LCMS World Mission Blog

“‘Consider it pure joy, my brothers whenever you face trials of many kinds,’ (James 1:2). How difficult it is in our flesh to put these words into practice! Yet we have had opportunities to do just that in the last month. We thank God even for these trials as they are opportunities for us to develop perseverance. The main obstacle Satan keeps throwing in our path is people who deceive others with the hope of monetary gain. They have caused much heartache in our church and continue to do so. The latest conflict has been over the building of a well and a wall on our property. I won’t go into all the details but suffice it to say that there has been a lot of time and energy spent on this issue instead of the progress of the Gospel.

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Dave Hoeppner interviews teachers in India regarding the needs of their school.

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• Watch a video from the IELC’s Golden Jubilee 50th Anniversary celebrations

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“Dennis made his first trip to Papua New Guinea (PNG). In many ways PNG is quite an underdeveloped country, yet it has an abundance of natural resources. Most of the people are very poor, but the cost of living is quite high. Dennis was able to spend time with the head bishop of the Gutnius Lutheran Church (GLC), the LCMS partner church in PNG, and some of the teachers in a few of the GLC schools. The GLC is located in Enga Province in the interior mountains of the island.

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“James was educated at Concordia Lutheran School in Hong Kong and went on to university, including a year at Concordia University Chicago, River Forest, Ill. He taught and served as principal in Lutheran Church-Hong Kong Synod schools for 10 years before going to work for McDonald’s in 1974. He rose through the ranks in the McDonald’s Corporation to become their top man in China. As one of the 15 corporate sponsors for 2008 Olympics, he even had a seat reserved with all the world leaders at the opening ceremony in the ‘Bird’s Nest’ stadium in Beijing. In his success, James forgot his relationship with his Savior, and he avoided his old Christian friends. His world came crashing down on him in the run-up to the Olympics when he ended up in the intensive care unit of a hospital. He had a series of physical ailments that required surgery. The most devastating news was that he had a brain tumor. Just when he had reached the apex of his career, he felt that everything had come to an end. The tumor in his brain turned out to be benign, but inoperable, a constant reminder of his human condition. He was a broken man and resigned from McDonald’s.

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“The year was 1975 when I met Janis for the first time through my then-husband’s job. We became fast friends. Her mom had been Jewish and her dad was Catholic. Throughout the years of marriage, kids, moving, divorce, and other changes, I would periodically send her Christian materials. She said nothing to me about them at the time, so I did not know she was not pleased about this.

“Fast forward to 2007. She began asking me questions-simple ones that I could answer and provide Bible verses to uphold what I said. It went like that for awhile. Sometime in 2008, she was going through some rough emotional and spiritual issues, again asking me questions. This time, there were those I didn’t feel qualified to answer in a way that was needed, so I called my now-retired pastor, Rev. Robert P. Wolff of Chino, Calif., telling him about this and asking him if he would see her. Well, of course he was most pleased to do so and we went to talk with him.

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