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Making Christ known in Latin America
As a church body, WELS has been carrying out mission efforts in Latin America for decades, dating back to the 1960s in places like Mexico and Puerto Rico. During the first years, missionaries spent time learning about the culture and trying different strategies to share the gospel. One ongoing issue challenging ministry was a lack of awareness about Lutherans.
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“For many years, we operated as a tiny group that was completely unknown to the large Latin American population,” recalls Michael Hartman, who served as a missionary in Latin America from 1999 to 2022. “Historically, Spanish-speaking Latin American countries have had the least number of Lutherans in the world.” For instance, there are more Buddhists than Lutherans in Mexico.
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Challenges in the region also included long distances between missionary teams and fluctuating security risks. With his guiding hand, God provided solutions and blessed ministry efforts over the years. Today mission work is carried out in each country in Latin America through Academia Cristo. “More than one million people have started studying with us,” says Andrew Johnston, team leader of the One Latin America Mission Team. “People become students who become leaders who plant groups that become congregations.”
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Photos: (Left) A Sunday school class in the barrio in Medellín, Colombia, where Missionary Larry Schlomer worked in the 1970s. (Right) The original Latin American Traveling Theological Educators team (left to right): Larry Retberg, Phil Strackbein, Larry W. Schlomer, Nate Wagenknecht, and John Strackbein. Featured photo at top shows members of WELS' sister church in Cochabamba, Bolivia.
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Need to catch up on FIC's online Bible study? Watch now!
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Recording of Lesson 1 from Oct. 3:
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Recording of Lesson 2 from Oct. 10:
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Recording of Lesson 3 from Oct. 17:
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“I was in awe the first time I walked into St. George Lutheran Church,” says Dora Correa Zapata, a member originally from Medellín, Colombia, who lives in London and attends weekly worship there. The congregation meets in the oldest surviving Lutheran church in . . .
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Missionary Ronald Baerbock and his wife, Karen, spent more than 17 years serving in various Latin American fields. Karen, who passed away in 2023, recorded ministry and family activities faithfully in her daily diary. Here are some of her entries . . .
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We parents are really hard on ourselves. That’s why I thought it might be helpful to be reminded that we all make mistakes. This month we’ll hear three moms detail their parenting failures and how they handled them. Next month we’ll hear from three dads. . . .
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