From the Field – Liberia Visitation – Dec. 7, 2017
I had the pleasure of going to Liberia to help Pastor Hein who is our CLC missionary to Liberia. It was a busy two weeks. I referred to myself as a ‘temp’ and in place of Missionary Ohlmann due to his cracked vertebrae. I left the USA on Nov. 7th and returned the 22nd. There was a mission trip by Pastors Hein and Joseph Kiwalazu to Lofa to do exploratory work there that I was not involved in.
The CLC Pres. Eichstadt declared us in fellowship with Pastor Joseph and Grace Evangelistic Lutheran Church in Monrovia. This was after extensive doctrinal talks and communications starting last November. Both the CLC Bd. of Doctrine and the CLC Bd. of Missions supported the declaration of fellowship. What a joy to join in the worship with them on Sunday the 12th, while last year we audited. There were 52 adults and 48 kids there. Pastor Hein preached, I taught Bible class on John’s Gospel and we administered communion.
From the 9th to the 11th we went through the colloquy questions with Samuel, Kennedy, Brima, Rosalyn, Alfred ,Harris, Oliver, Sze Sze, Larpa and Pascal. Since Pastor Joseph had gone through ‘My Church and Others’ for a year with them with all the attendant questions, this was a final determination that we were in agreement. I thought it went well and showed that one year’s study had produced agreement and a sincere desire for fellowship. Harris, Oliver, Sze Sze and Larpa were members of Grace and during the year Pascal joined Grace. So this also helped in forward movement. Samuel and Kennedy were from the school for children that they run. CLC members have been involved in trying to help with this school in some ways.
On the 13th we began a seminar with invited individuals teaching a wide variety of individuals. Pastor Hein taught on Law and Gospel, Justification and other subjects important to show how we are in Scripture as orthodox Lutherans. There were at least 28 who attended and came again one week later for one and a half days more on the 20th and 21st. There were some new ones who attended this second session also. I taught on: Being Distinctly Lutheran, Infant Baptism – Scripture and History, Why we are not Charismatics(Joseph took this subject over in several of the days), Reformations through History, Ps. 86:15, John’s Gospel. I brought over copies of: Luther’s Life, Reformation Celebration, Ref. Coloring Books and distributed them. Of the 28 who attended this includes the colloquy group who participated and showed they had learned a lot as they worked together with us with the others.
On Tuesday the 14th we visited a poor school that a man by the name of Francis ran. Unfortunately, Francis did not come to our seminars. We also visited Samuel’s school. Samuel and Kennedy are here and Samuel plans on starting worship services on Sundays with some of the children and others. This was all discussed a couple times.
Bopolu – We travelled to CLC member, Alvin Jask’s home area to do teaching and exploratory work there. Starting on Thursday there were 33 who attended and it ranged around that number. While down in Monrovia there was some real argumentation when we dealt with infant baptism and the methods of baptism, there was not such arguing with these people. All three of us taught here. After two and a half days of teaching we returned to Monrovia. One evening we went out to a village and tried to hold a devotion, though the natives’ English was not so good to grasp what we were saying.
The Future – I think it is a good idea to repeat what had been done for one year since the last visit, that is having Pastor Joseph go through ‘My Church and Others’ with one group at Jask’s in Monrovia and one group in Bopolu. The Mission Board has to act on Pastor Hein’s recommendations.
We hit the ground running and worked ardently during the two weeks. What blessings God has given us that communications can be made with such relative ease and at such low cost with those overseas.
I am thankful to the Lord to have had a part in helping.
God has certainly blessed us with Alvin Jask’s desire to reach out in Liberia as well as support work as much as he can. This is the third visit by Pastor Hein to Liberia.