Why collect mission offerings?

We collect mission offering for several reasons. Christian giving is motivated by God's love for us. We naturally want to give back to him who gave us his very own Son to pay for our sins. We're really only returning to God what is rightfully his. All we have comes from his gracious hand. As he blesses our lives with talents and abilities, time, and money, we can't help but return a portion of our firstfruits back to him. It's like our offering says, "Thank you, Lord Jesus."

Where will our first quarter mission offerings be used?

Our Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod has launched a Year of Jubilee celebration in response to the 2007 Synod Convention authorization of a special offering to eliminate our synod's debt. This debt is a result of capital projects and amalgamations at our ministerial education schools and internal borrowing. WELS Year of Jubilee celebration will run through the Synod Convention in July, 2009.

The Year of Jubilee focuses on God's love for us as shown by the Old Testament Year of Jubilee foreshadowing a Savior, Jesus, who frees us from the debt of sin.

Where will our second quarter mission offerings be used?

Partners in Apache Learning (PAL) assists Apache families to meet tuition challenges so their children may have the opportunity to grow in a Christ-centered educational environment that is offered by our three WELS schools on the reservation. Peridot Lutheran, Peridot, and Our Savior, Bylas, located on the southern reservation, and East Fork on the northern reservation receive PAL gifts each year. Gifts are given to families facing economic challenges, and who might not otherwise be able to send their children to these Christian schools. These gifts help our schools daily bring God's message of strength and hope to Apache children. Working with families to develop tomorrow's leaders in his church continues to be a marvelous blessing.

Where will our third quarter mission offerings be used?

In the Dominican Republic, a team of one missionary and two seminary professors works to establish an indigenous Dominican Lutheran Church through the power of the Gospel in Word and Sacraments.

Missionary Shiloh Monday focuses on outreach and assisting existing congregations in Santiago, San Pedro, and Moca. He works with ministry leaders to nurture their members and reach out to their communities with the Word of God. The mission team’s expansion plan includes the areas of Monte Cristi-Dahabon, Puerto Plata-North Coast, San Francisco-Nagua-Samana, Bonao-Central Mountains, and Santo Domingo.

The mission team devotes much time to national worker training. The national leaders participate in a basic training program to teach Doctrine, do Evangelism, and lead Worship (DEW cycle). After completion, they put this training into practice, while continuing their pastoral studies with Professors Nathan Wagenknecht and Philip Strackbein, members of our Latin America Traveling Theological Educators (LATTE). Ten student-leaders are presently active in the ministry and studying with LATTE.

Our merciful God has blessed the opening of a new Haitian church through this Dominican mission. The mission team is working with Haitian church leaders in Santiago, DR. They are also working with members who have returned to Haiti and have started a national church in their home country.

Where will our fourth quarter mission offerings be used?

Training church leaders is the foremost need of the mission in Zambia. The Lutheran Church of Central Africa (LCCA), the synod of Malawi and Zambia, has a joint worker training program with the seminary located in Zambia. This program is designed to train men for ministry in Zambia, Malawi, and Zimbabwe. Pastor Dan Kroll, his wife, and his family live in Ndola, Zambia.