| Mission Outreach: Foreign Missions |
The Mission Outreach Team provides leadership, awareness and involvement in selected local, regional and global missions. The team oversees the disbursement of funds to specific outreach causes.
Global Missions
In Matthew 28:19-20 and many other biblical passages, God calls us to participate in God's mission by sharing the good news of Jesus Christ in word and deed. "Global mission" refers to the way Hope Lutheran Church responds to God's call to mission outside the United States as well as locally. We carry out this mission in a number of different ways:
- The financial support of a missionary family in India.
- Personal visits to foreign missions.
- Operation of the Equal Exchange coffee program.
- A national fund raising program sponsored by Lutheran World Relief and Women of ELCA.
- Conducting special emphasis programs throughout the year.
Hope supports Nijhar & Neeraj Ekka, pastors of the Northwest Gossner Evangelical Lutheran Church (NWGELC). They are presently serving in Ranchi, India, where they head up a ministry focusing on the training of clergy, evangelists, missionaries and other leaders of this 100,000-member church. Recently they dedicated the first unit of their new center. Hope's contribution toward their ministry and the building of the center is handled by a well-known and highly respected pan-Lutheran agency known as The World Mission Prayer League. The League has over 100 missionaries serving in over 20 countries. (Click here to learn more about the Ekka family.)
Hope Lutheran assists the Florida-Bahamas Synod of the ELCA with ministries in Haiti, Suriname, Guyana, Cuba and Jamaica. We have given funds for the building and enhancement of a church in Les Cayes, Haiti and contributed toward the "pigs and pastors" program. In Suriname we have contributed toward the building of a new church in an outreach area of Paramaribo and supported this ministry. We also contributed toward the advanced theological education of Pastor Michael Steward. Pastor Vierow served on the Synod Global Mission Committee as Corrdinator of Surname. He visited twice and worked with the ELCS (Evangelical Lutheran Church of Suriname) in a reconciliation process. We now sponsor Kevin Jacobson, an ELCA missionary.
The World Hunger Appeal has been a mission of Hope from the church's conception. In 1999, $1432 was given, and these contributions have increased throughout the years. In 2000, World Hunger Day was featured in November with the Rev. Jack Reents from the Florida-Bahamas Synod preaching on World Hunger. That year, the church council agreed to dedicate the first Sunday of every month as World Hunger Sunday and provided world hunger envelopes for special offerings. In 2003 and 2005, an increased amount was given and was shared by Disaster Relief, World Hunger, Lutheran Outdoor Ministries, and Hurricane Relief.
The Global Mission Institute (GMI) of Luther Seminary has been a recipient of Hope Lutheran Church's benevolence since our beginning. The GMI is an integral part of the Seminary and was established to uplift mission outreach in congregations and in the life of the school. We hgave been a partner-in-ministry with Luther Seminary by supporting its strong emphasis on mission in the student body, among international students, among faculty, in program and in curriculum. Hope Lutheran Church supported the Ekka family in their preparation while at Luther Seminary and in missionary service in India through the World Mission Prayer League.
Luther Seminary is a leader in the movement to radically change theological education and the church so that it is mission driven. Future pastors must know how to lead the people of God to missional action. "Luther Seminary educates leaders for Christian communities, called and sent by the Holy Spirit, to witness to salvation through Jesus Christ and to serve in God's world." The Global Mission Institute that Pastor Vierow helped establish and served is located there. In honor of all that Pastor Duain Vierow has done for an entire career in Global Missions, the Council of Hope Lutheran Church approved (on December 14, 2008) the initiation of a Scholarship Fund for an international student at Luther Seminary.
The First Slovak Lutheran Bible School
The First Slovak Lutheran Bible School prepares lay ministers for Lutheran congregations in Slovakia and Eastern Europe. The Slovak Republic is going through a very dramatic period of its existence. Many economic, political, social and general changes are taking place. The church is involved in these efforts and, along with ther state, tries to influence Slovak society, on which the previous Communist regime has left its mark. Our Bible School in Martin is the first attempt in 50 years to train lay people in the Lutheran setting.
A member of Hope, Dr. Dave Cromer has served as a medical missionary. He is a Global Missions team member, travels to South America for mission trips, and is a resource in developing a relationship with the Free Clinic in Dade City. Annual donations from Hope have supported the purchase of needed medical and dental supplies and assisted with the cost of shipping materials to medical missionaries around the world.
Global Partners/Albania/Bishop Family
In November 2003, Ken and Dawn Bishop were appointed as career missionaries to Albania. They were called through Global Partners, headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, to build personal relationships and plant indigenous churches in Albania. The Hope Lutheran family has helped with their support.
The son of Hope members Otto and Mary Wentling, David Wentling is a missionary with Teen Challenge. It is the mission of Teen Challenge to provide youth, adults and children an effective and comprehensive faith-based solution to drug and alcohol addiction as well as other life-controlling problems. It is the belief of Teen Challenge that community involvement and support is an essential component of recovery and necessary in providing services that address the specific needs of the communities involved. Their story is told in "The Cross and the Switchblade."
Operation Ziplock began at Hope in July of 2004. Members responded to a program promoted through Hospice of Lake and Sumter, together with the Sumter County Veterans Service Office, to provide personal items to US servicemen and women stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan. The first effort filled ten cartons with 103 individually packed Ziplock bags. In addition, $151 was donated toward shipping expenses. In addition to sunscreen, skin moisturizers, soap and shampoo, special additions included snack foods, toys, books, socks, and personal notes that sometimes resulted in return correspondence. Telephone calling cards donated by the Green Parrot RV Park were integrated in Hope's Ziplocks for Christmas 2007. By January 2009, more than 900 Ziplock bags and $1100 for shipping expenses were contributed with love and encouragement to US deployed servicemen and women.
We support global missions through monitary contributions and missionary support. In the past Pastor Duane Vierow served as a missionary in Malaysia. Read this article presented in the Villages Magazine about Duane and his wife Donna and their recent trip to Malaysia, India, Vietnam and Singapore.
Fair Value Coffee Program
You have to check out all the new Coffees, Teas, Hot Cocoa, Chocolate Bars and Travel Mugs!!
Through the LWR Coffee Project, you will be helping small farmers as they build a better future for themselves and their famililes. Also through this project, farmers earn a fair price for their products, have access to affordable credit, and gain a long-term trading partner they can trust, a fair trade organization called Equal Exchange. with your support, these commulnities are able to invest in education, health care, and agricultural improvements. In addition, for each case of coffee purchased by Lutheran Churches throughout the project, Equal Exchange make a contribution to the LWR "Small Farmer Fund" for projects supporting small farmers and their families.
Jose works many long hours on his small piece of land, cultivating and caring for his coffee bean plants. His wife and four children live with him in their simply constructed home. Life is much better for Jose since he started selling his coffee beans to those who manage the Equal Exchange fair share program in his country of Nicaragua
For years the family in which he grew up and his family struggled to make ends meet, often going without sufficient food and clothing. They worked just a hard as they do now, even more so, but for years they sold their beans to the local marketers who gave them a very low price so that they could make more as the middlemen to the American and European salesman.
Now, with a fair price for their beans, they are much happier. All the children can go to school because they can afford the fees and uniforms required. While they do not have much, they have what they need and are grateful for this change for the better in their lives.
This means that persons like Jose and others in Latin America, the Caribbean, India and Tanzania are directly helped. By buying a bag of this organic, quality coffee, which is actually cheaper than gourmet coffees, you are contributing to a better life for Jose and thousands of other small farmers.
Members of Hope Lutheran and others who participate in the Equal Exchange fair share program have made this happen. The idea of an honest wage for an honest day's work is something we have accepted as part of our life for a long time. But with Jose that is only come recently to his life.
A bag of coffee, tea or chocolate makes an excellent hostess gift for a holiday party. Many of our members enjoy drinking this coffee and tea regularly at home and feel it is better than what they have been drinking from the supermarket. If you haven't done so, why not give it a try? We work on a system of trust where you simply pick up your product and envelope from the display in the narthex. Place your money in the envelope and put it in the offering plate or in the church office. (Also see WELCA)