Fall news

From Global Lutheran Outreach missionarie Sharolyn Frahm (serving in Cambodia):

Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. Joshua 1:9

In a world filled with so many frequent changes, the very best thing in all of this is that ‘the church’ remains stable and constant. Yes, things around us are definitely different, but the church has not changed. God is constant. God has each moment of this detailed in His plan for each of us.

From this statement comes forth the platform of this newsletter. I, Shary, have the solo privilege and honor of writing this latest newsletter.

George gracefully received his heavenly crown of glory on June 27th. He had run the race and finished well. It was really tough to say goodbye and send him off. That still lingers. Counting those days, a bit over ten weeks has passed….. just now, as this is composed.

Anyway, Twenty days after his glorious departure, his family and local friends were able to globally share his celebration service, so that we all could come together one more time to honor him.

If you happened to tune in to his celebration service on that July 17th, then you were able to hear this Godly man share his love and passion that God himself had totally connected a half a world away in Asia and particularly to Cambodia with Pastor Chut Samuel.

Update coming from Cambodia

At the end of August an update on the current situation in the Siem Reap area came from two local on the ground men who know their own situation all too well. First is Mr. Orleang, who has walked with us in all of our housing needs since we moved from Phnom Penh in early 2015. When he changed positions as manager of guest houses in the area, he took us along to his new location. He has always taken really good care of us. He would sit for hours with George and ask questions about the ‘why’….he couldn’t initially understand why two elderly folk would land in such a different environment and happily share life with people they didn’t know. He gave us the utmost respect ever. We treasure his friendship.

Orleang shared that Siem Reap remained pretty much shut down with the touristy traffic as each visitor had to quarantine two weeks upon arrival there, and give a hefty $2,000 beforehand, sometimes perhaps more.

As of June 17th we had heard from Pastor Samuel that the area of Siem Reap was fairly restricted with provinces, districts, and communities each being isolated and borders closed due to the increase of virus cases in country. The government struggled to protect its citizens as best as they could.

Fast forward to now and ministry continues. The church is alive and functioning. The key word here perhaps is the word ‘remote’ as this ministry has adapted there, as we have had to do here.

Pastor Samuel and I have talked in length. The ministry in itself will not change. As I sort out those new episodes in this chapter of my personal life on this side of the pond, God willing, plans will be put into place for return to Cambodia early next year. Stay tuned for those exciting developments. In the meantime, please mightily pray for the army of God to power forward into eternity from wherever you stand. Thank you so much.

To learn more about Shary, click here to read her latest newsletter!

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Mid-quarter is done!

Grace upon Grace is our school theme this year!

From Global Lutheran Outreach missionarie Joshua Wareham (Serving in Jos, Nigeria)

Educating Global Disciples of Christ

The first half of this quarter seemed to take a while. It had its up’s and its down’s. There was online school for a little bit because there was some unrest in Jos and with that came a 24 hour curfew. Many prayers were lifted and with those prayers the curfew has been lifted for a couple weeks now, and school had been back to normal! It is always great to be back in the classroom to teach and share Christ’s love!

Why Worry?

This past week I got very home sick. I was concerned that I wasn’t the best teacher that I could be. I was worried that I’m not going to be accepted into the seminary (I’m still waiting on that). I have had this problem for a while now, actually my whole life: worrying about the future. I think many people do this, but why do we worry, when the future hasn’t even happened? No one knows what will truly, actually happen, and what does it mean to “worry”?

I think one of the hardest things to do is to put your absolute, full trust in God. We seem to always want our will done and not His; and when our will doesn’t seem to be accomplishing anything, we start to worry. We want to think the world is in our hands and that God doesn’t have it in His. If we weren’t so infected with original sin which is, having no fear of God, no trust in God, and having the inclination to sin, I don’t think that the word “worry” would be a part of our vocabulary. We would trust and know God’s got it in his hands.

Click here to read the latest newsletter from Josh!

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Salt of the Earth!

Matthew 5:13, “You are the salt of the earth…” was the theme for our 4th anniversary of the Lutheran church “Divina Providencia” on the first Sunday in September! (We have now been in Chile for seven years! This is our second mission.) We were blessed with 36 people who came to worship and be fed by the Word. We can’t help but be amazed at God’s divine provision…beginning in a smaller house with a handful of Lutherans…struggling through the time of Chilean political unrest and protests…surviving almost a year of national quarantine due to Covid…always teaching, praying, outreaching! In this last year alone there have been 5 baptisms, 3 confirmations and pretty soon, another group of people are about to begin their studies. To God be the Glory!

“Salting” our community!

Every Friday afternoon we open the doors of our “Resale Shop”. Our coordinator, Elianeth, and Liisa are always amazed at the people that stop by. There are the regulars, like an older gentleman, Ricardo, who comes to check if we have received sweaters in his size; or the Peruvian maids who are on their way home from their domestic jobs and pick up some baby clothes or a “new” purse; or the recently arrived Venezuelan who needs a warm jacket or a good pair of slacks for his/her new job; or a neighbor who is just curious, and then becomes engaged when we talk about the ministry and offers to donate items for our “garage sale”. Besides providing for the needs of others, this shop draws attention to our Lutheran church.

We are grateful to Lutheran World Relief for a huge donation of quilts that were distributed in all the Lutheran churches of Chile to be used as needed. At our church, we package up the homemade quilts with info about our ministry, vacuum-seal the bag, and they are ready to go! About 100 quilts have been received by the elderly and children in small towns in the cold south. Recently, we delivered 100 to a Children’s Hospital in Santiago, and another Clinic for Children with Cancer has requested a donation. We have shared about 200 with different immigrant groups (mostly Haitian and Venezuelan) and the cozy, patchwork quilts have also been a source of comfort for families in our congregation who have recently lost a loved one.

News from the Lutheran Church of Chile

All the pastors of the Lutheran Church of Chile. (From left) Obed Coronado; Pablo Gonzalez; Omar Kinas; Juan Pablo Lanterna, president; James Tino; Adrian Ventura, secretary.

Every May, the Confessional Lutheran Church of Chile has its national convention. Because of corona virus, this was not able to happen last year and this year it was delayed until August. Finally, last month a group of about 20 – consisting of pastors and congregational representatives – met for a full day to share reports and hold long-overdue elections. We were proud of our small mission plant that has reached “congregation-size” status and chose to send the newly elected congregational president, José Vilches, as our representative! Jim has been serving as interim Secretary/V.P. for the national church, so he was very busy with the preparations and procedures of the meeting.

Besides the six churches, we heard about the four mission plants and about the various Lutheran organizations such as Lutheran Hour Ministries (“Cristo Para Todas Las Naciones”) in Chile. Another important ministry is “Casa Bethesda”, which sponsors a rehab center in Santiago for people with cerebal palsy and other handicaps; and an after-school program in the town of Constitucion run by GLO missionaries Pastor Adrian and Cruz Maria Ventura. After the new board was elected, we closed with a joyous worship service, giving thanks to our Great God.

To learn more about James and Liisa Tino, click here to read their latest newsletter! 

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Guatemala celebrating 200 years of independence!

September 15th marks the bicentennial celebration of independence for Guatemala. Hooray! But with this grand celebration of freedom approaching it seems as if the country is shutting down again, restricting our freedoms.
After 2 months of being stateside I adjusted fairly well to the freedom I was given in regards to pandemic protocol and had forgotten what the situation was like in other countries. In Guatemala, a mask, hand sanitizer, temperature and in some places shoe sanitizing is still a must to enter any store regardless of being vaccinated or not. Here the entire country follows whatever orders the president gives, the current ones being, curfew from 8pm-4am, and everything virtual, including churches. So with that being said our church is back to Facebook live (video) for the next month, or until further orders are given.

New and young music students!
With restrictions and curfews handed out like candy to every business and school, I continue to teach my music classes as usual. Right now I teach about 15 one-on-one music lessons a week at the church, and have weekly rehearsals with the church musicians. The exciting news is that six new students have started lessons with me in the last month! And they all go to the church! And they are all under 15!! Three of them are learning trumpet, two on flute, and one learning the piano. These fresh, young students have been my motivation this past month as I am super eager to get them playing in the church after seeing how quickly they are learning. Please pray that they continue to grow musically and remain connected in the church as they grow older.

In my spare time…
I have come across many broken instruments buried in the church. So I have taken it upon myself to fix these instruments! One guitar and a keyboard have been fixed, and currently I am working on another keyboard as pictured above. Having extra (working) instruments is always a blessing!

I also continue to work on my hymnal project. Thanks to several donations from several people I met during furlough, I have been able to print 12 more hymnals. These hymnals are only for the musicians who play or sing in church, as it serves to unify them into one book with all the same songs, chords, and lyrics. If you would like to make a donation towards a hymnal you can do so by donating $40 with a note saying towards hymnal project. Thanks!

And I am also engaged!
After 2 years of dating I asked my girlfriend, Scarlett, to marry me and she easily said yes. She is from the city of Puerto Barrios, about 3 hrs from Zacapa. We plan to get married early next year, and Scarlett will be joining me on the mission field! Hopefully you will all get to meet her on the next furlough to the states!

Click here to read the latest newsletter from Ben!

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When the sea roars and the earth shakes

The “dog days” of summer are winding down and, it’s hurricane season in the Caribbean! The season when hurricanes form runs from June to November, but the storms are more likely between August and October.

Hurricane Ida made landfall as a Category 4 storm, in New Orleans, August 29, 2021. Ida blasted ashore as one of the most powerful storms ever to hit the United States, knocking out power to all of New Orleans, blowing roofs off buildings and reversing the flow of the Mississippi River as it rushed from the Louisiana coast into one of the nation’s most important industrial corridors. It hit on the same date Hurricane Katrina ravaged Louisiana and Mississippi 16 years earlier, coming ashore about 45 miles (72 kilometres) west of where Category 3 Katrina first struck land. Ida’s 150-mph (230 kph) winds tied it for the fifth-strongest hurricane to ever hit the mainland United States.

A little more than a week earlier, Hurricane Grace pounded Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, downing trees and causing power outages for nearly 700,000 people. Then Grace moved on to the Gulf Coast state of Veracruz, causing severe flooding and mudslides that killed at least eight people. Before striking Mexico, the storm showered torrential rains on Haiti, a country still recovering from a 7.2-magnitude earthquake in Haiti on August 15.

Northern Venezuela and Colombia only have a 1 to 5 percent chance of a hurricane strike in any given year. The northernmost part of Venezuela, namely the Paraguanà Peninsula, the Paria Peninsula and the islands (but sometimes also the northern coast), is located in the southern end of the trajectory of hurricanes. But it can happen. 

But although Venezuela seldom has to deal with full-fledged tropical storms, we are affected by “tropical waves”. A tropical wave is an area of low pressure in the atmosphere moving westward from Africa into the Atlantic. Tropical waves last from a couple of days to several weeks, with new waves forming every few days. On satellite, these disturbances appear as clusters of thunderstorms and convection originating over North Africa and traveling westward into the tropical Atlantic. By providing the initial energy and spin needed for a hurricane to develop, tropical waves act like “seedlings” of tropical cyclones. Approximately 60 percent of tropical storms and minor hurricanes (categories 1 or 2), and nearly 85 percent of major hurricanes (category 3, 4, or 5) originate from tropical waves.

Even if they do not cause hurricanes, tropical waves often bring with thunderstorms and flooding rains. That’s what we have received over the past few weeks. Tropical waves 38 and 39 have destroyed over 8,000 homes and forced about 35,600 citizens to refuge in shelters. Besides affecting 116 roads and ten bridges, floods and landslides have damaged power stations in the states of Amazonas, Barinas, Bolivar, Delta Amacuro, Merida, Monagas, Tachira, and Zulia. Multiple floods and mudslides in in the neighboring state of Mérida have left 20 people dead and more than 1,200 buildings destroyed.

In La Caramuca, we have only had to deal with power outages. Our solar panels continue to work well, keeping the lights and security cameras going and the cell phones recharged. All the rain means excellent crops of fruits and vegetables. Luz Maria and I share the produce with our neighbors, those who stop by the mission and those we visit on evangelistic calls.

There also was a 5.2-magnitude earthquake in Portuguesa, another neighboring state, on August 25, and a 4.9 quake off the coast of Sucre state on August 30.

All of which brings to mind Luke 21:8-11. “There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven.” As with many Biblical prophecies, the Lord in these verses speaks of two impending catastrophes, the destruction of Jerusalem and the end of the world, with one foreshadowing the other. So he warns his followers of the persecution that will precede the city’s downfall, and of false prophets who will predict the end of the whole world based on natural disasters and terrible wars. 

For those of us living in these days, the Lord’s words also apply to hurricanes, earthquakes, COVID-19 and even the persecution of believers in Afghanistan and other parts of the world. Like the first-century Christians, we are not terrified by cataclysm, for we not the end will not come until the day God has pointed. Nor do we regard them as random events, but signs that great day will come.

Click here to read the latest newsletter from the Ernst’s

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