My first experience with Lutherans In Africa wasn’t through a mission presentation, an email, or even a personal conversation with Rev. James May (the Executive Director).
It came through a visit to the LIA website.
It was 2015. I had just turned 50 and was thinking about how I might best serve the Church in the later years of ministry. I grew up as a missionary kid in Papua New Guinea and so I was looking for some ways that I might be able to return and teach on a short term basis in the mission field.
After some Google searches and a couple of recommendations that came from a brother pastor, I landed on …
www.lutheransinafrica.com
Here’s a screenshot of the site in 2015.
The first thing that caught my eye was the LIA logo with the Luther rose over the continent of Africa. Right next to that was the header and subheading.
It just took a glance to see that Lutherans In Africa was all about …
“forming African Lutherans to be teachers of the faith”.
And as I scrolled through the rest of the website, I found out that the way LIA was going to accomplish that mission was to build a sustainable and self-sufficient Lutheran School of Theology at the foot of the Ngong Hills in Kenya.
To coin a phrase from the movie Jerry MaGuire … “they had me at hello!”
The visit to the website was immediately followed with a couple of emails to Rev. James May (the executive director). His response was a bit delayed because he was climbing Mt. Kenya with his son.
Later that summer, during one of his trips to the United States, we had a chance to meet up in Michigan, which then led to an invitation to …
- teach in December of 2016 (photo log here)
- and a repeat trip in 2017 (photo story collection here)
- then a brief hiatus with the world shutting down in 2020-22
And finally, after seven years, a return trip to serve at the Lutheran School of Theology this last Spring.
Looking back on it all, there seemed to be a slow progression of involvement that followed three stages. I don’t think anyone at LIA had this “partner pathway” clearly or intentionally mapped out, but in the way they all went about the ministry, the process organically happened.
I went from …
- being Unaware of the work of LIA in 2015 to Aware
- Aware of the work of LIA to Action in 2016
- Action and service with LIA to Advocacy from 2016 – present
- Advocacy of the work of LIA to those who are still or yet Unaware
- And then … by God’s grace and provision, the process repeats for others who want to help LIA from African Lutherans to be teachers of the faith.
While in Africa this last Spring, it seemed as if everything came full circle.
Rev. May needed a website for the Lutheran School of Theology and, while working on the digital platforms, he asked if I could help update the LIA website. I said that I would give it a try, and noted that with access to the internet everything is pretty much “figure-out-able”.
And so, we went to work. And each digital work session was like visiting the place where it all started … an updated website, the same logo, header and clear and compelling call to action …
… “help form African Lutherans to be teachers of the faith.”
With the Lord’s help, we just finished and launched LIA’s new website. You can visit the site by clicking on the picture or button below.
My prayer is that those who visit the new site will have the same experience that I had and that they’ll move from …
- Unaware of the work of LIA to Aware
- Aware of the work of LIA to Action
- Action and service with LIA to Advocacy
- Advocacy of the work of LIA to those who are still or yet Unaware
After visiting the site, I’ll hope you’ll say … “they had me at hello.”
Thank you again for your generous support, encouragement, prayers and many kindnesses. We’ll commend all into His hands. Come what may, we do belong to Jesus!
If you would like to continue to support the Missionary at Large position through East Bethlehem you can either give a charitable donation by check or through electronic giving. Here’s a link that will give you more information … Support Missionary at Large (here).