LCMS World Mission Blog

“Do you think we’ve covered everything?” asked the Recruitment Services staff of LCMS World Mission. New missionaries’ heads nodded across the room in response. The missionaries had completed the first week of training and orientation. From May 31 to June 10, a group of 28 new servants gathered at Concordia University Chicago, River Forest, Ill., along with LCMS World Mission staff to be equipped for global missionary service.

The missionaries will be serving across the globe, placed in every region where LCMS World Mission serves. The group was comprised of 13 English-as-a-Foreign-Language teachers and relationship builders, two deaconess interns, two communications specialists, five career missionary families, and a vicar.

Regional directors, LCMS World Mission staff, pastors, and other facilitators guided the group through workshops covering support raising, spiritual warfare in the field, connecting and building meaningful relationships, and other topics. The new missionary team spent much time getting to know each other and enjoying fellowship on and off the campus of Concordia University. The team participated in an “Urban Plunge” to prepare for the international mission field. Small groups set out to different ethnic neighborhoods around Chicago to complete a list of tasks. The groups were purposely sent to areas where the members had little or no language or cultural experience to learn how to interact with different ethnic groups.

Peter Pfaff, after being born in South Korea to missionary parents, will go to Japan to teach English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) as a GEO missionary through the Volunteer Youth Ministry (VYM) program. Peter says, “I am very excited to learn the Japanese language. After years of taking biblical Greek and Hebrew, it will be nice to actually speak what I learn!”

New career missionary Rev. David Mahsman has worked with LCMS World Mission since 2005 as assistant to the executive director of LCMS World Mission, and prior to that, with the LCMS’ Board for Communication Services, for many years as editor of The Lutheran Witness and the Reporter. He is now taking a new path by going overseas himself. Along with his wife, Lois, he will be serving based out of Frankfurt, Germany, with the Eurasia team as the director of special assignments. David says, “I find it a full circle that the faith came to North America from Europe and now we need to take the faith back because today’s Europeans have drifted away from it. Whatever I can do to restore the Gospel to the land of most of our ancestors is a positive and godly thing.”

Through different sessions and talks, orientation in Chicago covered a variety of topics that were both practical and spiritual. A.J. Davis, GEO missionary who will teach EFL teacher in Slovakia, commented, “I felt like I was at church camp again without the sports! Overall the experience was great, because I could meet people who were like-minded and had the same goals—a good bunch of people who are willing to go into different cultures.” A.J. reflected on his experience at orientation and his future work as the first LCMS missionary to serve in Presov, Slovakia. “We’re disciples! It’s a humbling experience to know that those in missionary service join in an ancient tradition of Christians.”

Nick Tieman and Ashley Mills will serve as GEO missionaries in Macau, a special administrative district of China. They said, “The chapel services on campus invited guest speakers who had come to faith through the work of mission workers, which was very encouraging.” Now that they are back in Houston, Texas, preparing for their service in Macau and their August 2009 wedding; there is lots of work to be done!

Following orientation, the new missionaries returned to their hometowns to continue support raising and preparing to deploy to their fields of service around the world. For more information about current service opportunities, praying for new missionaries, and to see photos from orientation, visit LCMS World Mission’s Web site.

How can I help?

• Learn more about the new missionaries. Download their prayer cards.
• Read the Reporter article about orientation online.
• Give a gift online in support of God’s work through these new missionaries:
  • A.J. Davis: www.lcms.org?15196
  • David and Lois Mahsman: www.lcms.org?15199
  • Peter Pfaff: www.lcms.org?14668
  • Nicholas and Ashley Tieman: www.lcms.org?15118