Hello All -- this is the first entry in my trip journal, prior to my departure to Kenya and Tanzania. A description of the trip is below. Once there, I'll keep you updated with journal entries and photos from the trip. Please pray for our success in helping our East African brethren to spread the Gospel of Christ crucified! -- Pastor BN
Pastor’s East Africa Trip – On October 13, a three-man visitation team from the U.S. will begin working with our sister churches in Kenya and Tanzania. They are Pastor Nathanael Mayhew, our part-time foreign missionary to East Africa, Mission Board Chairman Bruce Naumann, and Mr. Russell Schmitt, a lay member from Mankato who will be making his third volunteer trip to the area. They will participate in a pastoral conference to which leaders of the Lutheran Church in East Africa (LCEA), the Church of the Lutheran Confession in East Africa (CLCEA), and the Nairobi CLC are invited. We hope to foster a deeper knowledge of confessional Scriptural teaching at these meetings. It is also hoped that more fellowship and better communication can be achieved among these African churches. The visitation team will spend about a week in Etago, Kenya, to assist with the churches there and with the school for AIDS orphan children. We will then visit the churches under Pastor Jeremiah Issanga, and conduct pastoral training in Arusha. We will travel to St. Peter’s Lutheran Seminary in Himo, Tanzania, and celebrate with the people of the LCEA as St. Peter’s has its first graduation. Eight men will be entering the pastoral ministry. The Mission Board recognizes a pressing need for a full-time missionary from the U.S. in East Africa. We pray that the Lord will enable us to send such a man when the resources are available. We will endeavor to serve them as best we can, in the meantime, on a visitation basis.
