They are coming! Our Missions Partners were coming for the ‘Partner Churches Missions Consultation’ on 31 Oct 2009. So it was suggested that we could get them to share their Missions story with us. We could learn from them and be inspired by their stories. They have been at Missions much longer than our Church. Hence the LCS Mission Conference 2009 was planned by the LCS Missions Committee. Our Bishop wrote to the Partner Churches to share briefly the origin and development of their mission work.

The Lutheran Church in Singapore is the ‘child’ of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Rev John Nelson and his wife Betty Lou were sailing on the ship to Malaya as Missionaries in 1955, even before I was born. Through the hard work of the Missionaries, the Lutheran Church in Singapore was born. Rev Dr Phillip Baker then shared with us the ELCA missions story. The American Lutherans sent out their first missionary in 1841. He was John Christian Frederick Heyer also affectionately known as Father Heyer. Heyer began his missionary work in Andra Pradesh. Today there are about 2 million Lutherans there, the third largest in Asia. ELCA participates in God’s missions in 90 countries in a variety of ways. At the present moment, they have seconded Dr Jeffrey Truscott to us who lectures in Trinity Theological College.

The honor belongs to the European Lutherans who sent out the first Protestant Missionaries. Bartholomaus Ziegenbald, answered the call of King Frederick IV of Denmark for clergy to spread the Gospel in India. On July 9, 1706, Ziegenbald and Heinrich Plutschan arrived in the region of Tranquebar. He is also the father of modern Tamil prose. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria’s mission work started with Ps Wilhelm Lohe in Neuendettlesau. In 1842 he began to train 2 persons in his home. He was able to sent pastors to North America, Australia, New Guinea, Brazil and the Ulkraine. For ELCB, missions work always entails preaching the gospel, building schools and hospitals. They adopt a holistic approach to Missions. Missions work has changed over the years and they now stress partnerships where they work on eye to eye level with their partners. One attendee was touched by their work in China.

Following this, the Lutheran Church of Australia shared their Mission story. Rev Neville Otto said that it has been said that there is no golden age in Missions but only yellow. In 1838, the first Lutheran came to Australia to escape persecution in Prussia. LCA has done mission among the Aboriginal Lutheran Christians. The first missionary travelled for many months just to reach the Aboriginal people. Today there are more than 6000 Aboriginal Lutheran Christians. The other mission work was in Papua New Guinea. At the height of their missions work there they had about 160 missionaries there. God worked through the missionaries and there are 1.2 million Lutheran Christians there, about 20% of the population. Today LCA’s other missions work include those in Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia.

Finally, the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Mission told their story. The Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Missions (FELM) has a history of 150 years. It was founded in 1859 and operates in 30 countries on five continents. Their first missionaries, after training for six years, left for South West Africa in 1870. The motto of FELM is Love, faith, hope - from people to people. Their mission work is quite widespread and covers ministry and congregational work, social justice and daiconia, sustainable governance and finances, peace and reconciliation and HIV and AIDS. At present, their mission budget is 28 million Euros. They are partners with us in the Thai Good News Centre and support us financially. This year they have also sent a Missionary couple to us, Rev Tapio and his wife. Through this partnership the attendance at Thai Good News Centre has grown.

With hundreds of years of mission history, one and a half hour was too short a time for us to hear all their exciting stories. However, they did an excellent job in giving a brief overview of their work. Our Bishop closed the meeting with prayer after commenting that ELCA is our parent and ELCB is our grandparent. We give thanks to God for the missionaries who came to our shore and brought the gospel to us. May God enable us to partner with Him in His Mission of desiring to bless the world and to save the world.