F cusCLB

www.CLBA.org/giving APRIL NEWSLETTER 2014

Who’s Next?

Church of the Lutheran Brethren • United States: www.CLBA.org • Canada: www.LBCANADA.org • International Mission: www.LBIM.org • Lutheran Brethren Seminary: www.LBS.edu

DAN VENBERG

hese words are very delicious! When are you coming back? We want to hear more!” The man’s plea has been

reverberating in my mind like a metronome that tirelessly beats on.

Five Chadian CLB Church representatives and I were sitting on a mat, under a tree, in the middle of a small Chadian village with this man and about fifteen other men from his community. This visit was subsequent to the installation of a well which had been largely funded by donations from a North American CLB congregation. It was a hot day (as are most in Chad). As we passed around a hollowed out gourd of cool, clean water from the new well, our temporal thirst was quenched. Putting down the gourd after drinking, the chief commented, “There is nothing on earth as delicious as good water.”

So began our conversation with the elders of this community. As we visited, we were blessed with the opportunity to share with

them the words of Jesus who, while sitting next to a well, offered himself as a source of water that is abundant and overflowing and eternally quenches our spiritual thirst. The men listened intently, occasionally affirming their attentiveness by a click of their tongues or voiced affirmatives.

Then the time came to leave the village. As we were shaking hands and saying good bye, the chief again thanked us for the new well in their community, expressing his appreciation for the water, but following up with the statement containing that reverberating, metronomic message: “The water from this well is delicious. Thank you for that. But these words that you have shared with us are very delicious. When are you coming back? We want to hear more!”

What do you think? Should we respond to their plea and return to them and sit on their mats as ambassadors of our Lord? It is not coincidence that Jesus—just after telling the

T Samaritan woman at the well that he was the source of eternal life-giving water—urged his disciples to lift up their eyes and look at the fields, for they were ripe for the harvest (John 4:35). When Jesus saw crowds of people, like sheep without a shepherd, he urged his followers to see that plentiful harvest and to pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into the fields (Matthew 9:37,38).

Lutheran Brethren International Mission is focusing its vision on three people groups in Chad, namely the Bagirmi, the Bilala and the Fulbe. These are Muslim peoples who are spiritually thirsty.

Please join us in praying for teams of missionaries to go to these people groups with the words of Jesus, who is the source of eternal life-giving water.

Dan Venberg serves LBIM as mission mobilizerand recruiter.

Children pumping water from a new well

Tevi Venberg playing with a friend

Missionary Dan Venberg speaking with the Naara-Bousso village chief (photo by Brandon Pangman)

Church of the Lutheran Brethren

Ways to Get Involved in the Mission of the CLBLutheran Brethren SeminaryDistance education launched this past Fall with fourteen students enrolled in the program. Your giving helps LBS provide this flexible training to our pastors and church leaders.

International MissionDanny and Mandy Bronson were called this year to the Bilala people of Chad. Please consider partnering in the expense of this step in reaching the unreached with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

North American MissionPlease pray for your regional pastor as he cultivates church planting efforts in North America. Your giving strengthens congregational ministry and church planting efforts.

Danny and Mandy Bronson have been called and commissioned to serve in Chad, Africa among the Bilala people. Danny and Mandy are currently living in France completing language study. They will be moving to Chad in July, preparing to move to a Bilala village where they will continue to learn the local language and identify the village where they will live long-term. Danny and Mandy have three children; Ezekiel, Theo and Jonah, with a fourth expected in April.

Nathanael and Carrie Szobody were called and commissioned to serve in Chad, Africa among the Bagirmi people. Following language study in France, Nathanael and Carrie arrived in Chad in July of 2013 to begin their cultural adaptation. In late December, the Szobody’s moved to a Bagirmi village that will host them for a time of intensive language learning. This will speed their ability to communicate with those among whom they have been called to plant a church. The Szobodys have three children; Selma, Cyril and Adelynn.

• 11 Million People• 14% Literacy• 141 People Groups• 72 Unreached People Groups Unreached People: an ethnic group without an indigenous, self-propagating Christian church movement.

ChadLutheran Brethren

BRINGING THE GOOD NEWS TO UNREACHED PEOPLEInternational Mission

The Church of the Lutheran Brethren has identified three people groups in south central Chad: the Bagirmi, the Bilala, and the Fulbe. These people groups do not have a church planted among them and are 99% Muslim. We need three additional missionary units to join the three units already called to this crucial task. Who’s Next?

Is God calling you?Contact LBIM:mrogness@CLBA.org or dvenberg@CLBA.org

The Heaven God...the Source of Truth

www.CLBA.org/giving

There are many opportunities and reasons to give to the Church of the Lutheran Brethren.Below are some specific ways that your giving will impact the future of the CLB.

Lutheran Brethren SeminaryConsider financially supporting a seminary student. Maybe it is someone who grew up in your congregation.

International MissionPlease remember our current missionaries in your prayers. You may consider giving, or increasing your giving so that our current missionaries can continue their ministry work in Asia and Africa.

Communications (Faith & Fellowship)Nearly 8,000 people receive F&F Magazine six times a year. The cost of editing, printing and mailing adds up to $60,000 each year. Please consider partnering with Communications in this ministry.

woman, one of the people to whom we have been reaching out, recently passed on into eternity. As we think

about all of the non-Christians with whom we are sharing Bible stories, the urgency of our task becomes clearer.

One of these people is Mr. Rong, a retired orange grower, who first came to church when a Christian gave him a gift of money through Enlin Lutheran Brethren Church in Qionglin, Taiwan. Mr. Rong had lost several family members over the past two years—his wife, a son, a grandson, and then his daughter. As the people at Enlin Church reached out to him, he began attending the Hakka worship service there. After some of us went to visit him at his home a few times, I asked him if he would like to read the Bible together with me. Mr. Rong responded very positively.

During a recent discussion with Mr. Rong, the topic of the Heaven God came up (the name we often use for the God of the Bible). In response to my statement that the Heaven God existed before the creation of the world and doesn’t have a beginning, Mr. Rong insisted, “But the Heaven God does have a birthday!”

As I felt the intensity behind his words, my heart raced with excitement. I was overjoyed because Mr. Rong was interacting with the message of the Bible in a concrete way. “The Bible says that the Heaven God doesn’t have a birthday,” I said, placing my hand on the Bible.

Mr. Rong leaned forward in his chair and quickly countered, “But everyone knows that the Heaven God has a birthday—January 9 in the Lunar Calendar.”

I countered, “But not everything that everyone thinks is true is actually true,

right?” After I gave him an example, he seemed willing to accept this point. Then I added, “And God says that the Bible is ALWAYS true.”

Mr. Rong thought for a moment and then picked up where he had left off, “Well, I haven’t seen the Bible talked about on TV much. The Buddhists have lots of programs on TV.”

While on the surface our interaction was about a birthday, we were also engaged in back-and-forth discussion about what is dependable as the source of Truth. Is it what everyone around me says and/or what I see on TV? Or is it what the Bible says?

After we talked awhile, Mr. Rong wondered if it is just “you foreigners” who teach that the Bible is true. At our visit the next week, we brought along Pastor Ye (another Christian whom Mr. Rong has come to respect) and revisited this topic again.

This negotiation with Mr. Rong between “the way things are” and the biblical perspective is ongoing. Fellow missionary Andy Larsen and I visit Mr. Rong every Wednesday morning and tell him stories about the Heaven God. While he continues to burn incense to his deceased wife and other gods in his home, we are excited that Mr. Rong is willing to listen.

Ethan Christofferson serves LBIM as a missionary to the Hakka people of Taiwan.

A

ETHAN CHRISTOFFERSON

Ethan, Sandy and Hannah Christofferson

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F cusFamily Matters

G od has chosen us to participate in giving the life-changing news of Jesus to

our world. Why? Perhaps the answer is simply this: We have been created in his image, and what brings joy to the Son will also bring joy to us. What is it that brings joy to the Son? Giving. We know that Jesus said, “It is more blessed to give than receive” (Acts 20:35, ESV). His whole life on earth was about giving himself for us and to us. Will you hear the call to give… so that our missionaries, pastors, professors and lay people can share this great Gospel treasure with those whom God wants to reach through the Church of the Lutheran Brethren? Accumulated DifferenceActualAnticipated

Jun.May Jul. Oct. Dec. Jan.Aug. Sept. Nov.

0

300,000

-100,000

200,000

100,000

400,000

500,000

Fiscal Year Goal: $2,525,000

Received: $1,785,428

CLB Contribution Report as of Febuary 28, 2014CLB Year End April 30, 2014

Feb.

600,000