdo, Colombia, the pastor asked if he could duplicate the materials of the online doctrine course he was studying so he could teach the same subjects - faith, conversion, justification, sanctification, and good works - to his Sunday school teachers and other interested members. 

Waldo Teaching Bible Class*

At times it may appear that the work of a LATTE professor is inefficient: he writes and then teaches a whole course to just a few students. Remember the plan the Apostle Paul taught to Timothy: "You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.  And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others."

*Note on photo above: Waldo is teaching the Bible class. He has been prepared entirely by his pastors, LATTE has not given him classes, we have only trained his trainers/pastors.

Latin America Online

All of the LATTE professors are teaching courses online in Latin America. I have used Skype to teach Genesis to a student in Puerto Rico. I opened the course comments and questions for each lesson on my desktop, which he could also see. We both had good Internet connections so we could converse without any problems. We also used video cameras so we could see each other for the opening and closing sessions of the class. 

Many of our pastors and leaders in Latin America are dedicated Skype users. Our two pastors in Medellín, Colombia, use Skype to reach out to people in other cities and to teach. They also have an International Internet Church with members in South America, USA, France, Spain, that meets each Sunday using Skype.

Online Teaching

Some time ago, the WELS Board for World Missions mandated online courses to save travel expenses. It does!

The asynchronous Moodle platform allows me to reach Spanish speaking students all over the world, regardless of time zones or the work schedules of my students. I have students in Bolivia, Colombia, Guatemala, Chile, Mexico, and the USA.

I teach dogmatics in Spanish using the Moodle platform. So far I have developed and taught 3 courses: Anthropology, Christology, and Soteriology 1. Each lesson has 5 reading assignments from our 2 dogmatics texts. There are then five graded forum assignments where the students have to write on assigned topics, read what other students have written, and then respond to what two others have written. Each lesson has review questions that are requested and then returned to the professor for grading. The course is designed for student pastors, seminary students, and church leaders including Sunday school teachers.

One advantage of methodology used is peer teaching. I am often gone for LATTE teaching trips to other countries, where I do not always have Internet service. But the students can continue studying, learning from one another. My wife functions as my assistant and sends out the end of the lesson questions for me.

Online teaching also has some disadvantages.  

• First, there is a high drop out rate. 

• Second, I have not met all of my students face to face.

• Third, we do little exegesis in the original Biblical languages. It is difficult to do using this methodology. We have also opened the course to students who have not studied Greek or Hebrew.

Fresh air church office

In one of our congregations in Colombia, the rented church building is too small to serve all of the congregation’s needs. During the Sunday school hour, they have two children’s Sunday school classes, a youth catechism class and an adult Bible information course going all at once in a room without dividers. Since this is a time when the leaders of the congregation also have their meetings, they meet out in the middle of the avenue that is located right in front of the church building. With a smile on their face they tell us that this is the church “office”. Members of the LATTE team had the privilege of participating in some meetings held in “the office” on their last teaching trip to Colombia.

Prof. Lorenzo nears end of his trip to Bolivia

Greetings from a chilly La Paz where the temps get up to 55 degrees or so. Right now it is 46 degrees outside, 60 degrees in my room. My hotel room has no heat!

My classes are going well. Yesterday I finished classes with those from the interior of the country. I had 15 students, 8 hours a day. The students are pastors and leaders, mainly from smaller villages. Some of them speak Aymara also. They are not nearly as educated as my evening group. Classes were: How to Interpret the Bible; 1 Corinthians; and the 12 hour Saturday Evangelism seminar, which I repeat this Saturday too. I gave them clean copies of the courses plus a teacher's guide so they can go home and teach the courses to the other leaders since they are not all able to come.

My evening class from 7 - 10 PM has an attendance of around 40, again pastors, leaders, and a few others; same courses. This group is more educated so it is quite different from the day group. Always interesting.

(Posted by Lorenzo)

Bolivia Blessings

In an October 31, 2007, blog we asked you to pray for LATTE's work with the Federation of Evangelical Lutheran Churches in Bolivia (FIEL). We want to report on the blessings the Lord showered on Bolivia during the November 7 - 20 teaching trip. The following is an excerpt from an article Rachel Hartman wrote for the WELS Mission Connection about the trip.

"It was decided that Missionary Lorenzo would travel to Bolivia in November 2007. While he was there, he taught a course on basic doctrine. He gave a class on Law and Gospel, and another one about fellowship. Every day, around 40 people came to listen. Of these, seven were pastors. The others were lay leaders of their congregations.

“The people were very warm and welcoming,” reports Missionary Lorenzo. And they were eager to have him. They set up the classroom and invited others to come. They prepared certificates to be handed out at the end of each course.

The best part, Missionary Lorenzo notes, was to see the “the people listen to God’s Word and put it into practice.” After hearing what God had to say about baptism, the leaders decided to begin baptizing babies (previously some had not). Those who were not doing so also decided to incorporate the Lord’s Supper into their services.

Promising Future

This is exciting, but the Bolivian church still faces doctrinal challenges. “We are trying to take baby steps with them,” comments Missionary Lorenzo. He recalls that the Lutheran church in [the Caribbean] , at one time, had similar weaknesses as the one in Bolivia . Today, however, the [the Caribbean] church is easily recognized as a Lutheran church. It bases its beliefs on the Bible. The hope is that the church in Bolivia will reach that same point.

Two more missionary trips are planned for 2008. They will include more courses that focus on God’s Word. The goal is to help the church in Bolivia establish a Bible Institute and seminary. This way, FIEL will be able to train future pastors for its congregations.

Starting mission work in Bolivia is exciting. It is an example of how a local congregation and foreign missionaries can work together. By doing so, the Gospel crosses new borders and touches more souls."

(Posted by Lorenzo)

Additional Work in Bolivia

One of LATTE's jobs is to visit Spanish speaking churches that request our help. One such request came from the Federation of Evangelical Lutheran Churches (FIEL), in Bolivia. FIEL has 10 congregations and about 500 members scattered throughout the country. Although founded in 1938 by a Lutheran group, FIEL has also been served by missionaries from various Reformed denominations.

LATTE visited Bolivia last May to talk to FIEL's leaders and assess needs. They asked us to return to help instruct its leaders in Biblical, Lutheran doctrine and practice. LATTE accepted the invitation and the undersigned will make a visit November 5 - 22. He will teach a course on basic doctrine, one on fellowship, and another on law and gospel. FIEL reports that 50 pastors and leaders have signed up for the courses.

Pray that the Lord will bless this work!

(Posted by Lorenzo)

Pray for Eric

Eric wants to study for the ministry. He studied our instruction course and was confirmed about a year ago by a pastor who lives several hundred miles away. Now Eric has two small groups that he has gathered around the Word and Sacraments. He wants to study more. But travel is very difficult. The other pastor is very busy. Is there another way?

We are going to try to teach Eric by "long distance learning" on the Internet. I e-mailed him a course. He is to answer the questions as he studies each lesson, then e-mail me the finished lesson for me to correct. There is one problem. Eric's country does not allow its citizens to own computers or to have an Internet connection. Eric does have access to a computer and the Internet at his job. But everything received and sent is filtered by the government. Will this work?

Pray for Eric.

(posted by Lorenzo)