LCC and LCMS staff meet in Winnipeg to coordinate on Central America missions

Participants in the March 2015 meeting on Central American missions between LCC and LCMS leaders.

 WINNIPEG – In late March, representatives of Lutheran Church–Canada (LCC) and The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) met together in Winnipeg to discuss plans for continued Gospel outreach in Central America.

2014 saw the LCMS and LCC, along with the Lutheran Church Synod of Nicaragua (ILSN), establish a joint protocol agreement for outreach in Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Honduras. The agreement will help the three churches better coordinate resources and mission efforts in Central America.

Part of the March 19 meeting was devoted to a historical overview of LCC’s international missions and working relations with partner Churches. The second part of the meeting was devoted to reviewing the text of the joint protocol agreement, and determining the administrative steps to be followed by LCC’s new regional mission overseers, Rev. Edmund and Deaconess Cherie Auger, under LCC’s Committee on Missions and Social Ministry Services. The Augers are on the roster of LCMS’ church workers but are seconded to LCC for missions in Central America. This was Rev. and Deaconess Auger’s first visit to Winnipeg since being installed as LCC’s Mission and Diaconal Supervisors for Central America in 2014.

It was also emphasized that while the organizations at work in Central America—LCC’s Missions and Social Ministry Services and ILSN—are distinct in their administration in some aspects, they are nevertheless united in the goal of the mission work. LCC’s aim in the region is to walk side-by-side, support, strengthen and provide resources for missions, social ministry, and Theological Education for the ILSN to be able to carry its missions and social ministry in Central America. Consultation is therefore required between the two organizations on all aspect of the mission work in Central America.

Discussions between LCC and LCMS leaders.

Along with Dr. Neitzel and Rev. and Deaconess Auger, other participants in the March 19, 2015 meeting in Winnipeg were LCC’s President Robert Bugbee, Rev. Dr. Leonardo Neitzel (LCC Executive for Missions and Social Ministry), Rev. Edmund Auger and Deaconess Cherie Auger (LCC’s Mission and Diaconal supervisors for Central America), Rev. Dr. Albert Collver (LCMS Director of Church Relations/Regional Operations for the Office of International Mission), and Rev. Ted Krey (LCMS Regional Director for Latin America).

“By working together, we are able to accomplish more than we could apart,” noted Rev. Dr. Leonardo Neitzel, LCC’s Executive for Missions and Social Ministry. “It’s exciting to see what God is doing through our cooperation in Central America. May He continue to bless our Gospel proclamation there and around the world.”

So far in 2015, LCC has celebrated a number of mission milestones in Central America, including the installation of eleven new pastors and nine new deaconesses. By God’s grace all 23 congregations in Nicaragua now have a called and ordained pastor serving their community with Word and Sacrament ministry. All children education sites now have a deaconess assisting the pastors in the Christian education program. In some communities, ‘maestras’ (deaconesses in training) are also assisting the deaconesses.

———————

Print this article