A SAFARI/JOURNEY THROUGH THE USA - A DIARY - 1 - St. Louis, MO

We are traveling through the USA from the 1st of October 2008 to January, 2009. As we are renewing our term in Kenya for two more years, the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod -World Mission (LCMS-WM) asked us to do presentations in several congregations about our work and to look for funds to support our budget.

God has blessed us in this journey, as we are meeting so many friend from our Brazilian time and form our Kenyan time, and as we are making many new friends. We are sharing some of the contacts, activities and blessings with you through this BLOG. Sorry if we don’t have pictures of all our contacts or if we missed some of our friends. Remember us in your prayers.

We arrived in St. Louis, MO, on October 2nd. I was invited to lead a devotion at the LCMS International Center (IC) the day after we arrived,

and to do a presentation about our work in Kenya to the LCMS-IC staff.

We had several orientation meetings at the IC, coordinated by Vicki Helling, Development Associate - LCMS World Mission Development Services.

The first one was with Jeff Craig-Meyer, Development Services Director. One by one several people came to talk with us:

Debbie Feenstra, Missionary Support Administrator;

– Bill Lapp, Senior Principal Gifts Officer;

Elizabeth Mowery, Mission Communication Manager;

Kama Bernab, International Mission, Assistant to Dr. Dave Birner;

Stacey Welcenbach, Director, Communication Services;

Ross Stroh, Financial Manager; and others.

During our stay in St. Louis, we were hosted by our good friends Rev. Ellis and Joyce Rottmann, former missionaries in Brazil in the late 1960s.

We met also our friends Rev. Otto and Jill Hintze, former LCMS-WM Secretary for Latin America.

The Rottmanns took us to their church at the weekend, St.Paul- Des Peres, where we spoke at the beginning of each of the four services on Saturday and on Sunday. We did a Power Point Presentation (PPS) at the Bible Class on Sunday morning. – St. Paul – Des Peres – pastors are: Rev. Dr. David S. Smith, Rev. Timothy R. Seban, Rev. Mark D. Femmel and Rev. Paul T.Prange.

This was St.Paul’s annual dinner’s Sunday: Potato Pancake + roast beef. It was a good opportunity to meet several people after the services. On Monday evening we had a meeting with St.Paul’s Board of Mission where we did a PPS presentation and where we shared the challenges we face in Kenya.

– On Monday we visited also Concordia Seminar, with Prof. William Schumacher, who was in Kenya last year teaching at the Seminar in Matongo.

On Tuesday I had a class at the Seminar, talking about the mission challenges in Kenya.

The same day we had a meeting with LCMS President Rev. Dr. Gerald Kieschnick and with Dr. Samuel Nafzger (CTCR), showing them pictures about our work in Kenya. We had also lunch with both.

A SAFARI/JOURNEY THROUGH THE USA - A DIARY - 2 - Detroit, MI, area

We arrived at Detroit airport on October 8th. We were hosted by Charles & Elisa Schulz, in Ypsilanti, MI, and their children: Lucas, Daniela and June Marie.

Charles is Professor at Concordia, Ann Arbor,

– where we did a presentation at Chapel hour and another one at night (Oct 9th).

We visited also Hosana-Tabor Church and school, Redford, MI –Pastor Paul Undlin, on October 10th,

where we led the chapel for the children.

We drove to Caledonia, MI, on Saturday (Oct 11th). St. Paul Lutheran Women Missionary League – LWML, has been sponsoring our family during the past 30 years, from the very beginning of our missionary life in São Paulo, SP, Brazil, sending gifts for our children for Christmas or for Easter. It was so nice to meet them!

On Sunday we did a presentation at the Service and at the Bible Class. Sunday School Children gave a “check” to the mission!

Pastor Gerke is the pastor at St.Paul,

– On Sunday afternoon we were taken to Macomb, MI, where we had chapel with Immanuel School on Monday morning.

We met two Brazil Mission supporters: Nancy Kruger, from Immanuel Lutheran Church, Macomb, MI,

and Robin Barton, from Faith Lutheran Church. Troy, MI.

– Nancy organized an evening event at Immanuel for a group of friends, where we did a PPS. Many of them had been at our house in Brazil on Mission Trips, and they were happy to hear about God’s blessings upon our ministry in Kenya.

We were hosted by Norbert and Carolyn Koschmann, old friends and founders with Pastor William and Patricia Thompson of the Brazil Mission Society (BMS). – Mark Schroeder is part of the BMS Team and had organized several Medical Team Mission Trips to work among the native Indians in Brazil.

The Koschmanns organized a breakfast on October 14th at Trinity, Utica, MI, where we had a presentation.

A SAFARI/JOURNEY THROUGH THE USA - A DIARY - 3 - Cleveland,Ohio

From Detroit, MI, we took the bus to Cleveland, OI (Oct 15th). Pastor Gary Hill picked us up and did a tour through the beautiful city.

It was Autumn Season and the colorful leaves were something amazing!

Pastor Gary and Carol Hill – Bethany Lutheran Church, Parma, were in Kenya with the Pastoral Leadership Institute (PLI) group in June last year.

We were hosted at the home of Pastor Dave Luecke (Royal Redeemer Luth. Church), and

his wife Marcia.

Pastor Jim and Carol Martin, from Redeemer Luth.Church. Carol was in Kenya last April with the LWML group.

Eddie and Carol Albright. Carol was in Kenya with the LWML group too.

Bethany Lutheran Church prepared a poster, inviting people for our presentations.
Rev. Joshua Schoon is pastor at Bethany too.

We did several presentations at Bethany: At the service on Oct 16th and at the two services on Oct 19th;

– At the Bible Classes on 19th;

– At the School Chapel Hour on 22nd and on the same day at a Ladies group.

Carol Hill led the children at Chapel Hour. Their October offerings were for Kenya Mission.

One of the classes asked me to go to their class and do an extra presentation, with questions and answers.

The Bethany Seniors of Parma invited us for a presentation too.

Carol Albright took us to visit an Amish Community on Oct 17th. The Amish live like in the 1800s, when the first immigrants came to North America. They wear the old style clothes; some of them don’t use electricity; all the farm work is done with horses (no tractors or cars). Many of them are Mennonites. They make very nice old style furniture!

– Carol Albright took Lidia to see more of Cleveland, on the Lake Erie,

and Pastor Hill and Carol took us to visit an apple farm,

– where many pumpkins were sold.

At Royal Redeemer Luth. Church I preached on Oct.18th, Saturday evening.

Carol Martin and Carol Albright prepared a nice display with Kenyan handcraft, brought when both were in Kenya last April.

Royal Redeemer School scheduled presentations for 5 different groups, from Kindergarten to 8th grade, on the 20th, from 10:40 am to 01:30 pm.

It was nice to see how the children were amazed with the African hand crafts!

The Principal Krista Nagy introduced us to the children.

On Oct. 23rd we took part at the Ohio District Lutheran Educators Conference, at Royal Redeemer. 400 teachers came together. We had a display with our brochures and other materials. I was invited to lead a devotion, where I presented the PPS “Children of Africa”.